I just wanted to outline the contents of a recently released book by a well known instructor about the yips and encourage an open discussion as to your experiences and solutions.
The book started with a discussion about what they were...putting, they are uncontrollable flinches affecting either the face angle rotation, or the acceleration rate.
It was then suggested that the first fix lies with one's allignments, checking and if necessarily fixing. Also changing one's grip, stance, posture, or something similiar could have positive ramifications.
The thinking here is that the yips is a 'neuronal motor control' issue and simply doing a lot more of the same will actually hurt you more in the long run because you are strengthening the faulty synapses!
So something different then! The book then went in the direction of some drills and ideas that would lead you in a different direction(ie different motor patterns). Putting tennis balls or cat toys;Having a friend either remove or leave a ball in place such that you become less target conscious, and less 'hit' conscious, and more stroke/swing conscious.
The book gives drills and ideas for chipping yips, and full swing/driver yips along the same lines.
It references the teachers famous players who have experienced issues, and discusses their solutions.
It also references the 'Super Sam Puttlab' and the 43,700 pieces of individual data, and what that machine shows and can supposedly do.
I will make some more comments, and my own perspectives, but as always I'm interested as to what you guys think.
Damon
This message has been edited by aceputt from IP address 75.177.5.154 on Nov 24, 2006 6:33 AM This message has been edited by aceputt from IP address 75.177.5.154 on Nov 18, 2006 6:09 AM
"Most golfers think of the ÒyipsÓ as a psychological affliction, a confidence problem that causes them to lose control of their game because of a split-second glitch. But scientists are now starting to unlock the true root of the problem: focal dystonia, a motor-neural malfunction that causes a playerÕs brain to distort the message being sent to the muscles. Acclaimed golf instructor Hank Haney used these discoveries to overcome his twenty-year battle with the yips, and now he shares his breakthrough regimen that can ÒrewireÓ any golfer who struggles with the yips.
Showcasing dozens of practical, hands-on techniques for eliminating the yips from putting, chipping, and the full swing, Fix the Yips Forever delivers the brand of prescriptive advice and drills that have made Haney one of the most sought after golf instructors in the world. This groundbreaking handbook features more than 100 black-and-white photographs, including reproductions of diagnostic screens and HaneyÕs ultrasound Òyips measurement SystemÓ for hands-on yip-free training. If you canÕt make it to HaneyÕs Golf Ranch for a personal diagnosis, Fix the Yips Forever is the next best thing."
"A yip often comes from anticipating impact and unconsciously adding force. To break that connection, I'll hold the ball firmly in place as the player strokes: When the ball doesn't move at impact, the player's yip "program" overloads. I'll also randomly place a ball in front of the putter as the player makes practice strokes."
In other words, a "hit" stroke causes the yips. He also writes that he finds the notion that the yips are psychological bogus, and that the yips instead are a real physical affliction that can be diagnosed, identified, characterized, and cured or relieved by physical measurement and physical treatment. he writes:
"A team of German scientists and teaching professionals figured that the only way to cure the yips was to first discover exactly when, how and how much they happened in a stroke. That's what their Super SAM machine does. It provides a complete diagram of the putting or chipping stroke, measured with ultrasound.
Basically, the machine constantly tracks the location of your clubhead in space. When you make a swing with a putter or wedge, a small wand (inset photo, above) attached to the shaft of your club sends information to the base unit, which is connected to a laptop computer. In less than a second, it shows more than two dozen things about your strokeÑincluding tempo, swing path, face angle and loft at impact. Taken as a whole, the information tells me if you have a mechanical problemÑwhich we can fix with some simple adjustmentsÑor the yips."
The approach to relieving the yip action is to train the golfer out of the "hit" with non-impact strokes, perhaps using no ball or using a foam ball instead of the usual golf ball. Progress with this therapy is monitored.
"1. Many yips come from anticipating impact. Have a friend occasionally place a ball in front of you as you make practice swings with your chipping motion. You'll slowly stop tensing up at impact.
2. One way to change a motor process is to change feel. Chipping something light -- foam balls, Wiffle balls, or even marshmallows -- changes the sensation in your hands."
Describing his book in December 2006, Haney writes: "Exactly when the yip occurs is also helpful to know. Some players have a tremor very early in the downswing, while others feel it right before or at impact. A tremor right at impact indicates you're anticipating contact and accelerating the clubhead. A yip earlier in the downswing is more of a clubhead-control issue. Using that information as a guide, it becomes a matter of trial and error--each person responds to a different kind of treatment."
A related approach to relief is: "A yip often comes from anticipating impact and unconsciously adding force. To break that connection, I'll hold the ball firmly in place as the player strokes: When the ball doesn't move at impact, the player's yip "program" overloads. I'll also randomly place a ball in front of the putter as the player makes practice strokes."
