Curing the yips!

[CMAC]

heres a crazy idea I've just adopted with positive results- I grip the putter with my normal club grip with left hand i.e in the fingers as opposed to most putter grips which can be in the palms- it does make the putter nose sit up ALA Seve but I think he was an ok putter


I use that grip for 13 other clubs so why not the putter- instantly comfortable is one benefit

 

[delc]

Seems more and more like you don't actually have a problem with the Yips at all!

And maybe never did!

So I'm out!

You obviously didn't see the 7 I once had on a par-3 hole! Tee shot to about 20 feet, and then 6 putts, 5 of them within 3 feet of the hole!

 

[HawkeyeMS]

In answer to HawkeyeMS I have come across quite a few senior golfers with the yips. One right-handed player at my former club had them so badly that he ended up putting left handed, because that was the only way he could do it. It's not shaking hands BTW, because I played in a match against a guy who was suffering from Parkinson's disease: He had shaking hands but could still putt quite well!

I know that my problem is related to my right arm or hand. Earlier this year I watched the delectable Cheyenne Woods practising her putting on the practice green at the Buckinghamshire course in Denham. She normally putts left hand below right, but she was practising four footers just using her right hand. She still holed about 40 out of 40 putts, which was seriously impressive. I went back and tried the same exercise on our practice green and the putts went everywhere except into the hole! Yet I found that I could putt quite well gripping with only my left hand.

Del, I remember from a previous post that you had something like a dozen players at you club who apparently had the yips. That to me is way to many people for one person to know who have the yips, let alone all at the same club. Your obsession with them is in my opinion leading you to diagnose bad putting as the yips. You may think you aren't obsessed, but your posts on here suggest otherwise.

Foxholer is right, changing your putting grip after reading an article about curing the yips when you don't have the yips is a daft idea.

 

[delc]

Del, I remember from a previous post that you had something like a dozen players at you club who apparently had the yips. That to me is way to many people for one person to know who have the yips, let alone all at the same club. Your obsession with them is in my opinion leading you to diagnose bad putting as the yips. You may think you aren't obsessed, but your posts on here suggest otherwise.

Foxholer is right, changing your putting grip after reading an article about curing the yips when you don't have the yips is a daft idea.

Please bear in mind that many of my friends are seniors, most of whom have played golf for a long time. The Mayo Clinic report estimated that about 40% of golfers will develop the yips if they play for long enough, and I believe the SAM putting labs have found a similar percentage of golfers who have a potential yip in their putting stroke that (usually) hasn't yet become obvious in their actual putting!

I would prefer not to use the claw grip, but it does guarantee that I can make a smooth putting stroke under pressure. In fact when I changed to it, it was like the difference between night and day!

 

[srixon 1]

Seems to me you are more likely to get them back than find a 'proper' solution. Stay well away from anything that could trigger their return would be my advice!

Like continually harping on about them. If you think about them all the time then they will never go away.

 

[Deleted member 15344]

Is this on a 6 monthly cycle ?

This must be the 4 time now we have had a thread on the "yips"

And the conclusion is the same - it's an excuse for poor technique

 

[Foxholer]

And the conclusion is the same - it's an excuse for poor technique

Special 'guest return' from me.....

It's more than simply 'poor technique'! Otherwise, guys like Bernhardt Langer, a seriously obsessive type, would have found a simple way round them - that doesn't involve a broomstick! Many of the greats - Snead, Hogan, Palmer, Nelson, Watson - had significant periods fighting them. So there's obviously more to it than just technique! That said, finding a technique that avoids - as opposed to overcomes - them is all that needs to happen.

 

[HawkeyeMS]

Please bear in mind that many of my friends are seniors, most of whom have played golf for a long time. The Mayo Clinic report estimated that about 40% of golfers will develop the yips if they play for long enough, and I believe the SAM putting labs have found a similar percentage of golfers who have a potential yip in their putting stroke that (usually) hasn't yet become obvious in their actual putting!

I would prefer not to use the claw grip, but it does guarantee that I can make a smooth putting stroke under pressure. In fact when I changed to it, it was like the difference between night and day!

You aren't the only golfer with senior golfer friends, I am not a senior but play regularly with senior golfers, there are also many many senior golfers on here. I'd hazard a guess that you are are in a very very small group of people (possibly a group of one) who know anyone with the actual yips, let alone more than 5.

What the hell is a "potential yip"?

 

[delc]

You aren't the only golfer with senior golfer friends, I am not a senior but play regularly with senior golfers, there are also many many senior golfers on here. I'd hazard a guess that you are are in a very very small group of people (possibly a group of one) who know anyone with the actual yips, let alone more than 5.

What the hell is a "potential yip"?

It's not just seniors, it's seniors who have played golf for a long time. People who take up golf in their 40's and 50's will probably die or give up golf before they develop the yips. It's generally pros and keen long term amateurs who succumb. The yips were career ending for several big name pros, including Ben Hogan who could still play fantastic tee-to-green golf but could no longer putt. Bernhardt Langer had the yips by the age of 21 and beat them by a series of unusual putting methods ending up with a broom handle style. Sam Snead tried Croquet style putting (now banned) and then side saddle putting to stay competitive. A potential yip is a jerky putting stroke that can be detected by the sophisticated equipment in putting labs, but not yet obvious to the player. When you get the full blown yips, it's as though the club goes off in your hands, or like putting with a live snake! :mmm:

 

[HawkeyeMS]

