Best Darts Practice Routines for Every Skill Level

Unstructured throwing is not practice. These routines give every session a purpose, a measurable target, and a path to genuine improvement.

The most common darts "practice session" looks like this: throw at T20 for 20 minutes, play a few legs of 501 against yourself, then stop. There is nothing wrong with this — it is better than not practicing at all — but it is not efficient. It does not target weaknesses, it does not track progress, and it does not build the specific skills that win matches.

The routines below are organized by skill level and session length. Each one targets a specific aspect of the game and includes a scoring system so you can measure your improvement over weeks and months. Pick routines that address your weakest areas, not your strongest. Practicing what you are already good at feels rewarding but produces minimal growth.

Before You Start: Practice Principles

How often to practice

Three to five sessions per week of 30-60 minutes each is more effective than one marathon weekend session. Darts is a fine motor skill, and fine motor skills develop best through frequent short repetitions. Your muscles and neural pathways need time between sessions to consolidate what they learned. A 30-minute focused session on Tuesday teaches your body more than hours four and five of a Saturday marathon.

How long per session

For most amateur players, 30-45 minutes of focused practice is optimal. After about 45 minutes, concentration and physical consistency begin to decline. If you notice your grouping getting worse or your mind wandering, stop. Practicing while fatigued reinforces bad habits rather than good ones. Quality matters more than quantity in every session.

Always warm up

Never jump straight into a demanding drill. Spend 5 minutes throwing at large targets — the full 20 segment, the full bullseye area — to get your arm calibrated and your muscles loose. Think of it as stretching before a run. The drills below assume you have already warmed up.

Beginner Routines (Average Below 40)

If your three-dart average is below 40, your primary challenge is consistency. You throw well sometimes and poorly other times. The goal at this stage is not to hit trebles regularly — it is to develop a repeatable motion that produces predictable results.

Routine 1: Around the Board (20 minutes)

This is the single best routine for developing all-around board familiarity. Throw three darts at each number from 1 to 20, in order. You are aiming at the large single segment, not the treble. Score 1 point for each dart that hits the correct number (any bed — single, double, or treble all count). Maximum score: 60 points.

Record your score each session. You should see steady improvement over two to three weeks. This routine teaches you to adjust your aim across the entire board, not just the T20 area you might default to.

Routine 2: Twenty-Twenty (15 minutes)

Throw 20 turns (60 darts total) at the 20 segment. Count how many darts land in the 20 segment (single, double, or treble — any bed). Your target is simply to hit the 20 as often as possible. Record the count out of 60.

This routine builds consistency in the most important area of the board. Most of your scoring in X01 will happen in the 20 segment, so building accuracy and muscle memory here directly translates to match performance.

Once you consistently hit 40+ out of 60 darts in the 20 segment, narrow the target to just T20. This is a natural progression that happens over weeks or months depending on how often you practice.

Routine 3: Around the Clock Game (20 minutes)

Play a solo game of Around the Clock and count the total darts thrown. Your goal is to hit 1 through 20 plus bull in as few darts as possible. Record your total darts each session.

Around the Clock forces you to throw at every section of the board, exposing weaknesses. You might find that numbers 1-10 take twice as many darts as 11-20 — that tells you the lower portion of the board needs extra attention.

Intermediate Routines (Average 40-60)

At this level, your throw is reasonably consistent but your scoring power and finishing ability need work. These routines target treble accuracy and double proficiency — the two skills that separate 40-average players from 60-average players.

Routine 4: Treble Targets (20 minutes)

Throw 10 turns (30 darts) at T20. Count how many trebles you hit. Then throw 10 turns at T19. Count trebles. Then 10 turns at T18. Record each count separately. This gives you a treble hit rate for each of the three most important scoring segments.

Track these numbers weekly. Many players are surprised to find their T19 rate is much lower than T20, or that T18 is their strongest target. This data helps you make smarter targeting decisions in matches — sometimes aiming at T19 is the right call if your T19 rate is higher than your T20 rate.

Routine 5: Double Round the Clock (20 minutes)

Start at D1 and work your way around the board to D20, then bull. Throw three darts at each double. Score 1 point for each double hit. Maximum score: 63 (21 targets × 3 darts). Record your total.

This is the most effective double practice drill because it forces you to hit every double on the board, not just your favorites. Most players discover they have a "dead zone" — a section of the doubles ring where they consistently miss. Identifying and working on that zone is where improvement comes from.

An alternative version for time pressure: start a stopwatch and throw at D1 through D20 plus bull. You must hit each double once before moving to the next. Record the total time. Your goal is to beat your previous time. This adds mild pressure that simulates match conditions.

Routine 6: 170 Practice (15 minutes)

This is not about hitting 170. Set yourself on common checkout numbers — 80, 76, 64, 56, 40, 32 — and practice the checkout paths. Throw three darts at each checkout, cycling through the list. Record how many successful checkouts you achieve out of, say, 30 attempts (5 cycles through 6 numbers).

