Luke Littler has had a meteoric rise in darts like hardly anyone else. But keeping up with the pace at the highest level isn’t always easy for him.
Luke Littler has been known for some time to skip individual tournaments from time to time. Now, the 20-year-old Englishman has revealed what’s behind it and explained that he wants to consciously reduce the burden. This is especially true when the Premier League is running and the weekly game nights are often followed by further events of the European Tour.
“Sometimes I withdraw from tournaments to take two days off, because it can be hard, especially when the Premier League is running,” Littler told the British daily newspaper Mirror. “From February to May you hardly have any days off. It’s just about managing your schedule and making sure you don’t overdo it. At the beginning of the year, my manager and I therefore enter everything in the calendar so that we know what is coming.”
Luke Littler talks about the high workload in darts
Darts prodigy Littler: “It’s about not burning out”
According to Littler, this is important to prevent physical and mental fatigue. “If I come back tired or exhausted from a European Tour – you land on Sunday and have Pro Tours on Monday and Tuesday – I just don’t play them,” the youngster added. “It’s about not burning out and focusing on your own rhythm.”
Due to his busy schedule with tournaments, training and press work, Littler finds it difficult to reflect on what he has experienced properly. “I don’t have enough time to sit back and look back on what I’ve done,” he explains. “When I have a week off, I don’t want to sit and analyze what happened. I know what I’ve achieved, I just see the trophies in my living room. It’s about living in the moment.”
In the coming weeks, things are unlikely to get any quieter for Littler. After the end of the World Series in September, he wants to focus on the series of majors before the Darts World Championship begins on December 11.