This approach "notion" of "overloading" the motor program is pretty vague and doesn't really make sense. I doubt that "overloading" of a flawed neural pathway is what is happening, as in the metaphor" driving faster on a bald tire does not really cure the bald spot." The real cure is re-routing onto a new movement pathway, by teaching and practicing a new movement without the handsiness and the "hit".
Haney / Rudy offer other approaches:
This "eye alignment" approach does not make sense to me, as the idea that the "stroke follows the eye line" is not actually true. Most golfers suffer in their putting setup posture from what I have identified as the "ballstriker's neck" flaw, which is a modified cocking of the head to the rear at setup that is a carry-over from the setup posture of a "modified K" used with the full-shot. These right-handed golfers walk into the putting setup from behind the ball with right hand low and head cocked back to their right. Then in the setup, the neck lines of these golfers putting right-handed aim not square with the top edge of the putter face but back to the right somewhat. The "eye line" of these golfers, according to Haney's notion, would promote a stroke path going back to the INSIDE. That doesn't happen. Under Haney's notion, most golfers would be setup to putt with the eye line rotated lead-eye inside the line (closed). It is certainly not the case that most golfers start their stroke out to the outside going back AND setup with the head and eye line cocked "closed" leftward to the inside of the intended putt line. What usually, most often happens in that the golfer sets up with the head and neck cocked back "open" AND starts the putter back outside across the line by using the hand muscles to start the stroke instead of pushing back with the lead shoulder. That's because these golfers see the target incorrectly outside its true location but learn that putting straight doesn't result in real sinks (but misses to the outside), so they make a "pull" or "cut" stroke from OUTSIDE to in to compensate for poor aim and never realize their targeting is off or that their stroke is not straight. Even if golfers initially setup with neck line square to the putter aim, they then turn their heads towards the target in such a way that the neck line pops back "open" during the look, generating a false sense that the target is outside its true location. Same result -- bad targeting produces bad stroke path -- but the error directions are opposite. This is perhaps as many as 95% of all golfers, pros included, especially good ballstriking pros. Bad targeting, bad handsiness in the takeaway, and bad stroke.
This "different skills" approach is probably not too helpful either. Using the toe or the heel of the putter to "hit" a golf ball is not so much using a different "skill" as it is using a different "tool" to perform the same skill (rolling or hitting the ball straight). Using a different tool might be a good idea, but its not practicing putting with the normal tool (a putter used normally).
This "confuse the motor program" approach of hitting different sorts of balls is pretty vague in the assumptions of how it might work. The motor program is really a habitual neural pathway. How does using a different pathway "confuse" the old pathway? This is just confused thinking, or at least confused talking about what is really happening in the brain. Training a "hitless" stroke with puffy balls is a very nice exercise, but it is learning to stroke a putt without "hitting" the real golf ball that matters. This is training out of use the hands with their "anticipatory flinching" at the hit. It's better just to train IN the correct movement pattern (rock the shoulders with dead hands) than it is to train OUT the problem.
BACKGROUND SCIENCE
All Haney and Rudy are describing originates with Dr Christian Marquardt, the German neuroscience researcher who brought his knowledge and experience overcoming hand movement deficits related to the yips to golf putting with his invention of the Science and Motion PuttLab. Christian was approached by golfers in Germany interested in seeing his knowledge applied to putting, and teamed him with South African teaching pro Marius Filmater, then working in Germany. Filmater told Marquardt about putting and Marquardt and others designed the PuttLab ultrasonic monitor that measures various putting stroke parameters by tracking the putter head in time and space with fine precision. The main parameters involved in the yips are face angle, putter head path, and acceleration or deceleration timing of the motion thru impact.
The Science and Motion website reprints a Dallas Morning News story about the collaboration between Haney and the Germans:
Getting a grip on yips
Bill Nichols - The Dallas Morning News
12:50 AM CDT on Tuesday, June 15, 2004
"Even players with nerves of steel sometimes turn to mush on greens
In becoming one of the finest putters of his era, Mark O'Meara mastered the treacherous greens of Augusta National, the tricky contours of Royal Birkdale and the gnarly poa-annua of Pebble Beach.
His smooth stroke spawned 23 victories in seven countries and five continents. Yet there he was at the Skins Game last November, flinching uncontrollably on short putts. He yanked balls left, jerked others right, his trusty putter serving divorce papers on national TV. The magic had vanished, 20 years of putting greatness returned to the genie's bottle, replaced by golf's most dreaded curse - the yips. The involuntary muscle contractions strike fear in the hearts of major champions. To those who putt for dough, there is no nastier four-letter word.
O'Meara's painful brush with the yips illustrates how the powerful affliction wreaks havoc on even the purest of putters. It drives players to drink, to the psychiatrist's couch and to the hypnotist's chair. It has ruined careers and mystified doctors, its reign of terror sparking new research and unorthodox putting styles.
