Darts Gym

Category: ACT

  • The Gloves Are Off

    The Gloves Are Off

    The Gloves Are Off

    And so the story goes that the young player practised his dart skills diligently, watching videos, perfecting his stance and technical approach. He loved the feel of the dart in his hand, the sound of it landing in the board. He watched his heroes on television and dreamed of playing on the best stage in the world.

    In the privacy of his own home, and maybe with a few safe friends, his averages would rise from 40 to 50 to 60 to 70. At this point, he found himself being entered into the inner circle of higher elite professional darts players. It was a joyous moment; people congratulated him, and it felt good.

    When he got to the competition and, for the first time, had to play in front of spectators, judges, the bright lights, and the expectations, pressure mounted. Potential rewards, and recognition were now added to the experience. He started to experience sensations that were vibrant, powerful, new, bold, and confusing.

    And then he saw something that he’d never seen before in his whole experience. He now saw for the very first time that the players seem to wear gloves. That was the first shock. The Greater secondary shock was that he suddenly realised he was wearing a pair of the very same gloves. Instinctively, he knew that he didn’t want anyone to know that he was now wearing this pair of gloves, and when he watched the other players as they played in competition, he was aware that they also did not want anyone to know that they were wearing these gloves. Then the other realisation came to him. No one could see the gloves other than the other players who knew that they were wearing them, that these invisible gloves were as real to the person who experienced them as they were invisible to the person who could not see them.

    One of the gloves was soft, velvety, warm, and comfortable; it felt good but made it difficult to hold onto his darts as they were slippery and lacked the energy to launch them accurately. 

    The other glove was uncomfortable, spiky, rough, with a harsh texture.

    The soft velvety warm and comfortable glove that so affected his throw had writing upon it along the fingers and around the palm and down the thumb, and he noticed that these were words that described apathy, aimlessness, and ambivalence.

    The spiky glove with its bits of metal and abrasiveness also had writing on it in bold, aggressive fonts, and the letters were anxiety, agitation, and anger.

    And so it was that he found that when he was throwing darts in competitions he would have his unwanted gloves on. He did not choose which one, but ninety percent of the time, they were there. They seemed more impactful at times of greater consequences on offer. With them on his averages would be inconsistent, his performance not as it was at home or in practice or in training or in the safety of familiar surroundings. He noticed that the gloves really affected the way he would throw, and at times, the dart would hardly reach the board, it would go in at the wrong angles, the energy levels were flat, and his ambivalence and his apathy aimlessness seemed to replace all of his talent. Or the other glove, and he was ferocious in his throw, the dart thudding into the board, rarely where it was wanted.  Although he was there throwing darts, he just couldn’t throw his best  when he was wearing these invisible gloves. 

    If the gloves were not  interfering with his game enough, then he found more discomfort when he was triggered by injustices of the other players’ behaviour, or just judging or comparing his own performance against other people. The sense of embarrassment, shame, or guilt, all of these sensations and thoughts washed through him. His thinking mind and his narrative and the storytelling brain that would be on him would swap the glove over to one of agitation and anger and anxiety. When that glove was on again, he just couldn’t seem to get the dart to go in the right place; it would go in too hard or off to one side, hit the board, and it would just be unable to be that refined, precise, confident, casual, relaxed, in the zone type player that he was so familiar with. He hated these gloves, and yet every time he went near reward or recognition, they seemed to be on his hands.

    One day, he learned that there was an antidote to this, which was alcohol. And it worked; the alcohol worked, that slow, comforting protector that would wrap around him inside and out. It didn’t matter which pair of gloves were showing up; they seemed to have no power to hurt him when the relief of alcohol was sought. Somehow, his muscle memory kicked in, and all of the training and the practice and the thousands of darts thrown in his life became available to him. 

