Darts Not Sticking in Board: What to Do?

Darts Not Sticking in Board

Isn’t it depressing when your darts do not stick on the board? There are a few reasons behind it and if you know these reasons you can easily avoid this situation. In this article, we are going to discuss in detail what to do when darts do not stick in dartboard.

Darts getting bounced off from the board is not only common to amateurs. Many professional players also suffer from it. We researched for hours to find out all the possible reasons for darts not sticking in board. We also tried to figure out the solutions that will help you to get out of this situation.

So, let’s get started!

The Reasons for Your Darts’ Bouncing Out

Before we jump into the solution part, it is better to know why this situation occurs. The causes that we have found out, basically, are created by the players themselves either consciously or subconsciously. Here are the reasons:

  • Using a low-quality board: This is probably the most common reason for darts not sticking in board. Players are often seen to buy dartboards that are produced from low-quality materials. As a result, these boards have less capability of holding the darts.
  • Throwing the darts weakly: This mistake is more common among the beginners who are unaware of good posture and movement. Eventually, the players cannot throw the darts perfectly which causes the darts being bounced off from the board.

Dart throwing stances are explained here.

Solutions

1. Having a Good Posture

Posing or posture has a significant role in throwing darts properly. As it is a very vital issue, thus we recommend you to adopt the two following techniques.

Good Gripping

Your gripping holds a significant position while throwing the dart. It should aim to keep the end of a dart directed towards the air in every phase of throwing, but not straight to the board. Your gripping must also be steady.

You shouldn’t forget that darts is a game of touch, not force. For maintaining proper posture, you need to ensure that the grip is satisfactorily tight so that the dart cannot slip while throwing.

Besides, always use at least any of your three fingers that will let you have more control over the dart with its increasing speed. The process will become more difficult if you put more fingers in work.

Additionally, you should not crinkle the fingers into a handful as handful generally strains your fingers’ muscles that result in weak throws. Moreover, the fingers that are not being used in the gripping should be spaced out relaxingly from the rest of the fingers.

Throwing the Darts Accurately

This technique is divided into two parts for your better understanding as well as practicing. Here are the parts in details:

Distribution of Weight: The weight of your entire body should be preferably lean towards the direction of the foot that is in front while the back foot balances out the pose. Use any pose you prefer but make sure it is stable. Besides, the front foot should be always on the surface.

Keeping the Right Foot Onward: While throwing the darts, you should keep the arm constantly moving in a two-dimensional plane for removing the tilting movement of the arm.It will help you to reduce the error margins.

In addition, you must lean a little bit towards the dartboard. You should also avoid leaning in reverse as it simply results in an unbalanced throw. You must not lean onwards in risky angles as it can cause the players back strain.

Furthermore, it is recommended to avoid escalating the feet while throwing the dart. The steadiness of your pose is vital for decent throws, so set the feet on the ground firmly. According to this technique, the upper part of your body should also remain motionless while throwing the darts. Otherwise, there is a risk of some of your muscles being strained.

2. Picking the Dart Cautiously

Darts are available in different shapes and sizes. Each player has his own set of preferences. For this reason, you should ensure that your picked dart suits you from all sides including your body fitness. Don’t forget that different types of darts have different heaviness, which can have an impact on your throw considerably.

For instance, if your chosen dart is 18 to 21 gram, that means it is comparatively lighter. In such a case, throwing of the dart from a long distance will certainly increase the chance of the dart’s being bounced out. Therefore, you should replace the dart with a heavier one. But, changing your dart weight constantly must be avoided as some time is required to get adjusted to a single dart.

Dart accessories buying guide is here.

3. Using the Dart that Comes with Moveable Tips

Although, all the darts do not have this facility, yet there are a few that come with spring-loaded tips. The tips help you to control the motion of the darts while throwing. So, the beginners should take spring darts into consideration while picking the best darts for them to play.

However, the only problem with flexible tips is that there is a higher chance of these getting slack as one keeps using them repeatedly. Besides, the price of such darts tends to be a bit higher than that of the fixed darts.

4. Assuring the Correct Shooting

It is a very important factor to throw the darts accurately by learning the techniques well before you start shooting. Dart bounces are mostly found to take place as the players put more emphasis on hitting the exact spot instead of throwing the dart precisely.

This sort of focus shifting prevents you from being concentrated on the exact amount of force that you must apply on the dart. This ultimately causes the poor throws.

5. Having a Proper Attitude

When you are determined to throw the dart perfectly, you should never surrender to discouragement only after a few tries. Though bouncing of the darts is a demotivating experience, yet you must not let this experience demotivate you and force you to leave the game for good. Actually, it is such an experience that even the world ranking dart players experience. In this world, nothing can be achieved without experiencing pain.

6. Holding the Dart Accurately

Holding the dart is not as easy as it may seem to you. For holding it correctly you should make sure the following things:

Firstly, you must grip your dart at the level places, and your elbow should always be at a conventional angle. Besides, you should not place the dart at any angle rather try to keep the sharp end of it towards the direction of the dartboard. Never focus excessively on thrashing the middle point, instead, make your concentration on getting an accurate posture.

Always remember that you should aim to place your dart on the dartboard, therefore avoid throwing it in the same way you are habituated to throwing other stuff. Never throw the dart with too much force. If you are still confused about your force while throwing, you should examine how deep your thrown dart has entered the board. A common rule to avoid over-forced throw is never letting the forward-facing of your dart panel touch the board. If the panel still touches the dartboard it means that you use excessive force while throwing.

Another important tip is, try to avoid rotations of the dart when you throw. Your thumb and the other fingers must let go of the dart while following the previous tip. The reason is- when you let go of the thumb at first, the dart rolls-off your fingers and creates it spinning and this ultimately results in low quality throws.

Finally, you must ensure that your fingers and thumb are facing the way towards the dartboard as this will help the fingers gathering the flight.

Find the best professional Dartboards here.

7. Hanging the Dartboard Properly

You should also hang the dartboard on the drywall properly. To hand the dartboard properly, you can follow the following steps:

Step 1:  Make sure that the place where you plan to hang the board is spacious.

Step 2: Prepare the flooring with quality material. Don’t use wood, carpet, linoleum as the flooring material

Step 3: Make sure that the surface is leveled

Step 4: Make a plan to ensure safety both for the players and the spectators.

Step 5: Set a protective board to safeguard the wall.

Step 6: Calculate the bullseye and create a mark on the wall

Step 7: Now, you must mount a supportive board disc.

Step no. 8: Mount the bracket of the wall.

Step no. 9: Make the board stable with screws.

Step no. 10: Finally, you must create a toe-line.

What Weight Darts Do the Professionals Use? Revealed here.

Final Words

I hope by now you have a clear idea of what to do when darts are not sticking in broad. Darts not sticking in board can be a very confusing problem if you don’t know what you are doing. It doesn’t matter how much attempt you are making or how much struggle you have to go throw, you should never give up. Instead, stick to the above-discussed instructions and follow them to the point.