It Only Hurts When I Dart !

Posted: 18.07.11 in Tournament Analysis Blog category

Night 3 of the Matchplay and we have darting injuries! I know, how funny is that and a player whose darting "sat nav" was not functioning perfectly.

We witnessed another great night of darts from Blackpool last night. The “rumours” I had heard proved correct as Justin Pipe provided the “shock” of the night by beating Mervyn King. King was suffering from “tennis elbow”. He didn’t get much sympathy for that mind. Rodders looked bemused when prompted to comment on darts and injuries and Hawaii 501 more or less suggested that once Merv banged in a few 180’s he would be cured. The injury would be forgotten, at least for the duration of the match-a sort of darting miracle!

The concept of a dart player being injured is of course one of those images that provides great hilarity, especially amongst non-dart players. The Darts Performance Centre has now met a large number of dart players with what we believe are darts related injuries (despite what we are told by the player) and plenty whose injuries are definitely darts related. Our bio-mechanist Andy Humphrey had this to say:

“Whilst most players seem to think that because darts is not an 'athletic' movement, they will not cause injury. Many injuries are the result of overuse. For a player putting in hours of practice their darts may well be a contributing factor in many injuries."

When you are on the subject of darting injuries there are of course many people worth listening to on the topic. The best is Andy Relf, the President of the Darts Injury Society! Andy is a great friend of the Darts Performance Centre, plays in the PDC and writes about his darting exploits in DartsWorld each month, if you are wondering where you have heard his name. Andy added this to our darts injury debate:

What can I say... a mention about darts injuries... how did I end up on here  Rotator cuff (shoulder) torn through over use, probably from upping the level of practice when I joined the PDC (still got that one). Displaced Navicular (bone in the foot)... saw surgeon last week... bone has got to come out or be shaved down in next month or so! Also got torn ACL(ligaments) in right knee from 30 years of standing with my foot at right angles! 2 hours of MRI scans booked for next week. Add to that a dislocated wrist whilst leaning against a wall at PDC event in Germany and I am living proof that you can actually hurt yourself whilst playing! Lets look at players I know of with dart injuries, Gary Anderson - Shoulder, Mark Dudbridge - Shoulder, Roland Scholten - Shoulder... I could go on, but there is a trend!

There sure is a trend - watch this space, it’s work in progress for us and if Andy Relf ever mentions to you he is thinking of taking up sky diving please tell him, NO!

PS - We have an interesting injury debate on our Facebook page if you have anything to add on darts injuries.

Now What do I Need Again

John Gwynne had just embarked on what was sounding like an interesting debate about Scott Rand when Wayne Jones hit a 161 out-shot and that took precedent (quite rightly) and John did not return to finish his sentence about Scott. Shame!

What he was going to say (I believe) was that it was a mistake for Scott, after hitting two treble 20’s  to then pause, look at his score, realise another treble 20 would be handy but then miss it due to breaking his focus and concentration. I agree!

We have of course got to give Scott Rand a break, it was his first “big” tournament and overall he handled it brilliantly. On the other hand shouldn’t a player (whether he is playing in the Matchplay or the Dog and Duck) already have a “map” of his perfect route in his head of where he is going with his next throw before he steps up to the oche?. Whilst Scott was waiting for “The Wanderer” to throw should he have been assessing how many he had left, what his ideal score would be (180) and worry about any diversions from that course as and when they happen? If he had done that there would have been no reason to take his eye off the board after two darts and he may, just may have hit 180.

As it happened Wayne hit a fantastic outshot and this “mistake” didn’t make a difference. However, just because it didn’t cost him a leg this time it is still a very valuable area of reflection when Scott analyses his overall performance last night and hunts for any potential areas for improvement.

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