What the analysis of 36,168 professional dart throws revealed
Darts is no longer a proletarian sport, but the perfect discipline for science. A standardised task with wonderfully measurable results. One, two, three throws over and over again - with the first one most likely to miss.
Since the best dart throwers in the world have been taken out of the pubs and stand in the spotlight of multi-purpose halls, the starting position has become even easier. The halls are full, as is the audience. But the athletes are now full professionals. Sober throwing machines with nerves of steel, who place their darts from a distance of 2.37 metres over and over again in the 2.54 square centimetre Triple 20 field. The spectacle is broadcast from start to finish, making a treasure trove of data conveniently available to scientists.
This treasure was diligently analysed at the German Sport University Cologne. A total of 36,168 throws at the 2017 PDC World Championship were analysed with regard to the hypothesis that the first attempt in a series is most likely to miss its target. "We were able to identify a hit rate of around 30 per cent for the first dart, while it was around 38 per cent for the second and third dart," says the lead author of the study, Fabian Wunderlich from the Institute of Training Science and Sports Informatics.
Even if the best players are only away from the throwing line for a few seconds and have already performed the movement six triptrillions of times, they obviously have to constantly readjust their hand-eye coordination. The scientists conclude that the first dart helps the players with what is known as "visuomotor calibration", which is a previously neglected facet of warming up and is important in many sports.
Researching which processes exactly serve this calibration in order to be able to train them in a targeted manner would of course be a major breakthrough. After all, it's pretty advantageous when the first penalty, the first free throw or the first dart hits the mark. Until then, the first attempts at darts will probably continue to miss, especially vertically, meaning they will land above or below the triple fields with the highest scores that are usually targeted.
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If you now have the feeling that these results are for the bin and won't help you in everyday life, Yale researchers published the right study for you two years ago. While dart throws are known to be most promising at around 5.5 metres per second and a forearm angle of 17 to 37 degrees, and penalty takers in football prefer 32-year-old left-footed Asians (zodiac sign Leo), other laws apply in office sports. But science helps here too. The elite university has clarified which throwing technique is best for sinking paper balls into the bucket.
If you're not Michael Jordan and your target is more than three arm lengths away, it's the slow forearm throw. The slower, the higher the arc and the more accurate your throw, as small errors in the launch angle are then less significant. This technique may not look quite so casual, but it increases your hit rate. I hope my colleague Carolin Teufelberger and my colleague Raphael Knecht take this to heart in future. The bucket is next to me.
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Simple writer and dad of two who likes to be on the move, wading through everyday family life. Juggling several balls, I'll occasionally drop one. It could be a ball, or a remark. Or both.
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