The point is to build familiarity with the most common finishing combinations you will face in X01. A player who has thrown S16, D20 (for 56) fifty times in practice will execute it more smoothly in a match than a player encountering it for the first time under pressure.

Advanced Routines (Average 60+)

At this level, your fundamentals are solid. Improvement comes from targeted pressure practice, consistency under fatigue, and refining the weakest parts of your game. These routines are demanding by design.

Routine 7: Bob's 27

Bob's 27 is the gold standard of darts practice games. It has been used by professionals and serious amateurs for decades. The rules are simple but punishing.

Start with a score of 27. Throw three darts at D1. For each double you hit, add the double's value to your score (D1 = 2 points per hit). If you miss all three darts (zero doubles hit), subtract the double's value from your score (D1 = minus 2). Move to D2, then D3, all the way to D20, then bull (D25).

Bob's 27 is brilliant because it creates escalating pressure. The later doubles are worth more, so misses become increasingly costly. By the time you reach D18, D19, D20, each miss can erase your entire buffer. Finishing with a positive score is an achievement. Finishing above 200 is very strong. Finishing above 400 is exceptional.

Routine 8: Pressure 501 (25 minutes)

Play legs of 501 against a "ghost" opponent who scores exactly 60 per turn (three single 20s). This gives you a fixed par to beat. Your ghost opponent takes 501 / 60 = approximately 8.35 turns (26 darts) to reach a checkout, then needs one more dart for D16 (in theory). So you have roughly 9 turns (27 darts) to close out the leg before your opponent does.

This creates realistic time pressure without another player. Record how many legs out of 10 you win against the ghost. As you improve, increase the ghost's average: 70 per turn (intermediate), 80 per turn (advanced), 90 per turn (professional pace).

The value of this drill is that it simulates match conditions. You cannot take six darts on a double because your ghost opponent is steadily counting down. You have to score efficiently and check out decisively.

Routine 9: 121 Checkout Challenge (20 minutes)

Set yourself on 121 and attempt to check out in three darts. 121 is a three-dart checkout: T17, T10, D5 (or T20, S11, D5, or many other combinations). After three darts, regardless of whether you checked out, reset to 121 and try again. Do this 20 times and record how many successful checkouts you achieve.

Why 121? Because it is high enough to require a treble but low enough to be achievable, and it has multiple viable paths. This forces you to make checkout decisions under pressure and practice the setup-plus-double combination that determines so many legs.

Vary the starting number across sessions: try 96, 80, 64, 108, 121, 130, 140. Each number has different checkout paths and exercises different areas of the board.

Routine 10: Fatigue Finishing (15 minutes)

This drill is designed for the end of a practice session, when you are slightly tired. Throw at D16 until you hit it. Record the number of darts it took. Then hit D8. Then D4. Then D20. Then D10. Then bull. Record each count. Total the darts required for all six targets.

The purpose is to practice finishing when you are not at your best — because in a match, you often reach the checkout stage after 15-20 minutes of play, when your initial sharpness has faded. If you can reliably finish when tired in practice, you will finish when tired in matches.

Building a Weekly Schedule

Rather than doing the same routine every day, rotate through different skill areas across the week. Here is a sample schedule for an intermediate player practicing four days per week:

This schedule ensures you work on scoring, doubles, match simulation, and assessment each week. Adjust the routines as your skill develops — when a routine becomes too easy (you consistently score in the top tier), replace it with the next-level version.

Tracking Your Improvement

Every routine above produces a number: a score, a count, a time. Write it down. Use a notebook, a spreadsheet, or the statistics tracking in your darts scoring app. The specific tool does not matter. What matters is that you have a record you can review.

Look at your numbers once a month. Plot them on a graph if you are visually inclined. You are looking for trends, not individual data points. A single bad session means nothing. Five consecutive sessions below your average means something is off — perhaps you are fatigued, perhaps your darts need new flights, perhaps a technical flaw has crept in.

Set targets based on your data. If your Double Round the Clock score averages 22 out of 63, set a goal of 28 within a month. If your Bob's 27 average is 45, aim for 80. These targets should be challenging but realistic based on your rate of improvement.

When Practice Is Not Working

If your numbers are flat or declining despite consistent practice, something in your technique may have shifted. The most common culprits: grip has tightened under pressure, stance has drifted forward, follow-through has shortened, or fatigue is accumulating from too many sessions without rest. Take two days off, then return to a basic warm-up routine. Often the reset is all you need.

If the plateau persists for more than three weeks, consider recording yourself on video. Compare your current throw to footage from when you were improving. Small technical changes are difficult to feel but easy to see. A slightly higher elbow, a slightly faster drawback, a tiny hesitation before release — these are the gremlins that stall progress.