I am going to try to set up a very simple but hopefully fun online darts league/club.  Not a lot of glory, but for sure a chance to play darts without having to go to the pub etc.  

Right now it is just in it's formative stages, so check it out, add your input and register!!





The TBLAC Online Webcam Dart League. 

I have been shooting some nice darts of late.  As nice as I have ever shot and certainly a lot nicer than I thought myself capable of when I first started.  Good old fashioned dedication and determination (and possibly a little addiction) combined with the fantastic improvements I I have seen to my stroke with Flight School I think can be attributed to this rise in general proficiency, and yet the one thing that isn't quite mine, hovering tantalizingly just out of my reach is the ability to put opponents and games away.  It is frustrating, but I guess my choice whether I let the frustration build (or worse allow the seeds of defeatism and excuses germinate) or simply use this as an opportunity to learn, both in darts and of my own character and how I handle pressure, competition, expectation and a whole load of other things.  
In all but a few cases I am not losing because they are a better player but because they get the job done when the job needs to get done and I have the chance and squander it.  
This I feel will get better with more experience, as my performance levels grow and become more consistent and I become more confident and as I become more emotionally acclimatized to these situations.

One thing that has been helping my general game and I'd say before too long help my finishing  are a few thoughts I saw posted in the SEWA dart forums about what sort of mindset to take at the oche.  The idea, very roughly paraphrased is to keep your thoughts to what you are doing and what you can control rather than the situation or what you want to have happen.  Thus 'stay calm. Smooth stroke' is fine but 'I am going to win now' or 'If I don't hit this I'm the world's biggest chump'  are not as they are either overtly negative or set you up for a fail and deal with all of the parts of the equation you cant control.  This has been showing not only immediate positive results in my play, but as also significantly has lowered the build up of anxiety I usually accumulate over a series of games in a night.  This is not something that George Silberzahn delves into too deeply in Flight School, but if there is any 'sports psychology' advice he gives it is that you should never 'compete against yourself' and to me this approach dovetails nicely with that frame of thought.  

As for the winning and losing there is one place where winning has been happening and that has been with my wife as we won our second consecutive 501 doubles match last night and then she went on to be the only person on our team to win their singles game.  I am amazingly proud of her, but maybe hope I can keep pace!!  I certainly think the team captain will pair us up together again.  Smooching your significant other between turns calms the nerves and just might throw the other players off just a smidgen. 

For me, as with my wife if we put the time in the wins will come out.  I asked George about my predicament and he simply said

"Just stay with it and the wins will come. Way too early to become concerned. Wait until this time next year." 

Thanks George. I think I can do that. Looking forward to it in fact.  I love my darts. 


  

I hope to have a proper Blog posting out either sometime today or tomorrow, but a busy day so for now I am going to post an idea that my friend and darts mentor George Silberzahn has been trying to promote to help grow membership in dart leagues.  Well worth consideration I'd say!

by George S. for Bill Cobb
The Greater Trenton Dart League has tried this for the past 4-5 years with our League Championship Match at the end of our season. We started by using a neutral location that was not a current sponsor of the league but the venue attracted a few hundred people a night with private parties, College night and a DJ after 10pm. We had a separate room as well so we were not interfered with which helped.
The first year we had 70 people either watch or take a glance at what was going on in that room. We also had the advantage of a marquee sign out front that put our league name and the event above the main entrance facing a major road for the day. We invited the Budweiser girls to present the trophy and hand out Bud items and the newspaper even made an appearance and we made the front page of the sport section. All in all I think it was exactly what we were looking for. However there were some bars that bitched about the event not being held at a sponsor location. I understand their point but unfortunately they failed to see the BIG picture.
Since that first event we have picked a few sponsor locations that could hold at least 50 people and I believe it still helps to gain exposure even if you catch at least 1-2 new people that look and say “hey whats going on over there?”
By making it a more special event rather than just going to the bar with the best record it also seems to put more pressure on both teams by knowing you are “on a stage” with various people watching to see whats going on.
BTW – We have gone from 16 teams of 8 or more people to 20 so I believe trying new ideas can only help when trying to build a league or fan base.

