Darts: A Matter of Trust

First 180 shot by Jim McKay using the Target Storms he won in a contest on this site! Nice shooting Jim!!

I almost wanted to wait before posting as I have some possibly very exciting news in the works. It may all come to nothing, so I'll have to keep you all in the dark just for now.
In the meantime the Summer dart team, The Stagger Ins have had our first game of the season, and what do you know, but we actually managed a win!  We have tougher battles to come, and I dont think it is selling ourselves short to say that some of these battles will be realistically beyond our reach, and yet there is something I really like about this team.  A certain hint of talent, and of potential, very much of potential and a willingness. 
For my own part of it all I played in two games and won both of them, and you know the weirdest thing happened. Somehow despite my success I felt my confidence waver a little.  No doubt my commitment to practice and the progress I see from that helps my overall confidence, but I think the more I am able to execute, then whether conciously and explicitly or not, the more I am expected to execute and of course that is where those tiny gremlins of doubt start to creep in.
Luckily as a Flight Schooler I have access to a fair bit of darts wisdom in George Silberzahn (a hall of famer at that! ) he helped me put things in perspective and so I am not sure i can explain this to those who are not there yet (or not bore those who are past this point) but I am right now learning to trust my stroke and to let it do what I have been developing it to do.  I don't think I am quite there yet, but I think it is also another aspect, a very important one of not getting in ones own way.  Getting in your own way is something that is very easy to do in darts.  For those of us darters that have a little fire in our belly for the sport I suspect that at the end of the day it is indeed ourselves that can most often and most dramatically get in the way of our own progress. 
When things are going well, a lot of this stuff is easy to understand and easy to do, but not so much so on days where things just dont seem to go right. Some days when I step up to the oche I feel discombobulayed, like I am not even put together right. What do I do then? That is what I am working on now, well that and maybe just about everything.
As always I am learning and growing.  Let's see how I progress as we go along through the season.  maybe it wont seem like I've progressed at all, or maybe I'll improve in leaps and bounds (although less likely), but I do know that the learning is happening.

Hope this offers a little perspective to maybe help you along on your own journey! 

Ask the Darts Nutz!

Last episode I talked a little about the pros and cons of using paper targets as a practice and training aid.  I went over to get a few second and third opinions from the good folk over at the Darts Nutz forums, which is one of my favourite places to find friendly people to chat about darts..

Take a look at what the Darts Nutz had to say about paper practice targets.

You can even join in on the conversation if you like!  Hmm, now I just need to think of the next topic!
The 'did Phil Taylor cheat?' one is too obvious ...OK maybe I'll have a topic next time! 

Thanks again for reading!!   See you all next time!