Seven tips for hitting your doubles

Why the doubles decide everything

At 501 you have to finish on a double. Until it goes in, nothing moves: a leg you won on scoring can be lost on the last dart.

The doubles worth owning

• D20 — the most played, easy to line up, and a miss into the single leaves 20, which is D10.
• D16 — the one the chart prefers, because the chain holds: 16, then D8, then D4.
• D10 — where a missed D20 leaves you.
• D8, D4, D2 — for closing out the small numbers.

Seven tips

1. Finish every session with ten doubles in a row.
2. Practise them under pressure: count your attempts and keep the score.
3. See the flight before you throw it.
4. Keep the same throwing routine, dart after dart.
5. Choose consistency over power.
6. In a match, go for the double you trust, not the one on paper.
7. Write your figures down, so you can tell whether anything changed.

Drills

• Around the clock on the doubles — D1 to D20, and count the darts it takes you.
• 301, double out — every leg has to finish on a double.
• Three strikes — three attempts per double; miss all three and you start again from the beginning.

Read next

• The checkout chart: the double to go for at every score
• The practice page: how to structure a session on doubles