You just bought a board. You’ve got the darts. You’ve even found a stud in the wall so the whole thing doesn't come crashing down after three rounds. But then you stand back, look at the floor, and realize you have no idea where to actually stand.
Getting the dart board throwing distance right is the difference between actually getting better at the game and just tossing pointed sticks at a wall in a basement. If you’re off by even two inches, your muscle memory is basically trash. You'll go to a pub, play on a regulated setup, and wonder why every single shot is hitting the flight of the dart below it or dropping into the stray-dart territory of the wall.
It happens to everyone. Honestly, the math seems simple until you're trying to measure a diagonal line while holding a tape measure against a sagging piece of string.
The Standard Setup for Steel Tip Darts
If you are playing with traditional "bristle" boards—the ones made of sisal fiber—you are playing by the World Dart Federation (WDF) rules. Most people know the height. The bullseye needs to be exactly 5 feet 8 inches (173 cm) from the floor. That’s the easy part.
The dart board throwing distance is where it gets tricky for beginners.
For a standard steel tip setup, the horizontal distance from the face of the board to the front of the toe line (the oche) is 7 feet 9.25 inches (237 cm). Yes, that extra quarter inch matters. If you’re playing in a serious league, they’ll check that. You can’t just eyeball it.
I’ve seen guys try to measure from the wall. Don't do that. Most dartboards are about an inch and a half thick. If you measure from the wall to your toes, you’re actually standing too close because the board is "leaning" out toward you. You have to measure from the face of the board. A plumb line—basically just a string with a weight on the end—dropped from the front of the board to the floor is the only way to get your starting point right.
Soft Tip Distances are Different (And People Always Forget This)
Here is where the arguments start. If you’re playing on an electronic, plastic-faced board—the kind that bloops and bleeps and keeps score for you—the distance changes.
For soft tip darts, the dart board throwing distance is 8 feet.
Why? It’s kind of a legacy thing from when the machines were first standardized by the Medalist Corporation and the NDA (National Dart Association). Because soft tip darts are lighter and the boards are physically larger (the "double" and "triple" segments are wider on many electronic boards), the extra distance balances the difficulty. If you practice at 7 feet 9 inches at home but play your soft-tip league at 8 feet, you’re going to be hitting low all night. It’s frustrating.
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The Diagonal Check: The Only Way to Be Sure
You want to be a perfectionist? Use the diagonal.
Professional installers don't just measure the floor. They measure from the center of the bullseye directly to the back of the toe line. This accounts for any unevenness in your floor or slight tilts in the wall.
For a steel tip board, that diagonal distance is 9 feet 7.5 inches ($293.1 cm$).
Think of it like a right-angled triangle. You have the height of the bull ($a$) and the floor distance ($b$). The diagonal ($c$) is the hypotenuse. If that diagonal isn't spot on, your setup is crooked. Simple as that.
The Oche: It's More Than Just a Line
In the pros, they don't just use a piece of masking tape. They use an "oche" (pronounced like hockey without the 'h').
It’s usually a raised bar. Why? Because you shouldn't have to look down. A pro player wants to feel their foot press against a solid edge. This ensures that every single throw starts from the exact same millimetre of space. If you're building a "man cave" or a dedicated practice space, don't just paint a line. Bolt a small piece of wood to the floor. Or, if you don't want to trip over it, buy one of those rubber darts mats that has the distances printed right on it.
Just make sure the mat doesn't slide. A sliding mat is a recipe for a broken ankle or, at the very least, a very bad night of Cricket.
Why Does This Distance Even Exist?
Back in the day, the distance wasn't always standardized. Legend has it that the 7' 9.25" distance came from "Hockey and Sons," a brewery that supplied crates to pubs. Three crates lined up supposedly equaled the throwing distance. Is that 100% true? It’s debated. But it's a better story than just saying a committee picked a random number.
What matters now is consistency. The human brain is a calibration machine. When you throw a 22-gram tungsten dart, your brain calculates the arc, the force, and the release point based on that specific 7' 9.25" gap.
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If you change that gap, you break the calibration.
Common Mistakes When Setting Up
Most people mess up the floor surface. If you measure your dart board throwing distance on a bare concrete floor and then later toss down a thick rug, you’ve just changed the height of the bullseye relative to your feet.
Always measure after the flooring is down.
Another one? The "leaners." I see players leaning so far over the line that their nose is practically touching the board. That’s legal, by the way. As long as your feet stay behind the front edge of the oche, you can lean forward as much as your core strength allows. This is why tall players with long arms have a slight mechanical advantage; they’re effectively reducing the throwing distance by another 10 to 12 inches.
Adjusting for Space Constraints
Look, not everyone has a room that can accommodate a 10-foot "runway." You need the distance to the board, plus space for your body, plus space for the backswing. Total, you're looking at needing about 12 to 15 feet of clear depth to feel comfortable.
If you’re tight on space, don't try to "shorten" the distance to make it fit. You’re better off putting the board on a different wall or even using a portable dartboard stand that you can move into a hallway when you’re ready to play.
Practicing at the wrong distance is worse than not practicing at all. It builds bad habits that are incredibly hard to unlearn.
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Actionable Steps for a Perfect Setup
Stop guessing. If you want to play like the guys on TV—or at least stop losing money to your friends—do this right now:
- Drop a Plumb Line: Hang a weighted string from the very front edge of the dartboard. Mark that spot on the floor with a tiny dot of pencil. This is your "Zero Point."
- Measure the Floor: From that Zero Point, run your tape measure out to 7 feet 9.25 inches.
- The Triangle Test: Have a friend hold the end of the tape measure exactly in the center of the bullseye. Pull it tight to your floor mark. It should read exactly 9 feet 7.5 inches.
- Secure the Line: Use a "raised" edge if possible. A strip of wood or a specialized dart mat is better than tape.
- Clear the Area: Ensure there’s at least 2 feet of clear space on either side of the board. Darts bounce. They fly off at weird angles. You don't want a Robin Hood-style deflection shattering a TV or a window.
Once the measurements are locked in, forget about them. The goal is to make the distance feel like home. When you step up to the line, you shouldn't be thinking about the floor. You should be thinking about the "T20" and nothing else. If you've set the dart board throwing distance correctly, your arm will eventually do the rest of the work on autopilot.
Go grab a tape measure. Fix your setup. Hit some 180s.