Martin Schindler’s 2026 has been a disappointment: Why 2027 could be worse

After two successful years of growth on tour, Martin Schindler has hit a roadblock in his progression and endured a poor 2026. Following his World Matchplay loss after leading 6-2 against eventual finalist Gerwyn Price, this was the first time many saw Schindler’s downfall in real time.

Averaging just 90.69 in this match and losing more matches than he’s won this year, Schindler has underlying problems in his game that are starting to reveal themselves. How does 2026 compare to his 2024 and 2025? Is this the start of a downward spiral for the German number one?

Three European Tour titles were just the tip of the iceberg for the German. 2024 saw two of these, with high averages on TV and the floor starting to show after years of flirting with success. Breaking through with Germany on the World Cup Stage, 2024 was the first year where Schindler came into the World Cup as the most exciting German, and this is evident with his results. Winning the European Tour 3 in April, Riesa saw the start of Schindler’s rise, and with a 105.05 average against Cullen in the second round and not dropping below a 95 average across the whole weekend, prolonged excellence started to become a trait that Schindler would carry.

The previous European Tour event saw this as well, beating Aspinall and Dobey with 98+ averages whilst reaching the semi-final. Eventually losing to Michael van Gerwen in the semi-final, Schindler’s class on the European Tour started to become a habit. Another semi-final later in the year in Rosmalen and two quarter-finals in Hildisheim and Graz made it clear how Schindler was moving up the rankings: European Tour prize money.

Facing the best players on stages of similar size to many UK majors, the landscape of his game shifted from a solid tour player to a player who walks into majors as a dark horse. European Tours could be seen as mini-majors, often showing who might go far in tournaments due to the translation; therefore, Schindler’s unrivalled support in Europe and especially Germany rose him to fame. With this, Schindler walked in adored and confident, which explains the performances he put up, especially against the English opponents.

A 111.37 average against Wade in Hildisheim and 106.04 against Woodhouse in Rosmalen shows the A game of Schindler is produced when he is supported. Although this could prove to be a long-term issue in his game, Schindler profited from this support that he cultivated and won another European tour at the twelfth event. Winning in Switzerland, Schindler produced an inspired comeback on the back of the unwavering support and defeated Ryan Searle, with the Englishman at one point holding a 7-4 lead.

Although European Tours made up a large portion of Schindler’s £230,750, his Players Championship form was also solid during 2024 despite not picking up a title. Reaching a semi-final and producing countless 100+ averages, Schindler was a force to reckon with in 2024, and his Grand Slam proved this. Qualifying for all majors in 2024, with the most recognisable one being the Grand Slam. Going out in the groups on legs won may seem like his tournament didn't go well, but a tournament average of 99.57 was one of the highest and proves that the translation of performance from the European Tour and UK majors was starting to iron out as a result of his European glory. Averaging in the high 90s puts any player in contention for a title, but nearly averaging 100 over three games and averaging 109.15 in a 5-2 loss is a fluke. This mentality brought Schindler’s 2025, which saw even more success.

Two more titles and further major success perfectly spell out Schindler’s 2025. A European Tour 5 win in Sindelfingen and a Players Championship 8 win are the highlights, with the win in Germany the most impressive. A 107.78 average against Dobey in the quarter-finals, as well as averages above 90 across the tournament, showed how he extended this prolonged quality into a different ceiling. In short formats, Schindler was too good for opponents, and his heavy 180 hitting of 37% per leg and a checkout percentage of 44.8% in 2025 meant his game was elite.

In other areas of the year, he produced a European Tour semi-final at European Tour 3, where one year later he won his maiden title. This isn’t two individual spikes. This is three European Tour titles, four individual titles and performance that put him into the top 16 by the time 2026 started. The steps were there, and 2026 proved to be the biggest test: starting to perform in the majors.

