Is darts a sport?

The recognition

In Germany, the Deutscher Dart-Verband (DDV) is the governing association for steel-tip darts and a member of the German Olympic Sports Confederation; the Deutscher Sportautomatenbund (DSAB) organises soft-tip darts with its own leagues. Internationally, the World Darts Federation (WDF) covers the amateur scene with its national associations, and the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) the pro tour with the World Championship, the Premier League and the World Matchplay. In organisational terms, darts is therefore a sport like any other: associations, leagues, player licences, rulebooks, referees.

What darts demands

• Fine motor skills: the same throw repeated to within a few millimetres, hundreds of times an evening
• Concentration: every visit is a decision, every remaining score a calculation
• Nerve: hitting a Double under pressure is the real art
• Stamina: tournament days last eight hours and more, pros spend up to six hours at the board

The Olympic question

Darts is not an Olympic sport. The route there runs through recognition by the International Olympic Committee, which the world association WDF has been pursuing for years, and through inclusion in the programme by the organising committee of each Games. The obstacles are the split between the amateur and the professional association and the pub image. The PDC's attendance figures and TV ratings speak for the sport.

Darts in everyday numbers

Darts in Germany lives in thousands of clubs, venues and league teams, from the district league up to the Bundesliga. Anyone who plays soon notices that the difference between a 50 Average and an 80 Average is years of training, not luck.

What makes the sport trainable

As in shooting or archery, it comes down to the repeatability of a movement. Darts trains fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, balance and concentration over hours; on top of that comes mental arithmetic on every visit. Pros put in several hours of practice a day and work with mental coaches. For hobby players that means: progress is measurable, in Average, Checkout rate and grouping, and it follows the same training principles as in any other sport.

Health and responsibility

The cliché of beer and cigarettes comes from the TV pictures of the eighties. In leagues and at association tournaments, smoking at the board is banned, and in many associations alcohol is prohibited during matches. Clubs take youth protection seriously, and more and more players see darts as a sport that balances out everyday life and brings social contact.

If you want to feel for yourself what darts demands, play a best of 5 against a league player: after three Legs with 60 left and a missed Double, the question of whether it is a sport is answered.

Guides