Dart Barrel Weight

Dart weight is a never ending story. A lot of people want to know which weight they should throw, which weight is the most common one, what's the average weight and so on. There is no right answer to these questions. For the "average weight" question there probably is an answer, but it doesn't make much sense.

An example of two world champions:
Dennis Priestley throws 14 gram darts.
Raymond van Barneveld throws 26 gram darts.

If you ask the average question now the answer will be 20 grams, but do this make sense when the weights vary that much?

For a beginner steel dart player I recommend a barrel weight between 22 and 25 grams, which is slightly on the heavy side. The reason is that you need to develop a basic throwing skill in order to reach a certain initial level of play with darts on the heavy side. You would probably reach such a level a bit faster with lighter darts, but lighter darts don't force you to develop a somehow decent technique which will make later improvement a lot harder. Heavier darts also forgive slight technical inconsistencies (in other words: errors) better than lighter darts -- I like to tell heavier darts more "good-natured" because of this. The lighter the dart the more sensible it reacts to what you are doing -- slight intentional adjustments as well as slight technical errors or deficits.

Once you have got some darting experience and a decent technique you may find the heavier dart not that convincing any longer because of its good-natured behavior. If you then think you could use a dart that reacts more sensible you should consider going lighter.

Soft tip players won't have that much of a choice for their dart weight. The limit set by the machine operators and leagues usually is below 20 grams. If you are a beginner in soft tip the only advice I can give you concerning the weight of your darts is start at the maximum allowed weight.