“If I’d known this earlier, my ordeal would probably have been much shorter” – Jules van Dongen teams up with a neurologist to treat dartitis

Jules van Dongen has been struggling for some time with the now well-known dartitis. It has become so severe for the American-Dutch player that he has decided to throw left-handed, because he simply couldn’t get his darts to the board with his right arm anymore. This meant a major change, which is also clearly reflected in his standard and averages.

Van Dongen first encountered dartitis last year, when he suddenly had trouble getting his darts towards the board. “It’s like a short circuit in your hand,” said the 35-year-old in an interview with the AD.

He still remembers his first match at the 2025 UK Open. Despite his struggles he travelled to England, but in the first round he went down without a chance. “I just broke completely after three darts. I played the entire match with tears in my eyes,” he says. He lost the match 6-0 and averaged just 61.11. “I thought: I’m not going to give up. That’s not in me. I kept my head down the entire match. It was very hard, especially with so many people watching. I could feel their discomfort.”

After that match it went wrong again. “An hour later I had a panic attack. I had never had that in my life. Then the PDC doctors came to the rescue,” said Van Dongen. He then decided not to touch his darts for more than four months. “I had hoped the PDC would have offered a bit more help. If Michael van Gerwen had the same problems, it would get much more attention.”

However, Van Dongen decided not to throw in the towel and chose to start throwing left-handed. With that arm he does throw smoothly, but in terms of standard the Meerssen darter has to start again from scratch. “The talent is of course in the right hand,” he says with a laugh.

He believes the PDC should pay more attention to this condition. Big and well-known names like Nathan Aspinall, Gian van Veen and even Phil Taylor have faced it during their careers. And for Van Dongen it means he lost his professional status, source of income and love for the sport.

“When it kept getting worse, I started seeking help,” says Van Dongen. He tried everything: a psychologist, physiotherapist, hand specialist, nerve tests, acupuncture, hypnotherapy and an MRI scan of his neck. But nothing helped. “Of all those specialists, not one advised me to see a neurologist.”

And Van Dongen has now found that neurologist. He has travelled to the Netherlands specifically to work with neurologist Erik van Wensen, who specializes in movement disorders in sport. He offers an interesting perspective: is dartitis all in the mind?

Van Wensen is conducting doctoral research into the so-called yips: a sudden, involuntary muscle contraction best known from golf. Unlike conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, these muscle contractions occur only during a specific movement — for example, when releasing a dart. In the medical field, such disorders are referred to as task-specific dystonias.

“Dystonia is an abnormal muscle contraction. Your brain commands your muscles to make deliberate movements, which should happen smoothly,” says Van Wensum. “With dystonia, multiple muscles contract that should actually be relaxed. That causes a kind of cramp.”

Van Wensum has already seen several dart players. “Darters always come with a typical story: that at a certain point they can no longer release the dart and their hand cramps. You can clearly see a cramp in Jules’s right hand. With his less talented left hand, he actually throws much more cleanly,” he concludes.

Van Wensum dismisses the idea that dartitis is a psychological condition or that it’s all in the mind and linked to fear of failure. “There’s more going on. It’s a neurological problem in which the psyche does play a role, but it is not a psychological disorder. That bothers me.” Yet there is still no scientific explanation or solution.

“A fellow darter said he felt very sorry for me, but also found it uncomfortable to talk about,” says Van Dongen. “He thought: if I think about it, I’ll get it myself too.” Van Wensum responds: “That is, of course, nonsense. They act as if it’s a contagious virus. Meanwhile the issue is being swept under the rug, when it should be pulled out of that corner.”

Van Dongen concludes with the message that he hopes other dart players will consider visiting a neurologist sooner in the future. “If I had known that earlier, my ordeal would probably have been much shorter.”