When I first started I never knew what difference the right grip would make to my darts throwing. I do now…

Dart grip tips

Essential Beginners Guide

If you’ve just started off playing darts and are having some problems with your grip leading to inconsistent throws, then this is the dart throwing and grip info you need. 

Practice after reading these tips and you should become more accurate and consistent. 

It’s a big boast but I expect these dart throwing tips will get you throwing your darts exactly where you want them to go!

The idea of these tips for darts novices is to as simply as possible look to stop players from releasing the dart incorrectly or from holding on too hard.

Also, try to stop the darts twisting in your fingers as you bring your hand back before release.

Now there’s a school of thought I’ve heard that says the way you first pick up a dart and hold it is how you will throw it. I believe this is true however, there is a grip that we touched upon in our beginner’s guide to throwing darts and it relates to a variation of the grip that many pro dart players use.

This grip is called the pencil grip and because it’s used by a great majority of professional darts players it can be a good headstart for new or even intermediate players. It looks something like this:

What do the PDC Ranking Players do?

So to prove my point here is how each of the current top 5 PDC ranking players use the pencil grip.

PDC #1 Gerwyn Price

PDC #2 Peter Wright

PDC #3 Michael van Gerwin

PDC #4 Michael Smith

PDC #5 James Wade

(James Wade, of course, is the only left-handed player).

So let’s just say if it’s good enough for the current top 5 PDC players in the world, there must be something to it.

So in the same way as you pick up a pen index and middle fingers, which are doing the majority of the grip work. Your ring finger and little finger do nothing. I think it works so well because of muscle memory as we have spent so much time at school (or at least we did in my day:-/) writing with a pen or pencil in our hands that it just comes so naturally.

Static Wrist

A good point to note about these players is that their wrists are static and remain solid until the moment of release when they may move their hands forward slightly at the wrist to assist with the follow-through.  This is true from the pullback, the aiming, and onto the release.

I feel this static wrist answers to the consistent nature of their throws. If you’ve read a few of my posts you know my mantra is “practise, practise, practise, practise”. And professional dart players are the epitome of this and I feel this demonstrates muscle memory so effectively. As the pros throw thousands and thousands of darts it means the function of their throw: through the shoulder, elbow, forearm, wrist, hand, and finger release is nailed down. This obviously leads to massive consistency and therefore accuracy.

Balance

Another interesting aspect to consider is where each player grips on the dart. This is all about balance and the optimum way to grip your darts is to have them perfectly balanced. The perfect location will have to do with the length of the stem you are using, the weight and length of the barrel and point, and even the type of flights. So find the center of gravity of your dart, grip like a pencil at this location and you guessed it, practice, practice, practice, practice.

Soft Hands

The next point which not many people talk about is having relaxed hands.  I feel this is a really important part of darts because if you’re holding the dart too hard, you’re gripping it much too strongly and that means that at the moment of release there’s a lot more pressure between your fingers and the dart than if you were holding your dart in a relaxed and soft manner. 

A good way of thinking about having these soft hands is directly related to how you use a pencil. For example, you need to color something really dark to highlight it, you hold the pencil hard and put a lot of pressure on the paper. If however, you’re sharing one half of a circle you’ve drawn, you use much less pressure. Think about that when you’re holding your dart and you’ll probably end up with the perfect strength of grip. 

Floaty Dart throw

Don’t go too far with the soft grip though because what I found out was that to compensate for the soft touch, I was losing the stiffness in my wrist and when I released the dart it got a bit more air, almost becoming “floaty” and certainly not going where I was aiming.

Unfortunately, one thing I can’t tell you how to do is the timing of your release. Something to do with how you are and how you have to aim for the board. 

Dartboard height

You are probably aware that the height of a mounted dart board is based upon the fact that the bullseye would be at eye height for a 6-ft tall player. So someone who is 6-ft tall like myself where they are releasing the dart from is almost in line with the triple 20. Whereas anyone who is taller will almost be throwing downwards and in comparison, my son, who at 14 years old is 5ft 6, will be throwing upwards trajectory.

Dart Grip Tip Conclusion:

1. Pencil Grip
2. Static Wrist
3. Balance
4. Soft hands
5. Release
6. Replicate that moment again and again

Final Note:

Always remember that repetition is the mother of skill, so practise, practise, practise, practise 🙂