Clarys not convinced by new 'super dart': "Certainly the top players have no reason to change equipment"

Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) unveiled on Tuesday a revolutionary dart that is supposedly 50% more accurate than your average dart. Erik Clarys however is unconvinced.

“I'm 100% confident that arrow will behave better in the air, but ultimately the arm movement is a lot more important. You have to make the same movement with the arm every time," Clarys explains to HLN. “For example, the arrow rests on the thumb, with which you throw at the board. If that thumb is half a millimeter wrong, the arrow will not land in the right place. So it is not the case that we will only see nine-darters in the future.”

The likes of Michael van Gerwen, Dirk van Duijvenbode, Danny Noppert, Raymond van Barneveld and Vincent van der Voort were all on sight in the Netherlands on Tuesday to test out the new product and all gave generally positive reviews although Clarys doesn't believe MVG could even get much better. "If Michael van Gerwen were to throw 50% more accurately, he would consistently average 115. I don't see that happening."

“Certainly the players who are a bit lower in the ranking. They can experiment with it. Top players such as Gerwyn Price, Michael Smith and Michael van Gerwen have no reason to change," Clarys, who coaches Kim Huybrechts, continues. "Do I recommend it to Huybrechts? Certainly not. He'll probably throw it for fun sometime. But it is mentally very hard to change material. So I strongly advise against it.”