Darts Progress Testing: The 5 Best Tests to Track Your Improvement

Why "Feeling Better" Is Not a Metric

Every darts player has experienced this. You finish a session convinced you played well. You check your stats and see a 42 average with three missed doubles. Your brain remembered the one 140 and ignored the five 26s. This is confirmation bias. It makes progress tracking impossible without data.

Objective darts progress testing removes the bias. You define a test. You run it under the same conditions every time. You record the numbers. You compare them later. The test does not care how you feel today. It only cares about the result. This is how real improvement happens. You stop chasing highlights. You start building consistency.

The same principle applies to bad sessions. A poor night does not mean you are getting worse. It means you had a poor night. Without a test, you overreact. You change your grip, your stance, or your darts. With a test, you see the trend. One bad data point does not erase a month of progress. You trust the pattern, not the outlier.

The Sigma Test: Benchmarking Your Scoring

The Sigma Test is one of the most popular darts progress testing methods. Created by GoDartsPro, it measures your accuracy against a specific target. You pick a treble, usually the twenty. You throw two hundred darts at it. You record how many hit the treble, how many hit the single, and how many miss entirely.

The math is straightforward. Take the number of treble hits, multiply by three. Add the number of single hits. Divide by the total darts. This gives you a points-per-dart value for that target. A score of 2.0 means you are averaging a double on every throw. A score of 2.5 means you are hitting a treble every other dart. Professional players typically score above 2.6 on the treble twenty.

Run the Sigma Test once a month. Use the same target each time. Record your score in a spreadsheet or in Dartsva. After three months, you will see a clear trend. If your score climbs, your consistency is improving. If it stays flat, your practice routine needs adjustment. Two hundred darts is a significant sample size. It filters out lucky runs and bad days.

A common variation is the 100-dart Sigma Test for time-constrained sessions. The smaller sample is less reliable but still useful as a weekly check-in. The key is consistency of measurement. The same target, the same number of darts, the same recording method. This isolates your throwing accuracy from every other variable.

Bob's 27: The Doubles Benchmark

Scoring consistency matters. Doubles win matches. Bob's 27 is the best single test for doubles progress. You start with 27 points. You aim at double twenty. If you hit, you add the value of the double to your score. If you miss, you subtract the value. You move to the next double when you decide. The game ends when you have thrown at every double from twenty down to one.

Your final score is the metric. A positive score means you hit more doubles than you missed. A score above 40 is strong. A score above 70 is exceptional. The beauty of Bob's 27 for darts progress testing is that it measures accuracy under simulated pressure. Each miss hurts your score. This forces you to concentrate.

Track your Bob's 27 score every two weeks. Compare it to your checkout percentage in match play. The two numbers should move together. If your Bob's 27 score improves but your match checkout percentage stays flat, the issue is mental, not mechanical. You need pressure practice, not more doubles drills.

Catch 40: Finishing Under Pressure

Catch 40 tests your ability to close out a leg under pressure. Start at 61 points. You have six darts (two visits) to finish. If you succeed, move to 62. If you fail, stay on the same number. The test continues until you have attempted every number from 61 to 100. Your score is the total number of successful finishes.

This test matters because real darts progress is not just about scoring. It is about finishing when the leg is on the line. Many players average 50+ in practice but crumble on match doubles. Catch 40 exposes this gap. If you breeze through scoring drills but struggle to check out 72 in two visits, you know exactly where to focus your training.

Professional players typically clear 80% of the numbers in Catch 40. Amateur players often clear 40-60%. Use this test once a month alongside the Sigma Test. Together, they measure both sides of your game. Scoring and finishing. The two pillars of darts performance.

The Three Phases Test: A Complete Game Assessment

The Three Phases Test, originally shared by the Reddit darts community, is a comprehensive assessment that evaluates scoring, finishing, and accuracy in a single session. It breaks down into three sections that mirror the skills needed in a real match.

Phase One: Scoring

Throw 20 turns (60 darts) to maximize your scoring. Add all points and divide by 20. The result is your scoring phase score. This gives you a points-per-turn average in a pure scoring context. Aim for 60+. A score above 80 is elite level.

Phase Two: Doubles

Rotate through five finishes - 40, 36, 32, 24, 16 - four times for 20 total turns. You score 9 points for a first-dart finish, 6 points for second-dart, 3 points for third-dart, and 0 if you fail. This measures your efficiency under pressure. Each turn simulates a real checkout situation where singles on the setup dart create different double targets.

Phase Three: Cricket Numbers

Throw three darts at each cricket number in order - 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, bull. Repeat three times for 21 turns. Each mark on the correct number gives you one point. Three triples is 9 points. Three singles is 3 points. Add your total. This measures segment-specific accuracy that pure 501 practice misses.

Add all three phases together for your total score. A score of 180 is good. 210 is very good. 240 is elite. This test takes about 30 minutes and delivers a single, comparable number you can track over months. It is one of the best darts progress testing tools available because it tests everything at once.

