Well here I am on a (Mmmmm!) shiny new Unicorn website together with a shiny new 2010 range of darts – including notably shiny new gold versions of the Sigma Pro 950 and 970. So, with reference to a couple of the comments to my last blog, Christmas 2 has come for Chris and Smiley can be happy that Sigma Pro flights now do come in a colour other than black (as, incidentally, did early Model T Fords - Henry’s famous quote came later, after he realised black paint dried quicker and so speeded up the production line. A veritable mine of useless information, me!).
Now providing a choice of colour is also not generally a “primary” concern of rocket scientists, so I personally cannot claim much credit for the glossy additions to the Sigma stable. Nevertheless, I’m sure many Sigma devotees will appreciate the new look and slightly different grip texture - for a start, any who still have that poster featuring a gilded Shirley Eaton as an ill-fated Fleming heroine!
Speaking of providing different colours (No, Mr Bond, I expect you to dye!), and comments from last time (in this case CJK’s), what about the new Unicorn Black range then? Maybe not “Mmmmm, shiny!” but certainly, in my humble opinion, “Mmmmm, stylish!”. Moreover, I’m assured - by no less an authority than a certain Mr P Taylor - that the Titanium Aluminium Nitride coating is far from being merely cosmetic and does provide a worthwhile difference in grip feel. The Physical Vapour Deposition process used to apply it is relatively expensive, but it should prove hard-wearing so it’ll be interesting to see how popular it becomes.
I’ll just sidetrack here a moment to answer another CJK question, which was when will uniLab be up and running with the 2010 range and (with luck!) their dimensions? Well, the plan is September, but I’m not going to be more specific than that as it’s not totally under my control. My programming of computers goes back to judiciously plugging wires into something that resembled a 1950s telephone switchboard with flashing lights. To get new-fangled webby stuff like uniLab working properly I’ll need some assistance from younger folk to whom Turing is, like, an Italian city. Thus updating uniLab might have to fit around their boarding and parcours schedules!
So what else is new with Unicorn for 2010? Well, here are a couple of things that aren’t! No different colour Sigma One flights yet - although the pleas for them haven’t fallen on totally deaf ears and I reckon a few more might yield eventual fruit. Also (sorry, Freddie Grice), no kite flights, which, as The Big Boss has explained elsewhere, Unicorn used to market but didn’t prove sufficiently popular.
I could now go on to extol the numerous positive aspects of the new range, but, as my job is more about giving you an unbiased scientific perspective on darts in general, I’m going to leave that to the marketing department! So, as I’ve already addressed four of the comments from my last blog, I’m going to obviate the need for a separate Q&A section by dealing with the rest (at least the rest at the time of writing) now. Hence my congratulations to Dianne on her success in finding a suitable flight/shaft combo for her modified Sigma 950s and to Robin on her greater consistency with her new 970s (afraid I also keep drifting off as I get closer to 100, Robin!). And finally, to finish on a technical note, here’s my more detailed take on an interesting and generally applicable question posed by Diesel.
Diesel says he’s (non-PC but hopefully forgivable assumption there) trying to adapt to a back-biased pinch grip (nothing wrong with that!) whilst throwing with no drawback and basically wants to know whether this method might yield good results, and if so what weight of dart might suit it.
Well, there are no hard-and-fast rules on how to throw darts well and there are notable exceptions to even the most basic guidelines – such as Jocky Wilson and the “need” for a stable base! But I think no drawback could be, erm, a drawback as it could hinder the execution of the technique that I consider most likely to offer great success, which is to extend the throw as far as possible along a line toward the target without distorting the body or losing balance.
Not drawing the forearm back from a more-or-less upright starting position means a player can only really push a dart a relatively short distance along such a line. This would imply either a very slow throw - which could result in vertical errors due small changes in throw speed causing big variations in “gravity drop” - or fast hand acceleration, which could easily lead to undesirable “flicking” during release. From what Diesel says about achieving “very good results” with his new style, I’d wager a guess that he’s tending more toward the slow throw than the flicking and is hoping to cure this with the right weight of dart.
As I’ve said before, people sometimes find they throw heavier darts more positively and hence fractionally faster and higher on the board. This is purely a psychological and physiological phenomenon, the dart’s in-flight dynamics are not really involved. Thus I would have thought a heavier dart might just have helped Diesel because it would be less susceptible to being “flicked” if he did accelerate his hand slightly faster to increase his throw speed, but it seems going up to 26gm (given we’re talking steel tip) Phase 5s from the 18-22gms he’s used to didn’t do the trick.
So I’m afraid I’m left with only two other suggestions for him. Either add some drawback along the intended line of his throw, or, in view of those “very good results” he’s experiencing, don’t change anything at all as long as they last. After all, as I’ve also said before, “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”!
And with that sage but pro-inactive piece of advice, here’s wishing success to him and all other Unicorn darters out there. See you again next time.