Three-dart average, first nine and checkout % — what the numbers mean
What a three-dart average actually measures, what counts as a good one at pub, league and professional level, and which of the four numbers is worth working on first.
Open the appFour numbers describe a darts player almost completely. Everything else is detail. They are worth understanding properly, because three of them move slowly and one of them moves fast, and knowing which is which saves a lot of wasted practice.
Three-dart average
Points scored divided by darts thrown, times three. It is the single number that answers "how good are you", and it covers the whole leg — the scoring and the finishing together.
A miss counts. So does a busted turn, which scores nothing at all and still used three darts. That is correct and it is why an average is honest in a way a best turn never is: one 180 tells you what you can do, an average tells you what you do.
- Under 40 — starting out. Every leg is decided by whoever hits a double first.
- 40 to 60 — a comfortable pub player. 501 in about 27 darts.
- 60 to 80 — league standard. You are scoring well enough that the finish is what costs you legs.
- 80 to 95 — very strong club or county level.
- Over 95 — professional. The top of the game sits around 100 and the very best days go past 110.
An average taken over three legs means nothing. It takes twenty or thirty legs before the figure stops bouncing around, which is why the app keeps your whole history rather than showing you today.
First nine
The average of your first three turns only — nine darts, before any finishing is involved. It is the purest measure of scoring, because nobody is throwing at a double yet.
It is almost always higher than the overall average, and the gap between the two is the interesting part. A big gap means you score well and finish badly. A small gap means the finishing is not what is holding you back.
Checkout percentage
How often you finish the leg when you have a dart at a double. This is the number that decides matches, and it is also the number people most often quote wrongly — it is per *attempt*, not per leg.
A good club player is around 30 to 35%. Professionals sit around 40%. If yours is under 20% and your first nine is respectable, you have found the thing to practise.
Doubles percentage
Every dart thrown at a double, not just the ones that would have won the leg. It is a bigger sample than the checkout percentage and it moves sooner, which makes it the better number to watch while you are actually working on your doubles.
Which to work on first
If your first nine is well ahead of your average, the finish is the problem — and the finish is the half that responds fastest to practice. Doubles are a small, specific skill: a fortnight of deliberate work on them moves the number, where a scoring average takes months.
The app works all four out of the games you have already played, per player, and the coach turns them into a suggestion of what to throw at tonight. There is nothing to type in.