Dimitri Van den Bergh believes Luke Littler has ‘exactly no sense of what pressure is’ despite his meteoric rise to stardom over the last few months. Littler has gone from strength to strength following his incredible run to the World Darts Championship final and will fancy his chances of sealing Premier League glory later this month.
The teenage superstar has won two European Tour titles in addition to the Bahrain Masters, Belgian Open and the first Players’ Championship event of the year in February. He has also clinched four Premier League nightly victories to guarantee himself a play-off spot at the O2 Arena later this month.
Van den Bergh, however, has claimed that Littler has no idea what pressure is after alluding to the 17-year-old’s minimalist training routine.
Speaking on the Double Top podcast, Van den Bergh said: “I’m not a natural like Littler. 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.”
Littler has previously revealed that he does not train as much as some of his rivals, telling the Daily Mail that he only practises for around 30 minutes each day.
“I wake up at 1pm or 2pm and I do the same every day,” he said in February. “I might need to get in a routine of going to bed at a normal time. I never see the morning. I get up, I go on my Xbox, when I get bored of that, I go on the practice board.
“When I get bored of that, I go back on my Xbox. [I practice for] maybe 20 minutes or half an hour, just to keep my arm loose.”
Littler’s lack of practice is hardly a cause for concern at the moment, with the Runcorn native more than holding his own against some of the best players in the world. He will be hoping to cap off his incredible season with a debut Premier League triumph, which could be the first of many if he continues to reach new heights.
