FIFTEEN years ago, Martyn Godwin was a quality darts player, winning trophies, averaging big scores and even playing against Simon Whitlock & Andy Jenkins, who would go on to take the professional world by storm.
However, seven years on from that, whilst he was still playing at that level, he first experienced a pause in his throw, and it ruined his love for the sport, and his chances of going pro.
He described it as “the weirdest pain I’ve ever felt, and it was so embarrassing that a tear ran down my cheek whilst i was playing’.
Dartitis is a psychological injury that can affect a darts players performance drastically. It’s a nervous twitch or tension that destroys concentration and can be linked to fear of failure.
Along with him, a former PDC referee called Jack Langston also struggles with it, and he became a social influencer with over 100k followers on both TikTok & YouTube combined, spreading awareness about his challenges with dartitis.
It hampered him so much that he actually switched hands from right to left just so he could continue playing.
Solent Sports News journalists Ben Brees and Patrick FitzGerald went to go and uncover this mental injury and how something that sounds insignificant, can be so painful.
Tune in to the live news bulletin on the Solent Sports News YouTube channel at 2:30pm to see the package and to learn more about this injury.
