Darts, anyone?

At some point, EY's ladies futsal coach decided it would be a good idea to drag this squash-ball-whacking, soccer-ball-kicking girl to a darts training session to see if she was any good. From very limited experience (say, a couple of attempts over maybe 10 years), she knew she was going to suck big time. Little did she know, that (for a girl), being able to actually get points on your first attempt is already impressive. And the rest, they say, is history.

Well, not quite. After playing in the training rooms at the office twice, I finally went along to training in a pub, and found the very different atmosphere took a little adjusting-to. Before the training, the coach had already told me that I was on the team, and this was before the ladies captain (the only other female on the team) had even seen me play/throw/whatever the term is.

At my very first session, I was told by one of the guys that he thought I was pretty decent considering it was my first time, because I managed to get quite a few points. Needless to say, I was really surprised, because up until that point, I'd thought I was doing pretty shocking. Today, the owner of the pub said the same thing, that I was pretty good for a beginner. Apparently, most girls are lucky if their darts even reach the wall in front of them, nevermind hitting the dartboard and accumulating points. I still think I'm playing at a very embarrassing level, each game there is an outlier of above 80 points, and the rest of the rounds could be anything from about 50 down to a single digit. So much for consistency! Sure, it may take a very different set of muscles from what I'm used to using, but it's just a little annoying because I'm not getting it as quickly as I could probably pick up some other sport (which has been a while so it's possible I've just forgotten how it feels to try something out for the very very first time). And who can concentrate when the futsal coach is making you laugh because he's frustrated that you're not getting it, and calling out stakes of mi or nasi goreng and orange juice and goodness knows what else if you make the bullseye?

Last night, I attended squash training for the first time in a fortnight, and felt really sorry for the girl the guys asked me to play with first. I was in 'the zone' without meaning to be, and didn't give her a point in the first 2 sets. whoops... It was downhill from there, but I had my good moments. And I love the new string and tension on my racquet. Much better than the ones that were on the racquet when I bought it.