How to Stop Dropping Your Elbow in Darts: Causes, Checks and Fixes

A dropping elbow changes the dart's release angle mid-throw, which is why darts land lower than intended and group inconsistently even when the aim was right. The elbow works best as a fixed hinge: raised toward the target, level through the draw, and still through release. Mirror checks catch an obvious drop, filming catches the rest, and a shortened backswing plus a forearm-only drill are the fixes players report actually working.

Why Does the Elbow Drop During a Dart Throw?

The elbow drops during a dart throw when the arm stops acting as a fixed hinge and starts sharing the motion with the shoulder, wrist, or upper body, most often from an unstable stance, a rushed release, or a backswing pulled back further than the arm can control on the way forward. One darts coaching resource describes the elbow as "the 3rd link between your eye and the dart," and compares an uncontrolled tilt in that hinge to "a door shutting askew on the door frame," meaning the dart follows wherever the hinge points rather than where you aimed it. Left unchecked, the same source describes dropping the elbow as "a prime cause of wayward darts and snatching," producing "sporadic patterns in the throw, with the odd one or two landing on target instead of all three time and time again."

Stance instability is one commonly reported cause. On a darts forum thread dedicated to the problem, one player described their own pattern as "dropping elbow or not holding follow through when my stance was not stable and I was leaning forward too much," linking the elbow fault directly to an unsteady base rather than the arm itself. A related fault, sometimes described separately, is the elbow flaring outward as it drops, which one player on a different darts forum described as "my elbow flares out and the dart tip is pointed down." A proper warm-up routine is also worth checking before the darts that count.

How Can You Tell If a Dropping Elbow Is the Problem?

The clearest sign of a dropping elbow is darts landing consistently low on the board as a group, not scattered randomly across the board and not drifting sideways. A leftward or rightward drift points to a different fault, most often shoulder alignment or a torqued release, covered separately in our darts going left guide. A dropping elbow specifically flattens the dart's launch angle, so the miss shows up as low, not sideways.

Mirror practice is the most commonly recommended first check, but it has a known limitation reported by players themselves. On the same forum thread, one player noted the gap directly: "When I am doing it against a mirror, then everything works fine. But when I am throwing, sometimes feels like I would not have enough power," describing how a slow, deliberate mirror rep can look correct while the same motion breaks down once real throwing tension enters the picture. Filming your actual throw, rather than a mirror rehearsal, is the fix another player on the same thread suggested: "try doing a video recording of yourself while you're shooting darts. It'll clearly show whatever success."

Symptom	Likely cause	What to check
All three darts land low as a group	Elbow dropping through the release	Film your throw from the side; watch elbow height from draw to follow-through
Elbow flares outward, dart tip points down	Related but distinct fault, sometimes called "chicken winging"	Check shoulder alignment; keep the arm in an "L" shape so the dart sits parallel to the floor
Elbow looks fine in a mirror but drops in real play	Mirror reps do not reproduce match tension	Switch from mirror checks to filming real, scoring throws

What Actually Fixes a Dropping Elbow?

Fixing a dropping elbow comes down to reducing how much the arm has to control at once: shorten the motion, isolate the forearm, and give yourself a fixed visual checkpoint before you throw. The fixes below are the ones players and coaching sources describe as working in practice, not a single universal drill.

1. Treat the elbow as a fixed hinge, not a moving part

The elbow's job in a dart throw is to stay still while the forearm does the work, acting as a pivot point rather than a joint that travels. One coaching resource frames the fix as keeping "your elbow joints roughly horizontal" and doing "your best not to drop your elbow" through the whole motion, treating any elbow movement during the throw itself as the fault to eliminate rather than the wrist or the grip.

2. Shorten the backswing

A backswing that pulls the arm back further than you can control on the way forward is a common trigger for elbow drop, and shortening it is a recommended fix because a smaller motion is easier to keep controlled. One player on a darts forum reported the same result from personal experience: "I shortened my backstroke and concentrated on the elbow pivot point during practice....helped me alot." A shorter draw gives the elbow less distance to travel, which leaves less room for it to sag before the throw even begins.

3. Isolate the forearm and cut out the wrist and shoulder

Removing extra joints from the throw is a direct way to stop the elbow from being pulled out of position by movement elsewhere in the arm. The same player who shortened their backswing described isolating the motion further: "I tried just making it as simple as possible...concentrated on only moving my forearm. No wrist action at all." Practicing with the forearm as the only moving part gives the elbow one job, staying still, instead of compensating for wrist or shoulder movement.

4. Use the inner elbow crease as a setup checkpoint

A fixed visual reference before the throw begins removes guesswork about whether the elbow is already out of position. One coaching resource recommends "pointing your inner elbow joint dimple (crease) so the whole of your arm is also pointing in line of the target," using the crease as a checkpoint during the aim, before the draw and release begin. The same source notes that this becomes automatic with repetition: "Eventually you wont even think about it as you'll it will just become a feeling/reflex."

5. Film the throw instead of trusting a mirror alone

Because a mirror rep does not reproduce the tension of a real scoring throw, filming your actual game is a more reliable way to catch a drop that only shows up under pressure. Record from the side at elbow height, then watch the elbow's position from the take-back through the follow-through across a full three-dart visit, not just the first dart of a leg.

What Does the Research Say About Elbow Stability and Accuracy?

A 2024 kinematic study published in the Journal of Human Sport and Exercise used motion capture to compare eight advanced and eight intermediate dart players throwing at different vertical target heights. The study found a statistically significant interaction (p = .047) in elbow supination velocity between the two skill groups depending on target height, an effect the researchers link to how well a player's elbow motion holds up when the target moves. The study's authors also connect throwing accuracy to greater elbow pronation and faster wrist palmar flexion during the release itself, tying accurate throws to how the elbow and wrist behave in the final fraction of a second before the dart leaves the hand.

The practical read for a recreational player is not the exact numbers, it is the direction of the finding: a stable, repeatable elbow motion under changing conditions separated the two skill groups in this study, which lines up with what coaches and players describe anecdotally. This is one study with a small sample size, eight players per group, so treat it as supporting evidence for elbow stability mattering, not as a training protocol on its own.

Can a Different Dart Fix a Dropping Elbow?

No. Every fix described by the coaching sources and player reports researched for this article targets stance, backswing length, or arm isolation, not dart weight, barrel shape, or grip texture. Elbow drop is a motion fault, and no combination of barrel weight or grip material changes how the arm moves through the throw. One player on a darts forum did report a grip change helping their elbow position, changing where the fingers sit on the barrel rather than buying different darts: "I put dart between middle finger and ring finger. My wrist is now straight and elbow is awesome position." That is a single anecdote about hand placement on the same dart, not a case for new equipment, and it should be treated as one thing to try rather than a guaranteed fix.

Expert Tips for Fixing a Dropping Elbow

Change one variable at a time. Shortening the backswing, isolating the forearm, and adding a visual checkpoint all address the same fault from different angles, but testing them together makes it impossible to know which change actually fixed your throw. Lock in the shortened backswing first, since it reduces how far the elbow has to travel before it can drop, then layer in the forearm-only isolation once the shorter motion feels repeatable.

Practice the fix without scoring pressure before testing it in a real leg. Throwing deliberately slow reps at a single target, watching only the elbow, trains the motion before match tension has a chance to pull the elbow back into its old habit. Re-check with video periodically rather than assuming a fixed elbow in practice carries over automatically, since player reports describe the same fault reappearing specifically once real throwing pressure returns. Our practice routines guide covers how to structure that kind of deliberate, low-pressure repetition into a session.