Exclusive
Darts1 interview
with Michael Rosenauer

What do you practice?

That differs very much; I don't have a practice schedule. I do what I like. Of course I consider problems or results from the day before. For example, when I had problems during a tournament at the weekend with my double 18 I will practice double 18. Besides this I practice finishes, doubles, scoring. Sometimes I just play 200 games of 501.

For keeping my achievements I use dart programs like n01, easy to use and very clear arranged. And it's easy to interpret too. Only it doesn't show the double quote, though that would be important. I would like to be able to see my progress in this. I use a laptop for it. Sometimes those programs offer diagrams as well. Sometimes I play against the computer, I can't influence it and it's unpredictable, while most players are after some time predictable. I play level four and level five, level five is that you've got 18 darts to finish a match and that your "opponent" needs no more than two or three darts for the double. That's a challenge and you have to stay concentrated. I sometimes feel the computer reacts, when I get better it gets better too; when I play weak it plays weak too. At a tournament playing against good players I've no more than 18 darts too. Most of the time I practice alone, I am more focussed alone.

Do you do something for staying fit?

Not at the moment. I did for some time and did intend to do some fitness training, but I haven't got the time. Nevertheless I lost some weight, not by training, perhaps because I stopped drinking Coke. The problem was, that I felt my feet very much the day after I played for some hours. Now after losing some weight I can play for 6, 7 or 8 hours without this. It's obvious that if you weigh one leg all the time with more then 100 kg you'll feel it after some time. I intend to lose some more that will help.

Looking at some of the Pro players I can't imagine how they manage to play for five or six hours. Their feet must hurt, and you can't concentrate when you are in pain. Wayne Mardle might manage to do it twice or three times a week, but I can't imagine he does it every day. But I do it every single day. During the last year there was the most one day I didn't play for four hours, well, most of the weekends it was at a tournament.

At the GDC event I got up at seven o'clock, took a shower, had breakfast and than practiced for three hours in my room. When the tournament started at 11 o'clock I went there. You see it's not that I drive to a tournament, get drunk, breakfast for hours and than throw some darts. It's much easier to play first round matches when You've had a good practice before. That's the same in League, without a reasonable practice I wouldn't play. Even though everybody tells me I am good enough without it, I would never do it. Should I lose, I would be very much annoyed with myself, because I couldn't practice enough. Better leave it.

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