Dartitis; real or myth?

By Marty Scarborough

Recently some new people asked me about what is commonly referred to as Dartitis. They couldn�t understand what it was, what caused it, or if it was in fact a real problem. If you pull out a medical dictionary, you probably won�t find it in there. Is it real? Absolutely. Quite simply, Dartitis is the inability to throw your dart. I have seen this happen to some very good players. In fact, it usually only happens to good players. You walk up to the line one day feeling fine, shooting good, and all of a sudden your hand doesn�t open and you end up throwing the dart at the coin slot or floor. You shake it off as a weird fluke, but it happens again, and again and again.

Some people will not be able to get their hand to open up so they simply cannot release the dart. Others will not be able to keep from stepping over the line as they release the dart. Other people will not be able to keep the dart from falling out of their hand.

I was affected by this. I quit playing for almost two years to get over it. A lot of very good players have been affected and either quit playing or just looked like idiots while they attempted to play through it. Guys like Robert Heckman, Eric Barron and World Champion, Eric Bristow, have all been affected by it.

The one thing I can assure you of is that until it happens to you, you will not really understand it completely. Most people don�t understand when you tell them, �I can�t get my hand to open up and release the dart� or, �I can�t force myself not to take a step as I throw.�

I talked to my doctor when it happened to me. He sent me to a psychologist who put it in simple terms that even I could understand; �You continually put pressure on yourself to not miss, not miss, you have to hit this, hit this or lose, you have to shoot perfect. Well, the mind absorbs this. Then one day the mind simply says I�ve had enough of this and it says, �I wont allow you to miss because I�m not going to allow your hand to do it.��

They told me this is not just related to darts. She has had baseball players that couldn�t swing at a ball, basketball players that couldn�t shoot the ball, and track stars that couldn�t force themselves to start when the gun went off. It all comes down to the pressure you put on yourself.

This is one of the hardest things in the world to work through so the next time you see someone struggling with it, rather than rag on him about taking an extra 30 seconds to shoot or griping about how he might be stepping over the line, understand that this is a real disease and cut him some slack.

One final point: A good friend of mine was working through this and he had to step over the line after every dart. Stepping while you are throwing is NOT an advantage whether you are suffering from dartitis or not. If you don�t believe that, you try throwing while stepping. If you need a video camera to determine if someone is actually releasing his dart prior to the microsecond his foot hits the floor over the line, back off of him. Try to remember that this could happen to anyone, including you.