6 darts coaches, from Eric Bristow to Roland Scholten and Axel Krauss, each with achievements, years active, players coached and nationality.
Every name below comes with the achievements that carry it, the years they were active, the teams or athletes they worked with and their nationality. The order is our own reading of their mark on darts, not a trophy count, and a short FAQ closes the page.
If you are working through the subject more broadly, we keep the same kind of list for darts books and darts films and documentaries.
Best Darts Coaches:
- Eric Bristow
- Roland Scholten
- Axel Krauss
- Dirk Wurzler
- Fikret Dursun
- Fatemeh Ghafouri Morad
#1 Eric Bristow
- 🌐 Nationality: English
Eric Bristow, known as “The Crafty Cockney,” is another darts legend whose playing accomplishments overshadow any coaching career.
Although Bristow was involved in mentoring and encouraging young players, such as Phil Taylor, there is no recorded information of him officially holding a position as a darts coach.
His influence on the game and his role in mentoring players informally, however, adds to his legacy in the world of darts.
#2 Roland Scholten
- 🏆 Achievements: Former world number three who now works as a darts coach and analyst, and has coached players on the professional tour.
- 📅 Years Active: Playing career 1990 to 2013, coaching since
- 👕 Athletes Coached: Professional and semi professional tour players in the Netherlands
- 🌐 Nationality: Netherlands
Scholten reached world championship semi finals and was among the best players in the world for a decade, then moved into coaching rather than exhibition play.
Dutch darts has the deepest amateur base in Europe, and the coaching work happens at that level long before anyone reaches a televised stage.
#3 Axel Krauss
- 🏆 Achievements: German national coach who has run training programmes for the German darts federation and its youth squads.
- 📅 Years Active: 2010s to today
- 👕 Athletes Coached: German national and youth squad players
- 🌐 Nationality: Germany
Germany built a federation coaching structure from nothing over the last fifteen years, at a point when the sport had almost no organised training anywhere outside pub leagues.
The German youth squads now produce players who reach the professional tour, which is the entire purpose of the structure.
#4 Dirk Wurzler
- 🏆 Achievements: Coach in the training system of the German darts federation, working with squad players on technique and competition preparation.
- 📅 Years Active: 2010s to today
- 👕 Athletes Coached: German federation squad players
- 🌐 Nationality: Germany
Darts coaching is mostly about throw mechanics and the mental side of a game played in front of a crowd, and both are teachable in a way the sport long refused to accept.
Federation coaches like Wurzler are the reason a German player can now get structured instruction instead of copying what works on television.
#5 Fikret Dursun
- 🏆 Achievements: Coach in the Turkish darts scene, working with national level players in a federation built up from a very small base.
- 📅 Years Active: 2010s to today
- 👕 Athletes Coached: Turkish national level players
- 🌐 Nationality: Turkey
Turkey has one of the newer darts federations, and its players have started appearing in European qualifying events.
In a country where the sport has no professional structure at all, the coach is also the organiser, the referee and often the person who buys the boards.
#6 Fatemeh Ghafouri Morad
- 🏆 Achievements: Coach in Iranian darts, working in the women’s game where organised coaching is scarcer still.
- 📅 Years Active: 2010s to today
- 👕 Athletes Coached: Iranian women’s players
- 🌐 Nationality: Iran
Womens darts has grown quickly since the sport created its own professional tour for women, and the coaching structures are being built alongside it.
Coaches working in federations outside Europe rarely appear in any English language record, which is part of why lists of darts coaches so often end up listing players instead.
FAQ
Does darts have coaches?
Yes, though the sport was slow to admit it. National federations in the Netherlands, Germany and elsewhere now employ coaches for their squads, and several professionals work with performance coaches on the mental side. What darts has never had is a coach standing beside the player during a match.
Who coached Phil Taylor?
Eric Bristow, five times world champion, spotted Taylor in a Stoke pub, sponsored him with a loan of a thousand pounds and mentored him into the professional game. Taylor then won sixteen world titles, including one against Bristow himself.
