Dart etiquette is an important aspect of darting. Just because your darts may not be obeying your every command, this is no reason to whip your third dart at the board if you bust your score or kick the wall while retrieving your darts.

     Likewise it's no place to curse a fellow darter who may be giving you too much info, while your shooting!

     Welcome to the world of Dart Etiquette. Please no swearing, tossing darts anywhere but at the board, heckling opposing teams or players while at the line, wagering on a match or game in which that member's team is involved, these are all no nos in the SFDA and at most other organizations.

     Any physical confrontations brought to the board of directors attention, shall be investigated and acted upon accordingly.

     At the start of a dart match all players of opposing teams shall shake hands. At the end of all games there is also the parting hand shakes.

     There are many ways to practice and be efficient. Recently, I had the opportunity to speak with Sammy Cruz, one of Northern California's top regional points leaders. He said, that one needs to practice triple 20's, for 2 hours a day. To some, that may be a bit extreme. What about the novice darter?

     Well, for one, practice at triple 20's for 10 minutes, switch to triple 19's. and move your way around the board. Be comfortable, standing with a foot lateral to the line, or pointing towards your intended number, (or at a point in between the two).

     You can also follow similar reasoning throwing at double 20's, working your way around, or even throwing a 1/2 an hour at the bullseye. Any and all practice makes you that much better. They make a dart board, called the "champions choice". This board is made for practicing, its double and triple spots are twice as small, thus honing your skills even more! (I started using one of these, back in my 'C' league days!)

     If you have room at your home to put up a board, by all means find a way and do it. For myself, this has been my primary means of escalating my dart game. When ever I walk by it, I am compelled to 'throw a few', and when you throw even a 'few' every day, this helps.

     If you've gone that route and are ready to step up to some light hearted competion, there seems to always be several places to get that done, especially in the San Francisco Bay Area!

     If you are not familiar with the leagues weekly tournaments, this would be a great way to play better people and improve your game. Our local tournaments run on Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, while league nights for the SFDA are on Wednesday and for the GGDO they are Thursday.

     There was a time when I couldn't win even one round at these local tourneys, I ended up playing Patricia Miller alot of the time. One eve, when I was especially dismayed, because I came so close to winning just one leg of the match off of her, she told me, "If you continue to come here and play me, you will be good in no time at all." Well I did continue, and now, whenever I meet up with Patricia "the killer" Miller, I am greeted warmly with a "not you!..." It makes my day, and if you practice more, it'll make your day too!

     I found this very excellent answer to a commen darters problem, some call 'dartitus' and others just say they're in a 'slump'. Well whatever you call it, in the Newsgroup alt.sport.darts A darter from Luxemberg, Gust Mees, had this to say about the problem :

     Hi , greetings from Luxemberg,

     "I had the same problem years ago. I am 45 years old and I've been playing now, for 18 years and being a member of the Luxembourg National Team, for 12 years. I stopped playing darts for 5 years and then decided to play again. Its in this 1 year period I did not qualify for the National Team, due to the 'Dartitis' Syndrome."

Last Season, Gust was the main event organizer for the Spring Cup 2000 in Luxembourg, an 8 Nations dart tournement, with the number 1 in the world, Raymond Van Barneveld on hand.

It's quite normal, after you stop playing darts, that you will get 'dartitus', because you were used to playing well, under pressure.

Now you think that you have to do the same, but you're not used to :

     1) playing under pressure again

     2) everybody is awaiting the same good darts from you as in the past

     3) you put yourself under pressure to play what you were used to playing!!!!

You know, darts is the most psychological game existing and so, here are my tips to get off from 'dartitus’ :

     1)The most important is to make a ‘VACUUM’ in your brain, meaning that :

     Just throw out your darts on the board without thinking on everything and that alone, for at least 1 hour each day, so your brain is getting the feeling back for regular practice and your *SELF-CONFIDENCE*  -----> that's the *MAGIC WORD* ....... will come back!!!!

     If you feel that the self-confidence is back, then *ONLY* try to make serious practice on big finishes and top scores and you will see it works !!!