Van Gerwen finally found the right set of darts: 'Players don't change because they want to do it'

The annual product launch of manufacturer Winmau was on Wednesday and the new darts of Michael van Gerwen were presented. Winmau has been the dart supplier of the Dutchman since early 2020.

After testing many prototypes Van Gerwen finally seems to have found his desired set-up. The so called Winmau Michael Van Gerwen Exact darts should give Mighty Mike the feeling and confidence he had with his old darts, with which he played for more than ten years until 2020.

''The hardest part of course is the confidence'', he explained. ''Don't get me wrong. I switched over from my old darts to my new darts and that's never going to be easy. If you also look to other players, a lot of people change but they don't do it because they want to do it. My old darts were finished. There was no more grip on it. It took me long, months, months and months to create the right set (of darts). That's the most important thing.''

The three-time world champion decided to make another adjustment. Van Gerwen now regularly picks up a fresh new set of darts, so he doesn't get used to worn darts anymore.

''I used to play with the same set for years. I don't want to put myself in that position again. That's why I picked up exactly the new same set again and now I don't have any problems with changing anymore.''

The new darts of the Dutchman weigh 21.5 grams each, not 21 grams or 22 grams as usual. Van Gerwen has an explanation for this.

''If you going to look back to the start of my career, I used to play with 26 gram darts. That was before I played on television. I could see and I could feel that was too heacy for me, so I dropped to 25, then back to 23 over the years. I was playing with that darts for probably 10 years, so they worn out to 1.5 gram, something like that. I have been testing 23 grams, 22 grams, 22.2 grams, everything, but 21.5 grams works the best for me.''