PPD Tournament of Champions

1st Place, Division 5, Sunday Night

Horizon Darts, Messenger 

I listen to a variety of music.

October 1

October

"October
And the trees are stripped bare
Of all they wear
What do I care?

October
And kingdoms rise
And kingdoms fall
But you go on
And on"

Doesn't Oct mean 8? Shouldn't it be Dec ember 10, instead Oct ober 8?  Did someone sneak in 2 extra months in on us somewhere?  

For 5 years I've been maintaining the same averages. So what's the point of Wash, Rinse, Repeat?

To get better, I'm going to have to start practicing, and not just warming up. Warming up isn't practice. I will have to plan practices with purpose. Quality Darts vs. Quantity Darts.

Not only that, but what about the body. The thing throwing the darts?  What if I improved in these 6 areas

                                                 Endurance

              Endurance Speed                Muscle Endurance 

 Strength                            Power                                Speed

Not to mention Stretching to increase flexibility, and a healthy diet? Feel Better Play Better. 

My player rating is right around 80 plus or minus, I'd like to get it to 90 this next year. I've had nights at 90, but never a league. 

Condor Tri Flights

 Condor Tri Flights

Every once in a while the darts industry wheels out a tri-fin flight.  This is the newest generation.

What do they fly like? They have a characteristic of their own. I'd say it's kind of like the difference between the kite flight and teardrop flight. They are similar in surface area, but the kite has width. I'd love to know the science. These have the width of a standard flight, but with much reduced surface area with just 3 fins. 

One Hundred Eighty

Less Fins that are wider, or more fins with narrower fins? 

I think it's 6 / half dozen. 

One criticism of the tri fin is; you can't put them in a case. 

Well Cosmo makes the Case-X case. 

Cosmo Fights (Air and Regular)

 Cosmo Fights (Air and Regular)
(revisited)

Cosmo Air flights ...Clear like glass

See look at that. 

The spinning shafts are identical to the fixed, only the spinning is rounded at the top, and polished instead or rough.

Regular flights on the left, AIR flights on the left

I had been using the old school folding poly flights and nylon shafts because I think they fly better than molded flights. I felt like molded flights were slow so to speak. I had the same length shaft and flight, but something was different. Most of the top pros still use folding flights. so I went back to them a couple months ago. in my opinion they seem slow because of the thickness of the flight. I also like to keep the fins at 90 degrees so I use flight protectors ...that fall off after a while. Not pictured are the stem rings that will also fall off. If there was something better, which brings me back to molded flights. Oy Vey!

So I tried the Cosmo Air Flights. They are thin and fly a lot like poly flights. So what's bad about them? MAKE NOT MISTAKE, FLIGHTS AND SHAFTE ARE CONSUMABLES. 

They don't last forever. You have to be careful with how you store AIR flights. If you lay them down, they will bend and lose their 90 degrees. the regular flights are a bit thicker and you don't have be as vigilant. Also the simplicity of the system, they just slide on the shaft and lock on. That will loosen up after time and they with start popping off. 

No system is perfect, and like always I imagine I'll change again, but for now. 

https://www.horizondarts.com/catalog/flights/cosmo-fit-flight/

https://www.horizondarts.com/catalog/shafts/flight-shaft-system/cosmo-shafts/

The Old Double Nickel open

 The Old Double Nickel Open

(Open to everyone over the age of 55)

We (Bob Beard 2 time Mo State Champion) got 2nd Place in Doubles 501. 

The rest of the day, not so much. 

The tournament is part tournament and part reunion....

When I first started back in 1992, these guys were the super stars of Kansas City darts. In the league they were known as the Corporation. 

You know you want one. 

Vegas Success 2024

 Vegas Success
NDA Nationals, Las Vegas, 2024

1st Place, Doubles Cricket (w/Stephanie Shope), Division 5

1st Place, Seniors Combo, Division 1

I think as you get older, you have to pick out and focus on the events you want to do well at. At 55 I find it hard to play to be 100% every weekend. I stopped all my physical training 2 weeks ago (bike rides and weights). Then 2 weekends before tournaments (Darts Madness 2 & 3). This next week I'm going to plan my peak for the next big event. Dropping all physical 2 weeks before and 2 weeks of tournaments seems to work. I'll keep that. Now a rest week, then a 3 week on, 1 week off progression. Come back and see what I come up with.

The Darts

This weekend I chose the ....

The "Messenger" by Horizon Darts

https://www.horizondarts.com/catalog/soft-tip-darts/horizon-soft/messenger-soft/

While most people seek 90% tungsten, this dart is 80% tungsten. Just because a dart has more tungsten content, doesn't make it more accurate, it just makes it smaller. Whatever you find confident and comfortable is the best. 

The say you can fit more darts in a triple with smaller diameter darts. then can't it be said for singles? How many games have I lost because my darts were too big around? Not Many. Phil Taylor used a "Chunky" dart.  

Just the old school, standard cheap nylon shafts and poly folding flights. I think they fly better than molded flights. A lot of the top players use folding flights.  With that said I experiment with a lot of different products, so don't be surprised if I review molded flights. 

Darts Madness 03 Joplin VFW

Darts Madness 03 Joplin, VFW 

The Round Robin:  With better than normal participation, we used every board in the venue. So there were no warmup boards available, So that counts for the lower than average averages. 

Knockout bracket: Went out first round. I played a lot last week. I got a little bit tired. The last 

I did better than average on Tuesday. My thought is was because of the tournament the Saturday before. 

Last Tuesdays result. I shot better than usual Tuesday. I suspect because of all the competitive darts last weekend.  It's always 2 steps forward, 3 steps back with darts. It's not a straight linear progression. In this way, forward progression can be seen as regression. 

If Pool Tables were a Pirate.