Portrait in Darts
"The Power" Phil Taylor
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"The Power" Phil Taylor
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Specs:
Available in PAL and NTSC version (NTSC reviewed)
Play time is ~50 minutes with an extra 9 minutes of super slow motion footage.
The video is, as advertised, a snap shot of Phil's technique and also a bit of insight into his approach to darts. It is decided into 9 scenes:
- 0 - Opening
1 - Stance
2 - Grip
3 - Set Up
4 - Aiming
5 - Pull Back
6 - Follow Through
7 - Stacking
8 - Interview
Each scene features Phil answering an unheard question or explaining an aspect of his game. As he works through his entire stroke, you see that there are details he has painstakingly planned out and others that he has either put little effort into or it has been so long since he mastered them that they are just part of him now.
On its own as a learning tool, the video lacks a great deal of detail. Books like "Darts: Beginning to End" and "Fun-dart-mentals" have more detail and cover aspects of our game the authors have seen watching and teaching others, but this video shows so much of that detail and a master's approach to those details that it is a powerful learning tool.
What Phil says is quite simple and very easy to understand (you can see he has broken down the game into manageable building blocks), but what he shows is invaluable. His rock steady stance, his perfectly repeated stroke and his dead aim and the concentration behind it are highlights that seized me. Just watch his right eye open in his swing as he bares down on his target. That level of concentration and commitment to the target is what has made him the great player he is.
The greatest feature of this video is the super slow motion captures. Watching his whole stoke and then dart flight is extremely informative. His body does not move, his eye never leaves a precise point on the board and his arm follows a deeply honed path EVERY throw. And there are multiple angles in super slow motion, behind above, side and even slightly quirky "eye view" giving a plethora of information about his master stroke. Your entire dart style might be different, but I think there is something that we can all apply to our game from his. Some of the video is highlighted with labels showing different aspects of the throw, and these allow us to see specific areas of his stroke, such as set-up point, pull back point and release point all in one screen shot.
Looking for secrets? Look elsewhere. There are tiny bits about his exact approach and you can easily see he has his game divided into solid blocks. Then he tells us he practices bulls, outs and scoring, for between an hour and a half to three hours a day when he can, but no details about his regiment. He explains some details of his darts (Gen 1 Target 9five at the time of shooting) and an anecdote of his flight shape, but not much insight to deep details like point choice or balance. He does talk a bit about the pixel grip. But it is what is not said that carries the most weight I believe, his whole throw from setup to dart placement is shown in exquisite detail. And this is where the true secrets lie.
The interview at the end is not the reason to get this video, it's about the technique. There is little new information in it, but it feels necessary to cap the story.
Conclusion
How much it is worth to any person is as subjective as how much a barrel is worth to you. But there is a wealth of details in this video that will give you something new every time you watch it. I can see myself referring back to it regularly to see just how steady to be in my stance, how smooth every stroke needs to be and different stance choices for aiming at different areas of the board. The super slow speed capture is amazing on it's own, but to have it capture such a master is priceless.
Highly recommended! 9/10
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