Darts Betting: Van Barneveld pays price of the perfectionist

Darts / Ralph Ellis / 02 January 2009 / Leave a Comment

Top sportsmen are perfectionists, says Ralph Ellis, but sometimes trying to find that extra one or two per cent can be counter-productive...

It never surprises me that so many top sportsmen get into problems with addiction. You need to have that sort of obsessive personality to get there in the first place. As a kid it's not enough to do 100 keepy-ups, you have to do 101, then 102 and so on. And when one day you discover alcohol, women or gambling then you need to be the best at that too.

Even in the players whose dedication to their sport keeps them away from those vices you can still find traces of the same compulsion. David Beckham famously has to have all his shoes and clothes kept in perfect piles at home. Long ago I can remember talking to Aston Villa's great midfield man Gordon Cowans after he'd taken up golf to help him relax from the stress of football. Within three months he was spending two hours a day on the driving range to get his swing perfected.

The old adage says that if ain't broke, don't fix it. But even the top champions are always striving to change something to be better still because all they want is perfection. And the irony is that sometimes trying to find that extra one or two per cent can be counter-productive.

That certainly seems to have been the case for darts star Raymond van Barneveld who has been talking honestly as he prepares for tonight's World Championship quarter-final against fellow Dutchman Jelle Klaasen.

Two years ago he looked like being the only man who could give Phil Taylor a game when he won a dramatic final. But in his efforts to get better still he ended up doing the opposite.

Barney has been telling today's papers how he took up Zen meditation to help him get over his nerves on stage. The idea was to slip into a trance for 20 minutes twice a day to be relaxed before big matches. But he's admitted: "Sometimes I am my own worst enemy. At first it worked out well, but maybe an element of laziness crept into my darts. I started losing too many matches when I was having these sessions and possibly I was too relaxed for my own good."

Barneveld is [1.5] favourite for tonight's match and that's far too short. He might have put his experiments with Zen behind him but he clearly hasn't yet brought his game back to it's peak. He struggled to get past 'Rocket' Ronnie Baxter to reach the last eight, needing a sudden-death shoot-out before winning the match.

No wonder Phil Taylor is now as short as [1.3] to regain his world crown. He's an unbackable [1.08] for tomorrow's semi-final with Mervyn King and only [4.2] to win it with a 6-0 whitewash. The nearest there is to value is if you can get anywhere between [1.2] and [1.5] matched for Taylor to throw the most 180s. He landed five and had an average of 109 yesterday as he took just 57 minutes to wipe out Co Stompe.

Five things you might not know about Raymond van Barneveld

1. Born in The Hague, Holland in April 1987, he took up darts at the age of 15 when he and his dad were asked to make up the numbers as the team in the local sports club were short of players.

2. He wears yellow or green in most of his outfits to support his local football club Den Haag

3. He worked as a postman before turning full time as a darts player

4. He plays golf - but very badly. His handicap is 36!

5. He was named a Major Citizen of The Hague - Holland's equivalent to being a freeman - in 1999