With the slow decline of darters in Alaska we should ask ourselves what is going on. Why are people leaving the game? Do they ever plan to return? What could have been different to keep them around? And how did what we do affect their outlook as far as the sport of darts in general?
A common excuse people like to use is the cost. Medalist costs 12.00 a head to play, NDA doubles the same, PJ’s new Super Singles is the same, and NDA team is 8.50 a person. Not too bad when you compare it to bowling, or some of the other sports we have out there. I think the major money comes into the drinking side of things.
Some people feel they can’t be competitive at darts. NDA uses a handicap system, good for the lower rated players, very bad for the high rated / top players. Often times, in this situation, the higher rated players start at 501 and the people they’re playing against often times start at or below 300. I’ve personally been beat by 6 darts in a situation like this before. I never had a chance. Medalist rates players and places them in blocks, keeping the competition close and every one should have a fair chance. The draw back to this is, a sandbagger has a map to what they have to throw in order to never move up, or a good understanding of what it would take to win a game without busting an average. Though I will say medalist does a good job of re-rating people through out the season and the way the boards report an average is for the most part a mystery still since the latest software upgrades.
I’ve also noticed an interesting thing in Alaska as far as darts go. There’s no form of training up here. The weaker players are often times left in the shadows of those better than them and hardly ever encouraged. The top players often times loudly put down any player starting to show some sign of improvement, accusing them of sandbagging and being cheaters. I’ve personally seen this kind of behavior drive people from our sport. Why aren’t the stronger players encouraged to play with a weaker player? A couple things happen from this. The stronger player has to continue to throw strong in order to make up for his partner, and his partner gets to learn the actual game of darts. Often times if a person gets a chance to watch and learn under some one better than them they’ll pick up traits and in turn pass that on to some one else.
Blind draws are often times fun to watch. Not so much the competition, but seeing how two random people play together who would never play with one another any other way. Some smile, have a good time and encourage. Others complain and have a horrible time, thus discouraging any one from playing with them. At PJ’s we do the blind draws currently using the system Women draw first then Men. I understand why, it’s to give a spread of women across the men, also making sure there are no all women teams. STUPID if you ask me. This was really created because some one thought that women shooters aren’t as strong as men shooters. With Anchorage having the OVERFLOW of lower end players, most of those are men. So a team of two men, which happens commonly, could very well be weaker than a team of two women. Overall, it also doesn’t stop say a weak man drawing a woman either or the total opposite, two strong men shooters drawing each other. Why not revamp the way the draw is done to encourage a better spread. Draw any one with a 24.00 / or a 7 avg first, that spreads out the entire group strong players (they can’t draw each other), then draw the women (still encourage the spread) then the rest of the field. Could there be an all women team, yes, but that’s because the lady has proven to be that good. I think you’ll see the dart population increase and start to improve. More people would be willing to play blind draws too, no more power teams winning it all the time.
NDA has no cap on their team avg up here. Why? When we play tournament we do. I’ll build you the situation that happens in Anchorage often times. There are two or three power teams. By that I mean every one on those teams is the cream of the crop, players who are 25+ in avg, usually higher. They play all season giving giant handicaps and getting the chance to lower their avgs when they see fit. This does a couple things, it discourages lower rated players from playing when they see a better player throwing off and why on earth would any one want to be so high they’re always looking at losing games in 9 darts typically. Why not put a cap on how high a team can be? This will spread the better players out, more people will get a chance to learn from them and maybe the better player will grow also. Doesn’t mean they can’t make that SUPER TEAM for VEGAS. Just means locally, things run smoother and we actually grow our dart players.
I haven’t even touched the steel tip dart situation in Anchorage. Talk about a cluster. Anchorage has a couple leagues, Alaska Mixed Nugget League, Alaska Women Nugget League, Alaska Dart Association, Downtown League and Chugiak-Eagle River Dart Association. Sounds like a good chance for huge turn outs at tournaments right? Wrong. The Nugget leagues prohibit ADO point shooters. They say their league is for fun. For a fun league, it’s cut throat, they keep track of wins / loses closely offering awards to the first place team and anyone hitting high ons / high offs / and 8T0s. I played a large amount of my time in this league, I now days call it a cluster. It’s a lot like dealing with kids in a sand box. Besides all the personal stuff that takes place, this is how many games a person plays, one team, one doubles, one single often times this takes three hours to do. Nugget league plays all ’01, no sign of cricket anywhere. ADA is a mystery to people for some reason, yet it’s the largest league and ADO sanctioned. They play one team game, one doubles game, and four singles games. Often times finishing before their Nugget counter parts too. They have the option to play cricket or ’01 in both singles and doubles. The other two leagues I’m not that familiar with, so I’m not going to step in and say some thing that’s not true. Here though, with this many people playing darts, at tournaments, there’s little to no new blood. Steel tip tournaments are fun, the people are great, the games are good and usually the drinks are good too. It’s an experience, one that more darters need to have. Most people once they shoot in one continue to return. I’d have to encourage every one to try a tournament. The people there alone are worth the time.
I hope things turn around for our sport. I’m sure things aren’t as bad as I see it, I’m just usually in middle of making things happen and here all the bad things. For the most part, dart players are like a second family, we fight, we laugh, we cry. We’ve had numbers of benefits for dart players that have ran across bad luck and as a whole we’ve come together to help our own. I’m not saying there’s not the bad stuff to, but with anything, you’re going to have the bad. It’s just the way things in life are. My best suggestion is that you find a group of darters you fit in with and have a good time.