The Red Dragon Darts Performance Centre Video Analysis Zone

Posted: 18.02.11 in Video Analysis Zone category

Welcome to the Red Dragon Darts Performance Centre Video Analysis Zone. The third player in our series in popular Welsh PDC star Mark "The Spider" Webster.

Welcome to the Lab – Our third investigation carried out by our research department of Andy Humphrey and Paul Gillings of the Darts Performance Centre and  it puts the Winmau.com player Mark Webster under the microscope.

Method

Mark`s throw was analysed from a laptop computer using a video clip uploaded onto YouTube. The clip investigated can be viewed here. 

Throw Analysis -The Set Up

Mark leans forward as part of his set up and has his heel off the ground, this does give the impression that if you pushed him he would topple forward fairly easily. He also leans towards his throwing hand (his left) as he prepares to throw. Compare this to Taylor in the video, he is dead straight, maybe a left-handed thing?

Rating - 15/20

Throw Analysis – Alignment

Mark sights his dart quite low, it doesn`t appear to be in his natural eyeline and he does tend to bring the dart across to the left side of his face too.

Rating - 16/20

Throw Analysis - The Release

“Webbo” has a clean economical action, with a short back lift and efficient release. However, his shoulders rotate clockwise as his arm goes forward towards the board. There is also quite a pronounced shoulder lift just after release possibly caused by such a low aiming position of the arm.

Rating - 16/20

Throw Analysis - The Follow Through

“Webbo” demonstrates that he has an excellent follow through in as much as his arm and hand chase the dart to the board. The shoulder lift mentioned previously does continue during his follow through

Rating - 17/20

Throw Analysis - Accuracy

The most striking aspect of watching Webster on the video, as well as last night againt "The Power" at the PDC Premier League event was the amount of “near misses” he had. This is due,in part, to the factors mentioned above, in particular the shoulder movement which could well be the cause of Mark`s stray darts.

Rating - 16/20

Discussion

From a biomechanical point of view Mark’s throw does have certain flaws, however, flaws aside Mark continues to grow in stature, some players have a natural ability to compensate for certain technical errors, and it appears that “Webbo”is such a player. We suspect that the shoulder lift may well be an integral part of the throw lifting the dart to the desired release position along the line of sight. This would fit with the theory that the dart needs to be in the same position at release as when the dart is originally sighted.

Conclusions

Mark seems to generate some of the force required to throw the dart by recruiting other muscles in the body, hence the extra movement, it all seems to be an integral part of the throw.       

If Mark were able to counteract some of the shoulder rotation it would cut down on the stray darts, we believe that this extra shoulder rotation is the cause of the stray darts and is possibly the one part of his throw that he could change without damaging the package.

The Red Dragon Darts Performance Centre Throw Analysis Rating –80%