Jo Ann's Blogs

Why do people torture themselves?

Dart tournaments should be a social event where one comes out to meet other friends and enjoy each other company and camaraderie – over the last couple of months I have seen people get mad over the spot – the draw – and who’s shooting or not – being drunk or not.

Yes tournaments are a competition to show your skills and how well we are doing at this time and space. Why get mad when someone is not doing well everyone and I mean everyone has bad days. Why do we complain when we ourselves have bad days and our partners have to live with how crappy we shot and didn’t win.

Is it really worth it to vent that much venom against your partner or opponent? The tournament cost you $5 and coinage – do you lose a friendship over it? Apologies the next day doesn’t really get rid of the bad taste especially if it is done more than once somehow it loses its meaning.

Sometimes it’s the luck of the draw who you get – but take the attitude that somehow you and your partner will prevail. Some players maybe off but if you try your best the rest will come, especially if you draw a partner who has the potential to throw above his/her rating. There are some people who are tournament players and some that are not, but we have to encourage everyone to do their best.

Out motto should be encouragement not negativity – new players come out to get the experience we should be showing them dart courtesy and mentoring them to shoot well so that they can get better at competing against other players not just ourselves but for competition in other big events where the money is much greater than the local tournaments.

Who knows – negativity may make your partner nervous and this will affect their shooting – getting mad may affect your shooting as well. Can these 2 things help each other? Not really it only has the snowball effect.

There are only 3 places that matter in most of these events 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd – getting there takes some work. Everyone cannot win all the time, so take it with a grain of salt and try your best.

We all know that any handicapped event will have people shooting higher than their rating and sometimes way beyond what is expected – leave it to the powers that be to regulate it. Eventually what goes around comes around.

How many of us are on the roller coaster ride – it all comes out in the wash. Enjoy the wins and accept the losses and most of all have fun everyone.

Aloha and thank you for reading my blog
Jo Ann Dowling