"Overcoming the Yips: A Personal Journey to Regaining Confidence and Control"

A mysterious term that puts a lot of fear into all of us! There is a lot of technical definitions out there, but I will define it as uncontrolled physical movements caused by over thinking of the brain during an athletic action that causes a negative outcome.  They generally occur when we are putting, chipping or driving the ball off the tee.  They also occur in other sports such as volleyball, fastball or even corn hole (the last two have happened to me).

My first time with the yips

I played competitive fastball growing up and into my 20’s and was the catcher on my team.  I was reasonably proficient at my position and as a team we travelled to many weekend tournaments where there was the opportunity to win prize money and trophies.  If possible, we would add pitchers to either beef up our roster or get help when one of regular pitchers couldn’t make it that weekend.  One weekend, an import pitcher we brought in and had a habit of standing on the mound very straight legged to receive the ball back from me.  If the throw wasn’t perfect, he would almost fall over making the catch.  This resulted in me really trying to aim my throw back to him and eventually I experienced uncontrollable movements that caused me to make the most terrible throws back to the pitcher.  This was the beginning of my first battle of the yips (A name I had no idea at the time existed). This became quite embarrassing and eventually after trying a number of different solutions quit playing fastball altogether. 

So, what causes the yips?

There are two reasons the yips will occur, performance anxiety and/or poor technique which causes performance anxiety.  In my fastball example, I didn’t have poor technique to throw ball but was so afraid of making that pitcher “fall over” that I made my brain intervene in my throwing action to make the perfect throw – ugh, that didn’t work.  I did have success with external focus – concentrating on the target (pitchers’ glove) but this would occasionally fail if I let it!

So, what can be done?

The first thing is to check technique - that’s the easiest to fix.  Most of the yips I see on the golf course these days is with chipping, pitching and putting.  Poor technique has caused performance anxiety and some pretty awful compensations that has made those touch shots the most stressful shot a person plays and for some, may make you want to quit golf altogether. Let me give you some PGA tour stats to help you with the performance anxiety you feel.  A typical tour player, from 10 to 25 yards will average about 7 feet from the hole and statistically only make that putt 59% of the time.  They are not getting up and down every time!  PGA tour players make 3-foot putts 96% of the time while a 90’s golfer only make that 3-footer 84% of the time! Frankly folks, we just aren’t that good to even think about perfect, but we sure like to tie ourselves in a knot thinking we should be capable of tour results. Remember why you are out there, laugh about the misses, stop feeding the emotional side of the yips and enjoy the great outdoors with your family and friends!

How can we help at Golf 4 Life Grandview?

We will improve your technique and skill, bring balance to your own expectations, train you to become more external focused and to playing golf in the present moment.

Golf is 4 Life: let’s enjoy it along the way!