The dreaded 'y'....
If you follow us on Instagram you would have seen I was at the PGA Headquarters at The Belfry on Thursday to attend a coaching seminar on a subject that doesn’t get talked about much in the open for a number of reasons, but mainly because you don’t want to catch them! The YIPS. Yes the dreaded ‘Y’ word. Wednesday was a day totally dedicated to the yips. What it is and hopefully how to overcome or at least manage it. Firstly, I was surprised to find out golf is one of many tasks where people develop the yips. Other sports include: darts, snooker, table tennis and even rugby. Some musicians even develop the yips, mainly brass playing instruments but also pianists. Some even get the handwriting yips! So what are the yips? Well, they have been put in to 3 categories: neurological, psychological or learned, then generally putting, short game, and even long game yips. The seminar was centered on putting and short game. Some of the solutions or tasks, I was pleased to hear, I actually use and discuss with clients, mainly around the going through the process. Then a quote from Rory McIlroy stood out as he discussed process. It was very interesting and although not totally supported 100% by science, but a lot of research has been spent on the subject and certain techniques/tasks do help manage, improve and can keep at bay or improve. Putting was more blatant in its diagnosis and 99% of the time is through the dominant hand and is a neurological issue. The main resolution was to remove the hand from the task mainly by a grip change. Some minor ‘yipers’ can go through a ‘motor retuning’ by breaking the task of putting down, so the sooner the yips become spotted the better. Chipping and pitching yips is more to do with psychological issues brought on by anxious thoughts and becoming fearful. The way to help with this is through, but not limited to, changing players’ attention, dual tasking and some imagery works well. If you have issues or think you have some form of yips get in touch and see if we can help you.
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