Uh, I’m asking for a friend… 
But, we’ve all had them at some point or another, so what’s your best solution, technique, drill for curing the yips?
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For the putting tips, closing your eyes before making the stroke.
This is not recommended for the driving yips.
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Tim, what is your “friend” struggling with? Putting, chipping, etc?
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My “friend” is struggling with the putting yips.
I’ve heard chewing on a tee works, takes your mind off of the task at hand.
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I get in the most trouble when putting when I’m thinking too much. Even miss little gimmes. For me, anything to get my mind off it helps. The chewing a tee thing or closing eyes would be similar. I have found that a quicker set up and trigger pull works for me. I choose a line and take a practice stroke or two away from the ball. Then when I step up to the ball I look at target, look at ball, and go. No time for thoughts to crush me haha
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Sergio just won putting w/ his eyes closed, so maybe you’re on to something!
If my putting stroke gets yippy, I change the grip as a bandaid during the round. I putted w/ overlap for awhile, currently on left hand low w/ reverse overlap. For me this helps focus on the stroke and not the result. Once I felt like the yip was coming from 1 hand, so putted decently well right handed.
For chips, also try different grips. the reverse overlap does a great job taking the wrists out of the swing. Best of luck to your friend!
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My instinct, especially with putting, is to completely change your patterns. Get a new putter grip (mid-sized, over-sized), try a different grip technique (I switched to a pencil style grip). Or even a new putter entirely.
You have to have a reset so to speak IMO.
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I’m with Jon - I’d change how you hold the putter (go cross handed or something) and/or look at the hole on putts inside 8 feet. That should free your stroke up since you’re not watching the putter head and thnking about the path
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I agree with you. Anything that gets your mind off of the putt or it’s consequences can be good.
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I have been way too far down this road. For putting, I’ve found the claw grip really shuts down my yip.
A few other things I have tried with varying success.
- cut out caffeine. Caffeine definitely makes mine worse.
- cut out alcohol. Similar to caffeine. Not good.
- look at the hole while putting.
- close your eyes.
Mine are most bad with chipping. I think mine started from sliding my hips. That closes down the face and puts too much force into the shot. So you can’t release the club. Basically I think the yip starts physical. An error in something and eventually becomes mental. A lesson might well be useful given that.
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For me I need some movement/trigger and not waiting too long. Years ago I had trouble just hitting an iron. I went for a lesson and the pro had me set up with a 5 iron (which I could not hit off the deck at all) and he rolled balls to me. I consistently flushed towering draws one after the other. He looked at me and said “you’re just getting ball bound, but when I make you react then you swing perfectly like you would playing baseball”. I realized that for every shot I had to find a way to set up and go. It reminds me of learning to be a good free throw shooter playing basketball as a kid. I needed to step up, bounce the ball a couple of times and go. It was like a 1-piece motion and the ball would swish. My best golf shots are like that no matter if it’s full swing, pitch or putt.
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Very interesting. What do you use as your movement set up these days on iron shots and putts
Start here:
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Iron shots it’s a waggle or 2 sort of like Dufner. For putts I take a last look at the hole and then go, but I have been playing around with rocking my feet a bit. I’m still working on the putting and I feel like I may need a bit more motion or a better trigger before making the stroke.
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(Opens thread…closes thread)
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No worries, I think the evidence is pretty conclusive by now that the yips aren’t contagious …probably…almost definitely, probably, most likely not contagious …maybe.
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Let’s see…first I went left hand low, and that worked for several years. Then I went back to conventional. That was good for another year. Now I’m arm-lock putting. That seems to be the best.
Whenever this discussion comes up I just tell people to look at pro golfers. They are equally mystified by putting and often make changes quite often. Putting is just that hard!
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