PDC World Championships Night 9,10,11,12 (I think)

Posted: 31.12.11 in Tournament Analysis Blog category

We catch up on the action from The Worlds!

“Less is more” is how we like to look at the blogging activity of the Darts Performance Centre during the Worlds!  We have been conserving our energy for a 2012 darts coaching onslaught and oh yes we have opened a new shop! That has taken a bit of time!

In fact the shop had a flurry of activity last night all within twenty minutes of the darts finishing. Jackpot it seems inadvertently boosted the turnover of our new enterprise.  Lewis kept dropping his darts last night due to his sweaty and slippy fingers and as a result we sold a number of our bottles of grip wax!

The Thoughts of “The Artist”

This seems well out of date now as Painter (and Taylor) is out of the tournament. However, it is still an interesting point. “The Artist” was explaining during an interview that in his opinion most of the top players have practised as hard as Taylor over the past few years and that the explanation for the success of The Power was simply that he is a better player than the rest?

Regular followers of our blog know we always like to consider the alternative and look at the other side of the coin. Could it be that Taylor's practice is more effective than the rest of the top players?

One hundred and eighhh-Oh!

Steve Farmer popped a lovely maximum in and raised a hand to the crowd as his version of the ubiquitous celebration of this darting feat. This was until “the man who shouts the score out” yelled “no score”! Farmer had been on 176 and let his concentration slip with devastating consequences.

We like Steve Farmer, he is one of the “good guys” so let’s not single him out. I would place in the same category anyone who stops half way through a shot (especially if they have hit what they set out to hit at the start of the shot) to calculate their score and then invariably waste their chance of either hitting another treble or checking out. Why not work out your route before you throw?

At the Darts Performance Centre we are putting as much effort into this aspect of our darts training website as any other part. We have called it “Board Management”-it basically covers the entire range of good habits dart players need in addition to a sound repeatable technique and throw.  This particular part of our training is called “the waiting room” and it looks at what players can do to maximise their chances of winning whilst they are waiting to throw.

A good technique is of course fundamental but it is the good habits and not making daft mistakes that can be the difference between winning and losing.

Darts Coaching

Talking of which I met a young darts player for a coaching session at Rileys in Southampton yesterday. He has aspirations to go for a tour card in January after competing on the Youth circuit this year. When he first approached us he was concerned he had lost his way but now seems back on the path he wants to follow.

Coaches, sports scientists and pundits are all accused of over complicating sport. This criticism is particularly prevalent in darts, mainly because darts has struggled to recognise itself as a professional sport and that it is only in the past few years players are realising that they can’t work alone. All dart players need assistance, and now usually get it albeit in different degrees. Maybe it is just a driver to get them from venue to venue or a manager to look after their affairs? Perhaps a psychologist, nutritionist, coach or maybe even someone to “pick the bones” out of their every performance to aid their practice and preparation for their next big tournament is needed?  But, whatever it is, more players now are outsourcing their performance aids.

One thing that we are very proud of from the coaching sessions we have carried out and from our website is that we have never been accused of over complicating matters. We don’t use jargon, clichés yes but not jargon. As I was driving back from the session yesterday I was reflecting on how our young player’s outlook on his darts had changed over just two sessions.

This was due to two factors. First of all we helped him believe in his throw and technique again by simply watching it on video and making a few very minor tweaks. The second thing was to introduce the idea of good habits and this was then combined with his effort into correcting one aspect of his play in particular that was holding him back.

There you go, nothing complicated or over analytical there. With the New Year just around the corner perhaps these changes can also be three darting resolutions for 2012.

Believe in your technique, lose your bad habits and work hard to form new good ones!

Happy New Year !

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The Darts Performance Centre is a resource to assist dart players of all standards play better darts. The site is arranged as an on-line coaching manual. There is advice on technique, nerves, psychology, goal setting, practice games, an area to log your statistics and an interactive area where your darting questions are answered by two sports scientists, one with 30 years dart playing experience! Membership is just £25.00 per annum.