Not yet having gone past a quarter-final in any majors, the performances started to show this was possible. In Players Championship 25, he produced 100+ averages in five of his six matches, showing it was now single-day excellence as well as weekend-long. There was a natural progression. Week-long success. Yet, it all started to look a bit blurry by the time Alexandra Palace came. A Grand Slam last 16 was the best major result in 2025, and although high averages, tangible results started to become a huge worry. One underlying problem was clear, however, and that was his equipment and mindset. He was consistently playing at a high level but wasn’t receiving the major results that he deserved, and with a demanding German media, doubts started to creep.

In 2024, Schindler played with a natural silver tungsten barrel and solid opaque blue integrated flights. This was a familiar set-up he’d been using for years and, in technical terms, had a friction coefficient of 0.42. This meant that with his throw, they could slip out of his hands, and with Schindler’s throw experiencing more delibration, an upgrade in friction coefficient was on the cards to guarantee consistent darts. This is what 2025 delivered, increasing his friction coefficient by 38.1% to 0.58. Keeping his solid opaque blue integrated flights and with a black-coated barrel rather than solid silver tungsten, his timing reliance was 0.38 milliseconds, which was more stable. Schindler was described as playing with supreme freedom, releasing the darts more effortlessly. Schindler even commented on this change, saying he realised that stability was everything for his game.

More importantly, as he attempted to make inroads in majors, the black PVD coating wicked sweat away from the contact points when he threw his darts. This is important because PDC stages often reach temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius, and the perspiration in his hand affected his darts less compared to his silver tungsten.

This is because on his silver tungsten, the perspiration on his palm created a lubricant film that reduced the friction. Schindler described the stage pressure as needed to know what your equipment was going to give you, and this 2025 swap, in simple terms, gave him advanced trust in his darts. In 2024, he produced 75 90+ averages and no Players Championship titles.

In 2025, with his equipment change, he averaged 90+ on 95 occasions, picking up a Players Championship and earning £9,750 more than his 2024 breakthrough. Not just this, his language was motivating and never played down his ability. Whatever he spoke, he delivered on. This was a psychological boost that transformed beyond his darts. Speaking to PDC Europe in 2025, he said, “You have to experience it, feel it, go through it, and then simply execute better as best as you can. As a player, you shouldn't think about external views; you're here for yourself and have to pull through your own game”.

This is an elite mindset. He didn’t hope for performances; he internalised the expectation of performance and built his game around it. He didn’t care about the German media or his record in majors. He wanted to create a better present by forgetting the past, which can’t be said in 2026. In the same interview, he described the qualities he had: “I know what kind of fighting spirit I have inside me. I go in with the same mindset: I stay positive, I take my moments, and I focus strictly on my warm-up routine.” This proves again how he knows what he’s great at and just kept building.

This explained his 2024 to 2025 peak: he knew what he was good at and didn’t stop. Compare this to 2026: he started to look for change, and this started with the equipment that scientifically proved to be better for him.

2026 hasn’t been what many expected for Schindler. With a clear path to improve his major records to start to threaten the top 10 and consolidate himself in the top 16, 2026 saw Schindler actually ranked at a career peak of 15th, but now he sits outside the top 16. This regression is most clear in his win percentage. Throughout his whole career, he has never had a win percentage fall below 50%, but in 2026, he has lost 37 and won just 31. This 46% win percentage explains his prize money fall to £134,000, and although there are four months left to play and with many majors Schindler is guaranteed to play in, this is a considerable fall, and with his major results throughout the years and his form in 2026, he could be in a really poor situation to match 2025.

On his PDC Tour Card, 2026 contributes just 18.2% of his rankings, and without the 2026 World Championships is just £81,500. His key 2026 results aren’t a pretty read, with just a Players Championship semi-final and a European Tour quarter-final in Sindelfingen, which paints a pretty bleak contrast. By this time in the last two years, he had won European Tours, reached semi-finals and won Players Championships.

