Quick Answer
The double ring is 8mm wide — the same as the treble. The reason doubles feel impossible is their position, not their size. At the outer edge of the board, one millimetre too far means the dart flies off completely. Consistent doubles come down to three things: aim at the centre of the bed, not the wire; choose a double with a good miss-recovery path (D16 over D20 under pressure); and practise the shot in isolation, under pressure.
Every darts player knows the feeling. You’ve been scoring well. The finish is on. You step up, throw — and the dart clips the wire or slides into the single. You step back. You’ve been here before.
Missing doubles is the most common complaint in the game, at every level. And the frustrating part is that the advice you usually get — “just practise more” — doesn’t diagnose the actual problem. Are you aiming at the wrong point? Is your miss pattern telling you something about your throw? Are you choosing the wrong double in the first place?
This article breaks down all three layers: technique, strategy, and structured practice. By the end, you will know exactly what your misses mean and what to do about them.
Why Doubles Are the Hardest Shot on the Board
Most players think doubles are harder than trebles because the target is smaller. That is actually a myth. The double ring and the treble ring are the same width — 8mm each, per the World Darts Federation spec. The double ring even covers a slightly larger total area. It sits further from centre and wraps a bigger outer circumference on the board.
So why do doubles feel so much harder? Three reasons, none of which involve the ring’s width.
The edge problem. The treble ring sits mid-board. If you miss a treble inward, you land in the inner single bed — still scoring. Miss it outward, the outer single bed — still scoring. The treble has safety on both sides. The double ring sits at the very outer edge of the scoring area. Miss inward and you hit the single. Miss outward by even a millimetre and your dart flies past the board entirely, scoring zero. The double has a wall on one side and a void on the other.
The wire proximity problem. When you aim at a treble, your focal point is in the open middle of the board. When you aim at a double, your focal point is right next to the outer wire. The wire competes with the bed for your eye’s attention. Most players, without realising it, end up aiming at the wire rather than the centre of the scoring area — which pushes their darts into the outer edge instead of through the middle of the bed.
The pressure problem. Trebles are thrown during the scoring phase, when a miss is just inconvenient. Doubles are thrown when the leg — or the match — is on the line. There is a saying in darts: trebles for show, doubles for dough. The mental load on a match-winning double is completely different to throwing at treble 20 in the second visit. If you want to understand this layer in full, the mental game article goes deep on exactly why pressure changes how you throw.
Where to Aim on a Double — the Focal Point Most Players Get Wrong
The most common technical mistake on doubles is aiming at the wire rather than the centre of the bed. It sounds obvious when you read it. On the board, under pressure, it is very easy to do without noticing.
When you aim at the wire, you are essentially targeting the boundary of the double rather than its middle. Any dart that misses outward hits the wire (bounce-out or fly-off). Any dart that lands exactly where you aimed just barely scrapes into the double at its outermost edge. Your margin for error is near zero.
When you aim at the centre of the bed, a dart that lands slightly inward still scores the double. A dart that lands slightly outward still scores the double. You have used the full 8mm rather than 1mm.
Practical Tip
Before each doubles session, take five seconds to locate the exact centre of the bed you are targeting. Not the wires on either side — the centre stripe. Burn that point into your focus before throwing your first dart.
The second aiming adjustment most players skip is accounting for board position. When you throw at D20 at the top of the board, your dart is travelling in a near-vertical arc and enters the board at close to a right angle. The dart path lines up with the segment in a predictable way.
When you throw at D4 or D11 on the side of the board, your dart is still travelling on that same arc — but the segment is now rotated relative to your throwing line. Your dart enters at an angle to the double bed rather than straight into it. This is why many players find side doubles feel “off” even when their throw feels identical. Your stance does not need to rotate dramatically, but a small step toward the centre of the oche — shifting your angle slightly toward the target double — helps your dart enter the bed rather than clip its edge.
Technique Adjustments That Actually Carry Over to Doubles
The good news: you do not need a different throw for doubles. The bad news: three small things that are easy to ignore during scoring become match-ending mistakes on a finish.
