Hi Guys
Whilst this is about darts, it can be applied to virtually anything.
Now i know that alot of new players read the blog, and that alot are getting frustrated with a lack of progress. I have covered this in some bits before however it is important to re-iterate that when you watch darts on television, especially the PDC you are usually seeing the top 16 in the World, professional players (whose sole job is to hit the T20 and double) and that it doesn't paint the reality of the majority of darts matches. Skip outside of the PDC top 16 and no one is hitting 100+ averages every match.
This needs to be taken into account when starting or having played for abit. Unless you are a darts prodigy, no player picks up the darts and hits a 9 darter there first 9 darts!
It is therefore important to look at where you have come
from and what you have achieved along your journey (be it darts or anything).
When I first started I could barely hit the board let alone
the number I wanted (I wasn’t smart enough to buy a surround so the area around
my board look like it had suffered small arms fire) and after a few months I could
average about 35 p3d.
In under a year I made the local areas mixed doubles final,
was beating everyone in my pub team (consistently) , winning matches against
players who had played for decades, had a match where I’d hit a silly 100+
average, and played and nearly beat Eric
Bristow and yet for some reason this still wasn’t enough!
I was constantly changing my setup and a few recurring
injuries came back to haunt me which cost me a few matches and like a sulky
teenager who hasn’t got his own way I fell in and out of love and playing darts
in general.
In short I enjoyed it when I was winning and playing well…………and
handling losses and playing badly, well badly! I was the definition of a bad
loser.
I’d look for any excuse, the noise, going on late, my fellow
players, alcohol (or lack thereof), my opponents style and then work myself into
frenzy, often coming home in a foul mood and lying awake all night reliving it!
The reality is that I was my own worst enemy. I was changing
darts almost daily, and sometimes going to a match where I’d used them for all
of 5 minutes. It was probably a
testament to my ability that I was even able to be competitive given these
situations, and even then there were only 2 or 3 matches where I didn’t have
darts at a double to win it.
Not that you could have told me that at the time. I don’t know
what I was expecting, to be Phil Taylor in a year??
I can genuinely only imagine how I may have progressed if I had
stuck with just 1 set!
A series of back and shoulder issues (probably exasperated
by changing darts, throwing style, etc. etc.) combined with the pressure I was putting
on myself saw me fall out of love with the game and stop playing.
Unfortunately that's me, my desire to be the best, or constantly achieve more can be a great attribute but also hideously destructive if focused wrong. I will push and push beyond the limits. It was the same in boxing, wrestling or weightlifting for me!
Well after a long period without play, just the occasional recreational throw, I saw that i still had something so i started practicing and initially things
looked good. I was hitting a 70 average, checking out 50%+ in practice and was
enjoying it.
I re-joined my old team, however unfortunately I hadn’t learned my
lesson, started tinkering again and put way too much pressure on myself, and was practicing way to hard and for 2 long.
I returned won an absolute stinker of a
match, came home furious, and then started practicing like a lunatic in the
days after. I would literally throw until my arm felt like it was going to fall off, wait 5 minutes and then do it again!
Then the inevitable happened as my body just seemed to say
a BIG FAT 'NO', leading to my blog post below:
I literally couldn’t throw a dart and after days of frustration and wasted time I had to step away.
Now hindsight is a wonderful thing, however if we skip back to the end of year 2 as this is where it ultimately went wrong.
I should have looked at my
progress and tried to make small tweaks and improvements. In 2 years my average
had gone from 35 3pd to nearly or at 70 p3d (despite all the tinkering), yet I was
so set on achieving something unobtainable for me (i.e. hitting 100 + every 3
darts) at that point that I had lost
sight of what I had and was achieving, pushed way too hard and ultimately I broke it!
I didn’t see any positives just a lack of achievement!
So what did that cost me?
Well, 2 years of additional progress, some fun times, wasted
money on darts purchases and possibly some tournament progress.
So the morale of the story is simple at the positives and to
see the achievement, and look at what you have done well and what you’re going
to do well, rather than what you haven’t!
I hope this helps you
Luke
