Human movement scientist on science behind darts: 'Darts is definitely a real sport'

Is darts a sport? It is a time-honoured debate that resurfaces every now and then. Quest, a scientific magazine, looked into it.

It turns out, for instance, that darters still cover quite some distance during their matches. "A darter stands exactly 2.37 metres away from the board. That seems nothing, but if you cover that 2.37 often enough, can't it still be a considerable distance? If you assume six throws per leg, a darter walks 28.44 metres per leg (six times to the board and back). During a match lasting 20 legs, a darter thus covers 569 metres to and from the board. Figures from the Canadian Academy of Sports and Nutrition show that one hour of darts burns about 100 kilocalories.

In football, the figure is 710. In short: based on walking distance, darts is not an elite sport. But on the other hand: then the hundred-metre sprint would not be a real sport either. So with this, we are not yet much wiser."

Quest then turned to Movement scientist and psychologist Raôul Oudejans (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam). "Darts is a real aiming task, where you have to be focused on the board. Just one centimetre to the left or right makes a big difference. It is more than a simple arm movement. So the arm movement is not physically demanding. But you do have to move your arm every time in exactly the way you want the arrow to go. And that takes a lot of control, good hand-eye coordination and a lot of practice. In that respect, you could call darts a sport," says Oudejans.

More and more darters are working on their bodies and living healthy. "I should have lived healthy before. There are more and more types who do and are in the gym a lot. Then you can concentrate better," Raymond van Barneveld told AD in 2019.

Oudejans also recently researched darts under great pressure. First, people threw darts onto a board from a climbing wall at a height of ten centimetres. Then they threw darts again, but at a height of seven metres. "During training, people threw a lot worse at seven metres, under great fear with a high heart rate," says Oudejans. "But when they had trained under these conditions, throwing arrows under great pressure later went a lot better. To become mentally strong and not succumb to pressure, darters need to practise on situations outside their comfort zone."

Time to make a final conclusion with Oudejans. "If you look at what the characteristics of sport are, darts ticks a lot of boxes of them. Only in terms of covering metres does it not score high. But: in the end, you enter into a competition and compete with each other. That brings a lot of mental pressure. And your movement skills are crucial. Darts a sport? A long shot."