Bill Cobb
GTDL

Very happy and amazing darting news!  I now have a sponsor and my own custom darts!  We might not mention though that my sponsor is myself shall we? certainly the resemblance my 'custom darts' have to a set of McCoy Stealth darts with a bit of green paint is pure coincidence? Well, mea culpa but all in good fun and I must say the McCoy's do look smart with the green!!  I wonder though, if I did have my own dart what would it be called?  The Abominable Throw Thing?  I have no idea, but I'm open to suggestions!
Of course having my own dart for real is a far away (and probably unlikely) dream but a fun one to have.
Now someone who does have their own dart and could have been a big help to the Shaft Thrower dart team had I been able to teleport her up to Canada is American dart shooter Anne Sleepy Kramer who has a book on the way which just might include a little content from yours truly!  Anne is good people and also has a great darts site that you will want to check out!!  


Anne Sleepy Kramer 

Now how did our Tuesday night game go?  Well we were up against the top team a bunch called the 'Balrogs'.  They came down from 'B' , to terrorize us all in 'C' division.  They are a good lot actually, but also a good team.  In the first meeting of our teams we were all but shut out save for a sole singles win I managed to nab i the last game of the night.
So how did we do in our second encounter with the fearsome Balrogs?  Did we stand on the Oche as Gandalf and declare "You shall not pass!!" with full dramatic gravitas?
Well, maybe not so much, and yes pass they did.  Not a cause for total dismay though, as this time around we managed to keep it a lot closer only losing 11-5 (much nicer than 15-1) and I was an as good form as I have ever been in, although sadly falling short in two games that were mine for the taking. 
The best story of the night though was the one win I did get, which was with my wife Rebecca as my partner.
My wife shot the best darts I have ever seen her shoot and was as 'on fire' as one can expect from someone who has played darts for about two and a half months.  She has gone from being happy to hit the board to being able to hit what she wants.  I am so proud of her and am looking forward to both of us growing as players.  Whether we win or lose once we get there one day in the not too distant future I will compete in the Ontario darts zone shoots and my wife will be my partner.  

Talk to you all next time.  I quit Thursday darts as it was just too much with having to get to work right after.  Let's see if I can get back to pegging out a little quicker and doing some good things for the Shaft Throwers!

Dave 'Abominable Throw Man' Sproull 

Incredible!  Stupendous!  Amazing!  Yes, this past Tuesday I stepped up to the oche on fire true believers!  A searing bolt of molten tungsten cast from dart heaven.  I could hit whatever I wanted. I could do it all.  Well, all except win that is.
How strange and sad and yet a wonderful thing about darts that I have played twenty times worse and walked away with a win.  
It has been some busy and tumultuous times, of ups and downs in my darting life, including a miserable but brief stint where I decided to quit darts.  I still might quit the Thursday nights however, but that is more because I have started to feel that I have been playing a lot of darts, but have been letting my practice habits slack off.  
Not all the news is so dramatic and in fact some of it is pretty interesting, including the possibility that I might be having my interview with George Silberzahn quoted in an upcoming darts book!
Last but not least, there is still the logo competition which you can find here on the Darts Nutz forum:

Design a logo and win a set of McCoy Stealth darts from puredarts.co.uk!! 

I am using the McCoy stealth myself and will vouch for them being a great dart.  Huge thanks to pure darts for donating the prize!!   

Well I leave you all now, as I am off to sleep as I allow the paint to dry on my darts. yes, I painted my darts, as it was the only way to get green darts.  If I am ever good enough to have darts named after me, you can be pretty sure they will be green.
That is a very very long way away though.  If ever.  One step. One throw at a time.  Enjoying the journey.