27/11/2016: Well Done to MVG in defending the PDC Players Championship title 2016

Hi Guys

Another BIG congratulations to MVG in picking up yet another title in 2016, in defending the Players Championship.

MVG has been imperious this year. He isn't just winning finals, he's making them non competitive.

Its a dominance that hasn't really been seen since Phil Taylor's heyday.

I knew after MVG's (by his standards) poor performance against a spirited Darren Webster where i don't think i've ever seen MVG play so badly that whoever he played in the final was likely to get a kicking and poor Chizzy bore MVG's wrath as he he lost his forth major final.

Now then heading into the World Championship 2017 the question really is who can stop  MVG???

The answer may very well be MVG himself!

Van Gerwen has been the best player in the world bar none the last 2 years, and has won everything and often by demolition jobs!

The World Championship is ultimately what is usually considered the sign of Greatness though and whilst he has won 1 world title (which is incredible in itself) it is the that by which a player is truly judged.

Incredible as it may seem but Van Gerwen could want it too badly and try too hard  thus making mistakes and set play is the one format that i think gives players a chance against him.

One thing i will say though is that regardless of the World Championship i genuinely think MVG's performance and dominance of 2016 has been the greatest by any darts player ever. It has been quite simply epic and MVG deserves 1000000% credit!

Have a good week guys

Luke

23/11/2016: Learning your craft - stick to one dart (at first)

Hi Guys

I get alot of questions on changing darts as everyone is always looking for the 'one' that will instantly take them from a 60 ave player to MVG'esque standards.

The truth is it is important to develop the basics and learn ONE(1) instrument, ie the dart.

Sample the different styles  and once you find one that feels comfortable stick with it and practice with it. Its like learning a craft with a tool. If you keep swapping your constantly resetting.

Now i know its easy and boy have i changed darts (i've blogged about it previously) however it really does affect your progress.

Now i know there are always some exceptions like Peter Wright however if you look his best form (which for me is the last few months) has been with the same darts.

That's not to say you cant tweak in the future however once you've settled on one style (straight, bomb, tampered etc), stick with it.

Its no surprise that the best players have had the most success with one style and even the same dart:

MVG: has always used a straight barrel and still uses the same McKick's premium whites from 2007 and hes the best player in the world and feels so comfortable with his darts,

Phil Taylor: Used straight barrels for 20 years

Eric Bristow: dominated the 80's with the same style of dart

John Lowe: won everything with the same style of dart

Adrian Lewis: Still goes back to his old Unicorns

Leighton Rees: the first world champion. He sued the same set.

Tony O'Shea: uses the same set of 30 year old Bristows

Andy Fordham: Started with and still sues an old set of Lowe's

Now that's but a few and a helluva lineup.

If you do abit of research you'll find that more often than not players form dips when they change from what was working.

My advice, find a set that works and truly learn and develop with it.

You'll be better for it and save money to

Take care

Luke

PDC Cash Converters Players Championship finals 2016: My prediction

Hi Guys

The tournaments are coming thick and fast.

I'm a BIG fan of this one as it gives exposure to a number of different players on the tour.

This year has seen the field raised to 64 which will give alot of players a chance.

looking at the draw there's some great opportunities for some players in the latter half of the top 32 to get to the Quarter finals and i think we are going to see a few upsets along the way.

This is a rare event to not feature 3x winner Phil Taylor, so that is one of the favorites out.

My prediction with whose going to win would have to again go with the obvious and that's MVG.

The legs format suits him, hes the 'man' at the moment and the defending champion.

There are always threats though:

• Lewis has made the last 2 (albeit losing) finals and on his day has the game to beat anyone. He will desperately want to make amends for that.

• Barney is playing well and the draw could see him go deep (and he has had the beating of MVG before when on form)

• Gary Anderson is getting used to the new glasses, is a past winner  and will only get better

• James Wade is playing really well and has made 10 quarter finals or better in the last 6 months.

• Peter Wright is playing in the form of his life and must break his major duct at some point

I definately think we may see a surprise or to in the semi's and final

Take care everyone

Luke

Michael van Gerwen (MVG): Like it or not hes the 'man' now! Haters can hate but its the truth!

Good morning

Listen, i have felt compelled to write as in the wake of MVG's 2016 Grandslam win there have been some fans moaning about:

it always Van Gerwen winning
yet another player didn't turn up in the final

This staggers me as darts history of the last 35 years has literally seen dominance by a couple of players.

Has everyone forgotten that every decade (or generation) has their dominant player:

80's: Bristow
90's: Taylor:
00-2013: Taylor
2014: MVG onwards

MVG is now bringing the total dominance over darts that Taylor enjoyed for nearly 20 years.

You can only beat those in front of you and barring the inaugural Champions league of Darts when the 2000 Taylor decided to turn up and beat MVG, MVG has beaten everyone and won everything.