Key Metrics That Actually Show Progress

Standard darts average is useful but limited. Two players can have the same average with completely different skill profiles. Here are the metrics that reveal real darts progress testing insights.

First-9 Average

Your average after the first nine darts (three visits) measures scoring consistency before finishing pressure begins. A high first-9 average indicates you are setting up legs well. Track this separately from your overall game average. If your overall average is stuck but your first-9 is climbing, your finishing is the bottleneck.

Trebleless Visits

A trebleless visit is a turn at the board where you score zero trebles. Tracking this percentage reveals how often you have a truly bad turn. Professional players have trebleless visit rates below 20%. Amateur players often exceed 40%. Reducing this number improves your average more than hitting more 140s.

Double Percentage

Checkout percentage is the single most important metric for winning matches. Track how many of your double attempts you hit. A checkout percentage above 40% puts you in competitive territory. Above 50% is professional level. This metric should be the primary indicator of darts progress testing for anyone focused on match play rather than practice scoring.

Three-Dart Average Trends

Your three-dart average matters, but only as a trend. A single session can be 10 points above or below your true level. Track a rolling average over your last 10 sessions. This smooths out variance and shows real improvement. If your 10-session rolling average climbs by 2 points over a month, you are making genuine darts progress.

Digital Tools for Darts Progress Testing

Manual tracking with pen and paper works but adds friction. You are less likely to test consistently if it takes 10 minutes to log your results. Digital tools automate the process and provide better analysis.

Dartsva is built around structured testing and training. The Gauntlet assessment runs you through a standardized sequence of targets, doubles, and checkouts. It scores your accuracy and consistency across every segment. You get a skill rating and a clear list of weak spots. No manual calculations needed.

My Dart Training for Android offers in-depth analysis of your weak areas and tracks averages over time. DartCounter provides real-time average calculators and match history. The Darts Checkout Scorer on iOS tracks three-dart averages, first-9 averages, and checkout percentages. Each tool has strengths, but the best approach is to pick one and use it consistently. The tool matters less than the habit of testing.

For players who prefer automated scoring hardware, Scolia and other automatic dart scoring systems track every throw without manual entry. These systems provide detailed statistics on your accuracy, grouping, and checkout patterns. The downside is cost. The upside is perfectly accurate data with zero effort.

How Dartsva Turns Tests Into Training

Testing without action is just data collection. The real value of darts progress testing comes from adjusting your training based on the results. Dartsva connects the two. You take the Gauntlet assessment. The system identifies your weakest segments and doubles. It suggests drills targeted at those specific areas.

This removes the most common mistake in darts practice. Players spend 80% of their time on strengths and 20% on weaknesses. Dartsva inverts this. The app directs your practice time toward the numbers that are holding back your average. If your Sigma Test score on T19 is significantly lower than T20, the system flags it and recommends focused drills for that segment.

The Dartsva performance dashboard tracks the same metrics discussed in this article. First-9 average. Checkout percentage. Trebleless visits. Three-dart average trends. You see your progress on every metric over time. This turns sporadic testing into a continuous feedback loop. You test. You train. You improve. You test again.

How Often Should You Test Your Progress?

Testing too often creates noise. Testing too rarely hides progress. The sweet spot depends on the test.

Run the full Sigma Test once per month. Two hundred darts at the same target. Any more frequently and short-term variance masks the trend. Run Bob's 27 every two weeks. It takes less time and responds faster to practice changes. Run Catch 40 every two weeks alongside Bob's 27. Use the Three Phases Test once per quarter for a comprehensive check-in.

Track your three-dart average and checkout percentage in every session. These are passive metrics that do not require dedicated test time. They accumulate naturally as you play. A structured training plan combined with regular testing produces faster progress than either approach alone. The weekly darts workout integrates testing into your routine so you never skip it.

Common Mistakes in Darts Progress Testing

Changing the test conditions each time. If your first Sigma Test was on a Wednesday evening after a warm-up, your next test must match those conditions. Testing in the morning versus evening, fresh versus tired, or with different equipment invalidates the comparison. Standardize everything except your performance.

Overreacting to a single bad test. A bad day does not erase your progress. One test score 15% below your average is normal variance. Make decisions based on trends, not single data points. A three-test rolling average filters out the noise and shows the real signal.

Testing too many metrics at once. Pick three to five metrics and track them consistently. Adding more creates analysis paralysis. Start with three-dart average, checkout percentage, and one accuracy metric like the Sigma Test score. Once those are trending in the right direction, add first-9 average or trebleless visits.

Frequently Asked Questions

Darts progress testing is the difference between guessing and knowing. You may feel like you are improving. You may feel stuck. Neither feeling is reliable. A structured test gives you the truth. Run the Sigma Test once a month. Play Bob's 27 every two weeks. Track your checkout percentage in every session. Watch the trends, not the outliers.

Your next plateau will come. Every player hits them. The difference between players who break through and players who stay stuck is data. When you know which metric is flat, you know which drill to run. When you know which segment you miss most, you know where to aim. Testing turns frustration into a plan. Start your darts progress testing routine today and let the numbers guide you.