When I check the morning news I get see a lot of different stuff going on out in the world, and the winter weather got me thinking how I use to love missing school due to snow. Playing in the snow was such great fun, but it always had to end so we would not be out in the cold too long. In those days I had not yet discovered darts... it would have been great to have learned the sport at an early age... I hope that a few parents are taking this opportunity to teach their kids darts. Yes it can be played safely, but adult supervision is require.
Some may think that teaching kids to play darts is a bad idea, but I would counter that it's a great way to have some quality parent child time...
Here's how I teach darts to the Boy's and Girls Club children:
..first there is a discussion of safety and to set simple ground rules. -aprox 5 min
Introduce the dart and dart board. -aprox 10 min
We make a big deal of everyone knowing all the parts of a dart, being comfortable handling and replacing dart parts safely.
We explain the layout of the dartboard allow the everyone to hold it and remove and replace the number ring. We then ask them to explain the parts and scoring areas of the dart board.
We then demonstrate grip, stance, throwing position and throw, then have the children show what they have learned.
In our first few sessions we then went to the dartboards (standard height) and had the kids practice what they had learned. Some hit the board right away while others had their darts fall far short of the board. We tried having them stand a few paces closer to the board, but when a dart deflected off of the top of the board and back towards the shooter I made up my mind that standing closer was a bad idea. I asked around and got some suggestions. So now I have lowered one of the boards, and we now have them practice throwing at tape on a wall with a tennis balls. We can examine their throws from all angles with no fear of getting hit with a dart. Once a child demonstrates a proper throw 5-6 times we take them to practice on the lowered board.
When they can hit the board with 2 out of 3 darts we start teaching them games and letting them play. (more at this sewa-darts.com link...)
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