A Tired Taylor has he lost the will to win?

cannibal

From that favorite of newspapers for all the latest unconfirmed and misquoted gossip comes this: Taylor says he needs a break:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/other_sports/darts/3407114/Phil-Taylor-may-quit-darts-for-two-years.html
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Doctor or lawyer, I’ll never be. Life of a drifter, only life for me. You can have your riches, all the gold you saved. Cause’ ain’t room for one thing in everybody’s grave. ~ Clutch

dartroom · Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2011 6:00 pm Post subject:

i think its like tiger woods....people realize that they can beat him and all the sudden things are different....ive said in the past and now, my personal opinion.....taylor will continue to be very competitive, but his best darts are over...happens to everyone in time...

barjo · First Sergeant Joined: Apr 23, 2007 Posts: 1200

I don't think his best darts are over, simply because there is such a wide gap between his best and what he threw against Lewis last week. Besides, he threw very well to beat Anderson for the Players Championship title. It's possible that he may need a break, but he won't take it. Given his competitiveness, he's probably working that much harder to resolve the problem. I think he'll still be in the top 4 PDL this season, and if he doesn't win the titles it will be because his opponent has had to throw superhuman darts.

Charis · Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 2:38 am Post subject:

It's difficult to say how serious he really is about the topic. He said similar things when he had this bad phase a few years ago and then returned even stronger.

But I can imagine that with getting older he starts to feel his age and he probably has got t lot of promotion stuff to do beside playing the tournaments. Everything is easy when all is going well but the moment it doesn't work any longer of course you'll have such thoughts.

I am sure he will not leave at the moment - he can't just stop playing Premier League. Might be he'll not play as many of the Pro Tour events for some time.
He'll try to sort things out - perhaps he'll go on to experiment with his darts, might be he'll do something about his eyes. He'll work as hard as possible and certainly will manage to play better again.

Whether that will be enough I don't know. I think he's lost the mental dominance he had over his opponents and the psychological advantage and that probably would be harder to regain then his form.
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"I`m an idealist. I don´t know where I am going, but I´m on my way".
Carl Sandburg

JinRI · Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 6:49 am Post subject:

I read somewhere that he had eye surgery recently. I'm assuming it was Lasik.
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cannibal · Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2011 7:33 am Post subject:

Another perspective on Taylor from the man himself
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-sport/interviews/article-23923500-phil-taylor-people-like-me-because-ive-not-tried-to-be-flash.do
_________________
Doctor or lawyer, I’ll never be. Life of a drifter, only life for me. You can have your riches, all the gold you saved. Cause’ ain’t room for one thing in everybody’s grave. ~ Clutch

Charis · Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2011 7:51 am Post subject:

That is a very good article, cannibal. Great find! Not the usual stuff you read in the newspapers...
_________________
"I`m an idealist. I don´t know where I am going, but I´m on my way".
Carl Sandburg

aboji · Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2011 9:12 am Post subject:

I agree - that is a great article... Thanks for posting it.

aboji
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Gene · Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2011 9:59 am Post subject:

.........." the news of my demise, has been a bit exaggerated" I would expect to see P T in top form shortly! Two things: being a paramount # 1 player for so long has to be wearing....I think he uses these down periods as his motivation! Bet no one wants to see his name come out of the hat as their opponent next week! Cool

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" Thunder is great, thunder is impressive - but it is the Lightning that does
the work"! Mark Twain

CraigB · Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2011 10:01 am Post subject:

Agent5432 · DART SGT. MAJOR Joined: Mar 07, 2006 Posts: 2234

Charis · Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 12:05 am Post subject:

You are of course right, Agent - you never know what will happen with Taylor.

But I think it will get more and more difficult for him to return better and even more dominant from those slumps.
He's getting older and the other players seem to get nearer.
And one just can't get better and better - not even a Phil Taylor will reach perfection.

His advantage is that he can play consistently on a very high level what other players don't seem able to do - yet.
So he of course has a chance still to win tournaments though it can happen more often that he'll be defeated.
_________________
"I`m an idealist. I don´t know where I am going, but I´m on my way".
Carl Sandburg

cannibal · Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 8:56 am Post subject:

I think the sun articles took the quotes out of context, Philip was tired and frustrated hence his statement, I think he was just being sarcastic in the traditional English manner.

It is possible that in addition to recent illness, he is facing burnout. At this point in his career his managers need to carefully select his appearances endorsments, and events, he can easily maintain the #1 ranking. Not only does this give philip the chance to recuparate and focus better on individual events, it will increase his value (ceteris paribus) for these. Darts, there is no off season really, and you always need time to relax and refocus, and is eyesight problem as well as age naturally make it harder for him to focus in the long haul.

No doubt Phil will be back and win a few more majors Smile

but I think his stretches of win after win will be shorter than before. Others have come on the scene and others have raised their game, so should see some new faces winning events. So it really comes down to how long can Philip deal with this situation of not winning everything, he always said he wanted everyone else to get better, now they have so lets see how much pushing Philip can take.
_________________
Doctor or lawyer, I’ll never be. Life of a drifter, only life for me. You can have your riches, all the gold you saved. Cause’ ain’t room for one thing in everybody’s grave. ~ Clutch

Gene · Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 10:30 am Post subject:

I have to agree with Cannibal that the other players in the Top 10 have raised their games in the last year or 2! Cool

_________________
" Thunder is great, thunder is impressive - but it is the Lightning that does
the work"! Mark Twain

barjo · First Sergeant Joined: Apr 23, 2007 Posts: 1200

Well, Taylor sure looked worn out and tired against Webster today. He really should take a break. Razz

CannonFodder · Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2011 12:30 pm Post subject:

And he did drop a couple of legs to this "T. Jenkins" fellow yesterday, whomever he is Wink

Wow!
I think it's safe to say that a few days off has done him right. He's upbeat and ready to kill people on the Oche again. Sure did not take him long!

GeorgeCostanza · ADO TOP 10 Joined: Apr 27, 2006 Posts: 1265

Charis · Posted: Tue Mar 22, 2011 1:48 am Post subject:

No, George, I didn't follow it as I was not at home over the weekend and it was difficult to get the stream anyway - at least for not technical advanced people Wink

.

It looks Taylor proved us all wrong.... though I would still tend to say that even Taylor will not improve to play only perfect nine-dart legs all the time.
_________________
"I`m an idealist. I don´t know where I am going, but I´m on my way".
Carl Sandburg

Agent5432 · DART SGT. MAJOR Joined: Mar 07, 2006 Posts: 2234

So how's Taylor's will to win after 12 weeks of Premier league?

barjo · First Sergeant Joined: Apr 23, 2007 Posts: 1200

Dart_talker · Posted: Sat Apr 30, 2011 12:10 pm Post subject:

Anderson seems to have gotten a measure of revenge...

KeyserSoze · Posted: Sat Apr 30, 2011 1:52 pm Post subject:

Look at the averages - Anderson 108.36 against Taylor's 102.5. Even with multiple missed outs, Taylor is still averaging in triple digits, and it takes a monstrous effort from Anderson to beat him. I think Taylor still has the desire, but his impact on the game has been tremendous, and every player is practicing harder and harder to try and keep up.

Dart_talker · Posted: Sat Apr 30, 2011 6:35 pm Post subject: