PDC World Championship 2015 - The Ninth Day
After a well deserved break we are back and discussing our favourite topic, sports science!
I had the day off the blog yesterday, yes a relief to us all I'm sure! I did watch all the darts mind and it was a terrific day! Reyes was the highlight, we do love an "underdog" at the DPC.Another exciting development was that Rodders, not content with being the self-proclaimed inventor of the Pro Tour, commentator and all round darts guru rebranded himself DoctorDart and offered to assist in helping players sort out their technique by looking at videos (of players throwing their darts) sent in by Facebook and Twitter followers of the PDC.
This is of course an area of great interest to us and we were of course the first people to offer this service to dart players (including the option to send us a video) backed up with my colleague's 30 years of darts playing experience and both of us have qualifications in the fields necessary to be able to offer the right advice to players.
The PDC bringing awareness of techniques used in virtually every other sport to darts is fantastic for us, but I can't help feeling it was done in a "typical" darts way. By that I mean no real thought went into it. Was it just a gimmick to keep the relentless pursuit of Twitter and Facebook followers going?
If Rodders was serious about helping then how come when one player asked what angle the video should be shot at the reply was "whatever you think is best". You wouldn't go for an operation and expect the surgeon to ask where he should make the cut would you? Of course you wouldn't, so are you really going to get the right prescription from Dr Dart?
Rodders is an ex pro and was a high quality player in his day. Those qualifications alone means that he does have valuable knowledge that could be passed on, counting, dealing with pressure etc. But, being an ex-player doesn't necessarily mean you can pinpoint technique errors and it is vital players seeking answers get the correct advice or their game will spiral further downhill. Rod does terrific (except ignoring the letters l and y) on Sky, maybe he should stick to that until he is prepared to give sports science in darts the respect it deserves!
If you do want the correct advice take a look at our coaching site!