“I don’t want to go back to the old Michael” - Michael van Gerwen reflects on weight loss as he bids to end TV losing run at Grand Slam of Darts

Michael van Gerwen has lost his opening match at each of his last three televised tournaments. The three-time Grand Slam of Darts champion faces Henry Coates in Wolverhampton on Saturday, with only one player from Group L advancing to the knockout stage.

Speaking to Online Darts at the Ultra Darts League launch in Newcastle, Van Gerwen was asked whether losing weight had affected his throw. “One thing’s for sure, I don’t want to go back to the old Michael,” he said with a laugh.

Asked whether he was proud of the work he had put in over the past 18 months, Van Gerwen said: “Of course. You have to be proud. If you’re not proud of yourself, then something’s wrong.”

Van Gerwen has also started letting fans watch his practice sessions at home on Twitch. “It’s a bit out of my comfort zone, but I like doing it,” he said. “They love it, and I have to practise anyway.”

“I never filter anyway,” he said when asked if the streams showed fans a different side of him. “More importantly, they see that I’m absolutely willing to do everything I have to do to become the best again.”

Van Gerwen began the autumn defending his World Series of Darts Finals title in Amsterdam. By the end of October, three opening-round defeats had left him outside the world’s top 10 for the first time since 2012.

Van Gerwen admitted it was “really annoying” to feel he was playing reasonably well and still come away without a win. “You need to make sure you keep focusing. If it was that easy, everyone would have done it,” he said. “You can’t change history. You need to look to the future.”

He goes to Wolverhampton joint 11th on the Order of Merit after making the semi-finals and quarter-finals of the final two Players Championship events. He whitewashed Danny Noppert 6-0 with a 114.15 average on the first day and beat Dirk van Duijvenbode by the same score with a 109.98 average on the second. Niels Zonneveld and Luke Humphries ended those runs respectively.

Leicester had already supplied Van Gerwen’s only ranking title of 2026. He averaged 122.34 in a 7-0 win over Martin Schindler there in May before beating Van Duijvenbode in the final of Players Championship 15. His other tournament wins, in Bahrain and Copenhagen, came on the non-ranking World Series.

The PDC’s pre-Grand Slam form guide put Van Gerwen 17th for scoring average, at 95.38 across his last 200 legs. “I’ve been practising well now and I hope I can also show it in the televised tournaments,” he said.

Van Gerwen won the BDO World Masters at 17, but it took another six years for him to win his first PDC major at the 2012 World Grand Prix. His first world title followed in January 2014, beginning seven years at the top of the rankings. Now 37, he was asked whether he could draw on that earlier stretch of his career when results were hard to come by.

“You always learn. You’re never too old to learn,” he said. “I know I’ve been in the game for a long time, but you need to keep focusing, because if you don’t focus, you’re going to waste your energy on things you don’t want to waste your energy on. I keep believing in my own ability. Simple as that. I don’t care what anyone says.”

“It’s a new situation for me,” Van Gerwen said of his run of defeats. “It’s a situation you don’t want to be in, but it’s reality now. So for me, it’s how do I answer it? I’m putting a lot of time and effort into my game at the moment. That’s the only thing you can do.”

“Even if I don’t play my A-game, I still reach a very good level,” he said. “But of course there’s still more in the tank, and I do believe that 100%. And I still enjoy what I do because I think that’s another key element of being successful.”

Asked whether one win would bring back his old swagger on stage, Van Gerwen said he was giving himself time. “Of course I want to get back to winning ways, but that takes time and I’m going to give myself the time. I’m not going to put too much pressure on myself. Let everyone else do that.”

Luke Littler and Luke Humphries have won every Grand Slam since 2023. Asked whether he enjoyed arriving at tournaments with the attention on those two, Van Gerwen shot back: “Well, still you want to speak to me about the tournament.” He acknowledged that things had changed. “The only thing you can do is answer it. And how do you answer it? By winning games.”

Vincent van der Voort has been willing to criticise Van Gerwen on his podcast. “We know each other really well,” Van Gerwen said. “We speak about everything, so it’s not really new.” Asked how he took the public criticism, he added: “I think it’s good. Everyone is allowed to be critical. Why not? If you can’t take it, you can’t give it.”

Van Gerwen won three successive Grand Slams from 2015 to 2017. Last year, he averaged 108.50 to beat Gary Anderson and get through his group, before losing 10-6 to Noppert in the last 16. The expanded Grand Slam format gives the field of 48 two best-of-nine group matches each. Only the winner of each three-player group goes through.

“It’s tricky for everyone,” said Van Gerwen. “I look at both of them as knockout games for myself.”

The 10th seed qualified by reaching the World Cup final alongside Gian van Veen. Coates won Players Championship 25 in July without a Tour Card. Jeffrey de Graaf, the other player in Group L, beat Van Gerwen 6-4 at the same event, with both averaging above 105.

Next comes the Players Championship Finals in Minehead, where the seven-time winner will face Connor Scutt in the first round. Alexandra Palace remains his priority. “Of course, that’s the big one,” Van Gerwen said when asked if his preparation was geared towards the World Championship. “But don’t get me wrong, the Grand Slam counts quite a bit too.”

The interview took place at St James’ Park in Newcastle, where the Amateur Darts Circuit launched the Ultra Darts League and named Van Gerwen as an ambassador. The competition is due to start in March 2027 with 20 city teams across the UK and Ireland. A youth competition for players aged 12 to 17 was also unveiled, with featured fixtures due to air on Pluto TV and ADC LIVE.

“Everyone starts as an amateur, and to have the opportunity is key for everyone,” said Van Gerwen. Asked whether he would have liked those pathways at 15 or 16, he called what the ADC is doing for junior and amateur darts “fantastic”. The city league, he said, “took months and months” to put together.

Van Gerwen can see the format working in the Netherlands, where there is already a strong local team darts scene. Its appeal, in his view, is how often players get to play singles. “They don’t want one singles game, two pairs games and a team round robin,” he said. “They want to play singles matches all the time.” He also liked the prospect of regional champions facing one another and playing for a place in a final on a bigger stage.

Van Gerwen pointed to Van der Voort as the person to ask about the ADC’s progress in Europe. “I’m trying to help the ADC as much as possible because I think it’s a fantastic brand,” he said. He has been involved for years and believes more players are taking to the circuit. “They all remember the old BDO days and the Lakeside days, but they’re gone,” he said. “They had to do something, and I think the ADC is the way forward.”

The European Championship will expand to 48 players in 2027, while the Players Championship Finals are set to grow to 128. The new European Open in Salzburg adds another ranking major on the continent, with a 160-player field that includes eight players from PDC Europe’s amateur circuits.

“The more people in the tournaments, the better it is for darts,” Van Gerwen said. “The more people who can earn a living out of darts, the better it is for the sport.” He said the PDC deserved credit for creating more opportunities and welcomed the addition of another ranking major in continental Europe.

The interviewer also raised how much ranking money Van Gerwen has to defend. “Yeah, no problem. I’ll be there,” he replied. The largest sum comes off at the World Championship, where his run to the January 2025 final against Littler is worth £200,000 on his current ranking. That accounts for roughly a third of his current total.

He starts the Grand Slam just £250 short of the top 10, with Wolverhampton and Minehead still to count towards the World Championship seedings. Once play begins at Alexandra Palace on 11 December, he needs a semi-final to earn back the full £200,000.