Martin Schindler began his 2026 Players Championship campaign with a 6-0 defeat to Maik Kuivenhoven, averaging just 65.57. Less than nine months later, he was standing in front of thousands of German supporters in Dortmund as the first player from his country to reach a televised PDC major final. Ross Smith ultimately denied him the European Championship title, but the scale of Schindler's turnaround has raised hopes that Germany may finally have a player capable of consistently challenging for the sport's biggest prizes.

DartsNews Podcast co-host Nicolas Gayer, who spent the weekend reporting from inside the Westfalenhallen, believes there was more to Schindler's performances than an extraordinary atmosphere. Having watched the German struggle with his confidence and throwing action throughout 2026, Gayer saw signs of genuine improvement both on stage and behind the scenes.

From a 65 average to the biggest final in German darts history

The defeat to Kuivenhoven on 9 February was an ominous start to a difficult campaign for the three-time European Tour winner. Schindler subsequently missed out on qualification for both the World Matchplay and World Grand Prix, while the form that had previously made him one of the European Tour's leading performers largely deserted him.

Having entered the European Championship as the top seed in 2024 and second seed in 2025, he needed the final European Tour event in Maastricht simply to secure his place in Dortmund. He eventually qualified in 31st position, leaving him with a first-round meeting against second seed Wessel Nijman.

Yet Schindler survived that opening encounter 6-5 and gradually began to resemble the player who had enjoyed so much success in previous seasons. "I think it was absolutely remarkable to watch Martin this weekend, not just on the oche, but also how he was in the press conferences," Gayer explained on the DartsNews Podcast. "On the oche, remarkably, he was extremely composed. You could see the mental strength he had this weekend."

That was a marked change from the player who had been struggling to reproduce his practice-board performances in competition.

"He was very openly speaking about all the mental stuff that goes on in darts and how he doubts himself, how he's just very hard on himself after performances lately, and how he struggles with his throw, struggles with confidence on the stage throughout the whole year already," Gayer continued. "I mean, we have to think back a few months. He started the season off with like a 65 average on the floor. So there were obvious issues going on with his game."

After overcoming Nijman, Schindler defeated Jermaine Wattimena 10-4 before producing arguably his finest performance of the tournament against Jonny Clayton. He demolished the former Premier League champion 10-1 with a 103.16 average, missing just five darts at double.

An 11-6 semi-final victory over Krzysztof Ratajski secured his place in German darts history. Although Smith raced into an 8-2 lead in the final, Schindler refused to disappear, eventually closing the gap to 9-7 with checkouts of 116 and 127 among the highlights of his recovery.

Smith ultimately prevailed 11-8, but Schindler had gone from almost missing the tournament to coming within three legs of becoming Germany's first televised PDC major champion.

Johannes Lipsius and the work behind Schindler's recovery

An important part of Schindler's preparations has involved German mental coach Johannes Lipsius, who had already attracted attention through his work with fellow professional Ricardo Pietreczko.

Pietreczko endured severe difficulties with dartitis, at times visibly struggling to release his darts during European Tour matches. His subsequent improvement particularly impressed Gayer, who believes Lipsius deserves greater recognition for his work with German players.

"I think we all saw Ricardo playing on stage on the EuroTour and it looked horrible. And then he changed his throw and he worked together with Johannes," Gayer recalled. "I think within three or four weeks, he got him back to a shape where Ricardo pretty much looked like he did before on the World Cup stage and played fantastically there."

Schindler has experienced difficulties with his confidence and throwing action rather than a publicly confirmed case of dartitis. According to Gayer, he worked extensively with Lipsius before Maastricht, where he secured his European Championship qualification.

Lipsius was subsequently present in Dortmund alongside Schindler's girlfriend, Denise, with the player again acknowledging the coach's influence during the tournament.

"Especially in the preparation for Maastricht, he worked a lot with Johannes," Gayer said. "He again pointed it out this weekend how big of an impact this man had."