A highlight being a European Tour quarter-final is not impressive and is borderline sugarcoating, with players such as Jimmy Van Schie reaching quarter-finals. 13 first-round exits in Players Championship events and a World Matchplay, his fifth consecutive World Matchplay first-round exit, are the tangible results. The reasoning behind this is the exact reason why he succeeded in 2025. Equipment and mindset.

In 2026, he returned to his silver tungsten, and this has undone all his good work. Although the message when switching equipment is mostly the comfort and feel of the dart in the player's hands, the drop in performance is blinding. His friction coefficient for these new darts is 0.40, down 31% from his 2025 figure, and his release timing variance in 2026 is 2.10 milliseconds. In 2025, this was 0.38 milliseconds. This means Schindler isn’t releasing his darts at the same rhythm as he was in 2025 due to this equipment change, and his 180s per leg show this. 23% 180 hit rate in 2026 shows that Schindler doesn’t feel this same rhythm.

In greater depth, Schindler's release timing variation of 1.8 milliseconds shifts the release angle by 0.45 degrees. As a result, there is a 21.7 millimetre vertical displacement. This is twice the width of the treble twenty bed. Comfort may be a factor, but these facts are deafening for the German number 1. Martin Schindler has changed his flights to a clear flight, and this means it has eliminated his peripheral flight tracking. During any dart player's backswing, peripheral vision is used to track flight position, and with clear flights being more transparent, this effectively makes the flights disappear in peripheral vision during motion. This means that Schindler is second-guessing his alignment mid-throw, producing hesitations and head movement.

This is detrimental at a pro level, and Schindler’s neglect to address this is the key meaning behind his 2026 falloff. He has mentioned this in interviews, telling DartsNews, "At the very first Players Championship, I noticed that I wasn't myself at all. I couldn't turn it around no matter what I tried. I was not in control of the situation at all: I think only my body was functioning while my head felt like it was two metres away."

A clear factor contributing to this is the aforementioned equipment change, and now this is fundamentally changing his psychological game that was so strong and which led to many of his comebacks. Now doubts are creeping in. Later on in the interview, Schindler shows this: “I just don't have that complete natural confidence right now to bring it onto the board. I feel on the practice board that I have a great touch and the game in my fingers, but I actually have to show it and deliver it “.

This equipment change has now led to a decrease in trust and stability of his dart, a part of his game where he mentioned how important it is. This seems like backwards thinking that a player of his ability cannot afford. This stress in his game is a result of an absence of trust in his equipment. "I need to find this extra level. I need to find this extra element of being relaxed when I play, not stressing, not thinking about things that can go wrong, lots of ifs and maybes." There are so many factors now affecting his game, and with a demand to now improve, Schindler could be faced with a really difficult truth.

How could it get worse? He mentioned, “I was experimenting a bit with my darts, the points, and also the length of the shafts. I just thought, just give it a go, just do it. And yeah, now I have to stick with it”.

He can’t afford to stick with his darts, and with recent results pointing to no signs of improvement, defending £249,750 could be an impossible task. The numbers tell the story that the results already suggest.

In 2026, Schindler has earned £10,187 per month. Even with improvement across the final four months of the year, the trajectory points toward a total of roughly £170,000 for the season. Less than the £230,750 he earned in his 2024 breakthrough year. That matters because 2024 money starts dropping off the two-year window from October onwards, with £115,500 ageing out before 2025's £249,750 follows. The combined defence is £365,250.

His current earnings rate replaces a fraction of it. Richie Edhouse currently sits at the bottom of the top 32 with £298,750. If Schindler cannot significantly accelerate his results across the European Championship, Grand Slam, Players Championship Finals and World Championship, four events where his recent form gives little reason for optimism, his two-year total will fall below that threshold.

Dropping outside the top 32 means losing automatic World Matchplay qualification, losing seeding protection at the World Championship, and losing the platform that produced the European Tour titles, which built his ranking in the first place. He would have to earn his way back in. At £10,187 per month, that process does not start quickly.