How to Stop The Full Swing Yips
Yips is a dirty four-letter word to most golfers…
They won’t say it, don’t want to hear about it and certainly don’t want to think about it. It is as if the yips are some kind of incurable virus contracted by mere thought or expression.
Well, thought does play a huge part in the yips.
The yips have a significant mental component.
The Yips are Fertilized by Negative Thoughts, Such As:
- “What’s wrong with me?”
- “Why can’t I sink these easy putts?”
- “Here we go again… missing short putts”
As your outcome thoughts about missing grow, negative emotions sprout…
Strong negative emotions tighten your muscles…
You start second-guessing your stroke or swing…
Pulling the club back feels uncomfortable…
Your stroke seems mechanical…
With a mechanical swing, you try to over-correct or remind yourself of everything you need to do further trapping you in that yips cycle…
Since thoughts are a big factor in developing the yips, a change in thoughts can help you overcome the yips.
Take for example, Tommy Fleetwood…
Fleetwood reached the No. 1 ranking on the European Tour but his career was not without some tough times. A mere 18 months before ascending to No.1, the yips had infiltrated Fleetwood’s golf game.
In 2016, Fleetwood was ranked 40th on the European Tour. The main reason was that the yips took control of Fleetwood’s driving game, a part of his game that was once his strong suit.
Fleetwood recalled how difficult it was to see his strength, something he could rely on week to week, seemingly disappear due to the yips.
FLEETWOOD: “My driving has always been the biggest strength of my game and to see it turn into my biggest weakness was an unbelievable switch and something that was very hard to deal with.”
Fleetwood’s yip frustration affected his whole game.
FLEETWOOD: “It was tough. It doesn’t matter where you stand, you know you’ve got that stuff [the yips] in you and you cannot control it… Halfway down the swing was where the problem was. You know where you’re trying to put your body and where you’re trying to put the club but the swing won’t do it. It just twitches or yips.”
The big problem with golfers is that they try to over control the swing when they feel the yips.
These golfers will try to talk themselves through the swing or try to force their swing to be perfect (or not yip).
Physically trying to over control the swing causes you to yip more, not less!
Getting past the yips is not a matter of controlling your swing, but taking control of your fear and over thinking.
Instead of over controlling the swing, you need to trust in your practice and let go of technical thoughts, analytic thoughts and outcome thoughts.
By giving up control to your motor memory, your swing will be freer.
How to Let Go of Over Control:
Letting go of over thinking requires that you focus on something other than negative and instructional thoughts.
I suggest to golfers with the full-swing yips that they focus on the target or one swing cue, such as tempo or balance.
In addition, you have to keep your mind on your routine instead of worrying about the outcome of a bad shot.
For more strategies to overcome the yips cycle, check out “Breaking The Yips Cycle:”
Related Golf Psychology Articles:
- Where Do the Driver Yips Come From?
- Putting, Chipping, or Driver Yips, It’s Still the Yips
- According to Haney, Jordan Spieth Has The Yips
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My problem is not taking the driver back. As the round gets longer my back swing gets sometime waist high. According to others my practice swing is perfect for my level of play. Our club Pro says so also. Seems like this all got started when I started Shanking my wedges and after going into my 3rd year I am still shanking.
Have read tons of back swing articles, but nothing of help jumps out to me.
HELP !!!
It’s not physical fix, but mental–especially if your practice swing is full and fine. It’s usually about the fear of a bad shot or looking silly that causes this.
Is there a simple solution—method—to stop pulling the chest up and therefore coming out of the shot —topping, fat shots, etc
Many Thanks!
The problem is you are trying to fix a mental issue by working on the mechanics. Try feeling the full practice swing–keep that feeling in mind–as you approach the ball and make a swing. Try to just think about the feeling you had from the practice swing.
The front nine on my driver seems fine. When I start the back nine I can’t start my downswing Without some type of pause or hitch and then the next thing you know it’s all upper body and I pull dead left. I don’t know what it is. It started a year and a half ago and no matter what I do it won’t go away. I go to the driving range before and after my round and my swing is totally fine on my driver with shots that go straight.Please help me!!