Jochen Graudenz takes a critical look at darts. According to the German Q-School participant, too much alcohol is drunk on the tour. For this reason he practices clear criticism.
“Darts is a really dirty sport,” Graudenz complained to the “dartsnews.de” portal. His accusation: “If you want to go very high, you felt 70 percent of the top stars were alcoholics.” With the former youth national player, “fortunately it ‘clicked'”.
According to his own statement, Graudenz does not drink alcohol privately either. “My health and my family are the most important things to me,” he assured.
In darts, however, according to Graudenz, the glass is (too) often reached for. “Darts is 95 percent head. If you play at home in your usual environment, you play great darts. If you go to a tournament, you probably don’t play great darts anymore because: ‘Everything is strange here, I’m nervous, I play against someone…'” he explained. “And what’s the best way to solve this problem? Just by getting drunk. And I can’t handle that at all.”
Darts: Graudenz worries about the offspring
Graudenz is particularly concerned about the darts talents. “A lot of young people come to me and it’s really difficult to work with them on a mental level. They’re already in some club. There’s a good player and the young guy sees that he’s drinking. What does that do the young guy sooner or later? He drinks too! Because he thinks it will make him better,” he said.
“In the short term, that’s definitely the case, but the problem is that it’s doing something to your health. At some point, things will go downhill physically,” warned Graudenz.
In Germany there would be “two high-level players who don’t drink alcohol”. “That’s Lukas (Little) and that’s me. Otherwise you won’t find anyone who plays really well without alcohol. Oh, yes, and Niko (Springer) doesn’t drink anything either,” claimed Graudenz, who has not yet played the PDC was able to get hold of a tour card.