Is it his fault......................yes it is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MVG isn't lucking out in draws and (no disrespect) drawing qualifiers in finals, he is beating the ebst players in the world.

Taylor, Lewis, Anderson, Wright, Wade have all fallen in finals and 17 majors as of this blog in 2 years say it all.

I think once someone has established themselves as 'the man' then they will always become somewhat of a target. Bristow was hated and loved in equal measure and Taylor wasn't exactly Mr Popular until he transitioned into 'legend' and therefore appreciation status.

As it stands MVG is the man to beat and whatsmore i cant see him losing at the moment. As i've stated before if he doesn't go out early he wins it and he is a born winner. You cant buy what MVG has.

Its hard to see where MVG's 'BIG' rival is going to come from. Anderson is brilliant but has nearly 20 years on MVG and Taylor has 30 years. (hell even i have 8 ). MVG could easily dominate the next 10-20 years unless someone comes along who can average 120.

My only concern with MVG achieving that is the physical toll its taking on his body. He already has ankle and wrist issues and i can see elbow and hip issues down the line.

Don't begrudge his success people, hes the hardest worker in darts, plays every tournament and hes doing it all on his own merit. No one is throwing for him.

Have a great week everyone

Luke

MVG takes PDC Grandslam of darts 2016!

Hi guys

It was the obvious call but MVG takes yet another title!

Wade did fantastic to get there but MVG really is on another level right now.

BIG well done to MVG. I think James was to hard on himself. It wasn't his night but then again its been no ones night this year against MVG in PDC finals!

Chris Dobey: A new Star is Born!

Hi Guys

Its been utterly fantastic watching Chris Dobey emerge in the Grandslam of darts this year.

Ranked 54 going in Dobey didn't have an easy group with 2x world champion Adrian Lewis and 1x BDO Champion Scott Mitchell  in the mix along with top 16 rated Benito Van De Pas.

Dobey was unlucky to lose 5-4 to the Dutchman but rebounded to beat the 2 former world champions 5-3.

Dobey then had a belter against the BDO's Jamie Hughes and now faces the resurgent James Wade (who looks a real threat for the tournament)

Its always great to see new faces and Dobey has kind of gone under the radar despite having a great 2016 having narrowly lost to Simon Whitlock in the Players Championship final 19  making the last 32 of the European Championship and the quarter finals of the German darts Masters

If your gonna hit form now is the time to do it ahead of the Worlds and if Dobey can upset Wade and go further the prize money should really send him up the PDC rankings!

Good luck to Dobey and well done to all the BDO lads who acquitted themselves well again this year!

Luke

Fantastic Glen 'Duzza' Durrant Through to second round of PDC 2016 Grandslam of Darts

Hi Guys

Fantastic to see another BDO player doing well at this years Grandslam of darts and once again proving the BDO boys can hang with the PDC guys.

so far we've had:

Darryl Fitton go over Darren Webster (who just beat Phil Taylor 5-0) and Ian White
Scott Mitchell thump Adrian Lewis 5-1

and for me the BDO package of the tournament so far Glen Durrant

Durrant was unlucky to lose 5-4 to World no 2 (and back to back and current PDC World Champion) Gary Anderson (who had to dig deep)

and then thrashed Nathan Derry 5-0 and Alan Norris 5-1

Duzza has shown that he belongs in this company and this is no surprise.

For the last 2 years Duzza has arguably been the main man in the BDO.  Taking the World Masters and Zuiderduin Masters in 2015 and in 2016 winning:

BDO Gold Cup
British Classic
Denmark Masters
England Masters
England Matchplay
England Open
European Darts Open
Swedish Open
WDF Euro Cup Team

The guy is on a roll and ranked number 1 in the BDO for a reason. You don't win those Opens (bare in mind how many hundreds and thousands enter) without class!

Duzza will likely face a resurgent Van Barneveld in the second round however this is a match that Duzza will be sure he can win.

It would be incredible if Durrant could win the tournament like Scott Waites did in 2010!

Go Duzza!

14/11/2016: Shoulder problems causing issue!

Hi Guys

I was practicing Saturday and pulled up something wicked.

The shoulder just started jolting ala Jockey Wilson

Now i know that i have some shoulder injuries however this is.was a concern as i'd hit a nice patch of comfortably hit the 20/T20 but then it was like i'd never picked up the thing before.

Its horrible as the frustration kicks in as you don't want to walk away 'off' but playing through it becomes a chore and a problem.  The result is you start forcing it and it becomes a repetitive cycle of frustration!

its horrid but my best advice here is literally just leave it. put them down and go and distract yourself.  Go watch television, take a shower, watch something funny, anything to take your mind off it.  Angrily launching them all over the place will mean nothing and your getting nothing out of it. Practice is supposed to be fun and if it's hurting or not working, exit early!