At this week's U.S. Open, psyches will be challenged by the firm greens at Shinnecock Hills. Anybody with the yips had better get a grip because this major is often decided by pressure putts. Three years ago, the yips spread like the flu at Southern Hills, where the final threesome three-putted the 72nd hole.
Old malady
The yips have been around since Old Tom Morris but remain a confounding malady. Despite countless opuses written in medical journals, there is no known cure. Even worse, there is no consensus on the cause.
But the most comprehensive research into the phenomenon is currently under way involving European experts from Science & Motion Golf and renowned instructor Hank Haney of McKinney. Their work, which will be published in a medical journal, promises to unlock the causes and cures. Using a computerized machine to chart stroke motions, they are identifying where flaws arise, then curing players with drills that incorporate different muscle movements.
Haney helped O'Meara break his fever, convincing him after the Skins Game to try a new grip. O'Meara used "the saw" technique to win his first tournament in more than five years at the Dubai Desert Classic.
"All of a sudden I started rolling the ball better," O'Meara said. "I was alive again. I felt like I could make a putt. Half of the game is on the greens, and if you're not putting well, you can't compete at a high level."
That's why the yips have sent players scurrying for cures. The influx of new putters and grips has increased dramatically the last 10 years, with players willing to try virtually anything to keep a steady hand.
Once criticized by traditionalists, long putters and belly putters are common in PGA Tour bags. Left-hand-low grips, considered radical in 1995, are almost as popular as conventional putters these days. Claw grips and other variations are flourishing.
The use of oversized putters has increased because they eliminate many problems associated with the yips. By anchoring the club on the torso, a player reduces his chances of jerking motions.
Ernie Els has led the most recent charge against belly putters, saying they should be banned. He has plenty of support from traditionalists who believe the putter should not be allowed to rest against the body. Even Vijay Singh, the No. 3 ranked player in the world, thinks they should be banned. But he uses a belly putter because rules permit it. "I think nerves and skill are part of the game," Els said. "Take a tablet if you can't handle it."
Remedies vary
Ben Hogan, perhaps the greatest shotmaker ever, couldn't beat the yips late in his career.
Sam Snead, who holds the record for PGA Tour wins, battled the yips throughout his storied career. Tom Watson was a dominant player, winning eight majors, but went through a long spell of flinches in his 40s.
The yips drove talented Johnny Miller off the course and into the television booth. Orville Moody trembled so much over three-foot putts that he said his arms felt like spaghetti.
There have been almost as many experimental remedies as victims. Snead pioneered yips relief with his sidesaddle method. Right-hander Blaine McCallister switched to a left-handed putter. Bruce Lietzke was going cross-handed in the early 1980s, then he jumped on the broomstick bandwagon in the '90s.
That decade ushered in some unique styles. Among the early left-hand-low converts were Nick Faldo, Tom Kite, Fred Couples and Paul Azinger. Mike Hulbert went more than a year using only his right hand.
Bernhard Langer has had the most famous turmoil with yips, using a variety of weird grips. The strangest was his Bavarian Stranglehold, which he won the 1993 Masters with.
"The result is what counts," Langer said. "I started several trends. Now, you have half the field using different kinds of grips."
It's not just mental
Experts agree that the yips are a form of focal dystonia, a neurological difficulty that causes contractions in muscles, resulting in jerking or freezing motions. The yips are similar to the dystonias that affect other professions such as surgeons, musicians and writers.
However, most yips studies have dealt with the brain, and tend to associate the ailment with performance anxiety issues, or in sports, choking. Other studies have classified the yips as an over-use syndrome.
Marius Filmalter and Dr. Christian Marquardt, managing directors of Science&Motion Golf, have created a 3D motion analysis machine called Super Sam. The device uses sensors and cameras to spit out images of strokes. Subtle movements are captured, providing instant feedback on flawed motions.
Haney stumbled onto the Super Sam while at the European Teaching Summit in Munich late last year, about the time his star pupil, O'Meara, was struggling at the Skins Game.
Haney noticed that the sign hanging over Super Sam guaranteed a cure for the yips. A few conversations later, Haney, Filmalter and Marquardt became partners. Filmalter is conducting tests at Hank Haney's Golf Ranch in McKinney. Filmalter and Marquardt believe they are on the verge of a major breakthrough because they can detect the yipping motions, and thus, determine methods for correction. In general, they cure by teaching the muscles new ways to perform old tricks.
Because Sam can isolate the exact point where jerking motions occur, the yips can be corrected through drills, they said. Previous research has been limited because yipping movements could not be detected.
"There is a little psychology involved, but it's a mechanical problem," Filmalter said. "We do exercises similar to how you would treat a person who stutters. If you tell a guy who stutters to say to an audience that he loves his wife, then he will stutter worse. But if he sings the words, he won't stutter at all."
