FITNESS – GETTING PHYSICALLY FIT & HEALTHY BY PLAYING A SPORT
Is darts a sport? – – – – – Are you a darts athlete?
Athletes are fit as a result of playing a sport and their practice and doing exercises designed to improve their performance at their particular sport. Even a recreational player that only plays – lets say once a week – considers participation in their sport good exercise that benefits overall health and fitness. The word “sport,” as defined by any dictionary, is “a contest involving physical exertion and skill according to a specific set of rules in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.”
If a physical activity has rules in place which players must abide by in competition, it is defined as a sport. Therefore, by definition, darts is a sport. It requires physical exertion (using your legs and arm to throw a dart aiming at a specific target) and has rules (staying behind the foul line and not counting darts that bounce out or fail to stay in the dartboard, to name a few).
Although the definition would seem to be clear, a long going argument between serious dart players and social players is whether or not darts is, in fact, a sport. Most times it depends on who you ask. If you ask a social or “fun” dart player that plays once a week – say in a “fun” league and you’ll likely get the response that darts is not a sport. But ask a dart player who practices regularly, and participates in every competition possible any they will likely answer that it is a sport that requires great skill.
Whether or not darts is a sport may be a continuing debate for some but there is no question that darts requires an extreme amount of skill. Luck is far less a factor compared to pool or ten-pin bowling – for example. For sure – all require a level of skill – but – anyone who plays nine-ball will get lucky and eventually pocket the nine ball – completely unplanned. The worst bowler will get lucky and eventually roll a strike. But when is the last time you heard about a darts player “getting lucky” and hitting a ton-80? A lot of casual, fun players have yet to score their first one after decades of throwing darts. But no doubt – the more skilled player will win on the night because of their consistency.
So attaining skill requires practice that develops into consistency and proficiency in any sport – darts included. Even the most casual, social, fun darts players wants to improve their performance. How many times have you heard a social player say “Yeah back in such and such I was one of the top players and our team won the division championship.” But then will further mention spending a lot more time on the dartboard maybe even admitting to practice time. Anyone who reads about their favorite players learns it’s not just their natural talent but a real “work shift” of hours of daily practice. Okay so let’s say the majority of us reading this have given up our aspirations of becoming the next world darts champ. But we still desire to improve our darts game. Is there a system or method out there for us with less required time for practice but still improves one’s darts performance?
The year 2016 is going to be my year for improved darts performance. I’ve already signed-up by email for one darts improvement program but haven’t heard anything back as of yet. Quite possibly they’ve already heard about my pathetic darts playing and have wisely decided to ignore my request. But we would like to know of any of these type programs that you’ve used to be successful and share these with our readers. NOTE – Any recommendations you may have will require YOUR personal experience of success – all adverts of products simply copied and pasted will be deleted. (This more so on our FaceBook discussion page.)
Darts Thailand Discussion Page on FaceBook
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dartsthailand/
In conclusion – we here at DT now officially recognize darts as a sport. So belly up to the bar my fellow darts playing athletes, sharpen your arrows and lets get fit ! – Johnny Witkowski
DID YOU KNOW? – When Phil Taylor last visited Bangkok – DT correspondent Damian Hardy interviewed “The Power” and he mentioned practice and luck vs. skill – –
I would say to the casual player ; get used to using all of the dartboard. Start at 20 and go around the board hitting all the numbers. Darts is a rhythm game, and being able to group the darts is very important. Then work on your scoring and finishing.
Yeah, Keep practicing. The more you practice, the luckier you’ll get. And the luckier you get, the more money you’ll earn !
If you’d like to read the entire Phil Taylor interview from Domino Pub in Bangkok – click on the following link –
http://www.dartsthailand.com/darts-thailand-phil-taylor-interview.php
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