Nathan Aspinall has given an insight into his ongoing battle with dartitis during an emotional interview ahead of the World Darts Championship.
If you haven't heard of the term dartitis, then let me explain.
Dartitis is a psychological condition that affects darts players and makes it difficult for them to release the dart at the right time. It can severely impact a player's performance and is often compared to 'the yips' in other sports like golf and tennis.
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The Oxford English Dictionary featured the word for the first time in 2007 and defined it as "a state of nervousness which prevents a player from releasing a dart at the right moment when throwing."
The condition has affected some high-profile names in the past, including Mark Webster, Berry van Peer, Mark Walsh and the late Eric Bristow, whose career was drastically cut short by dartitis.
Now, the 2023 Matchplay champion Nathan Aspinall has opened up on his ongoing battle with the condition that started in a 2023 Premier League match against Peter Wright.
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He was 4-0 up and just two legs from victory against Wright when he started to lose control of his darts. Aspinall ended up losing the game 6-5.
"All of a sudden out of nowhere I couldn't throw my effing dart," Aspinall explained on Sky Sports' Game of Throws:Inside Darts documentary. "I just couldn't let it go. It ended up getting worse and worse and worse to the point where I was in tears.
"Because I knew what it was. The dreaded D-word that no darts player ever wants to hear or get. Something called dartitis. It's horrific, no one ever wants to get it. Not many people come back from it.
"It's basically the fear of missing. There's somewhere deep in the back of your head saying 'you're going to miss this' so you stop."
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Aspinall, who has previously described that night as the lowest point of his darting career, added: "I lost the game 6-5, I went upstairs after the game and I was in the toilet and I was absolutely smashing ten lumps of s*** out of the hand dryer. I lost my head."
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Speaking to Metro earlier this year, Aspinall gave a further insight into that night.
"I had a hell of a lot of stuff going on personally, I won’t go into that, but it was a combination of everything going on in my life at that moment caused me to have a mini breakdown," he said. "My head completely fell off and I started this dartitis.
"I’ve always had a bit of a re-grip issue in my throw, but it wasn’t just that, it was in my head, I was scared of missing. That went on probably until the back end of last year. I won the Matchplay with it. I’ve dealt with it well, had some fantastic people around me sorting it out and now that it’s gone I’m playing rubbish.
"It was massively psychological. I speak to a sport psychologist every couple of weeks and he’s worked wonders with me. He sorted the issues out that I was having."
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He added: "The biggest thing with it is that it’s tiring. You’re on the stage playing Gerwyn Price, he’s just throwing his darts. I throw my three darts then at the back of the stage I’ve got little things on my case to battle the fear of missing. I have a picture of my kids to remind me what I’m doing it for.
"So I look at that, take a deep breath, then I might throw two darts and it kicks in, so I step back, breathe, constantly think about it. Doing that every day is bloody hard. I was just getting tired more than anything, I didn’t want to even practice. It was the challenge of my life but another one that I’ve overcome."
Topics: Darts
Jack Kenmare