Darts School

Darts Tips: Stance, Grip, Warm-Ups & Practice Drills

No coaches, no secrets — just the technique habits and practice routines that separate steady throwers from streaky ones. Work through them in order and you will feel the difference inside a few sessions.

Darts technique tips: stance, grip and throw

Set your stance

Stand centred behind the oche with your dominant foot lined up on the bullseye. Keep your weight balanced across both feet — leaning off-line pulls every dart off target before it leaves your hand.

Grip for balance, not power

Hold the dart firm enough to control it but relaxed enough to release cleanly. Your index finger is there for balance and pointing, not for squeezing. Whatever grip you choose, make it the same every visit.

Throw with full extension

Bring the dart straight back, then release through a full arm extension and hold the follow-through. Your arm should finish pointing straight at your target — not across your body. Full extension takes more effort at first, but it is the throw that holds up over a long match.

Warm up before you practise

Give yourself at least fifteen minutes before any serious session. Round the clock makes a great warm-up — singles, then doubles — because it moves your arm around every area of the board instead of locking it on treble 20.

Practise with jeopardy

Every good routine has a way to lose. Add a penalty for missing — reset your score, drop back a level, lose a dart — so your practice feels like match pressure. Hitting doubles with nothing at stake never teaches you to hit them with the game on the line.

Own the big doubles

Most legs are finished on tops, double 16 or double 18, so give them the most work. Run your doubles from 20 down to 1 rather than 1 up to 20 — you will spend far more time on the doubles that actually win legs.

Warm-ups and jeopardy practice drills

Round the clock warm-up

Throw singles from 1 to 20, then the bull, then run it again on doubles. No pressure, no scoring — just wake the arm up.

Treble jeopardy

Pick a treble — 20s first, then 19s. Trebles score, singles score small, and a stray dart into the wrong number wipes your run out. How high can you climb before the board bites back?

Checkout ladder

Start at 41 and climb one number at a time, finishing every checkout inside a visit. Two attempts each. Miss both and you start again — the ladder only rewards clean finishing.

The setup game

From a score like 170 or 121, practise leaving yourself the doubles you trust. The best finishers are not the best scorers — they are the ones who leave the right number every time.

Too easy? Take a dart out of the visit. Too hard? Give yourself one more. Every routine here scales to your level — the point is to finish sessions having practised under pressure, not just thrown darts.