01
Same grip, lighter pressure
Grip pressure naturally tightens under pressure. Keep the same grip shape you use for trebles but consciously loosen your fingers by about 20 percent. A death grip kills your release arc. See the grip styles guide for grip fundamentals.
02
Commit to the release point
The most common doubles miss is a fractionally early or late release. Early = dart goes high and inward. Late = dart drops into the single below. Pick a consistent release point in your arm’s arc and train muscle memory to hit it every time.
03
Follow through all the way
After release, your throwing hand should point at the target. Many players “steer” the dart mid-flight by pulling their elbow in — this kills consistency. Let the follow-through continue past the release. If your hand isn’t pointing at the double after every throw, that is your problem.
One more thing worth checking: are you steering the dart? Steering is when you try to correct a dart’s trajectory mid-throw by twisting your wrist or pulling your elbow. It happens most often when you can tell mid-arm that the throw is going wrong. The result is almost always worse than the original “bad” throw would have been. Commit and release. If the dart misses, diagnose and adjust on the next one. For more on common errors that creep into your technique, the common mistakes article covers steering directly.
Why D16 Beats D20 Under Pressure
If you have ever watched a PDC event and noticed the top players going for double 16 instead of double 20 on a finish of 32, this is why.
The argument for D20 is simple: it is at the top of the board, directly above your throwing line, and it finishes more legs at higher values (40 rather than 32). Many players feel psychologically comfortable with the top of the board.
The argument for D16 is better. It has a miss-recovery path that keeps you in familiar board territory the whole way down.
Miss D16 into the single 16? You have 16 left — that is double 8, which sits almost directly below D16 on the board. Miss D8 into the single 8? You have 8 left — double 4, almost the same area. Miss D4 into single 4? Double 2. Miss D2? Double 1. Every miss in the D16 chain leaves you in roughly the same part of the board, requiring minimal re-aiming, and every resulting double is a clean even number.
Now trace what happens if you miss D20 into single 20. You have 20 left — double 10, which is on the completely opposite side of the board. Miss D10 into single 10? Double 5 — one of the awkwardly positioned doubles with one of the lowest hit rates on the entire board. The D20 cascade requires you to physically switch your aim to the far side of the board twice and navigate a horrible double to reach safety. PDC tournament data from the 2018 World Championship captures the difference: players who chose to set up D16 over D20 in comparable finish scenarios checked out at a 73% rate, versus 60% for those who went to D20.
| Double | Miss leaves | Next double | Next miss leaves | Chain quality |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| D16 | 16 (S16) | D8 | 8 → D4 → D2 → D1 | Excellent — stays in same area |
| D20 | 20 (S20) | D10 | 10 → D5 (awkward) | Poor — jumps across board |
| D18 | 18 (S18) | D9 | 9 → D4 (after S9+S1) | Moderate |
| D8 | 8 (S8) | D4 | 4 → D2 → D1 | Good — compact cascade |
| D12 | 12 (S12) | D6 | 6 → D3 | Good — clean even chain |
This is not to say D20 is always wrong. If you arrive on 40 with full confidence and your throw is feeling clean, go for double 20 — the maths and psychology align. For full checkout route selection — which double to set up from 60, 80, 100, or more — see the checkout route data and the 501 checkout strategy guide. The doubles article you are reading now focuses on the physical act of hitting the double you have chosen.
What Your Miss Pattern Tells You About Your Throw
Before doing any drilling, do this: throw 20 darts at D16 and note where every miss lands. Do not adjust mid-session. Just throw and observe. Your miss cluster is diagnostic data.
Key Concept
Tight groupings that miss the target are actually a good sign. They mean your throw is consistent — you just need to adjust your aim point. Scattered misses that land everywhere are the harder problem: they point to an inconsistent release or stance, which needs to be fixed before aim adjustments can work.
Missing left or right consistently points to a stance or alignment issue. If right-handed and missing left, check whether your elbow is drifting inward on the follow-through, pulling the dart line left. Also check your stance: if your body is not centred to your target double, your throwing shoulder will be angled away from the optimal line, producing a predictable left or right bias.
