My feet hurt – I gotta sidown

I recently bought a new pair of walking shoes. I do this every seven or eight years, whether I need them or not.

Since I’ve been seventeen I’ve worn shoes sized 8 ½ D. So imagine my surprise when the sales person asked if I would mind if she measured, after I said 8 ½ is the size shoe I wanted, just to be sure. I bit my tongue and said nothing, but – this person doesn’t think I know what size shoe I wear? Give me a break!

Surprise!! I looked at the measuring thingy and it showed my foot was size 9 ½?! The sales person looked up at me as I absorbed the news that I really didn’t know what size shoe I wear. She said she’d get the size I needed and be right back. There’s a trick to this – for sure! Feet don’t suddenly get bigger. It’s probably that they charge by the size now, or the shoes are made according to some model where every ones’ feet are smaller, or something. You can’t trust shoe sales people.

I again bit my tongue (I was getting tired of this exercise).  She could tell I was, ah – quizzical, and explained, in a non demeaning tone, that this happens quite often where a person’s arch weakens, the arch flattens out, and the foot gets longer. I took my teeth off my tongue.

A person’s feet can get bigger as you get older? Who knew?

So - what’s this got to do with darts you ask? OK, fair question.

I talk about eliminating distractions from the job at hand while on the oche and it doesn’t matter what the distraction is. One of the reasons I’ve quit playing darts so much is the bottom of my feet have hurt after standing for a period of time; which became a huge distraction. ‘Course the fact that my darts started flying like sausages (stolen from Dartoid), and I don’t feel like doing anything about it, has something to do with it too.

It wasn’t super disabling pain, just the nagging; - my feet are sore - kind of discomfort. I got to thinking about where I can find a seat and this gets in the way of wanting to compete or even watching darts matches. It interferes with being able to enjoy the competition because finding a seat where you can actually see what’s going on is not an easy thing to do. Which is certainly the case when watching LODs and tournaments.

Put this together with my observation that quite a few dart people who are a bit long in the tooth appear to be quite often looking for a place to sit and you come up with the answer to the “what’s this got to do with darts” question.

So - maybe as your longevity gets longer your feet do too, your shoes don’t fit and your feet hurt? Or maybe it really doesn’t have anything to do with longevity and it’s just that a person gets afflicted with plantar faciitis. Now there is name that’ll scare a person silly but isn’t really all that serious. We all have these plantars in our feet. It’s a ligament like band running from your heel to the ball of your foot. If your foot flattens too much or if it flattens too little the plantar can swell or ache and make a person downright bitchy, and distracted. But lucky for us dart nuts it is a distraction which can be eliminated without much hassle, most of the time. Get some shoes that fit your feet and go walking so your feet can fix themselves. They do that you know? ‘Course there are those times when it might be something more and a doctor needs to be involved but I’ll leave that alone.

I’ve just finished the book, Beginning to End. This is the very first book on darts, of any kind, that I have purchased, or read, in my 18 years in the game. When I have more time, and am relaxed at home, I will give my full review.
I will say this. If George writes another book, I will be first in line to get a copy. His indepth look into the game, is second to none, and the way he combines his knowledge, with others questions, and stories, is supurb. George, you get 10 thumbs up on your book. It was a pleasure reading it. Stay tuned for my full review. Frank Smith

I’ve just recently received and read through Darts beginning to End. I never realized how much I was competing with myself while I practiced until after reading the book. I’ve only been playing darts consistently for just over a year. Where I live there is a soft tip cricket league divisions A-F in the fall and and A-D in the summer. I’m down toward the bottom.

During the fall my team won the E league division and I shot a 2.01. I’ve been playing a lot since then and am currently shooting a 2.35 in the summer league. Lately I’ve been getting frustrated because when I play someone for drinks in singles I shoot between 2.8-3.1 avg. and beat some decent “throwers” but during leagues when there are breaks between my shooting I don’t fair so well. I strive to be a great “shooter” and beat the best in my area which there are a few players who shoot slightly higher than a 4.0. George really hits on the positive reinforcement in his book which is key to becoming more consistent. The grouping and accuracy drills I feel have already helped me, even though I’ve only had the book for such a short time. One of my problems also was changing my mechanics over and over when I started to miss, this was a mistake and thanks to George I will be able to start fixing these kinds of things….hopefully.

George your book is a great buy. I can’t wait to be shooting with the best!

Thanks, Hitman/Chris

How a thing to do came and went:  a Fable

Once upon a time, in a place called HOMEOFTHEBRAVE there dwelt interesting creatures called Peoples and these Peoples lived in groups and these Peoples gathered in special places to do special things and these places were called bars & saloons.

The Peoples of HOMEOFTHEBRAVE had an uncontrollable urge to be better than each other and had short little attention spans and always were looking for more special things in which to be better than the others and this is a tale of one of those things.

In the beginning of time in HOMEOFTHEBRAVE there were a lot of bars & saloons and they were gathering places for mostly neighborhood Peoples and the same Peoples populated the stools of the bars & saloons night after night.

Some bars & saloons had a brass foot rail and some had a spittoon and a few had a Lady’s entrance with tables & chairs and beer & whisky was sold and there were wicker baskets with pretzels on the bar and some sold sandwiches and some had soup and these were gathering places for Peoples who mostly worked with their hands. 

