The yips are golf's equivalent of a horrible degenerative disease. No, not one that kills you, but instead a lingering sickness where you live on to experience a troubled and painful existence. Short two and three foot puts are jerked, jabbed and stabbed at with increasing futility and embarrassment, and all hope of recovery is abandoned. Your scores skyrocket and the game is no longer fun. Thoughts of quitting golf float through your head. You have the dreaded yips.
The yips? Well, this may be a little overly dramatic, but having the yips is definitely not an enjoyable thing. According to a Mayo Clinic study, more than one third of all golfers may be affected and a case of the yips will add almost 5 strokes to an 18 hole score. Besides ruining many an amateurs' pleasure in the game of golf, the yips have even driven pro golfers from their profession and source of income. So what is this dreaded affliction?
The yips are simply the inability to execute a smooth stroke, most commonly the short putt. We are not talking about garden variety "choking" which can affect any of us any time we are feeling too much pressure, for whatever reason, and fail to deliver our best stroke. No, the yips are an involuntary and uncontrollable twitch or jerk which occurs repeatedly on shorter putts, usually of five to six feet or less. This is not to say that the yippers' mental state has no bearing on the problem, because the yips, while they may come and go, are more prevalent during competitive play.
So what then is the cause of these yips? One possible cause is a neurological glitch called focal dystonia, which essentially is an involuntary contraction of the muscles used in the putting stroke. As Charles Adler, M.D., who is a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic has said, "In many golfers, the yips may be a task-specific disorder in which the act of putting or swinging the golf club may cause a twitch or shake that disrupts the movement". The Mayo Clinic study did identify differences between golfers with the yips and their un-afflicted fellow players. Golfers suffering from the yips experience higher rates of muscle activity in the wrists and forearms, in addition to more activity in the left brain. Additionally, yippers tend to have faster heart rates while putting and a greater grip force.
While it seems obvious that an over thinking, tense muscled, heart pounding, grip choking putter might not perform optimally, it begs the question of whether yips are a mental or physical phenomena. This appears to be a mind-body version of the chicken-egg type question of which comes first. Obviously muscular or nervous system irregularities could lead to bad putting just as bad putting could trigger anxiety and nerves. It seems the two cannot be separated and for the golfer, this question is of relative unimportance. The vital question is, what can be done about the yips.
Well, the good news is that yips can be, if not cured, then at least circumvented. From a physical standpoint, the most important and easiest thing to do may be to change your putting grip. Changing to a "saw" or "Claw" grip takes the dominant wrist out of the equation and by itself can cure the problem. Witness the revival of famous yipper Mark O'Meara after he changed to the saw grip. Watch the pros on television any week and see the variety of grips they use in an effort to avoid short putt difficulties. Another option is the long putter, used by V J Singh and now many others, which relieves some putting muscle tension by employing a pendulum motion.
You can also change the grip itself. Mark Calcavecchia uses an extremely thick grip on his putter in order to take some tension out of his grip.
Finally, relaxation and a positive outlook are extremely important in good putting. You must believe you are going to make your short putts, yet not be so attached to the outcome that you tighten up just thinking about it. After all, unless you are putting to win the Open, it's just a game. So have no fear, because with some changes, the yips can disappear.
About this Author
Chris Tatro is an avid golfer from Mt Shasta, CA. You can find more interesting golf tidbits and some great golfing tips and deals at http://bettergolfnow.net
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