For Gayer, the coach's involvement in Pietreczko's recovery and Schindler's historic achievement deserves considerable credit. "To help someone with dartitis in such a short time, getting ready for the stage again, and now also have such a big impact on the biggest German success ever in PDC darts, I think that deserves a mention and respect."

Schindler made German darts history at the 2026 European Championship

"It felt like an actual new version of Martin Schindler"

The atmosphere surrounding Schindler's matches was among the most memorable aspects of the European Championship. His walk-ons, accompanied by Linkin Park and thousands of supporters singing along, regularly brought Dortmund's Westfalenhallen to life.

Schindler has previously enjoyed his greatest success on the European Tour in Germany and Austria, however, raising the question of whether he can reproduce his Dortmund performances without the same level of support.

"Was this inspired by the crowd, or can he back it up when it comes to the next few events?" podcast host Kieran Wood asked. "He's going to be in the Grand Slam after reaching the final, then there's the Players Championship Finals and the Worlds. It'll be interesting to see whether this is the new Schindler, consistently reaching the latter stages of major tournaments."

Gayer, though, believed the improvement ran deeper. "It felt like more than just the crowd pushing him over the line. It felt like an actual new version of Martin Schindler."

Schindler converted 55% of his attempts at double against Nijman, 53% against Wattimena and 67% against Clayton. His finishing dropped to approximately 35% in the semi-final and 37% in the final. "When we talk about the mental side of darts, I think the area where it shows most is the doubles, the outer ring," Gayer explained.

There was also a significant improvement in Schindler's scoring, with the tight grouping that once characterised his European Tour performances returning. "The grouping of his darts, I think he could really hit a 180 on a pinhead again, which we've rarely seen over the last couple of months," Gayer observed. "So many just bad darts in the five segment. It didn't really happen, or rarely happened this weekend."

His observations extended to the press conferences, where Schindler appeared more composed than during the difficult months that preceded Dortmund.

Can Schindler finally reproduce his best darts outside Germany?

Whether Schindler can maintain that level away from German-speaking crowds remains a question, however. DartsNews Head Editor Samuel Gill, who has covered the professional circuit extensively and followed Schindler's European Tour successes over recent years, recognised the familiar qualities in his Dortmund performances.

"What made him so good to watch for me, watching and covering these tournaments, was seeing Martin Schindler on the European Tour every week," Gill explained. "You always knew you were going to get those darts on a pinhead, in the 180s."

Yet Gill also acknowledged that Schindler has struggled to reproduce those performances elsewhere. "He's mostly won European Tours in front of German or German-speaking crowds, in Austria as well. A lot of the time he's produced this stuff only in front of his own fans. So it's always hard to gauge."

Despite that uncertainty, Gill believed Schindler's performance was strong enough to have won the European Championship against a different finalist. "I honestly think if it was Gerwyn Price in that final and not Ross Smith, who's been on an absolute tear, that Schindler could be a major champion right now, in my view. I think it was who he was playing."

Smith's victory completed a remarkable period of success for the Englishman, who had also won the World Series of Darts Finals in September and was making his third appearance in a televised major final.

For German darts, meanwhile, Schindler's achievement marked another step forward after years of near misses. Max Hopp became the first German winner of a PDC ranking title at the 2018 German Darts Open, while Gabriel Clemens reached the semi-finals of the World Championship in 2023. Ricardo Pietreczko and Niko Springer have since provided further encouragement, although none of those breakthroughs had delivered a televised PDC major finalist before Schindler's run in Dortmund.

"As a German, you've had a lot of false dawns," Gayer reflected. "And now you've got someone like that who's into a major final, who's showing exactly what he can do and what we've seen on the European Tour as well for a long time from him, that he can do it on the big stage."

Schindler's run has lifted him back to world number 20 and secured qualification for the Grand Slam of Darts, with the Players Championship Finals and World Championship also approaching.

Those tournaments will provide the first substantial test of whether the changes evident in Dortmund can translate into sustained success away from home. After a season in which Schindler had gone from being one of the European Tour's leading seeds to fighting for qualification, he now has an opportunity to rebuild his position among the world's best before the end of 2026.