If you focus more on the process in HOW TO WIN, rather than the outcome, you focus more on the things you as a darts player can control. You can not just decide to win, but you can focus on the necessary things that will make you win more. As you’ve probably heard a few times, the mental part is very important in darts. That’s why it is so important for you to get the right mentality and mindset towards yourself and your journey as a darts player.

Darts players who only focus on wanting to win, are more susceptible to fear and anxiety. “I must win, or…” The fear of failure steps in and digs a big whole in your confidence… Focusing on winning will more likely put yourself under more pressure and stress and can do a lot of harm to your progress as a darts player.

So what things can you control and how to use them for you?
It is good to make a list of things you can control that will put you in a good position to win more matches.
What things can you control during the weeks during training? What things can you control during a real match?

For the things you can control during training, define the actions you need to do, to get success and win more games. A number of dedicated training sessions where you focus on scoring, finishing, switching etc. But maybe also how to improve your counting and memorizing the different preferred checkouts. For endurance and stamina, schedule a few powerwalks and gym sessions, so you can keep your focus throughout the tournament. Visualization can do wonders for many athletes, so maybe dedicate time for it throughout the week.

When it comes to things to control during a real match, figure out a few things to focus on instead of focusing of the outcome of the game. If you easily get nervous during games, find ways to focus on your breathing instead. Get yourself a mantra to repeat for yourself when you’re waiting for the opponent to finish their throw. You can’t control how the opponent are throwing, so don’t watch him/her. Focus on the things you can control.

Many players gets upset and gesticulates after a mistake, making the mistake even more evident and etched into your brain. By focusing on the mistakes like this, they will eat your mindset up and get permanent. Mistakes are inevitable, and we all do them. You will also see players like Michael van Gerwen and Luke Littler making mistakes (but not that often).
Many players have a fear of doing mistakes, but trying to avoid mistakes can do more harm than just making them in the first place. If you throw darts and try to avoid mistakes, you hold yourself back and will underperform. We’ve all been into the situation where we need to hit big single 20 and the only thing we think is: Don’t hit number 5 or 1. Most likely the dart sits perfectly in number 5 or number 1.

Recognize the mistakes you do as a darts player, learn to accept them, and learn from them to improve moving forward. By changing the way you look at mistakes, will improve your game over time. Don’t play to avoid mistakes, play to succeed. Failure is natural if you are striving to deliver big results. During practise, accept the mistakes. After a real match, learn from the mistakes.

As J.K. Rowling wisely nailed it,
“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all — in which case you fail by default.”

After experiencing misstakes or failure, we automatically never want to fail again. Especially at the thing we failed at. As a result, we sometimes set subconscious goals like, “Now hit that finishingdouble, or you’ll end up loosing like last time.” Psychologists call this “prevention” or “avoidance” motivation. But avoidance motivation tends to induce anxiety from fear of the potential negative outcome, which consequently worsen the performance. This connection explains why darts players or other athletes motivated by avoidance are more likely to choke under pressure.

Research also suggests you can “edit out” previous failures by visualizing them getting smaller, or “change” your memories of the failures with funny details. Each time we recall something, we change our memory of it. By associating your failure with something less weighty, you may dull its detriment on your brain and improve subsequent performance. Same thing, but opposite, goes with success. By recognizing (celebrating) success and small progress, your brain will make the memory stronger and you will be more associated with success.

Recognizing your progress does two things: it extends the enjoyment of your achievement and it increases your motivation.
As we move closer to our goals as a darts player, both our motivation and performance surge. Measuring and celebrating our progress will help us capitalize on this acceleration. Read more about this Effective goal setting strategy.

You’ve probably heard that it is important to build up a confidence when it comes to darts. But it is also important to reflect on where you get your confidence from. If you only have “performance confidence”, that is you only feel confidence when you nail a few important doubles or do a few big checkouts.
By practising focused in a structured way over time, you will slowly build up a solid confidence that will be more reluctant to minor setbacks. Knowing you’ve done all you can to be the best player you can be, will make a big difference. It’s when you know that you could have done a better preparation, a better homework, your confidence will sway and your mind will be filled with doubt.

Wanting to win is of course NOT a bad thing. We all want to win. But if you shift your focus to just wanting to win, and get into all the details in your preparations before the match, you increase your chances to win. Winning is such a huge part for most players, why they spend so many hours throwing darts. Still, so few are open minded and try to find the smartest way possible to start winning more. So open up your eyes, start thinking, be curious and take the lead!
Make it count!

Anders Östman
Founder Of GoDartsPro