Darts and Drinking: A Darter's Diet of Beer and Whiskey

Since the inception of the game, darts and drinking have been inextricably tied to pubs. For better or worse it is ever-present in our game today. We rejoice, we indulge, we medicate, we lubricate and sometimes we go overboard. While I do not advocate imbibing while playing, I do not advocate abstinence either. I approach it as an individual choice as opposed to necessity. (A-Z Darts does sell some fun flasks and koozies.)

The game started as a way for military archers to relax and unwind during the interludes in battle. From there, it went through the pubs of antiquity to the stages of the first televised dart tournaments. Every step of the way alcohol has been a part of the game, culture and history. 

To this day, many players playfully say they are on a drinking team with a dart problem. 

As a way to help the image of the game, drinking has been prohibited since 1989 from being done while on stage/camera in a TV tournament – but that does not mean that the professionals don’t drink. They are most certainly having a sip in the practice room and during television breaks. It is seldom that we see them inebriated, but on occasion we have seen some suspect balance and behavior.

There is also a long and continuing history of beverage and spirit companies sponsoring tournaments at home and abroad. Despite all of this, it doesn't answer the questions: Why do we do it? Why does it seem (sometimes) to help our game?

Drinking alcohol does nothing positive to impact any other athletic performance. In fact, it is quite the opposite for basically anything else commonly recognized as a sport. It slows down reaction time and motor skills.

In darts, though, we want to slow things down: our extraneous motion, our thoughts, our anxieties. It has long been my philosophical standing that partaking in alcohol gets done for two reasons: Celebrating and Medicating. Darts seems to lend itself to both types of consumption.

My thought is that most of the consumption falls on the self-medicating spectrum. Let me be clear – Dr. Manhattan does not give out prescriptions for booze to play, nor does any actual doctor. Medicating, or self-medicating in this sense, is much more of an effort to steady the nerves. The Yerkes-Dodson law states that degrees of arousal or stress enhance performance, but only to a certain point. When stress becomes too much, performance wanes. When we feel the stress becoming too much, we look to squelch it with alcohol. 

The interesting irony is that the relationship between stress and performance works along the same bell curve we might think about when it comes to how many drinks we take in. In our minds, we have a conversation with ourselves that says, “First drink, great. Second drink, awesome - keep them coming. Third drink, feeling good. Fourth drink – ok, maintain this feeling.”

We all have our limits and they may be vastly different, but no one is impervious to alcohol’s effects. The law of diminishing marginal utility affects all of us. When an optimal level of productivity is reached, each additional drink contributes less and less until it actually negatively impacts productivity. 

Knowing these limitations are extra tricky for darts players. Drinking while playing darts (medicating) is different than simply having a drink with friends. What physically happens when we feel the nerves bubble up too much? Breaths become shorter which leads to muscle tightening. Adrenaline and other hormones start getting produced and our primal fight or flight response takes hold.

For those who get gripped too tightly by this feeling, many would actually like to not be there (flight) as opposed to stand at the oche and compete effectively (fight). Knowing that we can’t walk away from our match because of overactive nerves, we try to stifle those feelings quickly with drinks. 

Alcohol stimulates a production of cortisol to combat stress. In turn, cortisol facilitates alcohol’s rewarding effects. It is this cycle that happens inside the body that has allowed us in the dart community to witness (or partake in) ungodly consumption in short amounts of time. Most of the time we don’t feel the belligerence of the alcohol until the stress subsides. 

The resulting hormone production wanes, the adrenaline dumps and then the effects of alcohol hits you big time. Boom!

I have seen players drink everything under the sun. But when it comes down to it, at bars and tournaments alike, we are for the mostly a beer and shots crowd. As I playfully like to say, “One for my thirst and the other for my habit.” I like my bottled and canned ice cold Coors Light. That Rocky Mountain nectar quenches well when I am parched. Their Freezy Freakie-like technology lets me know that the Colorado Kool-Aid is ready for consumption.

I also like my bourbon neat, overproof and top shelf. Jim Beam's top shelf bourbon is Bookers and it checks all the boxes. When my spurs are jingling and jangling, that cowboy juice stills and quiets the world. I feel like I could make naked snow angels after one of those. (This is sipping bourbon and not for the faint of heart. It is usually bottled between 121-129 Proof.)

(Caution: DON'T GO MAKING NAKED SNOW ANGELS)

ATTENTION COORS LIGHT AND JIM BEAM - THE HARD DRINKING USA DARTS WORLD AWAITS YOUR SPONSORSHIP OF ME.

