"Unlike Luke Littler, I'm definitely not a natural talent" - Dimitri Van den Bergh relies on hard work and dedication for his success

Dimitri Van den Bergh has started 2024 excellently, including taking a major victory at the UK Open. However, the 29-year-old Belgian continues to train hard to achieve even more success.

Van den Bergh may have won the second major of his career this year, but he still has trouble comparing himself to Luke Littler. "I'm not a natural like Littler," he says to the podcast "Double Top. "That young lad has kind of a different way of dealing with darts. He has exactly no sense of what pressure is. I, on the other hand, am someone who trains a lot. Then if I don't do that for a week, that gets in my head quickly. I can't let that go. I've been training for so many weeks and months, so then it will go without training now. No, for some reason doubt creeps into my mind. That's why, just by training, I can quickly crawl out of a slump. If things aren't going well, I start training and I know it will be okay. Then I also believe in myself more during matches."

"Currently, I have it in my structure that I start training from 9:30 to quarter past 12, so 2 hours and 45 minutes," continued 'The Dreammaker'. "In the afternoon I put in at least another two hours. Then you're still calculating to about five hours a day almost. And because you break that up into two pieces, time always flies by. Often I'm not quite finished, but my time is already up. However, I stick to my schedule."

"By the way, I'm going to start alternating with going to the gym in the afternoon, to get a fitter body. That's very important for darts. You notice it tremendously that you can handle a lot more when you're fitter."