Training Blog Week 3
Lee continues his account of his darts improvement journey. This week he is tired from work and has a problem with his eye, is this going to stop his practice? No chance!
Monday
This week started with a good session playing in my first team match - I reported about it in "The first time".The following day I didn't do any training as my body was so tired from work and found I couldn't concentrate. So I opted to amend my training logs and tidy up how I record and where I record the data.
Week 3 training session targets
solo speed (9 dart average) target of over 55
3 legs 501 average 30 darts or less, 3 darts AV 52 or more
100 darts at all targets above 55
RTW Singles under 31 darts
RTW Doubles
22 % checkout average or more
The session itself was again good, although tie ran out so couldn't complete RTW singles and Doubles. One thing that I really did take away from this session was when I was shooting at the double 14 100 times, I became very aware of the position of my arm when aiming with the top half held in the same position when drawing back the arm to release, from the aiming position. I noticed that if I maintained the position then on release of the dart my result was more accurate.
This may sound obvious and was aware that I need to keep still and repeat the position however knowing and actually doing are two different things. Because I actually was aware and concentrated on the position of the arm it made a difference to the grouping and accuracy of the darts. Good times.
DPC: The value of not only planning your practice but also having targets to aim for is immense. Once you get into the habit as Lee has done of maintaining a fairly straight forward system of recording your scores you will reap the benefits of training in this way.
Lee's analysis of his own throw is also worth further investigation. We do encourage our members to consider their technique and have give them plenty of guidance on what to look for. We have now met many players who do not ever consider thatit is their technique that is causing them to drift the dart or whateverit is causing them grief. It is of course the first place players should look!
Tuesday
A very surprising beginning to the session I warmed up well for about 30 mins then got into the first practice solo speed which I hit a lot higher today than I normally do. The darts like on Monday seemed to go where I wanted them.The 501 legs were again surprising as all three legs I finished in 24 darts giving me a 62.63 3 dart average. That is the most consistent I think I've ever played. From there though the session went down-hill. 100 darts @11, 10 and 9 were lower than usual maybe I was getting cocky.
RTW singles was pretty much on par with the norm and RTW doubles were again pretty standard.
But what I was doing especially in the early stages of my session was concentrating on the position of my upper arm on the aim, pullback and throw, keeping it constant. This I feel is the main reason why before my darts were more sporadic as my arm had a lot of movement going on.
Friday
I just had a look at the DPC latest analysis results and noticed it was Krispy Brown from the website Darts Beers and Cheers. Anyway the results and the actual information in his coaching report looks good. What I have noticed from that I hopefully will be able to use and think about during my throws.Today I will continue my session as normal. I will be working on achieving my targets in each section of my session plan. I still need more work on keeping my throw the same and limiting any movement to get that robotic type throw that I can use every time and not just wonder around the board fluking a lot of shots. I am going to have a think about what else I can do to practice just that same position throw after throw and maybe to incorporate in future sessions.
My Follow through is another area that I need to focus on. During my 100@ practice my throw relaxed and I didn't follow through in the early stages so my darts were random. Once I noticed it I made a conscious effort to keep a follow through and did see the results. I ended the training session without RTW Doubles due to time.
End of week 3 blog.
This week saw some good and bad points. The bad points are areas that I have found that I need to improve on. I.e., keeping my arm steady on throw and using the follow through. This all goes with concentration.The high points are achieving the targets that I set early in the week and as a whole week average topping the targets. Mainly in the Solo speed and the 501 games that I play.
I haven't been able to do as much training as I would have liked due to an issue with my eye but it's on the mend now. Tonight is my first away game for the team so am gearing up for that, I'm still a little nervous but will again focus on what I learned last year and I have confidence that this will help.
DPC: We haven't interjected much this week, why should we? Lee has demonstrated perfectly how to manage your sessions, set targets and reflect on his achievements and technique in order he can get even better.
We will publish a second instalment later on this week with examples of how Lee keeps his training records. Alternatively you could join the Darts Performance Centre and use the statistics area where everything is already set up for you!
You can catch up with Lee`s previous Darts Performance Centre blogs here: Sunshine Darts, The Practice blog week 2 and Lee's first experience of match play.