DartWorldHub About Me

Dart Experience & The Honest Truth: Who’s Behind DartWorldHub? (Spoiler: It’s just me…)

What I’ve been through: why you get lied to at the oche, well, let’s not say lied to, but there’s plenty nobody says out loud — and how you can dodge it, if you want to.

Unless you fancy learning the painful way, because “learning by doing” can hurt like hell. It’s a bit like not listening to your parents and then years later, when you’ve got kids of your own, realising they are not that different from how you were. By the way, here are the typical beginner dart mistakes you can save yourself.

Who’s behind it?

Hi, I’m Patty.

I can well imagine you’ve had that frustrating feeling at the oche too — my dart experience from over 20 years has taught me one thing: those things often do not land where you want them to land. And you’ve probably stood there wondering what you are doing wrong, while the “pros” next to you act like it is all obvious.

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Dart experience

My first year in darts: the “professional-level player”

I know exactly what that pain feels like. When I started, with my first darts that were given to me as a gift, there was a Bundesliga player in my club at the time. The bloke was throwing 140s and 180s, and my eyes nearly fell out of my head. Hey, I thought, I want that too! He was banging in short legs one after another like it was nothing. I looked up to him and thought: “Blimey, I’ll never manage that, I can forget it.”

At some point I asked him: “Hey, can you help me? Is my throwing style OK? What can I improve, I want to play like you? Have a look at my throw, what do you reckon?” Do you know what he said? “Yeah, looks pretty good.” That was it. No help, no tip, nothing.

I drifted around for a bloody year without knowing which way was up. I did not know what I was doing wrong, and my setup was an absolute disaster. Nobody helped me either, nobody said: “Try this or try that.” Nothing. I saw people changing flights and shafts, but I did not even know why. Do you know that feeling of total isolation when you realise someone knows something, but they just will not give it up? If you feel the same, have a look at my Beginner’s Guide to Darts.

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Throwing style & copying

The Taylor stress: why forcing yourself kills your game

After I moved, I hung the board next to the telly. I watched every bloody player, made videos, played slow-motions, soaked up every stance. I wanted to be Phil Taylor. I stood exactly like him, threw exactly like him.

What a complete mess that was! Nothing worked anymore. But I worshipped him and wanted to be like him, until I realised: you cannot copy someone. You cannot imitate someone who does not fit your way, your style. It nearly drove me mad.

The result? Pure stress. It was forced. It was not me. The fun was gone. Only when I understood that I tick more like a Luke Littler or Michael Smith — natural, smooth, without overthinking — did everything change. I realised: I cannot stand side-on to the board. I stand straight or a little bit angled, that is how I can play, that is how I can throw, that is how it works for me.

My advice: if you go to a coach today and he wants to rebuild you from scratch, even though you feel comfortable: turn around and walk away. Give him the 50 or 100 quid, that was your tuition fee. You learned that this bloke is not serious, he just wants your money. Next time, buy yourself a nice board or darts that YOU actually like. As long as you do not feel comfortable with your throw, you cannot build on it.

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Gear & experience

What happened to me: my dart experience, the Peter Wright mystery and the E-Dart trick

I burned through a fortune of quid. I bought them all: Taylor darts, Wade, Wright, Anderson, Chisnall. I could afford it, so I tried. But I had to learn it the painful way: the pros on TV often play very different gear from what we can buy in the shop.

So you know what is really waiting for you in the box, and not what the pros have filed, tweaked and fiddled with, have a look at my 24g Dart Comparison 2026. These are all standard “off the shelf” versions — the naked truth for us mere mortals, without the TV magic.

And why that is, well, you will find out in the next bit…

Maybe you remember Peter Wright and his blue PL15 barrels with the rainbow points? I absolutely wanted those “wobble darts”. I ordered them — they arrived with stiff points, and I thought: they are taking the piss. I ordered them again from England — stiff points again. Then I researched it: either he had ground the points down himself so thin that they had that reflex effect, or he had someone do it for him. You can find more on that in my guide to steel dart points.

The funny bit: those thin points make the dart wobble in the board. Loads of players hate that and get properly wound up. If your opponent gets annoyed at the oche, he stops hitting — psychological advantage for you!

I really wanted to test that dynamic. Then I came across One80. They had those flexible “Reflex Points”. The problem? They were screw-in points for E-Darts! So I bought E-Darts just so I could test those points. Back then it was a technical disaster, because E-Darts were much lighter. I simply wanted to know why a dart reacts the way it reacts.

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Checkouts & thinking

“Learning checkouts like vocabulary” is rubbish, isn’t it?

Ask one of those “experts” how you should take out 67. He says: “Treble 17, double 8.” Brilliant. But he does not explain why. Why the 17 and not the 19, or why not stay on the 20?

They want you to learn finishes like vocabulary at school. That is complete nonsense. In almost every pack there is a checkout list, but no explanation. Only when you understand the deeper reason behind it do you start to get what is really going on out there.

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Why DartWorldHub?

Why “DartWorldHub” exists:

I would like to bring a bit of light into the dark. Darts is such a brilliant sport. I do not just mean the big PDC events, I mean the small things: joining a club, that first adrenaline hit in your first league match, your first tournament.

I am not a GURU: I do not want to lecture you. I want to help, so you do not have to go through the same disaster I went through. My words are not carved in stone — take only what you need.

Free market: go wherever you feel comfortable. It is your money. If my wording does not fit you, that is completely fine.

Darts is a science: your first purchase will not be the end of it. You will have to try shafts, flights and points. If you are a feel player, change your sets when it feels right — do not let smart-arses talk you out of it.

My tip for starting out: maybe try Target darts with the Swiss Point system first. You can change the points without an expensive repointing tool. That way you can experiment without losing your head. Have a look here: Best darts for beginners.

I will keep publishing guides here that give you the kind of help you rarely get out there. So in the end, you stand at the oche and say: “I do not win every match — but my throw feels bloody good.”

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Pros & sources

The world of the pros (Well, it is good for watching…)

If you want to see what those lads are doing at the oche with their modified setups, here are the official sources. But remember: watching is good, copying without understanding is rubbish.

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