Luke Littler: Target Darts explain the science behind World No 1’s phenomenal success | Darts News

Want to know the secret behind the success of darting phenom Luke Littler?

Littler has spearheaded darts’ surge towards the mainstream since he broke on the scene with his debut run to the 2024 World Championship final as a 16-year-old.

Darts manufacturer Target Darts has supported the global superstar since the age of 12. In February 2024, the teenager signed a multi-year mega-deal reported to be worth up to £20 million – the most lucrative the sport has ever seen.

Littler possesses a generational talent when it comes to playing darts and Sky Sports pundit Wayne Mardle has said “he’s probably the most natural naturally gifted player I’ve ever seen in my life”.

Since the moment the Warrington-born star first held a dart, he’s become a record-breaker and history-maker.

James Tattersall, CEO of Target Darts, says both the company and Littler are “aligned” in where they want to see the future of darts go.

Speaking at an event in which Target have set out a vision to inspire 100 million people to play darts by the end of the decade, he explained the process of how Littler sat down with chairman Garry Plummer, the design team, and engineers to build darts to perfect his game.

“I think some of the inspiration was drawn from Adrian Lewis’ darts and the pixel grip, which is a unique grip that Target has and that worked its way into building up Luke’s original G1,” said Tattersall. “That was the barrel, but over the years Luke’s tweaked it and challenged us to improve it. The point length has changed, the shaft and flight have changed to a K-Flex system before his first World Championships.”

F-Flex is a one-piece flight and shaft innovation that screws into the back of the barrel.

Tattersall explained: “What it helps you do is when you’re throwing darts together in such tight groupings like Luke does, the thing you want to avoid is that dart coming in and deflecting off the dart that’s already in the board and the K-Flex helps reduce those deflections substantially.

“And longer points – it’s like the balance of the dart and how it flies and how it lands through the air. I think another part of it is it keeps the barrel section of the dart further away from the treble and that creates more space in the board.”

Talent vs Equipment?

“His talent is all down to him,” says Tattersall. “I think when you’re talking about the equipment, we’re talking about making Luke comfortable with all of that talent and giving him the right equipment that he’s confident with to use and just to get those last few percentages, but Luke’s an extraordinary player regardless.”

With two world titles in three visits to Alexandra Palace, and 14 major titles to his name, Littler is well on his way to joining Phil Taylor as a legend of the sport.

The problem for his rivals is that he is still getting better after the Warrington star crushed Gerwyn Price 18-9 to retain his Betfred World Matchplay title in Blackpool on Sunday.

Littler was in imperious form as he set a new record for the final with an average of 111.53, lifting his average for the tournament as a whole to 111.04 to break Phil Taylor’s previous high mark of 106.31.

The win keeps Littler on course for a clean sweep of trophies in 2026 having already won the World Championship, UK Open, Premier League and the Masters.

The supporting cast behind Littler

Littler’s management have invested in sports psychologists, nutritionists, performance coaches, and biomechanics in order to get the most out of their talent, and the teenager has benefitted in every area to help support his game.

“Mentality is absolutely key. We want to protect the players. The stage is lonely up there, and darts is a gruelling sport,” Tattersall said.

“It’s a bit like a penalty shootout, but every single time you’re throwing a dart. It’s such a closed skill, and it’s so repetitive. Your mindset’s got to be really, really clear, and you get those big momentum swings, you think you’re about to checkout the double, you miss by a millimetre, your opponent throws in a big 170 checkout, and that’s a punch in the stomach. It’s how do you recover from that for the next leg? That’s sports psychology, and it’s crucial in all sports. I don’t know why it’s a surprise that it should not be in darts.”

‘We want to learn about action – not create robots’

With biomechanics, the cameras observe how a player throws darts, with sports science data helping ways of working on the technique in order to improve.

Target have ideas but Tattersall insists implementing them will not turn the Luke Littlers of this world into robots.

“That’s the last thing we want to do,” he said. “What we want to do is discover and learn about the sport, and learn about that action, because why is it that there are different throwing techniques?

“If you look at something like golf, where you know suddenly you come along with the Vardon grip [or overlapping grip], and that becomes almost the only way to hold a golf club.

“I think the high jump has got that really famous example of how the sport, science, innovated, [Fosbury flop], you ended up with that kind of one technique point.

“I think there will always be different ways of throwing a dart, and there will be different ways of improving those different styles, and maybe that particular style is because you’re tall, and maybe that particular style is because you’ve got longer arms, we don’t know yet, but that’s what we’re going to find out, and then use that data accordingly.”

Zoe Burton, Chief Transformation Officer at Target Darts, says Littler is already inspiring the next generation with his natural talent, although the company are slowly moving towards a performance technology system, which is currently being tested on a number of players.

“If you look at a young person and you think of their journey as they get into a sport, you need an inspiring player – that person who they look up to – and can almost aspire to be. Luke Littler provides that,” said Buton.

“You need a natural talent, but that gets you so far. Then it’s determination and I think psychology as well.

“What makes a star player become a great and world-class player is actually their ability to focus under pressure and make those doubles It’s never going to be robotic.”

Who will win this year’s BoyleSports World Grand Prix? World No 1 Luke Littler will be defending his title and you can watch all the action on Sky Sports. Stream darts and more top sport with NOW.