Dart Scoring: How To Score Darts And Be The Best

7 min readAug 23, 2020

Many find darts as a fun game; however, it undoubtedly requires much patience and concentration. Every step is essential; you need to be focused and organized to nail the right board field and score as many points as possible.

On the other hand, there are newbies and amateurs who don’t know any rule of dart scoring. That’s why I’m writing this — let’s learn together!

If you’re a beginner, you’re going to love this article since I’m going to teach you the fundamental rules of how to score darts, as well as the proper posture of your body and hands since you’re going to score many points and act as a professional player. Finally, I’m going to teach you the basic game rules to practice for the best results continuously.

But, if you practice consistently, you can become a real champion! Don’t you agree? Therefore, let’s start!

Tips and Tricks on How to Score Darts

Now, you have a dartboard in front of you. You see all those fields and numbers. You need to score and nail the right area.

So, how do you do that? It’s simple — with the right hand and body posture.

1. The Right Position of Your Arm

Either if you play darts as a hobby, you want to win a competition since you can obtain millions of dollars, or because you want to become a professional player and you like it, your shoulders must be still.

You should lift your hand at a 180-degree angle from your body, and boost your forearm from your elbow for a 90-degree perspective. This way, the dart will follow the path you imagined and found the best in your head, and it will follow it through the air.

You may also watch players swing their hand slightly back before throwing the dart, and that’s fine too since there is no strict rule disallowing that. So, you can as well try various options, and see which one suits you the best.

2. The Right Body Stance

The right stance of your body and feet plays a crucial role when throwing darts, and I don’t know if you knew that. But it is vital to say so. No, as there are no regulations that strictly show which body position you should take, you’re free to select the best one.

However, there are three types of stance you could use:

Both feet facing the throw line — it was frequently used some time ago, but nowadays it might be not so frequent since the players find it slightly harder for their excellent balance.
The dominant and back foot — which means that you step forward with your dominant foot to the throw line — other foot behind for better balance, as you’ll put more weight on your front foot.
Complete side turns — that you can use as well. With the first — dominant — foot, you step on the throw line, and you become slightly horizontally with the track. The other foot rests back, and you can choose one which you can put the weight on.

Hence, you can choose between the three stances, with your body straight and arm proper, and throw to get the perfect score!

3. Finding the Proper Grip

The most crucial tip is to find the right grip for you. You can try multiple darts with multiple grips; consequently, it will be easier for you to select the right one.

There are various grips that you can try, from two to five-finger grips, and it’s up to you, which you will use. For instance, a three-finger grip is the most frequent one as you’ll use it with your three fingers to take control.

However, although many believe that the more fingers you use, the more control over darts you’ll have; others indicate that it might be harder for players, especially newbies, to use more fingers. I prefer the three-finger grips since they are very convenient. But as I said, you could choose by yourself which one you’d use.

Moreover, the perfect throw also depends on how you squeeze the grip. I suggest you shouldn’t squeeze it too tight because you might not throw it accurately and miss the board. The recommended throw is to relax and stabilize your hold of the dart. Also, you don’t have to throw them forcefully; a precise throw and a fluid motion will be enough for the wanted score!

4. Trying Multiple Darts

Once you find the right stance and arm positions, you should opt for the best darts. As there are a multitude of darts on the market, you should select the proper ones. How?

Well, you can search for the right material. Namely, professionals tend to use those consisting of tungsten as they provide more weight and better hitting various high scores on the boards.

Weight is also vital. The heavier darts are, the better they will stick and nail on the board, remaining there fixed. Also, they are easier to throw. However, you should try various darts to find the best ones for you as not everyone feels the same, and have multiple habits.

5. Practice Makes It Perfect!

If you complete your journey of finding the proper darts, you have to practice consistently for the best scores!

You can try playing various games for beginners as well since they will help you improve and establish throwing skills, such as speed, hitting doubles or triples, and accuracy.

I also advise you to practice hitting the same spot repeatedly, and later focus on higher points, for example, triple 20s. Ensure your hand is accurate; otherwise, you wouldn’t be able to hit anything else or hit consistently.

6. Find a Perfect Role Model!

I don’t know how serious you become in your darts adventures, whether it is to astonish your girlfriend, boyfriends, friends, or family, or you want to become the next Phil Taylor, who won sixteen world championship titles.

Whatever the reason might be, this is another beneficial trick you could use since you can find a role model, a pro player with style similar to yours, so that you can juxtapose with him.

If you use three or four-finger grips, search for someone with the same feature and learn from him. Otherwise, it won’t be easy for you to learn from someone else if your styles mismatch.

Therefore, if you have read all this, let’s apply these small steps to the real game!

How to Play 501 Darts

The main objective is to be the first to reduce the score from 501 to zero with a double-out!

Each player shoots the bullseye and the first one who scores it or gets close shots first or chooses when they throw. The rest of them organized according to their scores and proximity to the bullseye as well. However, you can choose other ways to begin as well; it’s up to you.

Once you start, your points are 501. So, for instance, if you hit a single 30, single 10, and only 8, your score goes 501–48=453. As you score more points, the results will be less until you finally reduce it to zero.

More importantly, if you hit a treble section of a number, your points will triple. For instance, if you hit the treble 20, then you’ll score 60 points, and reduce the score for over 60 points. Wow, that would be extraordinary!

Picture this: in one turn; you hit triple 17, single 18, and double 12. When you calculate, it’s 3x17=51 plus 18, plus 2x12=24. So, the summary is 51+18+24=93. When you subtract 93 from 501, you get 408, which will be your score until you continue and reach zero.

The proper way to finish the game is to hit the double, famous as “double-out.” So, if you have 16 points left and run another number, you’ll have to shoot again or at another turn to score the necessary amount.

So, the best way to finish the game and win is to hit the double eight. Speaking of that, the central part also counts as double, so you can hit the bulls-eye as well to finish the game and win.

Why don’t you try it?

Final Thoughts

I hope you enjoyed the article since I tried my best to guide you through these small tricks that could help you become a real professional darts player.

As you could observe, the essential parts are taking the right foot and arm positions, being persistent and practicing as much as possible.

Watching the right role model could also help you improve your throwing skills. Therefore, you can start now!

So, if you liked it, please let me know since I’d be much obliged to see that you are champions!

#dartsadvice #dartboard #dartscoring