It's not just seniors, it's seniors who have played golf for a long time. People who take up golf in their 40's and 50's will probably die or give up golf before they develop the yips. It's generally pros and keen long term amateurs who succumb. The yips were career ending for several big name pros, including Ben Hogan who could still play fantastic tee-to-green golf but could no longer putt. Bernhardt Langer had the yips by the age of 21 and beat them by a series of unusual putting methods ending up with a broom handle style. Sam Snead tried Croquet style putting (now banned) and then side saddle putting to stay competitive. A potential yip is a jerky putting stroke that can be detected by the sophisticated equipment in putting labs, but not yet obvious to the player. When you get the full blown yips, it's as though the club goes off in your hands, or like putting with a live snake! :mmm:

Like I said earlier, you're obsessed

 

[chrisd]

When you get the full blown yips, it's as though the club goes off in your hands, or like putting with a live snake! :mmm:

On the rare occasion it's "gone off in my hands" is always been a swing fault, generally I've taken it further back than I've intended and walloped it too hard - that is a swing fault, so, if a swing fault caused by the brain trying to adjust a poor swing is "the yips" then I guess we're really agreeing that the yips is a real phenomenon, but known usually by it's other name " a bad swing"

 

[Deleted member 15344]

On the rare occasion it's "gone off in my hands" is always been a swing fault, generally I've taken it further back than I've intended and walloped it too hard - that is a swing fault, so, if a swing fault caused by the brain trying to adjust a poor swing is "the yips" then I guess we're really agreeing that the yips is a real phenomenon, but known usually by it's other name " a bad swing"

Summed up nicely :thup:

 

[Ethan]

I think there are several things being mixed in here. There are some people who develop almost a phobia of putting where they can't pull the trigger or twitch at it and send a 3 footer 12 feet past. I reckon that is pretty rare, though.

What is probably more common is people who just get worse at putting as they get older. Maybe they weren't great to start, but as they get older, they ir eyesight gets worse, including depth perception, they get some essential tremor, their grip gets affected by some arthritis or tendonitis and all of these add up to them missing a lot of putts.

In fact, I have just found a scientific reference which described the yips as on a continuum (spectrum) between focal dystonia and choking. That sounds sensible and likely. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12477375

As for the Mayo Clinic, it is a sign of all that ails the US healthcare system if people are going to an international tertiary referral centre because of bad putting. Of course, the middle aged yippy golfer probably has some money to spend, and the US healthcare system is a business first.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I have to agree with the majority and say you don't have the yips and probably never have. You are just a very poor putter. I know around 40 senior golfers (50+) at my club that I play with on a regular basis and none of them are yippers. Some aren't very good, mostly from very short range and none ever practice. I've seen four and five putts and not one has ever said they have the yips.

 

[bobmac]

The 'yips' are the result of a lack of confidence in ones ability.
IMO

 

[palindromicbob]

A thread triggered by the magazine this forum is an extension for, and it is rapidly descending into a argument amongst the usual culprits.


Slowly I've grown to hate this place yet for some reason I keep floating back. Maybe it's time for me to cut the supply.

now, where is the delete profile button.

 

[Foxholer]

The 'yips' are the result of a lack of confidence in ones ability.
IMO

That's a very broad description though isn't it Bob?

Was it Langer's lack of confidence that caused his? And at what level? Lack of confidence in his overall game? His putting in general? Or (just) his short putting? From memory, it was just his short-ish putts

With 2 of the guys I've known who have had yips, it has been restricted to just short puts, even 15" ones - and it was scary! One of the guys 'cured' it by putting left-handed, originally just for short ones, carrying both a left and a right-handed putter, but eventually went to left-handed for everything.

 

[chrisd]

A thread triggered by the magazine this forum is an extension for, and it is rapidly descending into a argument amongst the usual culprits.


Slowly I've grown to hate this place yet for some reason I keep floating back. Maybe it's time for me to cut the supply.

now, where is the delete profile button.

We would all press that button if every thread was nicey nicey and everyone agreeing with everyone!

 

[richart]

Haven't read all the posts, but are forumers saying that putting yips do not exist ? Have a word with Langer. He has had them more than once. Nothing to do with technique. I seem to remember he changed to his arm clamp style after five putting from about three feet.

I know there are a few Pro' s that have had chipping yips, and that has nothing to do with a bad technique. Golf is not the only sport where you can get the yips. Cricketers especially bowlers can get them. Keith Medlycott had to give up the game, because he couldn't release the ball. Eric Bristow got them in darts, and their was a Russian tennis player that could throw the ball up to serve.

I agree that a lot of amateurs are just bad putters, and don't have the yips, but they are real.

 

[chrisd]

That's a very broad description though isn't it Bob?

Was it Langer's lack of confidence that caused his? And at what level? Lack of confidence in his overall game? His putting in general? Or (just) his short putting? From memory, it was just his short-ish putts

With 2 of the guys I've known who have had yips, it has been restricted to just short puts, even 15" ones - and it was scary! One of the guys 'cured' it by putting left-handed, originally just for short ones, carrying both a left and a right-handed putter, but eventually went to left-handed for everything.

I had a real problem for a while missing very short putts, and it mean from a foot even, I guess for a while I thought of it as the yips but after a while I realised that I was turning the right hand over as I putted and I often swayed towards the cup. I worked hard on correcting the faults as I began to stand over putts and just know I was going to miss and usually did.

The changes of technique helped me make those putts much more frequently and my confidence grew and my mental attitude from negative became positive, so, I'm convinced that the yips are just the fear of failure and caused by a bad technique and so is purely caused in the mind