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I can't believe it...

When we understand exactly how long it takes a conscious action, complex movement to be carried out
we will be on the right track to explain what we are doing to create, the YIPS.
ie time for conscious intent to be carried out consciously by neurons (genetic limitations),
activating muscles(agonist and antagonistic)

Even olympic calibre coaches in gymnastics havent figured out the "twisties". eg Simone Biles
My instructor explained it to me in 10 minutes... YIPS gone.
 
I had the full on yips for over a year. It absolutely KILLED me in league play. I was scared to death to roll a short putt. I was OK on putts over 6 feet. But I was an absolute disaster on short putts. Just a bad stubby shot with no control. I tried everything from booze to switching to conventional (had always been left hand low) to mental drills....everything.

I finally took a putting lesson. The instructor taped my swing and used trackman (I think) to show my face angle. Long story short, for whatever reason my right hand was twitching during the stroke. No idea why.

He put me into a claw grip similar to the one referenced in the post about O'Meara above. The difference was immediate. It's been almost 2 years and I haven't yipped a putt once. And putting overall/especially short putts have become a strength of my game.
 
Try ...

Less tension in your fingers or palm on the grip and softer arms.

Don't stand over the putt

Read it and go

It's the process, not the result - this one doesn't work for me either.

I went to a more athletic stroke, less thinking, softer arms, relaxed grip, get over the ball and go.
 
Slow back, slow thru. If you have a pop stroke it makes putting harder with the yips. I used to putt with a quick pop stroke and when I started missing knee knockers I just dreaded putting. I learned this slow back/slow thru method by accident. I bought Creative Golf 3D simulation for my launch monitor and it wouldn’t read 90% of my putts. Just out of curiosity I tried a smoother slow back/slow thru stroke and it started ready every putt. Once I started using the method on course I started sinking literally everything inside 6 feet, and started making much longer putts than before. My confidence putting is thru the roof.
 
My name is Chef23 and I am a yipper. The claw or saw grip can definitely help. Not having your right palm face the hole helps keep it from getting jumpy.

Personally I went to a broomstick a long time ago. When the anchoring ban came I went back to a shorty with the claw and I was a pretty good putter with it but I am just better with the long putter.

I do agree that it is definitely in my head. On a practice green I am great with a short stick. I have done a fitting including SAM multiple times and my stroke is very good. I just can’t putt when it counts and I am not a professional so none of it should matter.
 
Quit trying to guide and control the putter.

Get in a stance where your arms can hang down directly beneath your shoulders. Where you don't have to reach out for the putter or are not trying to keep in tight to your body. Natural.

Imagine the speed at which you want the ball to roll into the hole.

Now rock your shoulders to start the pendulum. Let the weight of the club and your arms control the putter, its swing, and its path, not you. Let go of control.

If it goes in great, if not, say "oh well" and try again next time. You cannot yip if you're allowing physics to control the club. If you do yip, it means you're still trying to be in control.
 
Matthew said:
Electro shock, only scientifically proven method to get rid of it.
Or just get super drunk & start putting. Gotta reset the brain.
Click to expand...
Science.
 
They say that Cantlay uses the line on the ball for anything within 5 feet.

Try it.

Outside of that, it's not needed.

Another drill to free you up is to look at the hole for everything within 5 feet. As a drill.
 
Try changing your grip to left hand low or if you have a friend with a putter in the garage that is the opposite hand give it a try for a few games. And then go back.
 
As many I agree its a mental situation that causes it. IMO making a physical adjustment, would just make you think more about the current situation and possibly magnifying the problem. Im may cases i can see it being a Self Fulfilling Prophecy.

If my buddy had it and i was trying to help, i would try to get him to convince himself its not a "incurable disease" that some fear. Perhaps convincing him he doesn't have it ight be the next step. Maybe minor adjustments to the preshot with an addition of a breathing process. Maybe a qouck realaxation focus, a mental relaxation checklist so to speak.
 
For those that have never had the Ys there is no rational fix that I have been able to find. I know my golf doesn't matter. I have gone LHL, claw, eyes closed, look at the hole etc. On the practice green I putt like the single digit that I am. On the golf course in a match I don't.

Logic doesn't help. The claw helps, a broomstick helps and I believe the armlock could help also. It is totally in people's brain and getting it out of there is very difficult.
 
BigTreble said:
As many I agree its a mental situation that causes it. IMO making a physical adjustment, would just make you think more about the current situation and possibly magnifying the problem. Im may cases i can see it being a Self Fulfilling Prophecy.

If my buddy had it and i was trying to help, i would try to get him to convince himself its not a "incurable disease" that some fear. Perhaps convincing him he doesn't have it ight be the next step. Maybe minor adjustments to the preshot with an addition of a breathing process. Maybe a qouck realaxation focus, a mental relaxation checklist so to speak.
Click to expand...

Tried the breathing stuff, mental stuff. It's good but ...

It's a mental/phyiscal thing. Resolve the physical thing and the mental part tends to go away.