    Not always perfect, and there was still some fluctuation, and if he didn’t quite get the amount of alcohol right, then he would get a little bit too much ambivalence, aimlessness, and apathy, and he would feel a bit down or depressed or flat. Sometimes that would show up, but with the alcohol, it didn’t really seem to matter quite so much. In other times, the agitation and the anger and the frustration and the stress would show up, and it would really be interfering, but somehow the alcohol would subdue that and put it into a silent state, and sometimes it would leak through a little bit, but when it did, it didn’t seem to matter quite so much. The rewards and the recognition and what people thought and all the hooks and the narrative didn’t seem to matter quite so much. Not in the short term and in the here and now anyway, and with that, he found compromise and accommodation of his invisible gloves that allowed him to be in the limelight, to have some kind of a career. However,  deep down somewhere quiet, he knew the silent truth. He could not maintain this. 

    The alcohol, of course, didn’t just affect his darts. The accumulation of regular drinking for effect caused a build-up of tolerance. The more one drinks, the more one needs to. The perfect trap was that alcohol allowed him to survive, sometimes thrive. In turn this meant a large part of his life on the road, competing. This became an incessant grind. Poor lifestyle was the price he had to pay, to tame the gloves with alcohol. 

    He drank for effect, he drank for relief, and he drank in service of coping, but the side effects were starting to tell. At the end of every year when he looks back, the cost of his bank balance and the bar bill, the cost in his relationships and trust, the cost in his health and his mental and emotional state. He noticed that he was existing in the world of darkness, never really feeling the freedom and the joy that he felt as a young guy when he first picked up the darts and he loved them and he felt the passion for it and the pleasure and the fun went out of it, but the alcohol kind of hid him from that as well.

    One day, as the story continues to develop, he noticed a couple of players that were performing well on the stage, and they didn’t have these gloves on. So he  started to watch them behind the scenes. He noticed that they didn’t use alcohol either, and this was very confusing. The greatest surprise was that the invisible glove had not gone, that these players had them, like everyone else, just that they were not on their hands. They were tucked into their back pockets. The epiphany moment, The Gloves Were Off. 

    He asked. He asked them outright. How did they take the gloves off? Could I do that? They told him. They joined DartsGym.com. 

    He learned that he could take the gloves off, as long as he was willing to keep them in his pocket. The way to do this, he discovered, was the Third Wave Mentality skill of  Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT- said as the word ACT.)

    He went on a voyage of discovery and freedom. Could he really love, enjoy, compete and succeed without alcohol? Was there a new way? He learned how at DartsGym.com 

    HOW? Honesty, Open-mindedness, Willingness. He started to learn. He had a Plan B, one he chose to embrace without reservation or restriction. He started to learn the power of now, and focused on using mindfulness, the ACT element to practise freedom through Acceptance. Discovering  the diffusion of unhooking from thoughts and feelings. Learning to play from values and identity, rather than goals based focus. He learned to be the best version of himself, where his best is good enough. He practised his values, doing the next right thing, no matter what. He started being his authentic self. He put his trust and faith in this program of change with the same commitment that he had to alcohol. In doing so, he found that his bare hands could throw the darts he desired. . He learnt to trust his hands. He found that increasingly one or both gloves were in his pocket. Accepting couldn’t get rid of them, so he found that he could mentally put them in his back pocket. The apathy, the anxiety gloves just went straight in the back pocket. From that position, he would step up on the stage.

    He still had his gloves , yet they no longer had him.

    He also realised that by not using alcohol he  could accept the fact that he would have feelings, triggers, and in any moment. His use of mindfulness, of practising the breathing out of diffusion from his thoughts, of labelling them, of being in tune with his values, of accepting, aiming, and his maths and his potential, and leaning into the here and now gave him the freedom to play, live and thrive as desired.

    His story is that he trusted his talent as a darts player, that his passion for throwing the darts was all that he needed. With that, his practice improved, his consistency improved, and funny enough, his averages under pressure improved. Now he starts to look around, and he saw a few other darts players that seemed to have their gloves in their back pocket. They weren’t drinking alcohol, and they weren’t getting hooked into the fight and the flight with all of their thoughts and feelings.

    He realised he found something special. He found it through darts, using Acceptance Commitment Therapy, that was practice and persistence, and kept coming back to this place. However, he also noticed that it was a mindful experience. He had to consciously put those gloves in the back pocket. They appear on his hands almost every time he takes to the stage, and at any time in any competition. He just uses ACT to put them in his back pocket and throw the next dart. 

