Can Golfers Overcome the Yips?

Focus and the Yips

Why Distractions Can Lead to Yips

The yips are shrouded in uncertainty. Throughout the golfing world, there are many questions about the yips: What are the yips? What causes the yips?

Are the yips permanent?

All this uncertainty surrounding the yips has a dramatic effect on the length of time the yips affect your game.

One golfer who participated in our Golf Yips Survey posed an interesting question regarding the yips:

“Is it really possible to overcome the yips and regain that part of my golf game that used to be my strength and helped me win a championship?”

Many golfers with the yips feel helpless, as if there is nothing you can do to rid yourself of the yips. So, instead of finding and implementing a strategy, you just wait for them to disappear.

Every time you set up for a shot, you are consumed with worry and fear. You try to will the ball towards the hole.

You feel your body tighten up and your mind switches back and forth from thinking about past shots where you yipped midway through your stroke and what might happen when you swing the club this time.

Your stroke feels so mechanical and forced. You find it nearly impossible to focus, and your mind is filled with negative thoughts about your inability to just swing the club.

Once again, you yip midway through your swing, causing the ball to travel in an unpredictable path.

For you, it’s not a matter of ‘if the yips will happen’ but ‘when the yips will happen’.

Let’s address your original concern: Is it really possible to overcome the yips?”

The answer is 100% YES!

The yips are a mental game challenge that, over time, causes overwhelming mental interference and block your ability to shoot low scores.

Outcome thinking doesn’t help the situation, such as, “What if I miss this putt?” and “This will be embarrassing.”

Other distractions include over coaching yourself through the entire swing.

These distractions cause you to over-focus on what is wrong, over-analyze your swing and over think each shot in some attempt to regain your swing. These failed attempts only serve to keep you stuck in the yips cycle.

To overcome the yips and regain your golf game, you need to change your approach to the shot or putt altogether.

First, you have to train yourself to focus on the process instead of the negative outcome.

Focusing is a mental skill that helps you overcome the gremlins. What you focus on is important for breaking free from the yips.

Tips to Overcome the Golf Yips

First, you have to stop searching for a physical fix that may not exist or is only a temporary solution. You have to embrace the fact that it’s a mental game issue to make progress.

Next, you have to train yourself to focus on the process and not the outcome.

Also, you want to get back to playing like a kid again: swinging or putting freely without over control.

Finally, you want to uncover the underlying fear and address this head on. The fear is often based on what others think about your game or not playing to your potential.


Overcome The Yips and Enjoy Golf Again!

Golfers, do you suffer from:

  • Anxiety, tension and over control of the stroke or swing?
  • Performance anxiety about what others will think?
  • Inability to wing the club freely on the course, despite the fact that you can in practice?

Check out: Breaking the Yips Cycle

Golfers: Learn how to overcome the fear that keeps you stuck in a vicious cycle
Instructors: Learn how to give your students the mental game edge.
Coaches: Help your team members play with freedom instead of fear or tension.

Breaking The Yips Cycle: How to Putt, Chip, And Pitch Freely and Enjoy Playing Golf Again


What are Golf Psychology Students Saying?

“I went on to the putting green right after receiving your mail. What a great feeling of freedom. No tense at all, smiling and more consistent than ever before. I have a very low handicap and of course I have great rounds during the years, but you have taken me to a new level by curing the yips. I have just read your report again, and now I get the point in your comparing with throwing darts. I am very grateful – if you visit Denmark I will invite you out for dinner.”
~Søren Meinertsen

“I read the Article on the chipping yips about 10 or 15 times now. I can feel the difference already from some of the shots that I have been hitting and I really think I can lick this. I think your mental coaching is really helping. Thank you so much!!”
~Jeff Gerling

“I’ve tried various things and made no progress with the yips. I found your articles and read one sentence that is changing things: It was that I should treat putts like tap ins. Putting 50 to 100 a day on the mat and the hands started to move normally. No jerking. I concentrated on one grip putting through two coins three feet away. Whether it goes in or not is secondary. Still had a few three putts, but the fear factor is gone. Many thanks and best regards.”
~Otto Baer. Nagano, Japan

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