That's good news to Woody Austin. He has driven himself crazy in his quest to exterminate the yips. He has tried hypnosis and every grip and putter. But he still flinches over short putts. "It's a tough task every day," Austin said. "I'm a nervous wreck on the golf course. If you're a nervous wreck and your hands are twitching, it's going to show up on the short ones. It doesn't take much to get it off line from three feet."
COMMON CURES : Some styles that can help deal with the yips:
Left hand low
Often called cross-handed, left hand low is done by reversing the hands of a conventional grip. For a right-handed player, that would mean the left hand is below the right. Left hand low quiets the right wrist and promotes a firm follow through.
The claw
The left hand grips the club normally, with the thumb extending down the top of the shaft. The right hand is turned to face away from the body, then brought in from the side so the shaft pinches the skin between the thumb and forefinger. The forefinger and middle finger rest on top of the shaft with the ring finger and pinkie off to the side of the shaft.
The saw
A slight variation of the claw, the saw was coined by Mark O'Meara. This grip mirrors the claw except that the right hand pinches the shaft between the thumb and three fingers. The back of the right hand appears to move parallel to the ground, thus the "sawing" motion.
Belly putter
One of the hottest on tour because it reduces moving parts that can affect a putt. The butt of the club is placed against the stomach. The grip depends on the player. Some putt with the hands together. Others put one hand down low on the shaft. This style immobilizes the wrist and eliminates excessive movement.
Broom handle
The top of the long putter rests against the chest while the right hand grasps the shaft down low. With the putter anchored against the body, the small muscles of the hands and wrists are taken out of the stroke."
What is interesting about all this is the personal history between Marquart and Filmater after invention of the PuttLab and the arrival of Haney on the scene in late 2003 in the European PGA Teaching and Coaching Summit. Sometime after the PGA Summit in 2003, the Science and Motion organization tasked Filmater to come to the US to promote the PuttLab to fellow South African David Leadbetter. While in the US, a dispute arose between Filmater and Marquardt about ownership of the PuttLab, and Science and Motion was forced to sue Filmater in German Court and obtained an order barring him from further involvement with the PuttLab. Filmater then ended up working at the Hank Haney Ranch and developed his own "knock-off" version of the PuttLab called the Tomi system. Marquardt and others then came to the US to take up the promotion of the PuttLab, and I introduced them to Frank Thomas at the 2004 PGA Merchandise Show, and Thomas featured them on the Golf Channel as the top science at the Show. I then introduced Marquardt to the David Leadbetter operation at ChampionsGate and helped them explain the confusion with Filmater, and the Leadbetter organization then adopted and endorsed the PuttLab. In 2005 in Munich, Christian and I shared the stage at the European PGA Teaching and Coaching Summit, again attended by Hank Haney. Subsequently, Marquardt and Filmater started working together again with Haney, and Haney adopted the PuttLab, relying on Filmater as his main associate for using the PuttLab.
EARLIER YIPS SCIENCE
The Mayo Clinic of Rochester Minnesota formed a "sports science" team in 1999 to study the yips and come up with a cure. The team included Dave Pelz and Debbie Crews and a few doctors from Rochester interested in golf, but did not include any Mayo specialist in movement problems. In December 2000, the "sports science" team headed by sporst psychologist Ansly Smyth published an article in Sports Medicine that varied from two prior studies that had concluded the yips were neurological. The Mayo "sports science" team concluded the yips were mostly psychological.
I wrote extensively about the Mayo Clinic's yips study in 2002, providing a detailed report on the neurological research apparently not known by the "sports science" team and critiquing their approach as flawed because not using science to identify the cause of the yips, instead relying upon golfer behaviors to infer the character of the affliction. I specifically suggested that the Mayo Clinic "sports science" team should consult with Mayo Clinic's dystonia / movement disorders neurologist Dr Charles Adler in the Mayo Clinic's Scottsdale Arizona location. After my criticism, the Mayo Clinic "sports science" team added Dr Adler and dropped Dave Pelz, and Dr Adler redirected the yips study along the lines laid out in my paper, finding the "cause" of the yips to be "neurological." Dr Adler gained some notoriety among his peers for his contribution, lecturing at the 2005 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology:
"Golfers' yips may be movement disorder
04/07/05
MIAMI BEACH Yips--a condition among some golfers that describes the inability to appropriately complete a golf stroke, usually during putting or chipping and worsening with anxiety--may be a task-specific movement disorder similar to writer's cramp and musician's cramp, according to research that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology 57th Annual Meeting in Miami Beach, Fla., April 9-16, 2005.