There was a time when i'd have laid awake all night annoyed at a wasted session, and gone to work tired. What does that acheive??? nothing i'll have just gotten myself right at it!

Anyway i'll be posting some rehab info and what i'm doing as i know i'm not alone with this!

Take Care

Luke

PDC Grandslam of darts 2016: My prediction

Hi everyone 

It's Grandslam of darts time again. 

Now this like many tournaments was Phil Taylor's whose won it 6 of the 9 times since it was started in 2007 and was last years losing finalist to MVG.

Obviously I'd love the BDO boys to do well however and I know it's an obvious choice but I just can't see past MVG at the moment. He's playing at a different level at the moment and winning everything!

For me if he doesn't go out early he'll win it.

If I have to have a backup I'd love to see Barney win it but I'll go with Taylor

I think we could see some shocks though and I wouldn't be surprised to see Wade or Whitlock in the final.

Let's see eh?

Take care

Luke 

Big well done to MVG. 2016 Pdc World Series of Darts Finals 2016 Champion!!!

Hi guys

BIG well done to MVG! I called it pre tournament and MVG won in style over a very game Peter Wright!

For me the performance of the tournament was MVG 10-0 over Whitlock!

Say what you want but MVG is playing at another level at the moment!

Luke

02/11/2016: Around the Board!

Hi Guys

I had put in a practice session yesterday.

Around the board Singles
Around the board trebles
Around the board doubles
Bull

Considering i'm rusty as hell it only took about 20 minutes or so and if it wasn't for a couple of dodgy numbers like treble 7 etc it'd have been a lot quicker.

Its amazing how going around the board actually improves your treble 20 as after going around i had a few darts at t20 and it was 100,100,100.

As i move on i'm going to incorporate out shots into the equation which should cover all bases!

What i will say is that whilst practice should be fun, to make progress you need structure and to be productive. Spending 3 hours going for T20 isn't going to mean a lot if you cant hit the desired double.

I think i posted it before but i once watched a match whereby a player got off like a rocket and was hitting 80's and 100's and was under 100 when his opponent was still on about 350+

Unfortunately Mr Scorer ended up doing the dreaded:

D20: miss
D10: Miss
D5: Miss
1: Hit
D2: Miss

leaving D1

It was painful. His opponent was only hitting 26's but the guy just couldn't hit D1 for love nor money and the more he tried and got frustrated the worse he (and the game got). Eventually his opponent also ended up on D1. they both spent an eternity at it before the BIG scorer lost! - the match must have lasted 1/2 hour!

The lesson, as Bobby George says:

"trebles for show, doubles for dough"

and its true, if you cant hit the double you cant win!

All the best

Luke

PDC World Series of Darts Finals 2016: My Prediction

Hi Guys

The world series of darts is this week (5th-6th November) and here is my prediction: Michael Van Gerwen

Its an obvious choice however hes won 24 tournaments this year and made 9 other finals. Clearly the stats go with MVG!!!

Since losing to Taylor in the inaugural Champions League of Darts MVG has looked a man on a mission. That loss clearly hurt him and he is tearing through darts at the moment. His insanely quick demolition on 'player of the tournament' Mensur Suljovic 11-1 showed what he can do when hes firing on all cylinders

A fired up Barney could be a derailer however MVG is the form player, defending champion and the form of the competition has been erratic!

For me its now a case of if MVG doesn't suffer a first round blip he wins it. Plane and simple!!!!

Luke

World Watch: Cody Harris: A New Zealand 'darts' Story!!

Hi Guys

There is a player tearing up the New Zealand darts scene and that's Cody Harris.

Those of you who watched the PDC World Cup of Darts will have seen Harris in action!

Prolific on the open scene the 31 year old has won 13 Opens in the last 4 years and has impressively won the New Zealand Open 3 years on the trot (2014,2015,2016).

Harris made the last 32 in the BDO Masters in 2015 and i think we'll be hearing alot more from 'The Codesta'

Harris current record stands at:

Loving it is the key!!!!

Hi Guys

as most of you know the dart player of the last 3 years has been Michael Van Gerwen.  The guy has won everything and is dominating darts,

Now MVG is undoubtedly an insane natural talent however as much as the talent i think a MASSIVE key to his success is that he LOVES darts and what he does!

If you love it, its not a chore or a 'job' and that makes you excel!!!

Now i'm not saying that other players don't enjoy/love/like it however to alot of them its a 'job' or their source of income and you can see it on their faces. In short, some of them look like they don't want to be their or are hating it!

Now don't get me wrong i know its a grueling schedule however MVG as of this post (1/11/2016) had played a whopping 47 tournaments all over the world and that's excluding exhibitions and practice!!!

The thing is if you love something why would you want to do it everyday????

That's the difference i think between someone who is good at something but its not their love/passion.

Take Care

Luke