What is the best darts practice game?

Bob's 27 for doubles and the Treble 20 Drill for scoring. Between them they cover the two things that decide legs. Playing 501 against yourself is enjoyable but improves you slowly, because you spend most of it throwing at a target you already hit.

How long should you practise darts for?

Twenty to thirty focused minutes beats two unfocused hours. Once you stop keeping score, or start throwing to finish rather than to hit, you are past the useful part of the session.

What is Around the Clock in darts?

Hit 1 through 20 in order, then the bull. A single counts, so it is a pure accuracy drill rather than a scoring one. Track how many darts the full circuit takes and try to beat it.

What is Bob's 27 in darts?

Start on 27 and throw three darts at double 1, then double 2, and so on through double 20 and the bull. Each hit adds twice the double's value; each miss subtracts the double's value. Go below zero and you are out.

How do you practise doubles alone?

Bob's 27 forces you through every double including the ones you avoid. Doubles Practice — three darts at each double in turn, recording hits out of 60 — gives you a clean percentage you can compare week to week.

Should beginners practise trebles or doubles?

Neither first. Beginners should practise grouping: three darts at the 20 bed, aiming to land all three anywhere in that segment. Accuracy fine enough to distinguish trebles from singles comes after the darts stop scattering.

Practice

Darts Practice Games

Playing 501 against yourself is not practice — it is playing. Real practice targets one weakness and keeps a score you can compare next week. These nine drills cover scoring, doubles and finishing, which is everything that decides a leg.

How to practise so it counts

•Keep a score every time. A drill without a number is just throwing. The number is what tells you whether last month helped.
•Pick one weakness per session. Doubles or scoring, not both. Splitting a session between them mostly produces a warm-up for each.
•Stop when you lose focus. Twenty good minutes beats two hours of drifting. Throwing badly for an hour rehearses throwing badly.
•Practise the doubles you avoid. Almost everyone is fine on double 20 and double 16. Legs are lost on double 3 and double 7, which is exactly why Bob’s 27 exists.

If you only ever run one drill, make it Bob’s 27. Doubles decide legs, and it is the only common drill that refuses to let you skip the awkward ones.

The drills

Around the Clock

Board familiarity

Hit 1, then 2, then 3, all the way to 20, then the bull. Any bed counts. Count total darts and try to lower it.

The best first drill there is. It forces you to throw at segments you never otherwise aim for, which is where most beginners' inconsistency hides.

Treble 20 Drill

Scoring

Sixty darts at treble 20. Score 3 for a treble, 1 for a single 20, 0 for anything else. Record the total.

Blunt and effective. Almost all scoring in 501 comes from one bed, so this is the drill with the most direct effect on your average.

Bob's 27

Doubles, especially the ones you avoid

Start on 27. Three darts at D1, then D2, up to D20 and the bull. Each hit adds double the number; each miss subtracts it. Below zero and you are out.

Brutal, and the standard doubles drill for a reason. It stops you practising only double 20 and double 16.

Doubles Practice

Checkout percentage

Three darts at each double from D1 to D20. Record hits out of 60 as a percentage.

Gives you a single comparable number each session. Track it weekly and you will see whether practice is working.

121

Finishing under pressure

Start on 121 with nine darts. Check out and you win, then move to 131, 141 and so on. Fail and drop back.

Trains the whole sequence: score, assess the leave, take the finish. Closest thing to real match pressure you can do alone.

Shanghai

Switching targets

Round 1 is the 1, round 2 the 2, up to round 20. Score what you hit. A single, double and treble of the same number in one visit is a Shanghai and wins outright.

The instant-win rule keeps it interesting. Good as a group game as well as solo.

Halve It

Concentration

Set targets per round — 20, 19, doubles, 18, trebles, 17, bull. Score what you hit. Miss the target entirely and your total is halved.

The halving punishment makes the last dart of every round matter, which is exactly the habit worth building.

Catch 40

Double 20

Throw at double 20. Hit it and move to double 19, then 18. Miss all three darts and go back up a double.

A gentler version of Bob's 27, and a useful warm-up before a match.

Scoring Ladder

Consistency across visits

Throw ten visits at treble 20. Any visit under 60 resets you to the start. Get through all ten and you are done.

Trains repeatability rather than peak scoring, which is what separates a 60 average from a 45 average.

A workable weekly routine

Three sessions a week is plenty for a club player, and the split matters more than the hours.

•Session one, scoring. Treble 20 Drill, then Scoring Ladder. Twenty minutes.
•Session two, doubles. Bob’s 27, then Doubles Practice for a percentage. Twenty-five minutes.
•Session three, whole game. 121, working up as far as you get. Thirty minutes.

Log the score from each. If your Doubles Practice percentage is not moving after a month, the problem is usually stance or release rather than volume — more darts will not fix it.

The stats page covers what to measure in real matches, and the checkout chart is worth learning alongside the doubles drills, since knowing the route is half of hitting it.