    So, if you ever ask yourself where the expression “the gloves are off” comes from, that’s what it means when you put your gloves in your back pocket, and you get the freedom to play your best game.

  • Taming Environmental Anxiety

    Taming Environmental Anxiety

    Grounding Techniques for Managing Environmental Anxiety in Darts Competitions

    Anxiety Is Normal

    Anxiety is a natural human emotion that we all experience, and in certain situations, it can even be beneficial, such as in the context of competitive darts. However, when it comes to environmental anxiety, it’s crucial to understand its evolutionary origins and how it can impact our performance, especially in unfamiliar settings like competitions.

    We Need Anxiety

    As humans, our evolutionary history shapes our responses to new environments. In the past, when our ancestors roamed and hunted in unfamiliar territories, heightened levels of anxiety were necessary for survival. This innate response to unfamiliar surroundings is still present within us today. When we enter new environments, our senses become heightened, and our anxiety levels increase as a result of the perceived threats around us.

    This heightened state of awareness can be particularly noticeable when participating in organised darts competitions. The unfamiliarity of the venue, including its sights, sounds, and smells, can trigger our evolutionary anxiety response. Despite our intellectual understanding that these differences may not pose actual threats, our bodies still react as if they do, consuming valuable resources like energy and focus.

    Useful Anxiety

    To mitigate the effects of environmental anxiety and optimise our performance, it’s essential to employ grounding techniques, particularly mindfulness exercises, before and during competitions. These exercises help us become more attuned to our surroundings and reduce the draining impact of anxiety.

    One effective mindfulness exercise involves actively observing and acknowledging the various elements of the environment. Take a moment to notice the shape of the room, the colours of the walls, and the height of the ceiling. Pay attention to the temperature and any distinct smells present. Engage your senses without judging or categorising your observations as good or bad.

    As you continue the exercise, focus on the sounds around you, both their volume and tone. Be present in the moment, actively experiencing the environment without letting anxiety dictate your reactions. Once you’ve familiarised yourself with the space, take a stroll around, noting the location of essential facilities like toilets and practice boards.

    By grounding yourself in this way, you can diminish the hold of environmental anxiety and conserve valuable mental and physical resources for the competition itself. Throughout the day, whenever you feel overwhelmed by anxiety, return to these grounding techniques to recenter yourself and maintain focus.

    In conclusion, while environmental anxiety is a natural response to unfamiliar settings, it doesn’t have to hinder your performance in darts competitions. By incorporating mindfulness and grounding techniques into your preparation routine, you can navigate new environments with confidence and excel on the dartboard.

  • I own “unbearable”

    I own “unbearable”

    As a professional darts player, you’ll realise there are many reasons, specific uncontrollable situations, that will impact or have the potential to derail and affect your natural flow state, where you produce your best quality darts. Exposure to these events tends to ramp up as your career progresses. So, you might find that the heating in the local pub is unbearable. You might find that you end up on a stage with the TV cameras, the lights, the crowds, the banter, and the abuse, the support and the hate, unbearable. You might find that the other player is trying to derail you and coming up with all sorts of slight little tricks, and that is unbearable.

    There’s a whole host of things that you will find that are unbearable until one day when you’ve been exposed to them often enough, they become bearable. You start to find a solution. You are, after all, human, and humans evolve. We can survive in the hottest climates on the planet and thrive, and we can also thrive and survive in the coldest places on earth. If we can do that, we can do it in the silence of the quietest parts of the planet, and we can thrive in the noisiest parts of the planet. So, your ability to evolve and emerge within your own lifetime, within your own career, becomes a super strength.

