tooler asked:
Hello there i am 16 and i am currently playing darts for a local pub but when i am playing in practice before the match i can hit my doubles and scoring perfect but when it comes to the match my scoring is ok but i can't relax and enjoy my match. I keep shaking because of my nerves but when i get down to my double it becomes worse and i begin to shake like a leaf and can't hit anything i am now going to be going for the dublin team next month and really need to know how to calm my nerves when im playing and play the way im capable of playing i would really appreciate it if people could fill me in with information about this.
This is a difficult one. Different people react to pressure in different ways. But there are several things you can do:
1. Put yourself under this kind of pressure as often as you can. Enter as many competitions as you can. Experience is a great way of building up your confidence. The key to this is to learn from each game. You have to stop beating yourself up when a throw goes badly. Just keep throwing and ignore the last dart.
2. Practice your doubles and your finishes until you can hit them without effort.
3. You need to work at your positive mental attitude. You have to believe that you can win and that you are as good if not better than your opponent. You can work at this by using two techniques:
- self-talk - this is where you avoid negative statements and thoughts and try to rephrase them in a positive way e.g. "I can't hit double 12" becomes "All doubles are the same size and I intend to practice on double 12 for 15 minutes a day".
- Visualisation - run through practice games in your mind - see yourself playing well, see yourself winning.
4. Speak to your team mates and explain the problem (they are probably already aware of it. Get them to support you and cheer you on way you play well and give you encouragement when you have a poor throw.
Things you should not do are; drink to much in the hope that it will help you play better - it won't, or take any form of drugs to clam you down - ultimately you will come to rely on them and you will lose your edge.
