Getting Over the Yips

From a faithful reader who signed his E-mail simply "Dartitus":

Just wanted to write to you about a bout of "Dartitus" I had recently and how I overcame it.

I have been playing darts for about 10 years now and when I first started playing I picked up the game fairly quickly and threw pretty solid darts. I started playing in tournaments and trying to get better and noticed that most of the better darters or pro's would follow through when throwing their darts. When I would throw I noticed I would not follow through but would snap the dart instead. Although I threw pretty good with this method I thought if I emulate the pro darters method I could get better and more consistent.

I started practicing at home following through and after awhile I was getting pretty good with this method but I was not playing as good as I used to. I tried this for about a year and wasn't improving enough for my satisfaction. So I changed my style back to my old way and started playing better at first. Well, it was summer and I wasn't playing in league and wasn't practicing enough. When league came around again I started playing and that is when it hit, the dreaded "Dartitus" reared its ugly head and swallowed me whole. I couldn't release the dart. I would get up to the line and my muscles would tighten in my arm and I could not let go of the dart! If you have not experienced Dartitus, let me tell you it is absolutely the most frustrating thing that could ever happen to you.

I figured if I practiced enough this would go away and I would be back on the road to becoming a professional..lol. Well it got worse and my league play got worse and I was very close to quitting darts completely. I tried everything I could think of and it didn't work. Then one day I brought out the video camera and taped myself throwing and replayed it and noticed that I was not bringing my arm back at all. I was keeping my elbow in the right place but wasn't bringing my arm back and releasing but snapping the dart forward. I forced myself to bring the dart back by over exaggerating my throw and I found that I could release the dart. I was still having a few problems releasing the dart so I started turning the lights off and throwing at the board. This helps because you are not concentrating on a particular number and your mind is focused on your throw and release of the dart.

Well it has been about 6 months now and I'm still throwing without the problem of releasing the dart and getting better and better each day. Hopefully I do not go through this again and if anyone else does hopefully this story might help them get rid of this ugly disease.

Signed,
Dartitus