    However, one of the first things you have to do is choose to unhook from the judgment that this is unbearable all the time. Your brain is saying it’s too hot, too noisy; you’re adding a level of struggling to your suffering. Let’s be clear about this: to be a human is to suffer, and radical acceptance is when we lean into our suffering and go about our values regardless. We might be in pain because of what other people are doing, but the struggle is when we choose that unbearable. If we unhook from the judgment, the thinking brain, the comparing, the critical brain, and if we were to accept the heat that we’re feeling, the sweat on our brow, the cold hands, and all the reasons why, we might, then, we can get busy adapting to that. How do I play the best of my ability, the best version of me when my hands are cold? How do I do it when the crowd is against me, noisy, when the other player tries to derail me?

    We get to put a solution before a problem, and when the brain’s engaged in that, often it just comes down to the simple idea of unhooking from the judgment brain, trusting in your ability, taking a breath, and radically producing the style of play, the commitment, the courage, your values, your principles, your ethics, what you stand for, your liberated self, in the here and now.

  • Successful Career Karma

    Successful Career Karma

    Understanding Karma:

    The word “karma” has often been misunderstood to mean “fate.” Its actual meaning, though, is “action,” and the Law of Karma says, “Actions have results.”  Kevin Griffiths.

    Karma embodies the principle that every action, whether internal or external, carries consequences. In the realm of professional darts, where precision and strategy are paramount, this concept holds particular significance. Each decision made, both on and off the oche, shapes the trajectory of your career. Just as a well-thrown dart can lead to victory, so too can mindful actions pave the path to success.

    Internal Actions:

    In the world of darts, where mental fortitude is as crucial as physical skill, the landscape of your mind becomes the battleground for success. Thoughts and emotions serve as the backdrop to your performance on the board, shaping each throw and decision. Here, the principles of diffusion and mindfulness come into play, guiding your internal actions towards alignment with your values. Instead of solely visualising success, we utilise the values and principles of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to direct our internal fortitude. By anchoring ourselves in our values, whether it’s resilience, focus, or determination, we empower ourselves to navigate the highs and lows of competition with clarity and purpose. Through mindfulness and commitment to our values, we pave the path to success both on and off the oche.

    External Actions:

    Just as each dart thrown carries the potential for victory or defeat, so too do your external actions shape your professional journey. From training diligently to maintaining sportsmanship during competitions, every decision you make contributes to your karmic footprint. By approaching your career with intentionality and mindfulness, you can ensure that your actions align with your long-term goals. Whether it’s fostering positive relationships within the darts community or seeking opportunities for growth and improvement, each external action contributes to the tapestry of your career.

    Embracing Karmic Influence:

    By embracing the concept of karma in your darts career, you acknowledge the interconnectedness of your actions and their consequences. Take a moment to reflect on the ripple effect created by your decisions, both on and off the oche. By cultivating mindfulness and intentionality in your actions, you can navigate the complexities of competition with clarity and purpose. Remember, the choices you make today lay the groundwork for the future of your career.

    Conclusion:

    As you continue on your journey as professional darts players, I encourage you to integrate the principles of karma into your daily lives. By taking ownership of your thoughts, emotions, and actions, you can shape the trajectory of your career with purpose and intention. May your pursuit of excellence on the oche be guided by mindfulness, awareness, and a deep understanding of the interconnectedness of all things. Thank you for exploring the concept of karma with me, and may your careers be filled with success and fulfilment.

  • “What can I do about my overthinking?”

    “What can I do about my overthinking?”

    This question often plagues dart players, especially during intense matches. It’s like your brain goading you, challenging you to fight it. This internal battle can trigger a fight-or-flight response, making you feel like you’re somehow wrong or that you’re doing something in a way that’s a problem.

    However, there’s a more flexible approach. Instead of engaging in combat with the overthinking, try naming it differently. When those intrusive thoughts arise, rather than labelling them as “overthinking,” which implies a struggle against them, simply call them “thinking”.

    This subtle shift in language can alter your mindset, allowing you to step back and observe the thoughts without getting entangled in them. Take a deep breath and acknowledge that these are just thoughts passing through your mind, not necessarily reflections of reality.

    By adopting this approach, you can cultivate a sense of detachment from the overthinking, empowering yourself to focus on the present moment and your gameplay. Remember, it’s not about winning the battle against overthinking; it’s about finding a more peaceful coexistence with your thoughts.