People throw around "what's your PPD" or "is your MPR over 3" all the time, but few can actually explain how those numbers are calculated or what to practice to move them. This post covers PPD and MPR from the formulas to how they convert into your Phoenix machine RATING, plus real, sourced practice habits from pro players — steel-tip names like Michael van Gerwen and Luke Littler, and soft-tip/DARTSLIVE players from Japan. Anything we couldn't verify, we say so instead of guessing.
How PPD and MPR are actually calculated
PPD (Points Per Dart): total points scored divided by darts thrown. The official definition comes from the American NDA (National Dart Association) and its machine partner Arachnid's handicapping documents — example: winning a 301 game on your 12th dart gives PPD = 301 ÷ 12 = 25.08. MPR (Marks Per Round) is the Cricket equivalent: (total marks ÷ darts thrown) × 3 — example: 59 marks over 46 darts gives MPR = 59 ÷ 46 × 3 = 3.85.
One myth worth killing: a lot of articles claim PPD/MPR are "official ADO definitions." Checking the American Darts Organization's own documents, the terms don't appear at all — PPD/MPR actually come from the NDA, founded in 1986, working with the Arachnid electronic dartboard system to handicap players of different skill levels fairly, replacing an even more complex weighted rating the NDA used before that.
People also ask whether PPD × 3 equals the steel-tip "3-dart average." Mathematically, yes — same formula (total points ÷ darts thrown, times 3 as needed). But the two systems evolved independently: American PPD/MPR serves soft-tip bar league handicapping, while the 3-dart average serves televised steel-tip pro darts. Neither side has an official rulebook reconciling exactly how busts or early match finishes get counted, so "conceptually the same, formula-equivalent" is the honest way to put it.
Roughly what range is amateur vs. pro
Official numbers are scarce: the NDA's 2021 official tournament handbook sets the Master threshold at 35 PPD and 3.8 MPR (revised 2019); an earlier 2012 document from IAMOA, an NDA-affiliated body, puts it at 29 PPD and 3.4 MPR — the gap between the two may reflect thresholds rising over the years, though neither document explains why. The "beginner 30-40, amateur 40-60, pro 80+" ranges floating around online have no traceable official source — treat them as rough folklore, not a standard anyone actually set.
Real tournament data is more useful: Phil Taylor's tournament average at the 2011 World Matchplay (which he won) was 105.49; Michael van Gerwen hit a televised-history-high 123.40 against Michael Smith in 2016; Gary Anderson set a career-best 123.83 in 2024. Converted to PPD, that's roughly 31.7–35, with record-breaking outings pushing past 41.
How AI DARTS's Phoenix machines convert PPD/MPR into RATING
Phoenix publishes a range table, not a full formula: Rating 1 (01 GAME PPD 0–10.64), Rating 10 (PPD 20.75–22.04, MPR 2.21–2.35), Rating 30 (PPD 48–60, MPR 6–9). That maps to 12 classes: N → C → CC → CCC → B → BB → BBB → A → AA → AAA → Master → Grand Master — full breakdown in the darts glossary. DARTSLIVE's rating system locks in stats at a different point (01 games lock in at 80% of the game's required score, Cricket locks in once 6 numbers are opened), so it's not directly comparable to Phoenix. If you play on both machine types, a third-party app called Recodarts converts between DARTSLIVE and Phoenix formats — a rare feature.
How to actually track your progress
Manual tracking is simple: write down total points and darts thrown after each session, calculate PPD, and chart it over time. For automatic tracking, a few real tools exist: DartConnect (the official PDC scoring system, with a personal My DartConnect dashboard for match history and trends), n01 (a Japanese-built manual scoring aid app that lets you play against varying AI difficulty and export CSVs), My Dart Training (supports multiple profiles to compare performance across different dart sets), and DartCounter (used by a claimed 3M+ people, tracks first-9 average and doubles hit rate). The Recodarts app mentioned above is the only one that converts between DARTSLIVE and Phoenix formats.
Practice drills that actually work
Around the Clock: throw 1 through 20 in order, hit any segment of a number to move on, and track how many darts it takes to finish the full run — that number should drop over time. Bob's 27 (invented by former world champion Bob Anderson): start at 27 points, aim D1 through D20 then bull in order (21 rounds), add the double's value on a hit or subtract it on a miss; perfect score is 1437, and 400+ is generally considered good, 600+ very good. The 170 checkout (T20, T20, bull): coaches suggest drilling "hitting T20 repeatedly" and "hitting bull" separately before combining them — and remembering that real match checkouts cluster around 60–100, not 170, so don't over-index on the flashy number. Doubles Rotation: throw 3 darts each at D20, D16, D10, D8, D12 (15 darts total); 8+ hits is a passing benchmark. The 121 checkout game: start at 121, finish within 3 darts to bump the target up by 1, miss and reset to 121 — track your personal best. It's also Michael van Gerwen's own favorite practice game.
What steel-tip pros actually say: practice looks nothing like you'd think
Michael van Gerwen admitted on stream that at his peak, "Zero. I never used to practise," because he played enough tournaments that the matches were the practice; he only goes back to "the practice board" when form dips, and does about 2–2.5 hours before a tournament. Luke Littler is a night owl — up until 2 or 3am, awake at 1 or 2pm — and says his practice is "maybe 20 minutes or half an hour just to keep my arm loose," adding "I don't really need to do silly hours again." Gary Anderson is refreshingly honest: "I'm one of the world's worst for practice," and finds it especially hard alone. Peter Wright says his range runs "from an hour a day up to 12 hours a day," but also admits "I practice too much and over analyse stuff" — overdoing it messes with his head.
Gerwyn Price ramped up noticeably during the pandemic layoff and specifically named doubles as his focus. Phil Taylor's only verifiable quote is "I do a lot of practicing. I'll still go and have a little practice on Christmas day" — the widely-repeated "11 hours a day" or "8 hours split into 20-minute blocks" claims trace back to secondhand retellings, not a first-hand interview we could confirm, so we're not treating them as fact here.
How Japanese soft-tip players train
Suzuki Mikuru, Asia's first Lakeside BDO world champion, practices about 2 hours a day in 2-3 sessions whenever she has free time during the day, mostly Count-Up — "I throw every day to keep my hands remembering the feel." Asada Seigo practiced 10 hours a day before turning pro, but says he now avoids "practicing for the sake of practicing," with his hours becoming irregular, maintained mostly through matches and coaching gigs. Yamada Yuki picked up a specific drill in the UK: checkout 121 through 170 within 3 rounds, or drop back 5 numbers on a miss — the "within 3 rounds" constraint forces you through varied finishing combinations instead of memorizing one fixed route; he's also been told "don't just camp on T20 — top players don't." Muramatsu Haruki argues quality loses to quantity: five unfocused hours beats one focused hour, because the body remembers the motion better than the head can think it through. Okano Sho shares his time-management habits openly — 5 hours of practice plus 30 minutes to an hour of study a day — but flatly declines to share his actual drill menu: "if you want to know, come ask on my livestream." That reluctance is worth reporting honestly rather than filling in the blanks ourselves.
How much you should practice depends on who you ask — MVG barely practiced at his peak, Littler does 20 minutes a day, Asada did 10 hours a day before turning pro. There's no single right answer. What's worth building as a habit, more than logging hours, is actually tracking your PPD/MPR over time. AI DARTS's Phoenix machines already record and convert this into your RATING automatically — see how self-service works here, or brush up on terms and rules in the darts glossary and how to play Cricket and 501. For slumps and gear changes, see how pros adjust. Menu's here.