Darts German darts player accuses
“Felt 70 percent alcoholic, a really dirty sport”
As of: 5:49 p.m. | Reading time: 3 minutes
180 points – more is not possible with three arrows. This requires concentration and a steady hand
Quelle: Getty Images/SEAN GLADWELL
Jochen Graudenz plays darts at a high level, but is more known to insiders. This could now change after his serious allegations. People drink like crazy, he says. In Germany there are only three top players who do not reach for the bottle.
The German darts player Jochen Graudenz bears the battle name “The Answer”. And apparently he has a few of those. And so openly and directly that they cause a great deal of unrest in the scene.
In a conversation with the Internet portal dartsnews.de, Graudenz explains that darts are a “really dirty sport” in which many top stars drink alcohol to deal with the pressure: “If you want to go really high, there you have it you felt 70 percent of the top stars were alcoholics.”
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Graudenz belongs to the extended circle of top German players, but not to the top elite. The 44-year-old, who is also on the Swiss SDC Tour, runs a dart shop and gives training workshops in addition to his playing career in Breisgau. In the Bundesliga he starts for the reigning German champions Karlsruher SC, but only played three matches in the past season. At the beginning of the year, Graudenz took part in the Q-School for the PDC tour, but he missed a tour card for the most important and financially largest tour in the world, which, among other things, was enough for the annual world championship.
Although the big breakthrough has not yet been achieved, Graudenz remains true to his line and refrains from drinking alcohol both when playing darts and privately. “My health and my family are one of the most important things to me,” he says: “I played in the youth national team and luckily it clicked for me.”
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But why do so many darts players turn to alcohol? Graudenz explains that darts are 95 percent mental. You play great darts in the familiar environment at home, but this is often different in tournaments. Nervousness and the unfamiliar environment led to many players turning to alcohol to calm down and hide the environment.
Max Hopp once “went down the wrong track”
He observes with concern how talented people become addicted to alcohol: “A lot of young people come to me and it’s really difficult to work with them on the mental track. They’re already in some club. Then there’s a good player and the young guy sees that he’s drinking. What does the young guy do sooner or later? He drinks too. Because he thinks it will make him better.”
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Graudenz warns of the health consequences: “At some point things will go downhill physically.” As an example, he cites a PDC player who suffers from cirrhosis of the liver. He keeps the name anonymous. This man tried to give up alcohol but fell down the rankings and is said to be drinking again.
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At the end, Graudenz says sentences that should definitely bring him problems in German darts. In addition to him, there are only two high-level players in Germany who do not drink alcohol: Lukas Wenig and Niko Springer. He did not name the top German players Martin Schindler and World Cup semi-finalist Gabriel Clemens. But the former German number one Max Hopp. He had also once “taken the wrong track”.
Finally, 13 tips on how to become a better darts player. Alcohol is not included:
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