Kim Huybrechts joined The Darts Show Podcast to talk about his upturn in form after he qualified for the World Series of Darts Finals, and explains how he is hoping to put a difficult few years in the rear-view mirror
Thursday 28 October 2021 15:15, UK
So often a household name at the PDC's top table over the last decade, Kim Huybrechts is hoping to return to the limelight.
Currently ranked 33rd in the PDC Order of Merit, the Hurricane is looking to put some difficult seasons behind him and work his way back up the pecking order.
"How my career has developed, I think I've lost three years to be honest," he told The Darts Show Podcast.
"I was very down with the loss of my parents. That took me three years to get over it. It's not only the personal and private life. You can also see it in the professional life.
"So I think I've lost three years in that way, and you can see in the rankings. I was in the top 16 for six consecutive years if I'm not mistaken, dropped out, and I've still got the feeling that I should be there. One hundred per cent, I have no doubt about that. So that's going to be my goal.
"All players that have been there and dropped out, it's not easy to get back there."
There are signs that Huybrechts has turned a corner however. He qualified for this weekend's World Series of Darts Finals with an impressive campaign at a qualifying tournament, and backed it up with semi-final and quarter-final appearances across last week's four-day Super Series.
"I've been playing reasonably good the whole year," he explained.
"I've had some good averages. Why that happened, [that] I never could win? You still have to win games to get money and climb the rankings. That was the problem for me, I couldn't win the games.
"[Last] week it clicked a little bit for me. I was happy with my level, and I was a bit lucky here and there, where some people would miss a double against me and I would take my chances. So I think that's the difference with what happened a couple of months ago.
"I played a good level as well, but I couldn't win some games. Now I won some games."
And the results breed confidence.
"When I played the [World Series qualifiers], I told my manager as well, it's not a ranking event so I'm just going to relax and consider it more as a practice tournament. And that's how I approached it.
"Of course, when you play the deciding game, maybe you want to win it so I gave it my all," the Belgian said.
"But you're a bit more relaxed during those games, because there's no rankings there...The pressure is a little bit less.
"By qualifying for that, it was a huge confidence boost. While the next day [at the Super Series], a semi-final, very good. I think that's very important for the mind that you get good games and results as well. And that's what I got.
"And the last day a quarter-final. It was a result of that first day, the qualifier, when you qualified and got a good mindset.
"It comes together with good play, with wins, with results in tournaments. It's not only when you play one good game and you stand there and you shout and you're aggressive.
"But [if in] the next game, you play an 80 average, nobody is going to take you seriously. It's all got to click together, and you have to have some results as well to back the aggressiveness up."
Ultimately, Huybrechts is hoping to relax and do his talking on the oche in the coming weeks, as he builds up to the World Championship.
"The goal for the rest of the year is the World Championships, to get a good result there, that's where you get the most part of your rankings. That's going to be the main focus, and not too much focus on the rest of the tournaments I think," he said.
"That's the best goal for me now. If I'm going to put myself under too much pressure at the moment, that's not going to be good for myself and my game.
"I'm getting my game where I want it, but it's not there yet. So if I'm going to start thinking about results and 'I have to do this', 'I have to do that', I think that will cost me my quality of play at the moment. So I'm not going to do that.
"I'm just going to let the darts do the talking."