For the study, researchers examined 20 male golfers, 10 with the yips and 10 without. All study participants were evaluated in the laboratory using surface electromyography (EMG) testing to determine muscle activity. Participants were tested while sitting at rest, arms outstretched, and during handwriting; standing at rest, holding a putter at rest, and using their own putter to putt a total of 75 putts, varying from 3, 6, and 8 feet. The golfers then rated the quality of their strokes, noting the number of putts made and the distance from the hole for missed putts.
"None of the golfers had any abnormal movements in the rest position, outstretched arms position, or while writing or standing holding the putter," said study co-author Charles H. Adler, MD, PhD, of the Mayo Clinic in Arizona. "While only two of the golfers felt they had their yips in the lab, under all putting conditions, 50 percent of the golfers with the yips had EMG evidence of co-contractions of muscles in the forearm just prior to the impact of the putter with the ball. The co-contractions were similar to those of task-specific dystonias--or movement disorders--such as writer's cramp and musician's cramp."
None of the golfers without yips had evidence for co-contraction.
A trend revealed that the five golfers with yips who had co-contractions were older, had higher current and best previous handicaps, and had yips for fewer years than the other five with yips who did not have the co-contractions. There was also a trend for those five golfers with the yips to make fewer putts and have a greater degree of error in missing the putts."
Science and Motion was started in June 2003, after my article but before the "revised" Mayo Clinic conclusions of the augmented "team" that included Dr Adler.
HOW IT ALL FITS TOGETHER
Dr Marquardt knows quite a bit more than Dr Adler about treating putting yips, as he has had vast successful experience in clinical practice in Germany using his "retraining" of the relevant movement neurology in ordinary clinical practice, his development of the PuttLab, and his vast subsequent experience specifically treating golfer putting yips. Dr Marquardt's approach is what I suggested in 2002 in criticizing the Mayo Clinic "sports science" team: that the yips are a neurological problem wherein certain neural pathways get worn out, and the cure most likely involves a re-routed movement across neural pathways not worn thin by overuse.
In my view, the neural pathways the wear out are those controlling fine hand movements, most usually in the dominant hand, that get overused by a "touchy-feely-handsy" approach to putting. This approach invariably rests upon a "hit" stroke thru the ball that works fine in youth but that wears out the delicate neural pathways of fine motor skills of hand and fingers over decades. The average age of onset of the yips is age 43, about 2-3 decades after someone like Johnny Miller or Sam Snead or Ben Hogan gets a good start in golf.
An interesting point is how the yips are associated with co-contraction of muscles at the wrong time (a "flinch"). Most movements are tri-phasic in the pattern of contraction of agonist and antagonist muscle pairs operating on joint angles. The final co-contraction is a braking and holding behavior, sort of a "clamping down" of the limb or body part position at the end of the movement. There are really more problems like this than those occuring solely at the impact. When the golfer does not use a "flowing" stroke back and thru, but rather "yanks" or "tugs" or "pulls" the putter head back from the ball with hands to start the stroke, "defines" the stopping of the backstroke, deliberately starts the downstroke with an intentional accelerating, and then "defines" the end of the follow-thru with a stopping, IN ADDITION to the "flinch" clamping down in anticipation of impact, this golfer is flirting with the same "clamping down" problem. Good teaching avoids ALL of these problems, if you know how to teach a stroke like that.
What is interesting is that in the very political world of so-called "golf science", the Mayo Clinic does not use the PuttLab in its investigations. Nor do Hank Haney and Matthew Rudy, Filmater, and Marquardt confer or work cooperatively with the Mayo Clinic team. This appears to be a result of the typical and ill-advised division along major golf magazine lines, as in Golf Digest (Haney) versus Golf Magazine (Pelz and Crews). That won't end any time soon. A more immediate danger is that the prominence of Hank Haney's book associating the PuttLab with the yips so closely might render the PuttLab "primarily" a yips-fixing tool instead of a general teaching tool for putting stroke skills.
Accordingly, the stroke I teach is a non-"hit" flowing stroke, based on my independent study of the neurology of movement as applied to putting (1991-2002), and it's heartening to see that now the Mayo Clinic under Dr Adler's guidance (2004), Dr Marquardt (2003), and Hank Haney (2005-2006) all agree with me. They're right. More power to them.
Cheers!
Geoff Mangum
Putting Coach and Theorist
PuttingZone.com
Golf most advanced and comprehensive putting instruction.
Let me add these resources to the discussion. The other prominent views and approaches on the yips include hypnosis and EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) as well as certain equipment designs like the Wishbone grip. Carey Mumford, for example, is a well-known and highly respected golf psychologists who has been teaching veteran PGA teachers for years.
"As long as you have the information and knowledge that anxiety is the direct cause of the blocking action in the immune system, known as the yips, and you know that anxiety can be managed by staying in the present where there is no anxiety so that the immune system is not triggered into action, and you know that a clear key will keep you in the present long enough to make a golf shot, you are home free, even if you have had and are having a problem with the yips. It's a management issue and only a problem if you don't understand it and neglect learning how the management process works. Do, however, bear in mind, that if you have retained the yips for a long time, they may now have also invaded your habit pathways and require a longer time-frame for re-learning in order to enjoy the fruits of the management principle and be yips-free.
