The Yips. You may have heard of them. You may have experienced them. But what exactly are "the yips"? Well, in medical terms, the yips is “the apparent loss of fine motor skills without apparent explanation, in one of a number of different sports. The technical term is focal dystonia. Athletes affected by the yips demonstrate a sudden and unexplained loss of previous skills. Athletes affected by the yips sometimes recover their ability, sometimes compensate by changing technique, or may be forced to abandon their sport at the highest level”. In simple terms, it means that a player can seemingly become frozen, unable to move the club or hit the ball. Previously highly-skilled athletes are, temporarily at least, unable to execute movements that they have made thousands of times before. In golf, the yips is a movement disorder that most-commonly interferes with putting, (but in fact the yips can affect any aspect of the game) and it is said to affect between a quarter and a half of players. Age also seems to be a factor – players with more than 25 years of experience are especially prone. Although the exact cause of the yips has yet to be determined, one possibility is that the condition may result from biochemical changes in the brain that accompany aging. There have been many great players affected by this disorder, including Tommy Armour, Sergio Garcia, Bernhard Langer, Ben Hogan, Harry Vardon, Sam Snead, Keegan Bradley, Kevin Naa. Check out this great article about the most famous players and golfing moments associated with the yips. bleacherreport/articles/1654754-ranking-the-10-worst-cases-of-the-yips-in-golf-history
Posted on: Sat, 27 Jul 2013 07:05:34 +0000
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