Missing high — landing in the single above or bouncing off the top wire — almost always means releasing too early. Your arm’s arc is still swinging upward when the dart leaves your fingers. Slow your throw slightly and focus on releasing at the furthest forward point of your arm’s extension.
Missing low — hitting the single below the double or falling short — usually means a late release combined with a dart that drops through a flat arc. Check your grip pressure: if you are holding too tight, your dart cannot pivot correctly off your fingertips and will fly nose-heavy, killing the arc and dropping it short.
Scattered misses with no clear pattern point to multiple errors at once — usually grip inconsistency mixed with a variable stance. The fix is not aim correction. It is a full technique reset. Go back to building a consistent throw before working on doubles specifically.
The Five Best Doubles Practice Drills
These five drills target different parts of the doubles problem: isolation, chain accuracy, pressure, and checkout context. Use them in rotation rather than always running the same one.
Bob’s 27 — the benchmark
The most famous doubles practice game in the sport. Start with 27 points. Work from D1 through D20, then finish on the bullseye. At each double, throw three darts. Every dart that hits the double adds its value to your score (hit D6 = +12). If you miss all three darts, subtract the double’s value (miss all at D6 = −12). Game ends if your score reaches zero or below.
Your score should always be odd throughout the game — if it ever comes out even, you made a maths error. The perfect score is 1,437. A score of 400 is solid for a league-level player; 600 is very good. Beginners should allow going into negative territory and simply track how far below zero they finish — use that as a baseline to beat.
What makes Bob’s 27 valuable beyond just hitting doubles: the deduction system recreates the psychological cost of a miss. Every missed double actively hurts your score, creating the same sinking feeling as a missed match double — in a low-stakes practice context.
Doubles Lock — building sequence confidence
Start at D20 and work down to D1. You have three darts at each double. Hit any one of the three and you advance to the next. Miss all three and you stay on the same double until you hit it. Track the total number of visits it takes to complete the full board — try to beat your record. The “lock” element means you cannot move forward until you commit a successful hit, which isolates your weakest doubles rather than letting you rush past them.
The Halving Drill — training the D16 cascade
Throw three darts at D16. Whether you hit or miss, move to D8. Three darts at D8, then D4, then D2, then D1. One complete run is five doubles in the cascade chain. Score one point for each double you hit in the run. Track across five runs and aim to improve your total. This drill trains your muscle memory for the exact doubles you will need during a D16 recovery in a match — and keeps your eye moving through familiar board geography.
Pressure Simulator — threshold training
Set a two-minute countdown timer. Your task: hit D16 before the timer runs out. One dart at a time, no rushing. The goal is not speed — it is to hit the double under the specific kind of time pressure that mirrors a match situation. If you hit D16 inside the time, immediately reset the timer and try D8, then D4. If you miss the double for the full two minutes, note it: this is your pressure tolerance point. Use it as a target to beat in subsequent sessions.
For a full solo pressure training framework with match simulation built in, see the how to practise darts alone guide.
Random Checkout — applying doubles in context
Roll a die or use a phone to generate a random number between 40 and 100. That is your checkout score. You have nine darts to finish it. No charts. Calculate the route yourself, execute it, and note the result. This bridges the gap between isolated double-hitting and the full checkout context of a real leg — which requires you to solve the route, throw the setup, and then convert under pressure.
A 4-Week Doubles Practice Plan
The single most effective change most players can make is replacing aimless throwing with short, focused sessions targeting a specific skill. Fifteen minutes of deliberate doubles practice beats two hours of random throwing. This four-week structure builds from isolation through to match integration.
Week 1
Isolation
Bob’s 27 daily. 15–20 minutes per session. Log every score. Identify your three weakest doubles from the runs. Target: finish every session without going below zero.
Week 2
Chains
Bob’s 27 warm-up (10 min), then Doubles Lock and the Halving Drill (15 min combined). Focus on your three weakest doubles from Week 1. Target: complete Doubles Lock in under 30 total visits.
Week 3
Pressure
Pressure Simulator on D16, D8, D20 (10 min). Then “Frustration” — score 60 or more to earn your shot at each double (15 min). Target: hit at least 60% of earned double attempts.
