I am looking for information to start playing pro darts

tonmachine

Fellow dart players,

I am looking to get on the circuit and play some serious darts. I am looking for as much information and helpful tips as I can get. I have a lot of free time on my hands so I'm willing to commit to darts full time now. Ive been playing darts for 4 years and I'm only 23 years of age. I'm currently playing in the Dun Laoighre Borough Monday Night dart league and I feel I am ready to take the step up to bigger things.
Basically what I am looking for is some decent practice routines that would keep me throwing for at least 5 hours a day. I would also appreciate Information on how to go about getting sponsored and who to contact about getting into tournaments.

I would really appreciate any replies to this thread and all information that I receive will be put in to practice.

Thanking you in advance,

Ton-machine

Degag

tonmachine wrote: »

Fellow dart players,

I am looking to get on the circuit and play some serious darts. I am looking for as much information and helpful tips as I can get. I have a lot of free time on my hands so I'm willing to commit to darts full time now. Ive been playing darts for 4 years and I'm only 23 years of age. I'm currently playing in the Dun Laoighre Borough Monday Night dart league and I feel I am ready to take the step up to bigger things.
Basically what I am looking for is some decent practice routines that would keep me throwing for at least 5 hours a day. I would also appreciate Information on how to go about getting sponsored and who to contact about getting into tournaments.

I would really appreciate any replies to this thread and all information that I receive will be put in to practice.

Thanking you in advance,

Ton-machine

From what i know, you will definately need to get sponsors if you are going to take a serious crack at the PDC. Each event costs £100 to enter afaik and between accomadation, food and drink etc it works out pretty costly, especially considering that if you reach the quarter finals, you may be only covering your costs.

As to acquiring them, well i'd imagine you'd have to use your own contacts really. Local business', friends of friends, Your father's mate who is a businessman etc. It's very hard to get sponsorship in this day and age without having contacts really.

If you search this forum there are plenty of threads with lots of practice routines detailed in them.

As a matter of interest, what level are you at? I'd imagine you'd want to be consistantly averaging in the 90's to be even thinking of doing this, such is the standerd these days.

Good Luck.

dionsiseire

You would want to be averaging a 90 under pressure. The players doing 90 averages on TV are doing that because of the pressure of TV darts, the floor darts is of epic standard. there are players wining 6-4 with 120 averages. if your not clocking out in 15 darts most legs your wasting your time, and 15 darts is still only a 100 average

tonmachine

Thanks for that lads. At the moment im averaging 85 in practice but like i was saying i am going to give it at least 3-5 hours a day practice from now on. hopefully i can bring my practice average over the 110 mark and take them sort of scores to the oche

thanks again

dionsiseire

Do you play the Irish tournaments at all?

Players Championships, All Ireland Championship, Dublin Selector Opens?

If your not playing them then don't bother looking abroad yet, the standard at these tournaments is excellent and if you can't stroll consistently to the latter stages then you're only wasting money going to the PDC

PDC will require around 20k sponsorship as it will cost you about 500-600 per weekend and Registration Fee due to the PDC

tonmachine

I'm not looking to jump straight to pdc level I would be nowhere near ready for that. at the moment I'm looking to play the tournaments you mentioned here. do you know when any of these are taking place

Rented Mule

You need to be willing to seek out practice matches as often as possible. Practicing as much as you can at home is fine, but the improvement comes when playing against better opposition in different situations.

I would find every league, pub draw, tournament around, and start to network with the people that you meet along the way. Find out who the best dart throwers and get as many games as possible against them.

dionsiseire

Ah ok, i think your first message is a little confusing, hence myself and Degag being a bit Sceptical

The players championships are done for the season. The Grand Finals take place on Sunday. The players championships normally take place November and December (2010) for Rounds 1 and 2 then January february March and April (2011). Obviously i dont run these and the dates could change on last year but that is what i would largely expect. The grand finals take place in June.

The all-ireland's in citywest have just gone by, thats a yearly thing and will be back in citywest in roughly May/June next year

Dublin selector opens happen from time to time, expect some to be posted up here soon. plenty of the lads from here will attend so you'll get to know some of the guys at the events.

You play Dunlaoighre Borough league so keep the ear out for local tournaments over there. Try and win the local tournaments there.

Upcoming maybe you should try
October 15th/16th/17th
Killarney Darts Festival
INEC/ Gleneagle Hotel, Killarney, Co. Kerry
Contact Michael O’Sullivan {087-2648291}.

October 2nd/3rd
National Singles – I.N.D.O. Ranked
West County Hotel, Ennis, Co. Clare

September 24/25/26
Tramore Autumn Festival
Friday 8.00pm – Men’s and Ladies’ Doubles / Saturday 2.00pm – Mixed Pairs Championship
Saturday 4.00pm – Youths’ Under-21 Singles / Sunday 12 noon – Men’s and Ladies’ Singles.

August 29th

2010 Tom Kirby Memorial Irish Matchplay Championship
Green Isle Hotel, Newland’s Cross, Dublin
Winner qualifies for 2011 PDC World Championship
Starting at 12 noon sharp. Closing date for entries – Friday August 20th
STRICT DRESS CODE
Contact Michael O’Sullivan {087-2648291} or Joe Coyne {085-1596550}

August 21st/22nd
The Irish Masters – I.N.D.O. Ranked
West County Hotel, Ennis, Co. Clare

tonmachine

Thanks a lot dionsiseire I will definitely do my best to get to as many as these tournaments as possible this year especially the 2 that are I.N.D.O. ranked do you have any idea how much the fees for these particular tournaments are.

padr81

tonmachine wrote: »

Thanks a lot dionsiseire I will definitely do my best to get to as many as these tournaments as possible this year especially the 2 that are I.N.D.O. ranked do you have any idea how much the fees for these particular tournaments are.

€20, for what its worth even though the indo is our wdf affiliated organistation you'll be looking at 60 players at the national singles and possibly a few more at the masters and of those competing only 4-5 have the ability to play at pro level, the rest are decent county players.

The players championship is where most irelands dart throwers compete. This will pit you against 10 or so players capable of competing at international level and alot of 24 dart games.

If you can bring your 85 average to these comps you'll be one of ireland top players withing a few weeks. But be warned I know lots of players who can average 90+ in practice all the time but in comp its more like 70-75