Josip Mrgan Darts In an attempt to systematically document the development of contemporary darts sport we began with the analysis of some bizzare details dating from the ancient times. The first natural and rough movements of throwing and handling objects in the ancient and turbulent history had some common qualities, with the dominant aim to survive or to fight your natural enemy. The dynamic gradation of throwing objects made it possible for the development of the javelin , later the short javelin, the use of different typological arrows, later the bow and the crossbow. The dramaturgy of the mentioned war forms and life details is not a deception or some irrational history in the development of darts sport, it is a common foundation from which different activites and sports of precision and throwing originated. A similar course of development takes place in Croatia. After a somewhat frustrating early history, various heroic games, knight games and folk customs appear. They are usually of entertaining purposes in which one had to shoot at a moving or a still target. A more meaningful development of darts sport began with shooting at dried wooden boards which were marked with naturally dried tree rings and therefore represented the first improvised target. Later, the bottom of an overturned wine or beer barrel served this purpose. The term „darts“ appears in an English dictionary in 1934 (Oxford English Dictionary), it is also present in the Spanish word “el picador“ (the one who pokes or pierces), the German word „Wurfpfeilspiel“, and the French „butt“ (a target). Further development is connected to France and England. The target is clearly structured, the position of numbers is defined, the distance as well. First competitions are organised, first books on this subject published. Two types of darts sport are developed: traditional and soft tip darts (since 1975). First umbrella organisations are established in Europe and in the world. IDF is established on the international level, followed by EDU which is reorganised on 5 January 2008. Two leading organisation for soft tip darts are in the opposition to WDF (steel tip darts). After some short period of rivalry two opposite sides begin to share more of their views which results in organising the World Cup. The aim of it was to join the Olympic sports family. In Croatia the predecesor of the establishment of Croatian Darts Federation was Croatian Federation of Compact Sports (1992) which, together with darts, included billiards, laser gun and foosball. After becoming independent (1999), Croatian Darts Federation develops a permanent activity. A notable event (1 December 2005) was the admission of Croatian Darts Federation (CDF) to Croatian Olympic Committee (COC), followed by the project of 1000 dart machines being given to 1000 schools, opening of modern rooms for darts (2012) and establishment of a study programme at the Faculty of Kinesiology at University of Zagreb. Other notable activities are the publishing of the magazine „Darts“ and a permanent web activity. A special turn and the epilogue of its development were sports- organised counties and a branched system of competitions. Croatian male team in 13 European championships wins 8 medals (they were European champions 6 times – in 1999, 2000, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012). Females are also successful (they are first in 2002, 2004, third in 2009 and 2010). The company Cyberdine becomes the leading company for the production of dart machines and starts selling licenced products across the world. Nowadays, darts is a sport which has a meaningful anthropological definition and a branched system of competitions as well as high quality players and top results. The anthropological analysis of the sport indicates major professional and scientific facts which describe morphological and anthropometric dimension, motor skills, functional skills, psychological characteristics, social and health status. We used physical development variables to describe longitudinal and transversal skeleton dimensionality, body volume and body mass, as well as subcutaneous fat tissue. The average height of a darter aged 35.75 years is 182.27 cm (SD=7.65), weighing 95.08 kg (SD= 14.48), ITM = 28.71. Females are 174.1 cm tall (SD= 76.8). Team members are generally older – 36.64 years old,183.18 tall, weighing 96.42 kg and ITM = 28.54. Despite the differences in the original results in favour of team members, such differences are not statistically important, with the exceptance of the forefinger and the little finger diameter. When referring to body composition darts players have dominantly high endomorphous component (6.5 – 5 – 1.5). Therefore, we are talking about overweight people with high musculoskeletal robustness. When describing their motor skills, the dominating ones are those giving priority to accurate coordination of spatial objects with arm movements of big amplitude and which are at the same time closely connected with cognitive abilities. The specially dominating ones are precision, balance, flexibility – therefore the superior mechanism of tonus and synergetic regulation. From the functional point of view, darts players spend 3 to 5 minutes moving in one leg, and 9 to 15 minutes per match. During a single-day competition the players do from 6.25 to 7.08 km or 8.340 to 9.838 steps. The psychological dimension is also of high importance – therefore sports psychologists (a research psychologist, a clinical or a counselling psychologist and a sports psychologist/ educator) are necessary in the darts training process. A darter's health status is prone to various addictions: smoking (59% males, 89% females), alcohol, coffee, overeating (causing obesity). Dartitis is a special condition, which manifests itself in causing a sort of an obstruction when throwing and releasing a dart therefore causing a considerable inaccuracy. The model of a top darter shows that such a player is defined by his/her motor abilities (precision, coordination, balance), logitudinal measures, psychological characteristics and external influences. Technical characteristics of darts players include - body position at the oche or toe-line, natural grip, dart position and target focus; analitical throwing stages (aiming, arm flexion and cock; the drawback stage – acceleration, extension, throw and release and follow-through (following the dart until the full arm extension). The game tactics refers to the opening shots, mid-game shots and the out-shot. Croatian male darters with their first three darts dominantly throw triple 20 (T20), while females equally prefer triple 20 (T20) and double 19 (T19). The result of „the first hand“ throwing is not crucial in the final score of the leg, although the third dart shows a somewhat bigger importance. Two thirds of darters will, after the „the first hand“, find themselves in the range from 433 to 477 points (the score of the first three darts is 44 points). In the middle part of the game we differ two situations. Here it is important to have as better average as possible and it is advisable to direct the „fourth“ dart for the best combination of the out-shot. The out-shot is the final and the most important stage of x01 games. There are three versions (single out, double out and double/triple or master out). Within the span of particular target groups and their combinations there exist numerous possible versions. From the biomechanical point of view researches show that multi-segmented system of upper body parts (fine motor skills) is a unique quality in human species. In scientific and technical literature greatest attention is given to trajectories and movements (paths of movements in space) of typical body points such as the centre of the shoulder joint, elbow joint and wrist joint, as well as studying their kinematic variables such as speed, acceleration, angular velocity and angular acceleration. The conducted correlation analysis of the connection between the results and the horizontal movement shows that if one wants to achieve better results, shoulder movements have to be smaller. Furthermore, when top darters are concerned, the activation is more synchronised , including time synchronisation, which shows neuromuscular coordination of greater number of muscles. Such phenomenon is a quality of a trained movement or a performance technique. Within the anatomy analysis we describe the muscles and their movements, especially of the arm.