One postscript. It is not lost to us that a possibility exists that some golfer, suffering from dystonia, may be out there somewhere. We haven't met that player, but there may be one or even a few. That fits the category of an exception to the rule. The rule goes with anxiety, which is always there, not with dystonia which is only occasionally to be found. We have worked with players having Parkinson's, Tourette's syndrome, cerebral palsy (early), amputations (using prosthetic appliances), and worked with the mentally disadvantaged. All of those also fall into the "exceptional" area. To a person, all were able to experience less manifestation of their "problems" when using a clear key. Hence we know that even if there is a physical limitation, the effects can be minimized if one manages the anxiety issue effectively.
We also know that there have been, and continue to be, a wide variety of "solutions" offered to be rid of the yips, but not one can be given the assignment as being universal. They emerge under the heading of exceptions to the rule - some being better "performers" than others. The only universal remedy will be found at the point of addressing the principle of managing anxiety and all its inputs and outcomes. We found that in the process that centers around the clear key management "tool."
That leads us to a conclusion. Where there is no obvious physical disability, anxiety management through using a clear key, will deter or eliminate yips 99% of the time. The only condition is the thorough, systematic application of the clear key process and commitment to it. If you have that, all the other remedies are subsumed in it."
So Mumford believes that the yips are almost always a manifestation of our ever-at-the-ready anxiety system. As I pointed out in my Yips study, this is a testable hypothesis, because the "anxiety system" in the brain is really two separate systems that respond differently to therapies. ""Anxiety" is too often used to cover a wide variety of mental and neuropsychological states. In particular, current neuroscience distinguishes "defensive avoidance" in the amygdala circuitry from "defensive approach" in the septo-hippocampal circuitry. The former is related to fear, panic, phobia, and flight behavior, and the latter to generalized anxiety and dread or "anticipatory frustration" (Gray and McNaughton, 2000; LeDoux, 1992; LeDoux, 1996 ). These dissociations of the underlying neurology and the forms of anxiety-related responses represents a more complex view of the traditional "fight-flight" reaction in light of recent neuroscience." (From my Yips Study.)
EFT (EMOTIONAL FREEDOM TECHNIQUES)
The view that the yips are the result of some emotional "trauma" that can be relieved by EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) -- sort of a manual pressure-point touching of various key energy foci on the body like psychological accupuncture -- is exhibited in Steve Ladd's website TapIn Golf. Steve applies EFT to more than just the yips: "Tap In Golf (TIG) is a do-it-yourself form of acupuncture -- without the use of needles. Instead you simply "tap" on a few "clearing points" while focusing on a negative feeling or emotion. There are countless situations where TIG can be applied to make your game more effective. For example: first tee jitters, yips, anxiety about hitting over water, fear of embarrassment, anger and frustration, etc."
EFT is the creation of Gary Craig, a minister in the Universal Church of God of Southern California, in which he combines traditional chinese accupuncture (without needles) with the belief that the body is essentailly "energy." Craig's EFT is an outgrowth of the TFT (Thought Field Therapy) of Roger Calahan (a "cognitive psychologist") dating back to 1981.
Mike Rotheram is a PhD student at Sheffield Hallam University, where the "Zenjin" team of sports specialist focus on golf training, including the training of putting in association with Nick Middleton of the Zen Oracle putter and trainer. Mike's article reads:
"A cure for the yips: Lynn cures a golfer with chronic yips
The 'yips' are every golfers worst nightmare. An average golfer who experiences the 'yips' will add an extra 5.5 shots to their round. Jerks, twitches, tremors and freezing are all physical antecedents of the 'yips' response. Psychological responses include frustration, embarrassment, intense anxiety and increased self-consciousness. The longevity of the problem means that most golfers end up quitting. They can't rationalise what's happening. They over analyse what's going on. But there is little point. The movements they experience are involuntary therefore they have no control over them. Their 'yips' affected putt is nothing short of embarrassing which further contributes to the problem. The 'yips' also affect other sports such as darts (commonly known as dartitis) and cricket bowling. Additionally, occupational tasks are affected such as dentists, surgeons, typists, artists and musicians. At present there is no scientifically tested cure for the problem.
Over the past 2 years a lady by the name of Lynn Francis has been working away curing the 'yips' in golfers with so far, 100% success. Two researchers from Sheffield Hallam University who are investigating the 'yips', Mike Rotheram and Dr Mark Bawden were interested to hear of Lynn's claims and contacted her to see if they could team up to trial her treatment. Lynn uses a process called the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) and her theory is based on the fact that the 'yips' have an underlying emotional cause, which manifest themselves in a 'yip'. EFT is a psychological version of acupuncture, whereby acu-points are tapped on whilst the client focuses on underlying emotional causes.
