Ryan Joyce is determined to go from layabout to lashing Luke Littler.
The honest Geordie freely admits he’s not done the graft needed in recent years to fully utilise his talents .
But Joyce wants to change all of that and has enlisted the help of ex-BDO king Glen Durrant to help get him cracking.
Ahead of Monday’s tie with Littler, the 39-year-old says he’s changing his ways.
Joyce explained: “It’s only very recently, since I went and had a chat with Duzza and a few lessons, I have got a little bit of desire back because I had lost it. I was falling out of love with it a little bit and thinking I am never going to be any better than what I am, I am never going to get in the Top 32, I’m struggling, I’m not good enough. Now I got a little something back.
“He’s given me that extra belief and now I need to go and prove it. I am very lazy, I am very complacent. I’m very comfortable in the position where I am. It’s hard to motivate myself to push myself further, if you understand what I’m saying. I’ve struggled with that for a few years now.
“I’m saying: 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 am going to really try and sort things out and make sure my mindset is actually right for being a top player.
“Any sport, you get out of it what you put into it, I think. Talent can take you so far, but, if you want to be best, you have to put the hard work in and I feel I have not done that over my career. Not to the extent where I really should have done.”