Some bars & saloons had a ring suspended from the ceiling by a string and a large hook on the wall and this was a thing to do where Peoples would see who could swing the ring onto the hook.

And some bars & saloons had other things to do at which Peoples could be better than the others and some of these things to do were called shuffle boards & decks of cards and bumper pool and knobles was played with coins where a People in the game would guess at the total number held by all the Peoples in the game and there were lots of things to do with which Peoples occupied themselves with getting better at doing.

And bars & saloons had a dart board.

And Peoples discovered this thing to do was different and this thing to do offered even more opportunity to be better than the others and the Peoples would play for bragging rights to being the best at the dart thing to do and not all bars & saloons had shuffle boards and not so many had ring games or bumper pool and lots of bars & saloons had dart boards.

And Peoples traveled from bars & saloons to bars & saloons and Peoples played against those from the other bars & saloons and there was competition between bars & saloons and there was neighborhood & town competition and there were dart leagues.

And bars & saloons dart teams were a large part of bars & saloons clientele and there were lots of dart Peoples and there were lots of dart teams and there lots of dart leagues and English type darts showed up and tournament organizer Peoples appeared and competition spread and a Darts magazine appeared and Darts was in bars & saloons across the entire HOMEOFTHEBRAVE  and tournaments popped up from coast to coast and border to border and more Peoples started becoming Dart Peoples and the bars & saloons were doing very well and the original type dart leagues shrunk and English type dart leagues grew and league leader Peoples didn’t know how to contact their membership and tournament organizer Peoples  did what the other organizer Peoples did and upper echelon player Peoples appeared and big thinking national organizer Peoples appeared and  national Darts organization Peoples appeared.

And Dart times were good and Peoples could travel and competition extended to those who didn’t live in HOMEOFTHEBRAVE and bars & saloons had dart Peoples every night and there were more dart teams and there were more dart leagues and there were more dart tournaments and there were international dart tournaments and there were international upper echelon dart player Peoples and there were international business thinker Peoples, and there were new national thinker Peoples and there was a national dart magazine People reporting it all. And not one People thought about why.

And the bars & saloons were flourishing and teams were flourishing and the leagues were flourishing and there were more tournament organizer Peoples and there were more upper echelon player Peoples getting close to making good money and the national magazine was growing and international business thinker Peoples appeared and TV business Peoples appeared and the business Peoples were making bright forecasts and national thinker Peoples were being overwhelmed and league leader Peoples didn’t know how to contact their members. And not one People thought about what was next.

Many of the original (HOMEOFTHEBRAVE type) dart teams and leagues disappeared and electronic dart machines appeared and bars & saloons with electronic dart Peoples flourished and electronic teams flourished and electronic businesses flourished and electronic dart tournaments appeared and electronic organizer Peoples did the same things the original  tournament organizer Peoples had done and for more Peoples and the English type bars & saloons didn’t think it mattered and English type team Peoples didn’t think it mattered and English type league Peoples didn’t think it mattered and the tournament organizers Peoples didn’t think it mattered and upper echelon player Peoples didn’t think it mattered and the business thinker Peoples didn’t think it mattered and international business thinker Peoples didn’t think at all and the national magazine People didn’t report on it.

And Steel tip bars & saloons didn’t see as many Peoples and Steel tip teams didn’t increase and Steel tip leagues didn’t increase and some original Steel tip dart tournaments shut down and upper echelon Steel tip Peoples didn’t think it mattered and Steel tip business thinker Peoples weren’t concerned and Steel tip Peoples blamed it on electronic dart machines and electronic business thinker Peoples weren’t concerned and national thinker Peoples didn’t think at all and the national magazine People didn’t report on it.

And then bars & saloons didn’t have as many darts Peoples and teams didn’t have as many Peoples and leagues didn’t have as many teams and tournaments weren’t well attended and steel tip league leader Peoples didn’t know how to contact their membership and tournament organizer Peoples did what they’d always done and upper echelon Peoples didn’t pay attention and business thinker Peoples didn’t think and national organizer thinker Peoples did the same thing they’d always done and the national magazine People didn’t report on it.

And bars & saloons and teams and league leader Peoples and tournament organizer Peoples and upper echelon Peoples and business thinker Peoples and national thinker Peoples and international thinker Peoples all thought the other Peoples’ end of the boat was sinking.

And attendance at all types of dart tournaments decreased and all types of dart teams had fewer Peoples and all types of dart leagues had fewer teams and business Peoples and bars & saloons didn’t make as much money and machine type darts had fewer vendor Peoples and original league leader Peoples and tournament organizer Peoples and upper echelon Peoples and national organizer Peoples didn’t think the loss of machine vendors was important to them and league leader Peoples and tournament organizer Peoples and upper echelon Peoples and national organizer Peoples did the same as they’d always done and original league leader Peoples didn’t know how to contact their membership.

Business Peoples withdrew from darts and machine type darts didn’t have vendors Peoples and bars & saloons didn’t have many dart machines and there were no national tournaments and league leader Peoples, tournament organizer Peoples and national organizer Peoples didn’t have the same to do as they’d always had and league leader Peoples didn’t need to know how to contact their membership and bars & saloons had neighborhood Peoples for customers and had things to do for them  like hook and ring and shuffle boards and pool tables and dart boards with teams from the neighborhood.