To test Lynn's treatment, a 50-year-old golfer who suffered from the 'yips', took part in the study. His handicap was still 5 through the fact that he had learned to putt left-handed. However he wanted to putt in his conventional style. When reporting into the laboratory at Sheffield Hallam University for his baseline test, the golfer commented, 'I have suffered from the 'yips' since the end of the 1999 season, when during a match play singles knockout semi-final competition, I missed about 6 very short putts due to what I can only describe as an electric shock in my left forearm. This caused the putter head to move involuntarily leading to the putt being hopelessly missed'. Since then, the golfer has been unable to putt, and even broke down in tears at one point, due to the disintegration of his short game.
The golfer was required to take part in five data collections at the University. These were at baseline, and after each of the four intense treatments administered by Lynn. All measurements were recorded when putting at a distance of 2 feet from the cup, where the 'yips' tend to be at the most severe. Measures included a behavioural assessment (i.e., whether Mike could see the jerk), and self-report (i.e., the golfer's self assessment). In addition to this, Mike used the latest golf putting technology from SAM Motion Analysis, which measures the 'yips' in golfers. Of particular interest to this study was the velocity of rotation on impact as the golfer in this study jerked the putter at impact.
The results show that Lynn's treatment was effective in helping this particular golfer. All four measures improved dramatically from baseline scores. Figure 1 shows the golfers rotational velocity scores for the 10 putts taken from the baseline. The graph shows a very inconsistent putting stroke, which is characterised by sharp peaks and troughs, which are characteristic of the involuntary jerk at impact. Figure 2 illustrates the scores after the final treatment. This graph is characterised by a very smooth putting stroke as the lines are all consistently grouped together. The slight deviations on the graph are normal as expert golfers use on-line regulation strategies to adjust there putting strokes accordingly.
Behavioural assessment of the putting stroke added support to the findings. At baseline, yipping occurred about 70% of the time. After the final treatment, there were no visual indicators of a 'yip' occurring. The most important assessment, the golfers self-assessment added further clarity to the results. At the start of the study, the golfer reported the 'yip' was at maximum intensity when performing in the laboratory. However, after the final measurement, there no were no feelings of the 'yip' at all. Mike asked the golfer to perform out on the golf course. Again, there were no feelings of the 'yip' occurring. The golfer added some final comments,
'The start of every golf season was always terrifying for me, as I never knew how much worse the yips may have become - but now I look forward to the 2006 season with much excitement, fully confident that this terrible affliction has been finally exorcised by Lynn's exceptional skills and ability. I also believe that, as a bonus to curing the yips, I am now a different person. I see things and react differently to situations in everyday life. I feel better. I know that this is as a direct result of the therapy I underwent and would recommend it to anyone.'
It is clear that Lynn's treatment certainly has merit, and her work is based on her skills as a practitioner in finding underlying emotional causes. The benefits of this treatment are not only relevant to amateur golfers. They are also relevant to tour players who experience the 'yips' and people in other sports such as darts and cricket. It is possible this treatment may be effective for dentists, artists, and musicians who experience symptoms similar to the 'yips'. Mike Rotheram is certainly excited as he said, 'Lynn has stumbled on something here that is potentially ground breaking. This is undoubtedly the most effective treatment I have seen so far. It is now up to the scientific community to put these findings into appropriate research settings. I wish Lynn all the best and I hope we can team up again in the future.'
This article was produced by Mike Rotheram, PhD Research Student, Centre for Sport and Exercise Science, Sheffield Hallam University, S10 2BP, 0114 225 5634, m.rotheram@shu.ac.uk"
Rotheram disputes the findings of the Mayo Clinic and believes there is an emotional element in the yips. This view is elaborated in a BBC News item on the yips:
"Golfer's yip down to muscle cramp
Anxiety can make for jerky putts
Golfers' yips are down to cramp similar to those experienced by writers and musicians, US experts say.
The yips is a term for jerky movements that get worse when the player is anxious and can cripple their putting and chipping skills.
Some say the root of the problem is psychological, while others say it is a form of movement disorder, or dystonia.
The Mayo Clinic team told a neurology conference in Miami, Florida, how their lab tests showed it was down to spasms.
Golfers' yips
For the study, they asked 20 male golfers, 10 with yips and 10 without, to hit a total of 75 putts, varying from three, six and eight feet.
The golfers were rigged up to a machine that tested arm muscle activity and were asked to rate the quality of their strokes.
None of the golfers had any abnormal arm muscle movements at rest, when they held their arms outstretched, or while standing still holding the putter.
However, under all putting conditions, half of the golfers with a history of yips had detectable spasms or co-contractions of their forearm muscles just prior to striking the balls.
