In order to perfect your dart throwing, we should look at the mechanics of the throw first. Darts will fly on a parabolic curve when you throw them; this is the same curve that a baseball or bullet would follow. The arc of the curve is determined by the force of the throw. The harder you throw the dart the shallower the curve.
To apply this knowledge to our throw, we need to understand how our arms work when we throw a dart. The best way to do this is to think of your arm as a machine. This machine is made up of three levers (your hand, forearm, and upper arm), these three levers are attached by joints (your wrist and elbow) and at the end of this machine is another joint attaching the machine to a fixed point (your shoulder). Below is a picture of this machine.
Now if you have any mechanical engineering in your background, you will know that with a machine like this it is possible to draw any possible curve within the range of the machine. Now let's see how the arm looks in motion when you are actually throwing the dart.
Let's take a closer look at this animation together because it's very important. Notice how in the animation the shoulder does not move? When you are throwing, the only part of your body that should be moving is your arm. Moving down the arm we come to the elbow. Notice how the elbow doesn't move much in the begining phase of the throw but starts to move up during the acceleration phase. This is very important to keep our arm moving along the curve. If we tried to keep the elbow stationary, we would be forced to release the dart earlier. By moving the elbow during the throw, it enables us to guide the dart along the curve for a longer period of time increasing our accuracy. Finally we come to the wrist. In this animation the wrist doesn't do much, and your wrist doesn't have to do much for a good and proper throw. Many players do use more wrist in their throws though; this is for accelerating the dart. By using a snap of the wrist for acceleration, it means that you can slow down the rest of the motions and thereby increase accuracy. Beginners should be cautious though. While many pros and experienced players do use the wrist for accelerating the dart, it can be a dangerous thing because it is one more thing that you have to control. By allowing the arm to do most of the work you may be better off. The best advice is to begin by letting the arm do the work; this will really help you get used to the motions involved. Once you are doing well, then try adding more wrist acceleration in little by little.
The different phases of the throw are marked on the animation. The phases are: aim, cock, accelerate, release, and follow through. Aiming is fairly self-explanatory. Line up the area on the board that you want to hit with the dart and then the dart with your eyes so that all three are in a line. You want your focus to be on the board and not on the dart. The cock, this is where you ready your arm for the throw, think of it as pulling back the string on a bow. You want to do this slowly, no need to rush it. The cock is important because the further you pull back the longer you will have to move the dart along the parabolic curve. The further you pull back, the more space you have for the acceleration phase. The important part of the acceleration phase is to do it as smoothly as possible and not too fast. There is no need to send the darts flying at warp speed; you only want to use enough power to make the dart penetrate the board. The harder you throw the dart the more likely you will mess up. Don't forget to slightly raise your elbow during the acceleration phase so that you can keep your arm on the curve for as long as possible. You want to keep the motion from the acceleration phase all the way through both the release and the follow through. The release phase is probably the part that comes most naturally, just do it as smoothly as possible and don't try and do anything fancy like spin the dart, just gently release the dart and keep it on the curve. The final phase is the follow through and it definitely shouldn't be overlooked. Your follow through should keep your arm on the same arc as your throw; if you can do this, you will have no problem mastering the follow through.
That about wraps up how to throw a dart, a little more complicated than it first seems but with practice it will become second nature. The best way to improve your throw is to practice and then practice some more. |
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