When I started, everyone was doing shots of Irish whiskey. I didn’t mind it. It’s what all the best players did shots of. There is this thought that if it helps them with their game, it can help me with mine as though it is part of a secret formula that no one has told you about. It's as if the team shot will baptize you into the society of great darts players. At least that’s what we tell ourselves. While it may not actually do that, at the very least it has been known to forge team camaraderie along the way.

How much we drink as well as what we drink should be dictated by the length and format of the darts we are to play. Is it a casual chuck with a friend after work? Is it league night? Is it a tournament? 

How long your night is should help dictate how much you drink. Sadly in order to know one’s limits, one must test their limits – and that can be detrimental to your game. If you are to drink, PACE yourself. The one thing I highly recommend is if you know that it is going to be a long day or night of darts, have a healthy meal to start your day. After every drink, drink a glass of lemon water with no ice. Lemon water helps level off the pH in your system and the lack of ice prevents the condensation on the glass from affecting your grip.

Managing it for the long haul is a little different. For all of you much younger dart players (of legal drinking age of course), I hate to say it but age eventually catches up with you. If you are wise, the shots will slowly transform into classier sipping beverages and there will be far less of them. There comes a time for all of us when knocking back shots of cheap booze becomes uncouth and unrecoverable. 

The one thing I choose not to do since becoming a strong player is rope anyone into a taking a shot they “had” to do. There is no need to pressure anyone into having drinks they really don’t want or shouldn’t have. I believe that stronger players are beholden to a team. They should recognize that others will likely follow their lead on all things tangential to darts if they think it will make them better. Emotional contagion can pull us in unique directions.

I hate to state the obvious, but dart players as a whole are not among the healthier subcultures out there. The travel, the fast food and the sometimes heavy drinking do not generally add up to a healthy lifestyle. We only need to look at a handful of stories in the professional ranks to see stories of caution – and these are the players trying in earnest to earn a living at it. 

We all need to be mindful of our alcohol intake for our own sake and the health of others. Over my twenty years of playing, I will tell you that my tolerance has changed. As we age we just can't handle as much or as fast, and I promise you that the hangovers that used to alleviate with a morning cup of coffee now take days to recover from. Listen to your body.

Living and playing in NYC, players are afforded easy access to public transportation and a multitude of taxi or car services. Other locales are not so fortunate. When I lived and played in California and Rhode Island, driving was the only option. I purposely got to host establishments an hour early just to have a meal with two beers – and only TWO beers. The rest of the night I would drink lemon water. 

No matter where we live and play, we have heard of players who have gotten pulled over, gotten arrested, gotten their driver’s license suspended, gotten into car accidents and much, much worse. This is not a lecture, this a communal plea. We have a duty of care to our loved ones and to the community at-large to consider their well-being with the actions we take. It is not for any of us to judge how another chooses to partake, but when said choices lead to a ripple effect of consequences, judgement will come forevermore.

There are many a player whom I have met that don’t drink all. I find it commendable for whatever reason they choose to abstain. Live and let live. It is great to know that there are players who will be clear headed at the end of the night. 
 

Everyone needs a designated driver on occasion and the darts community seems to have a lot of them. Some may be former drinkers who no longer drink, some may be types who don’t want alcohol to affect whatever else they might have going on, some may be going to work right after dart night and yet some may never do anything harder than caffeinated soda. 

If you think you have a drinking problem – or the propensity for one – the dart community may be challenging to be around, but it may be just the thing you need to know that help is needed. There is no shame or judgement. The resilience shown by such players in our environments is testimony to their love of the game winning the battle over vice. 

It is worth noting that it is seldom that we practice at home while drinking. It is worth being able to throw in a match the same way. I urge players to transcend the drinking of our culture and learn to throw equally well with and without alcohol. It will make you a better player and give you the confidence you didn’t know you could have. It is a true mental and physiological hurdle, but one that will pay huge dividends when you overcome it. 

There are pros like Chris Dobey that swear to their abstinence and he's among the best in the world. It can be done.

The great thing for our game is that so many more players have started in their youth before drinking is an option. There is a whole new generation of players competing now that did not grow up playing in the pubs. They grew up playing in youth academies. The youth game has grown across the world and it wouldn’t be surprising if shortly we are talking about a world champion who didn't drink. 

Respectfully,

Dax

Dr. Manhattan