RYAN JOYCE has admitted he has often been lazy and complacent, usually just doing enough to cruise through the tour.
The Newcastle thrower – known as Relentless – takes on darts’ 17-year-old wonderkid Luke Littler on Monday for the first time.
Joyce, 39, made the quarter-finals in his debut year in 2019 and has been impressive on his doubles this campaign, hitting 60 per cent-plus in the third-round 4-3 win over Ryan Searle.
His improvements have been the result of regular chats with three-time Lakeside world champion Glen Durrant – a Middlesbrough fan – who is now a darts coach.
And Joyce has crossed the North East divide to seek advice on how to stop Littler.
This comes after he admitted “falling out of love” with darts as he found himself content with his position that saw him making £100,000 a year without practising very hard.
Joyce, ranked 33rd in the world, said: “It’s only very recently, since I had a chat with Duzza [Durrant] and a few lessons, that I’ve got a little bit of desire back because I had lost it.
“I was, how do you say, falling out of love with it a little bit and thinking I am never going to be any better than what I am.
“I’m never going to get in the top 32. I’m struggling. I’m not good enough. Now I’ve got a little something back.
“He’s given me that extra belief and now I need to go and prove it.
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“I’m very lazy. I’m very complacent. I’m very comfortable in the position where I am.
“It’s hard to motivate myself to push myself further. I’ve struggled with that for a few years now.
“I’m thinking: ‘Well, I’m in that position between 40 and 32, I’m making £100,000 a year without practising very hard, without travelling to European Tours’.
“So I’m thinking that’s ‘well enough for me’, sometimes subconsciously in my head.
“But before I get too old and too unfit, I’m going to really try this year to really push myself and see how far I can actually go if I really try properly.
“That’s why I have spoken to people like Glen, trying to get advice. Speaking to professional fitness coaches and dieticians and things like that.
“This next 12 months is going to be huge for me. I’m going to really try and sort things out and make sure my mindset is actually right for being a top player.
“In any sport, you get out of it what you put into it.
“Talent can take you so far, but, if you want to be the best, you have to put the hard work in and I feel I have not done that over my career.”
