Coaching Clinic 63

Posted: 07.03.17 in Coaching Clinic Blog category

What can you learn from a Major Darts Tournament? We pick out some lessons from The Lakeside!

I was fortunate enough to have witnessed the whole of Lakeside 2017, from Lakeside Eve on the Friday through to the Champions’ Celebration in the Canal Suite and later back at the International Hotel.  It was terrific fun and great to be surrounded by people sharing the same interest and passion – darts!

Setting the fun aside what can players and anyone connected with the running of the game learn from a tournament such as Lakeside? Be prepared is one vital thing and this gives us our chance to shine in the reflected glory of Casey Gallagher knocking out Deta Hedman. Casey asked for one of our practice plans several weeks before Lakeside and it helped her up her usual 20 minutes per day to 3 hours a day. “Time just flew by, I didn’t even notice I was practising for so long” she told me. Well it paid dividends and as we always keep telling you – Practice Makes Progress!

Casey was interviewed by Tungsten Tales and mentions the Practice Plan - and you can watch that at the end of this blog! 

Sleep! I am not going to out anyone here but there is a repeat offender at Lakeside of a player staying up way too late before a game. Sleep deprivation is a wicked and debilitating thing to suffer from. It drains you and makes you lethargic. Yes Lakeside is a very social experience but you need to force yourself out of that environment to one of rest. Danny Noppert was a brilliant example. If he played in the evening then you didn’t see him afterwards.  Play then rest. Living his life like a professional sportsman-great to see.

The Future’s Bright – The Future’s Orange was a tweet put out by the BDO after Justin Van Tergouw won the Youth Tournament. Noppert in the final too led a fine contingent of Dutch players. I met Dutch Team Manager/Coach John Lokken and he gave me some insight on how Dutch Darts worked.

The key thing is they are government funded. They can afford to put the right people in place to build the excellent infrastructure they are creating from Youth to Pro. There is of course an excellent BDO Youth System in place in the UK as well as many satellite academies getting our youngsters off to a start. However, it is nothing on the scale of how the Dutch are doing it and we need to learn from them and update our system.

In UK darts we are always too reliant on the volunteer. What a fantastic job they do but I am sure every one of them would love some help, not just financially but someone to assist in the admin, the coaching, the organising of tournaments and all the other jobs they are expected to do to help our youngsters flourish and make a BDO or PDC World Final!

Finally you need a bit of luck. Nick Kenny didn’t get Glen Durrant before the draw had to be done again. Scott Mitchell on the other hand kept the “lucky” room he was in when he won the World Championship and why not. A lot of amazing memories and a great confidence booster for this year. Paul Hogan, wiring the double as he was on the verge of knocking out the Champion to be, Glen Durrant-or maybe he just needed to be a tad more accurate with his dart.

However, if you are properly prepared and look after yourself during the tournament you make your own luck. The 2017 Lakeside World Men’s Champion will be the first to agree with that!

Coaching Clinic Deal! Buy a Blade 4 Practice Board (1/2 size Trebles and Doubles) and get a FREE Practice Plan - Details Here: http://bit.ly/FreePracticePlan

Photo Credit - Thanks to David Gill from DG Media for the excellent photos 

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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 online 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. You also get an invite to our free but exclusive members only events and access to our members only darts coaching app! Membership is £25 per year!