Week 4 — Integration
Play full 501 legs — solo or against a practice partner — and focus on the checkout zone. Every time you reach 100 or below, track: how many darts did it take to finish? How many of your double attempts converted? Week 4 is about applying everything you built in Weeks 1–3 in a match context. Target: finish at least 50% of legs within two darts of arriving on the double for the first time.
Track a few simple numbers each week: your Bob’s 27 high score, your doubles success rate in Week 3 Frustration, and your leg finish rate in Week 4. These three metrics tell you exactly where the work is still needed.
The Gap Between Practice Doubles and Match Doubles
You can hit D16 eight times in a row in practice. Then step up in a league match, needing it to win, and feel like a completely different double. This is not a technique problem — it is a pressure response problem, and it is universal. Phil Taylor missed match-winning doubles. Peter Wright has walked off stage after triple-missing doubles on 170s. The gap between practice and match is not about skill, it is about managing what pressure does to your throw.
Two things help close the gap. First, a pre-throw routine — something brief and consistent that you do before every double attempt, whether in practice or in a match. It does not need to be elaborate: step up, take one breath, locate the centre of the double bed, throw. The exact routine matters less than executing the same routine every time. Consistency in process produces consistency in outcome.
Second, the commitment principle. Once you have selected your double, commit entirely. The most dangerous moment is mid-arm, when you can tell the throw is not feeling clean and your brain tries to steer the dart to correct it. Steering always makes it worse. Pick your double, take your breath, and throw without second-guessing. If it misses, diagnose and reset. But never change your mind mid-throw.
The mental game guide covers all four pressure symptoms in depth — rushing, tightening, steering, avoidance. It also has a full pre-throw routine you can build into your match game.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many doubles should I practise per session?
Quality matters far more than volume. Twenty focused attempts at D16 — with full attention on grip, release, and follow-through — will develop your doubles faster than 200 throwaway darts at random targets. A structured session of 15–20 minutes, with a defined drill and a tracked metric, is a better session than an hour of aimless finishing practice.
Is D16 always better than D20?
Not always. If you arrive on 40 with confidence and a consistent D20 in your throw, the psychological familiarity of the top of the board can outweigh the strategic argument for D16. The real rule is: know your miss-recovery path before you throw. D16 has the better cascade under pressure because its halving chain (D8, D4, D2, D1) stays in the same area of the board. D20’s cascade (D10, D5) jumps around the board and lands on harder doubles.
What is a good Bob’s 27 score?
Just finishing the game — ending with a positive score — is a real achievement for beginners, since the deduction system punishes bad runs heavily. A score of 400 is solid for a regular league player. Scoring 600 or above is very good. The perfect score is 1,437. A useful benchmark when you are starting out: if you are consistently going negative, remove the elimination rule, track how far below zero you finish, and try to improve that number each session until you are reliably finishing positive.
Should I change my grip for doubles?
No. Grip changes between trebles and doubles introduce inconsistency. The grip shape should stay identical. The one adjustment worth making is grip pressure — under pressure, most players unconsciously tighten their grip, which restricts the natural arc of the release. Consciously loosening by about 20 percent helps restore the smooth follow-through that practice doubles feel like.
How long does it take to get consistent at doubles?
With focused practice — three to four sessions per week, 15–20 minutes each — most players see better Bob’s 27 scores within two weeks. Match checkout rates tend to improve within four to six weeks. The biggest accelerator is diagnosis. Find your miss pattern early and target it directly. Players who do this improve much faster than those who just “throw more at doubles.”
Why do pros make doubles look easy?
They have thrown at those specific doubles tens of thousands of times under match conditions. Their muscle memory for D16 and D8 is essentially automatic — the conscious decision-making that disrupts amateur throws has been replaced by ingrained motor patterns. They also fail more than you see: professional checkout percentages in televised matches typically range from 35% to 50%. Elite players miss doubles regularly. The difference is that they have a consistent process that keeps their miss rate lower than yours, and they do not catastrophise when a double is missed.
