Coaching Clinic 66

Posted: 08.07.17 in Coaching Clinic Blog category

Be Prepared! We look at pairs play in darts!

The PDC World Cup got underway on June 1^st. I have always enjoyed this tournament. One reason I find it so fascinating is that to me it demonstrates how, by ignoring sports science and coaching some of the teams that show up to play are so woefully under prepared that it is incredible!

We have at last had our chance to put some of our ideas into play by linking up with Team Brazil to try to help give them their chance to shine on the big stage. They are massive under-dogs and getting through the first round would be a huge achievement, let alone dreaming of getting any further than that!

Team Brazil comprises of Diogo Portela – a player we have been working with for some time now and is a regular visitor to our coaching room and video analysis service.  Diogo has played in a Euro Championship, the PDC tour, the Challenge tour and County, so a bit of experience. The other 50% of Team Brazil though-Alexandre Sattin has never played a game on stage before, let alone played in front of thousands of German darts fans!

So, what to do? We linked up with Johnny Stefano, Diogo’s County Manager and he booked us a stage, MC and some pairs teams to give Alexandre some realistic match practice in London where he had come over to prior to flying to Germany. We invited “a crowd” via social media to make some noise and try and give him some idea of what to expect when he hits the World Cup stage!

Alexandre is also following an excellent training programme. The majority of which are his own ideas and a superb example for any player wanting to get the most out of their practice routine! This is what he told us:

For the World Cup I will continue my routine of training that is based on physical training in the gym for 1 hour every day, work on the psychological aspect of the game, do darts practice games in sessions of 1 hour, with breaks every 30 minutes for a total of 3 hours a day.

The practice exercises are divided into improvement of throwing technique, training suggested by the DPC practice plan, and 501 games against real opponents and the computer.

We got a practice book out to Alexandre which he really took to! We did offer him one other bit of advice but we are keeping that as a trade secret!

For all you pairs players out there other advice we would give your team if you came knocking is to be good communicators. Discuss your strategy and tactics before the game, encourage and problem solve during the game and don’t show any negative body language to your partner!

You are a team, you win together and you lose together but the most important thing is, no matter what the result, is you both have tremendous pride in your team!

Go Brazil!

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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!