T20 Drill

Improve your accuracy and consistency at hitting Treble 20 — the highest-scoring single target on the dartboard at 60 points per dart. The T20 Drill is the most fundamental scoring drill in darts, designed to build the muscle memory required for competitive power scoring. Your goal is to track your Treble 20 hit percentage over a session and steadily improve it over time.

You need a standard dartboard, a set of three darts, and a means of recording your results (a scoresheet, notebook, or app). This is a solo practice drill — no opponent is required.

Before beginning, choose one of the following session formats:

• Fixed dart count: A set number of darts, typically 30, 50, or 100.
• Fixed time: A timed session of 10–15 minutes of continuous throwing.
• Target-based: Throw until you hit Treble 20 a predetermined number of times (e.g., 10 hits).

Prepare your scoresheet to record total darts thrown, number of Treble 20 hits, and — if using the scored-round format — your cumulative point total.

All darts are aimed exclusively at the Treble 20 segment. There are three common drill formats; choose one per session or rotate between them across practice days:

• Treble 20 Challenge: Throw 50 darts (or another fixed count) at Treble 20. After each dart, record whether it hit the treble segment. At the end of the session, calculate your hit rate as a percentage.
• Scored Round: Throw 10 rounds of 3 darts (30 darts total), all aimed at Treble 20. Record the actual point value of every dart that lands on the board. Your total score reflects both accuracy and grouping. The maximum possible score is 1,800 (30 × 60).
• Treble 20 Marathon: Throw continuously at Treble 20 until you hit the treble segment 10 times. Count every dart thrown, including misses. Your result is the total number of darts required to reach 10 treble hits.

In all formats, every dart counts — there are no void throws, no busts, and no penalty rules. If a dart misses the board entirely or bounces out, it is recorded as a miss (zero points, no treble hit) and still counts toward your total darts thrown.

The primary metric is your Treble 20 hit rate, expressed as a percentage:

Hit Rate = (Number of darts hitting Treble 20 ÷ Total darts thrown) × 100

For example, if you throw 50 darts and 8 land in the Treble 20 segment, your hit rate is 16%.

Additional statistics worth tracking for long-term improvement:

• Total score per session (Scored Round format) — e.g., a 30-dart session where you hit 6 treble 20s (360), 18 single 20s (360), and 6 darts in adjacent segments (varied) might yield a total around 750–800.
• Highest single round (3-dart) score — the maximum is 180 (three Treble 20s), the most celebrated score in professional darts.
• Number of 180s — how many rounds within a session produced three consecutive Treble 20 hits.
• Total darts to 10 trebles (Marathon format) — a lower number indicates greater accuracy. A player with a 20% hit rate would need roughly 50 darts; a player at 10% would need approximately 100.

As a solo practice drill, the T20 Drill has no opponent and no single victory condition. Instead, the objective is to beat your personal best in your chosen format — whether that means a higher hit-rate percentage, a higher scored-round total, or fewer darts needed in the marathon variant.

Use the following benchmarks to gauge your level and set realistic improvement targets:

• Beginner: 5–10% Treble 20 hit rate
• Intermediate: 15–25% hit rate
• Advanced: 30–40% hit rate
• Professional: 45%+ hit rate

Track your results over weeks and months. Consistent, incremental improvement is more meaningful than any single session's score.

T20/T19 Combo Drill: Alternate your target between Treble 20 and Treble 19 each round. This simulates match conditions where a player must switch to T19 after darts drift into the 1 or 5 bed adjacent to T20, and builds versatility in power scoring.

Power Scoring Drill: Each round of three darts is thrown at a different target — Treble 20, Treble 19, then Bullseye. Throw 10 rounds and count total hits on the intended target. This variant broadens scoring competence across the three most critical areas of the board.

Progressive Treble Drill: Begin at Treble 10 and work upward through each treble segment until you reach Treble 20. Note how many darts are needed to hit each treble a set number of times. This helps identify weak board positions and breaks the monotony of a single-target drill.

Warm-Up Version: Throw at Treble 20 for 5 minutes before a match or league session. This abbreviated format is not intended for detailed stat tracking but serves to calibrate your throw and establish rhythm before competitive play.

Warm up before you drill: Do not start firing at Treble 20 with a cold arm. Spend at least 10 minutes loosening up — throw at larger targets or simply focus on smooth, relaxed throws — before beginning your tracked session. Cold muscles reduce accuracy and can skew your recorded statistics.

Prioritize release and follow-through over aim: A consistent release point and a full follow-through are more important than trying to steer the dart into the treble. Forcing your aim tends to introduce tension, which degrades accuracy. Let the repetition build your muscle memory naturally.

Diagnose your misses: Pay close attention to where your darts cluster when they miss the treble — consistently high, low, left, or right. Patterns in your misses reveal specific technique issues. For example, darts grouping low may indicate you are dropping your elbow; darts drifting left (for a right-handed thrower) may suggest an inconsistent release angle.

Record every session: The value of the T20 Drill compounds over time. A single session's hit rate means little on its own, but a log of 20 or 30 sessions reveals trends, plateaus, and breakthroughs. Use a notebook or tracking app and date every entry.

Remember that small grouping gains yield big score gains: The Treble 20 segment is narrow — roughly 8 mm wide. Even a marginal improvement in your dart grouping translates to a significant increase in trebles hit and, consequently, a much higher match scoring average. This is the drill where incremental practice produces the most measurable competitive return.