Darts practice routines: what to throw, in what order
Every other page on this site is the rules of a game. This one is for the hour before the game — the five parts of a practice night worth throwing on a Tuesday, in an order that warms you up rather than one that flatters you, each of them scored by the board so you are not doing arithmetic between visits. Every number below is one the scoring engine states: the perfect card, the length of the ladder, the round the game ends on.
Start on Bob’s 27, a bank of 27 →
The session, in order
Doubles first, while you are cold and nothing is at stake; the whole board next, one number at a time; then the trebles, which are the darts that need a warm arm; then finishing, which is the only part of practice that looks like a game. Roughly forty minutes, and every part of it is a mode this board scores.
- 1. The doubles, twenty rounds — Bob's 27 Three darts at D1, three at D2, all the way to D20, from a bank of 27 points that a blank round takes from. It is the only routine that makes you throw at all twenty doubles in one sitting, in an order that guarantees you cannot skip the ones you are bad at, and it gets more expensive as it goes: a blank round at the 20 costs 40. Read the Bob's 27 rules, or set it up →
- 2. The whole board, one number at a time — Around the Clock A ladder of 20 rungs, 1 through 20, a rung a hit. Thrown at the singles it is a warm-up; thrown at the doubles it is the hardest twenty minutes on this page. There are four ladders here rather than one — up, down, round the wire the way the board is laid out, and shuffled — and the shuffled one is the point: nobody has practised it. Read the Around the Clock rules, or set up the wire ladder →
- 3. Singles, doubles, trebles — Chase the Dragon The same board three rungs deep: S20, D20, T20, then S19, and on down. The full ladder finished on the bull is 61 rungs, which is a long night, so the practice version is the top of the board only — 16 to 20 and the bull, 16 rungs, the five numbers a scoring player actually throws at. Read the Chase the Dragon rules, or set up the 16–20 ladder →
- 4. Three darts at one number — Shanghai Round one is the 1, round two is the 2, and the classic game is 7 rounds of it; the single, double and treble of the same number in one visit is a Shanghai and wins on the spot. Over a chosen range it stops being a party game and becomes grouping practice: 16 to 20, three darts at each number. Read the Shanghai rules, or set up the 16–20 range →
- 5. The finish, from the chart behind all of it — the checkout table Everything above is throwing at a target somebody else chose. Finishing is choosing it yourself, and there is one shortest route out of each score: 170 is the highest three-dart finish there is — T20, T20, Bull — and seven scores under it cannot be finished in three darts at all. Take the last five minutes on the ones you keep leaving yourself: the checkout chart is every route, 170 down to 2, on one sheet you can print.
What a perfect one comes to
Nobody throws these, and that is what makes them useful: a routine with no ceiling is a routine you cannot tell you are getting better at. These are the numbers the engine itself would score, so they are the top of each board rather than a figure off a coaching poster.
- Bob's 27 — 1287 The bank of 27 plus three darts in every double from D1 to D20: 1260 points over 20 rounds. Add the optional twenty-first round at the bull, worth 50 a dart, and a clean card is 1437. Set up the bull round, and keep throwing at zero →
- The Treble 27 run — 1971 The same twenty rounds thrown at T1 up to T20, where a hit pays treble and a blank round at the 20 costs 60. From the bank of 81 that makes it survivable, a perfect run is 1971, and it keeps a high-score board of its own. Set up the treble run →
- Around the Clock — 20 darts One dart a rung, 20 rungs, so a perfect ladder is 20 darts and 21 with the bull rung on the end. At the singles that is a warm-up you can hold a conversation through; at the doubles, clearing the ladder at all is the achievement. Set up the doubles ladder, finished on the bull →
- Chase the Dragon — 61 darts The full ladder from 20 down to 1 with the bull on the end is 61 rungs, one dart each. The 16–20 practice ladder is 16 of them. Turn the pub's own rule on and a visit with nothing in it drops you back a rung, which is what makes the treble worth waiting for. Set up the full ladder, with the drop-back rule →
- Shanghai — a Shanghai There is no perfect card here, because the game ends the moment somebody hits the single, the double and the treble of the round's number in one visit. Over the classic 7 rounds that is a party trick; over a practice range it is three darts in one bed, which is the whole of scoring. Set up the classic seven rounds →
Why the board should keep the score
Practice routines get abandoned because scoring one yourself is a second job: Bob's 27 is twenty rounds of adding or subtracting twice a number while you are also trying to hit it, and a ladder is a number you have to hold in your head between visits. All four score per visit here, on a keypad built for the routine, with the wifi off and no account.
Bob's 27 and Shanghai finish on a number, so this board keeps a high-score list for each of them and a run you are proud of stays on it. Around the Clock and Chase the Dragon finish on a rung rather than a total, so what they keep is the ladder cleared and who cleared it first — which is what makes them worth throwing against somebody else rather than alone.
Common questions
- What should I practise if I only have twenty minutes? Bob's 27, which is 20 rounds at every double on the board, and then one Around the Clock ladder, which is 20 rungs. That is every double and every number once, and it is the half of the board most players never throw at on purpose.
- What is a perfect Bob's 27? 1287. You start on a bank of 27 and three darts in the double of the number pay double the number three times, so a clean card is 27 + 1260. With the optional bull round on the twenty-first it is 1437.
- How many darts is a perfect Around the Clock? 20, one for each rung of the ladder, or 21 with the bull rung on the end. Chase the Dragon is the same board three rungs deep: 61 rungs from 20 down to 1 with the bull, so 61 darts is a perfect run.
- Which of these keep a score you can beat next time? Bob's 27 and Shanghai finish on a number, so this board keeps a high-score list for each of them. Around the Clock and Chase the Dragon are races rather than cards: what they keep is who cleared the ladder first.
Throw it tonight
All four routines are set up and scored by Friendly Fire Casper, a free darts scoreboard that runs in a browser and keeps working when the wifi drops. It scores the routine for you, undoes the dart you typed wrong, remembers the card you are trying to beat, and puts the board on a TV if the practice night turns into a game. The fifth part of the session is not a mode but a sheet of paper: the checkout chart prints on one side.