The Putting Yips in Golf
The putting “yips” are one of golf’s most perplexing challenges…
Golf and putting is not fun if you think you have the yips. The yips have driven more good golfers to give up the game than any other golfing challenge.
When players label themselves as having the putting yips, they think they have an incurable disease.
Putting confidence declines and the fear of missing putts makes matters worse. Players who suffer from the fear of missing don’t like to putt.
The more they putt, the worse it gets, until it’s intolerable. This leads golfers to believe they have an affliction that they must learn to play with.
When golfers condition themselves into believing they have the yips….
It is Extremely Hard for Change to Occur
The putting yips start with poor results and missing short putts. Players then progresses to the fear of missing putts, which intensifies the fear of putting.
Players begin to feel like it’s a physical condition; they believe that it can be corrected with a change in technique or practice habits. But the golfing yips come from the golfer’s inability to gain neuromuscular control due to poor attentional focus, over control or anxiety.
Intense anxiety or fear does not allow the golfer to control his stroke and putt smoothly. The player freezes and can’t draw the putter back from the ball and initiate the putting stroke.
He wants to move the club back, but his hands and arms are in a vise. It’s like a deer that freezes in the middle of the road by the fear of an approaching car. Another form of the yips occurs when the player tenses up at impact and feels like he or she is stabbing at the ball.
The Putting Yips are Not Uncontrollable; They Are Curable.
Several PGA touring professionals, such as Bernhard Langer, who suffered from the yips have learned to putt with freedom again. But you have to stop labeling yourself as having a physical “illness” that causes you to jab at your putts.
You must understand that the physical symptoms of the yips come from a poor mental game.
You can overcome the putting yips with the right mindset and type of practice. Download my free anti-yips putting drills to help you get started.
Related Golf Psychology Articles:
- The Putting Yips and Over Thinking
- Top Fears Related to Putting Yips [Video]
- Mental Traps That Can Cause The Putting Yips
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i’m a teaching professional for more than 22 years and i have seen many people with the putting yips and a few with chipping yips, so nothing new for so far.
But the strange thing about those people is that they did not have a clue what it means to miss from a yard or closer to the hole. they did not know if putting is easy or difficult. they did not know if they did it right. they never heard about the yips. they never saw somebody with the yips. nobody explaned them anything about the yips (or putting) because they played golf for the very first time. how is this possible?
Do you mean beginning golfers do not get the yips because they are unaware it exists? Please clarify your question on the putting yips.
Sorry for my very late response.
What i ment us this,
How is it possible that beginning golfers do have the yips at their very first lesson. While they know nothin about putting, yips or what ever.
I have seen many beginners with the yips.
Fear of embarrassment and performance anxiety are the culprits in this case. Beginners have also not developed fine motor control because of limited practice.