Could be the putter is too heavy, the stroke is too mechanical, and that leads to mental issues. Having a more athletic stroke, not thinking over the ball and moving the feet slightly, staying loose and relaxed, even relaxed on the grip may help ... may
 
Sorry to hear, this is the one part of the game that i love, along with driving the ball.....hurts my heart
 
I really believe, (and this is much of my putting issues, also) that we put too much pressure on ourselves to make putts. Especially, when the putt is to save a par - or even a bogey. If we would just lighten up and not “care” so much - I think we would do better. Someone once said, “golf is an easy game - until you care.”
 
wadesworld said:
Quit trying to guide and control the putter.

Get in a stance where your arms can hang down directly beneath your shoulders. Where you don't have to reach out for the putter or are not trying to keep in tight to your body. Natural.

Imagine the speed at which you want the ball to roll into the hole.

Now rock your shoulders to start the pendulum. Let the weight of the club and your arms control the putter, its swing, and its path, not you. Let go of control.

If it goes in great, if not, say "oh well" and try again next time. You cannot yip if you're allowing physics to control the club. If you do yip, it means you're still trying to be in control.
Click to expand...
"You cannot yip if you're allowing physics to control the club. If you do yip, it means you're still trying to be in control."

The only direct connection(control) with the club is with our hands. When, and if a golfer understands how the hands are controlled
by the motor cortex (genetics are the same for every homo sapien, as is the physics), the golfer will have taken the first step to understand
what the golfer is doing that creates what we call the YIPS.
 
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I am pleased to report that the saw grip has me going in the right direction. Thank goodness.
 
jpgolf said:
I really believe, (and this is much of my putting issues, also) that we put too much pressure on ourselves to make putts. Especially, when the putt is to save a par - or even a bogey. If we would just lighten up and not “care” so much - I think we would do better. Someone once said, “golf is an easy game - until you care.”
Click to expand...
There are few pastimes that bring out passion and devotion as golf does. This is its abiding attraction.
Better to take up bowling, than to not care about your golf. Yips was never caused by caring and will never be cured by not caring.
Believing in things we do not know, is the curse of our time
 
jpgolf said:
I really believe, (and this is much of my putting issues, also) that we put too much pressure on ourselves to make putts. Especially, when the putt is to save a par - or even a bogey. If we would just lighten up and not “care” so much - I think we would do better. Someone once said, “golf is an easy game - until you care.”
Click to expand...

I take a similar approach but with a slightly different perspective.

It’s not that I don’t care about this putt to save par, or make eagle, or whatever.

Instead it’s this: it’s just one stroke, same as all the other putts I’m going to hit today. I don’t care any MORE or LESS about a birdie putt than I do a double bogey putt.

They all count for one stroke each. No more, no less.
 
BigTreble said:
As many I agree its a mental situation that causes it. IMO making a physical adjustment, would just make you think more about the current situation and possibly magnifying the problem. Im may cases i can see it being a Self Fulfilling Prophecy.

If my buddy had it and i was trying to help, i would try to get him to convince himself its not a "incurable disease" that some fear. Perhaps convincing him he doesn't have it ight be the next step. Maybe minor adjustments to the preshot with an addition of a breathing process. Maybe a qouck realaxation focus, a mental relaxation checklist so to speak.
Click to expand...
David Eagleman, a neurologist and best-selling author featured in The Nature of Things documentary, My Brain Made Me Do It. According to Eagleman, 95 per cent of our decisions are made by our unconscious mind throwing fundamental beliefs about free will out the window.

When we over ride our subconscious by conscious control in golf, we risk YIPS spreading from putting to chipping to full swings.
It only becomes a neurological disorder when we become victims of our own ignorance of genetic tendency.
ie when we believe only biomechanists rather than combine biomechanics with knowledge of how the body and brain work together
from physciologists and neurologists.
 
Arlo said:
David Eagleman, a neurologist and best-selling author featured in The Nature of Things documentary, My Brain Made Me Do It. According to Eagleman, 95 per cent of our decisions are made by our unconscious mind throwing fundamental beliefs about free will out the window.

When we over ride our subconscious by conscious control in golf, we risk YIPS spreading from putting to chipping to full swings.
It only becomes a neurological disorder when we become victims of our own ignorance of genetic tendency.
ie when we believe only biomechanists rather than combine biomechanics with knowledge of how the body and brain work together
from physciologists and neurologists.
Click to expand...


I fancy myself a pretty smart guy. I graduated with almost a perfect GPA in undergrad and hold a masters degree, but I have no idea what any of that means. If you might dumb that down for me, I would be grateful.
 
dehdeh said:
I fancy myself a pretty smart guy. I graduated with almost a perfect GPA in undergrad and hold a masters degree, but I have no idea what any of that means. If you might dumb that down for me, I would be grateful.
Click to expand...

In general, don't think during any swing, just feel it.

All the thinking and strategy takes place before you ever address the ball. Clear the mind and do the Nike - Just do it.

For a normal shot, I look at my launch window - high, low, medium (your choice) - and then swing.
 
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