Just throw it... agony of dartitis on the oche
Psychological disorder can strike any player, any time and the elite fear even talking about it
Berry van Peer’s eyes filled with tears and his jaw trembled with the strain of holding them back. He strode to the oche, leaned towards the board and cocked his throwing arm in the same motion that he had performed thousands of times. But he could not let go. The dart remained enclosed in his fingers, and his arm fell back to his side.
After four or five attempts, it finally escaped his hand, with the second and third darts flying out in quick succession. The affliction remained, though, and Van Peer’s struggles continued through the final leg of his defeat by Gary Anderson in last month’s Grand Slam of Darts.
The footage makes for agonising viewing. The first inclination, upon watching it, is to bellow: Just throw it, man! Naturally, that was also the initial reaction of many of the spectators inside Wolverhampton Civic Hall on the night.
But it soon became clear that Van Peer, 21, was telling himself the same thing. As those watery eyes began to overflow, how he would have wanted simply to let the dart go, to be free of the anguish and debilitating fear that was sweeping through his mind.
Dartitis, as it is known, can strike any player at any time. For Van Peer, it has been a problem for a few months. “I thought I was over it,” he said. “I don’t know what triggered it, but it came back.”
Scientifically speaking, dartitis is a “psychological disorder that appears in the absence of any organic or physiological trauma”, says Dr Linda Duffy, a professor of psychology at Middlesex University and a former world No1 women’s darts player. In simpler terms, it is the darts version of the yips. “This skill, that has been rehearsed to become a honed movement, suddenly has a catastrophic breakdown,” Duffy told The Daily Telegraph. “It’s very traumatic for a player to get that.” Little is known about why it appears. What is known, however, is that it stalks the sport, fills elite players with fear and will be the lurking terror at the World Darts Championship that starts this week.
“It was one of those things you never really spoke about,” says Duffy, remembering her playing days in the 1980s. “You would divert the conversation away from it straight away. You did not want to have it in your consciousness.”
The most well- known player to have developed dartitis is Eric Bristow, the former world champion, who was beset by the condition in 1987. “Your brain is saying ‘For Christ’s sake, let the thing go’,” he said a few years later. “And your arm won’t go anywhere. It’s embarrassing.”
“That sent shock waves through the darting world,” says Duffy. “If Eric could get it, anyone could.”
Duffy says she has heard of least 30 players who have been struck by dartitis, and worries that the modern demands on players will make it more prevalent.
“There is so much money in the sport now and it’s so global that darts players are expected to perform at such a high level,” she says. “There is a lot of psychological and physical pressure on them. Believe it or not, darts is quite an exhausting sport to play.”
Once dartitis hits, the gloomy truth is that it is unlikely that a player will ever be the same again.
“You have to rebuild the psychological concepts that are affected,” says Duffy. “Getting the confidence to release the dart, regardless of where it goes, is very important. Throwing a dart is a very controlled movement. When that is interfered with, the whole thing goes haywire. It’s awful.”