Why do athletes always seem to get better, generation by generation? It’s not always for the reasons you might think.
In reporting this article, Ben Blatt talked to some of the best darts players in the world and manually plotted hundreds of throws. Soft Tip Dart Board
Michael Smith, the world’s No. 1-ranked darts player, has won the equivalent of $1.5 million since the start of 2022. In January, he won the World Darts Championship in London, where he achieved the rare feat of nine perfect throws in a row. He says he hasn’t reached the peak of his abilities and is “getting better every year.”
But of course, he isn’t always perfect, or even close to it. When Smith aims for the triple 20 — the highest-value subsection of the board, but smaller than half a square inch — he hits it less than half the time.
Professional darts is far from the most popular sport in the world, but it is a useful study of progress toward perfection. Its top professional players, on average, post higher scores today than their counterparts did a generation ago. These gains can be seen in other sports, too: Whether it’s hitting the bull’s-eye in archery, nailing a kick between the uprights in football or sinking a free throw in basketball, the world’s top players have improved their rates of precision meaningfully in the last four decades.
Keith Deller won his 1983 championship title in darts by hitting the triple-20 section 37 percent of the time that he aimed at it. Smith hit the same section 46 percent of the time in his 2023 championship final. The best throwers have gotten a little closer to perfection, even if perfection is very far away.
In a world championship final this year, Michael Smith hit the triple-20 region 46 percent of the time he aimed at it.
The data shown is from the 2023 P.D.C. World Championship. Only darts targeted at the triple-20 region are shown.
Data manually plotted from a television broadcast.
By The New York Times
What explains these improvements in darts and other sports? Why do athletes always seem to get better, generation by generation? And what happens if they get too good?
167 is considered the maximum average per round in standard play.
The data shown is the average of players’ three-dart averages in the final three rounds in the B.D.O. World Championship (1978-1993) or P.D.C. World Darts Championship (1994-2023).
By The New York Times
The 30-meter round was cut from the Olympics after 1992.
1957-1969 scores are from World Championships; 1972-2021 scores are from Olympic Games. The data shown is the average of the top 10 men’s scorers in qualification rounds of outdoor recurve archery competitions.
WorldArchery.sport, Sports Reference via the Internet Archive
By The New York Times
The data shown is the average of the top 10 players’ scores in the qualifying round of the P.B.A. Tournament of Champions. The maximum score is 300. Data not available for all years.
PBA.com via the Internet Archive
By The New York Times
of W.N.B.A.
First year of W.N.B.A.
The data shown is the average percentage of the top 10 free-throw shooters each season who made over 50 free throws (W.N.B.A.) or over 125 free throws (N.B.A.). N.B.A. seasons are shown in the year they began.
By The New York Times
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