How to Combat the Yips

The yips suck and are probably most talked about in golfing circles when a golfer really struggles to make putts of almost any length. However, the yips can appear in all areas of life where we get a mental block against something such as writer's block or the yips in any stroke in golf, tennis, basketball free throws, pitching or quarterback throws to name a few.

In this Mental Edge Friday, I explain what the yips are and how you can combat them, should you be experiencing them.

What are the yips?

Essentially, the yips are a mental block and what is difficult to handle is that logically there is no reason for the yips to occur. It seems ridiculous that something we have found easy to do, suddenly cannot be performed under any kind of pressure!

Typical responses from golfers are (but similar happens in all sports and life so personalize to your circumstances):

• “When I putt in practice, it’s great, but in tournaments, I’m very inconsistent”

• “I’m generally okay with my longer putts, but I lose control on the short putts”

• “When I really need a make a good putt, I tense up and drop it short every time”

• “It seems like I have two different strokes: my normal stroke and an alien stroke with no feel when I’m tight”

• “I try so hard to control my hands and arms that I tighten the release, and I either go too slow or pull left”

• “I have been getting progressively worse. I try to improve my technique, but it seems to make things worse”

This is a mental game issue and not a physical challenge. Now, the yips might feel like it’s physical when you freeze, flinch, or over control your release. However, if you can putt freely in practice, but tense up in game situations, then it’s mental and not physical!

Symptoms of the yips

Players with the yips suffer from:

• Inability to putt freely (despite the fact they can in practice)

• Anxiety, tension, and over control of their action

• Super low confidence with the yips-infecting their technique

• Performance anxiety about what others will think

• Feeling like an alien has taken over their body and they have no control

Common traits of the yips

The fear of missing putts to feeling embarrassed, everyone who has experienced the yips agrees that these are common traits:

• Often there is a cycle where the yips mysteriously come and go!

• The cycle revolves around the amount of anxiety and fear you feel around missing and the aftermath of missing.

• It includes massive frustration that can spill over into other areas of life.

• It makes it hard to regain any confidence the stroke or area in which you are experiencing the yips.

Golf is littered with champions who develop the yips and never recover but most find a way to overcome their difficulties and resume a successful career.

So how do we combat the yips?

Essentially most people can perform the task in practice when there is no pressure so it's only when they must perform the task under pressure that the yips hit, and the mind cannot focus on any kind of process.

Make no mistake the biggest driver behind the yips is the fear of missing or failing.

Learning to manage your fears is paramount to overcoming the yips. I’m not dealing with fear here, but you can change your attitude instantly here

I'm going to use the analogy of golf putting and writer's block.

To illustrate a way back from the yips if you're a golfer:

1. Begin with altering your relationship to fear.

2. Understand labelling and judgement

3. Putting -> begin sinking putts from 6 inches from the hole make 10 in a row then literally measure and sink from 12 inches then 14, etc. - each time making 10 in a row, rebuilding confidence in your abilities with automated success. As soon as you feel confidence anchor this feeling by creating a trigger to use under pressure, like a slap on the thigh or snapping an elastic band on your wrist to remind you of the state and feeling you found in practice to be calm and sink those puts.

4. If you have writer's block sit down and write anything for 5 minutes, then take a subject that you know about and write about that for 5 minutes then immediately, anytime an idea pops up about the blocked subject just switch tack and flow into writing about the topic or story that is pertinent to your job. Toggle between until you get on a roll.

Learn to manage fear

There is no magic answer other than learning to manage your fears and find ways to get outside your own head and be able to focus on the processes that allow you to perform at your best. The yips are a result of a distracted and fearful mind.

Often there can be an underlining belief that somehow if you are not winning as much as others or as much as you believe you deserve causing unrealistic pressure to sit on your shoulders.

Remember no matter how good you get you will still lose. Losing is part of sport and life. Trying to avoid the disappointment of losing and creating myths in your mind as to how well or badly you ought to be doing can be a trigger for the yips.

Fighting the yips - final thoughts

Never forget that the reason we compete in the first place is because of the danger and excitement of not knowing what will happen. Unfortunately, with success many people forget this and only enjoy the competition if they are winning. This is a spoilt attitude because it assumes you have a greater right to come out on top than others, otherwise you don’t want to play.

Work hard and enjoy the battles and you will win and lose, but what you keep is a love for what you do because taking part in the process and competition is the most important thing, contrary to what many “hardass” coaches may say that “winning is everything”. Logically it can’t be because everyone loses even the “hardass”, yet they come back for more? Why show up again (and pretend that the losses didn’t happen?)

They come back because deep down they know the truth!