The trouble is, we don't know what's at the root of the problem at the moment
Mike Rotheram, of Sheffield Hallam University's Centre for Sport and Exercise Science
Yet only two of these golfers were aware that they had experienced yips.
None of the golfers with no history of yips had abnormal muscle contractions during the putting.
When the researchers looked only at the golfers with a history of yips, they found the five who had shown abnormal muscle contractions in the experiment were older, had higher current and best previous handicaps and had yips for fewer years than the other five.
The same golfers also missed more putts and by a greater degree.
Choking
Investigator Dr Charles Adler told the American Academy of Neurology meeting: "The co-contractions were similar to those of task-specific dystonias, or movement disorders, such as writer's cramp and musician's cramp."
Mike Rotheram, of Sheffield Hallam University's Centre for Sport and Exercise Science, said: "There are two opinions about yips.
"Some believe they are task-specific cramps and that the more times you do the same movement, you get disruption in the movement programme that carries out that task.
"Others say it is severe anxiety, or choking. Every time they come under pressure, that causes them to reinvest in, or revert back to, an earlier stage of learning.
"But because that skill is automatic, like riding a bike, there is no information or knowledge base for them to draw on.
"The trouble is, we don't know what's at the root of the problem at the moment."
He said the research still did not prove what was causing the muscle spasms.
"I firmly believe there is an emotional element to it. You also see it in other sports, such as darts and cricket."
Mr Rotheram is currently doing research, surveying different sportsmen about yips and in what situations they occur, to find out more.
He said there was no known treatment that worked to cure the yips.
Some have tried relaxation techniques and others have tried changing the way they carry out the motor activity, such as holding the grip of their club differently, he said."
[All of this has been reported previously on the PuttingZone.]
Carey Mumford critiques the EFT work of Mike Rotheram in extensive commentary on his ClearKeys website. Carey responds essentially that these emotional triggers are simply part of the ever-present anxiety system that cannot be overcome but instead should be managed by "clear keys" at the level of automatic processes of the brain.
HYPNOSIS / NEURO-LINGUISTIC PROGRAMMING (NLP)
Hypnosis is a form of managing the subconscious mind with the effective implantation of authoritative suggestions in an accepting mind. There are many hypnosis products and services that promise a quick cure for the yips, on the assumption that the yhips are a negative psychological problem amenable to hypnotic suggestion that eliminates the negative behavior of "yipping putts" once and for all. For example, clinical hypnotherapist Steve G. Jones writes:
"Hypnotherapy is the most immediate tool for changing beliefs and/or behaviors. Of all the therapies, hypnotherapy will produce the most immediate results. Hypnotherapy is a combination of hypnosis and therapy, which is one of the many attributes separating it from stage hypnosis. In a hypnotherapy office session, traditionally, a hypnotherapist will spend about half of his or her time talking to the client while the client is in Beta (normal awakening consciousness). The remainder of the time, during the actual hypnotherapy session,the client will be in hypnosis (Alpha or lower). When using a hypnotherapy CD or MP3, the client will be in Alpha or deeper almost immediately.
Hypnotherapy works by combining hypnosis with precise, outcome-oriented therapy and targeting the subconscious mind.
Hypnotherapy is quite different than traditional therapy. Instead of spending years with a therapist, clients who undergo hypnotherapy will have an efficient, fast, and reliable means of altering negative behavior."
Jones sells a hypnotherapeutic CD entitled Winning Golf that offers his cure for the yips.
And don't forget that there is always surgery or injection of Botox into the twitching hand and forearm muscles. I suspect the latter would violate the USGA Rules of Golf and / or any forthcoming "Drug Policy."
Cheers!
Geoff Mangum
Putting Coach and Theorist
PuttingZone.com
Golf's most advanced and comprehensive putting instruction.
This message has been edited by aceputt from IP address 75.177.5.154 on Nov 18, 2006 11:04 AM This message has been edited by aceputt from IP address 75.177.5.154 on Nov 18, 2006 10:53 AM
Hi Damon, thanks for this e-mail I can only talk from my experience. So far I had 8 students with the yips. I have developped a program that seems to be working cause these people got rid of the yips. In resume I start by spending 2-3 hres asking questions and Have them align , putt ,,look at their grip, set-up, alignment etc..I also want to know when it started. I also give them 3 written tests telling me who they are, where they come from and also what I call their golfing I.Q. I then give them a 28 days program.(exercices physical and MENTAL). After that I spend 2 hours with them. So far it works. In the first session I also give them a very important presentation on the power of the brain and how it works (Waves--Beta-alpha-theta-delta...how it works and to use these tremendous powers.I also explain how to use the power of the body and the power of change. If they are high level players I also give them a presentation on the power of the soul!
Like I said, so far it works...
thank you
Yvon
www.becomeaputtingmachine.com
