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What Is a Robin Hood in Darts

What Is a Robin Hood in Darts?

Darts is a game of accuracy and you’ll often see shots that are impressive and get the crowd going. A 9 dart finish, consecutive 180s, three darts in the bullseye, and 170 maximum finishes are all feats that people love to see in darts. 

There is however one shot in darts that is far less common to see, even at the professional standard and that is a Robin Hood in darts. 

Sure, that sounds like a strange name to give a shot so read on to see exactly what a Robin Hood is in darts and why it’s so impressive – yet incredibly frustrating at the same time! 

What Is a Robin Hood in Darts

A Robin Hood in darts is when one dart lands into the back of another dart that is already in the dartboard. This can occur when a dart hits the flight of a dart already in the board or in more rare occurrences, the second dart hits the first dart’s stem and gets stuck in it. 

This always looks amusing or perplexing to see because the chances of landing two darts in the exact same place are quite low, even for the best players in the world!

When a robin hood does happen though, people either love it because of the novelty or, they become incredibly irritated as it means they lose out on points. Why would they be punished for this level of accuracy though?

Well, for that it’s best to check out the darts rule book. 

What Happens if a Dart Lands on Another Dart

While a robin hood in dart looks good, the rules will impress people much less. In darts, when one dart lands on top of another – without the tip touching the dartboard – then no points are scored. Whether the dart lands on the flight or stems it doesn’t matter, if the tip is not touching a scoring segment on a board, you receive zero points for the dart.

How Rare Is a Robin Hood in Darts

For beginner dart players, a robin hood in darts will almost never happen and it’s likely to be one of the rarest shots you’ll do. The reason for this is that beginners will not throw the same darts one after the other as they do not yet have the accuracy or consistency yet. 

To throw the same throw will usually be a fluke occurrence as the motor skills will not yet be honed enough to group your darts.

For a higher-level player though, in honesty, a robin hood in darts isn’t the rarest shot and it happens more frequently than you might think. As a good example, check out the video below showing a compilation of some of the best robin hood moments in darts:

Good players are used to grouping their darts and throwing with precision/accuracy. When you have the required skill level to closely group darts (say throwing for the triple 20), there will be far more occurrences of darts coming into close contact and robin hoods occurring. 

It becomes a matter of probability when playing at a high level, there are however ways to reduce the chances of this happening. 

How To Prevent a Robin Hood in Darts

Much like with bounce-outs in darts, for any dart that doesn’t land in the board, you will lose points as a result. Yes, a robin hood in darts is a fairly rare occurrence but why take the risk of it happening and causing you to lose a game when you could just prevent it in the first place?

The best way to prevent a robin hood in darts is to use a dart flight protector. Dart flight protectors go on the end of your dart and not only prevent robin hood scenarios but also bounce outs from hitting a flight. 

A flight protector reduces the surface area on a flight meaning a dart coming into contact will clip the protector but still follow through to the dartboard, whereas with a regular flight, the tip will just pierce it and get stuck (making a robin hood).

As good as a robin hood in darts looks, most people don’t want to lose the points as a result. I use dart flight protectors for this reason and I’d definitely recommend them to others. 

If you want to purchase some, you can check out the Winmau flight protectors which are a cheap and effective solution due to the streamlined bullet shape. 

Rounding Up

If you’ve ever witnessed (or thrown) a dart land directly on top of another dart and thought it must be a miracle shot, you won’t be far wrong. This is known as a robin hood in darts and is one of the rarest and most amusing shots you can make. 

Amusing because of the unlikely scenario but less amusing for the points you lose as a result. 

Good dart players are far more likely to experience robin hood darts than beginners so if you’re starting to get good at grouping your darts, it might be best to make sure you always use new flights for matches that will be more streamlined or use a dart flight protector to minimize the chances of a robin hood. 

If you think a robin hood is an interesting concept in darts, you might also want to check out some other interesting dart terms or slang.