We have a player who didn`t curl up and dye, armchair practise sessions and the 3 dart average (again)

PDC Darts World Championship - Darts Blog 9

Posted: 30.12.10 in Tournament Analysis Blog category

We have a player who didn`t curl up and dye, armchair practise sessions and the 3 dart average (again)

Welcome to The Darts Performance Centre Darts Blog

If Only...

The incorrigible “Crafty Cockney” gave Peter Wright absolutely no chance last night , he told an amused Dave that they were betting on how few legs “Snakebite” would win as opposed to whether he could win the match against Taylor, how we laughed...

Ultimately Eric was right but Wright didn`t lie down and dye as was predicted. He even won enough legs to take a set off “The Power” and had numerous chances to hit a winning double. “Snakebite” will reflect on a brilliant tournament and we doff Taylor`s hat to him, however, over the next few days the two biggest words in professional sport will keep coming back to him, if only!

Armchair Practice

One of our dedicated clients of the Darts Performance Centre made a guilt ridden entry in his training diary today- he has been watching more darts that he has been practising them. We have demonstrated though that players of all standards can learn from watching the best. The FA promotes the idea of young players watching the stars of the Premier League play as an effective learning tool.

The same can be said of darts, what about these areas of excellence that we have noticed over the past week or so that all “grassroots” players can try to emulate:

The mental toughness of The Power

The finishing (backed up by hours of practice) of The Wizard

The focus on the treble of Jyhan Artut

The power scoring of Gary Anderson

The tenacity of Adrian Lewis

The resilience of Mensur Suljovic

The dedication to the pre-throw routine of Dennis Smith

The 3 Dart Average is Most Interesting

We are naughty aren`t we? Regular followers of the blog will know we don`t really like the 3 dart average, its relevance to a darts match is blown way out of propotion and we argue its only job is as a guide to how many darts a player needs to win a leg.

Last night Taylor finished with a three dart average of 98.07. His other statistics are also interesting. His 9 dart average is excellent,over 110 (usual service resumed), however, his doubles were an impressive 38%. Impressive? Well it is for the majority of the players competing in the event but it is below what Taylor can achieve and this is why he appears to be not quite back to his best.

The reason that the 98.07 average is of interest is that it means, statistically, Taylor needs a shade over 15 darts to complete a leg, in other words a player hitting a 12 darter against Taylor`s throw or a 15 darter with his own throw has, for the first time in years, got a chance of winning a leg from “The Power”.

Author: Paul Gillings ( paul@dartsperformancecentre.com )

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