This second article in this series discusses remedies for accelerating yips. The first article covered what causes the yips and the two kinds of yips. The third article in the series covers rotational yips and a remedy for it.
Just mentioning the word “yips” causes many golfers to cringe. Golf’s most dreaded disease, the yips can cost you tons of strokes and hours of anxiety. But they can be beaten Tom Watson did it. So did Bernard Langer. In fact, he did it twice.
The yips are only partially psychological. In fact, only about 2 percent of all cases are psychological. The rest of the cases, like those we see in our golf lessons, come from poor putting technique. It’s only after you catch the yips, that a player’s mental state is affected.
Two kinds of yips exist—accelerating and rotational. That’s why it’s hard to cure the yips. Each type requires a different cure. Below we discuss the cause of accelerating yips and provide golf tips on how to beat them.
Cause of Accelerating Yips
If you tend to jab at putts, chances are pretty good you’ll come down with a bad case of accelerating yips. When you jab at putts, you achieve maximum speed with your putterhead after you’ve struck the ball. That’s counter to what our minds want to do.
Our minds are geared to strike an object when the putterhead is at top speed. In golf, that’s usually at impact. But if your putterhead is still accelerating after impact, you’re obviously not reaching top speed at impact. Often, this results in a missed putt.
Good putters reach maximum speed with the putterhead about 3 to 4 inches before impact and then carry it through to the finish. Take a look at video of pro golfers who are great putters, like Brad Faxon, and you’ll see what we mean.
Testing for Accelerating Yips
How do you know if you’re a candidate for accelerating yips? A simple test tells you so:
Drop 5 balls on the green. Try to putt them the same distance. Use the same length stroke to putt each of the 5 balls.
If you have trouble putting the balls the same distance, chances are good you’re a candidate for accelerating yips.
Also, note the tension in your arms and hands when putting. If you feel extreme tension in them, you’re a candidate for accelerating yips.
Curing Accelerating Yips
Not taking the putterhead back far enough is the root cause of accelerating yips. If you’re not taking the club back far enough, you’re probably jabbing at putts. That throws your mechanics and your rhythm off, which doesn’t help either.
Ideally, you want to take a longer, smoother stroke when putting. In fact, you’re better off taking a longer stroke than a shorter one most of the time.
That’s because of your mind. It senses when you haven’t created enough energy to putt the ball far enough and then forces you to speed up your stroke.
To cure accelerating yips, try this proven three-step exercise:
Drop a ball on the green. Then:
1. Make a few continuous practice strokes over the ball with your putter.
2. Without stopping your momentum, take some longer practice strokes above the ball. Make these strokes continuous as well.
3. After taking a few of these longer strokes, lower the putterhead on one of the strokes and hit the ball.
Curing accelerating yips is a easy if you do this exercise correctly. Just keep in mind that you want the putter to do most of the work for you.
The yips are golf’s most dreaded disease. But they can be cured. You just need to apply the right remedy. If you have accelerating yips, use our golf tips above to cure them forever.
Applying the right remedy can not only help you beat this dreaded disease, it can also help you cut strokes off your golf handicap.
In the next article we’ll discuss the remedy for rotational yips and provide a drill to help you cure yourself of this version of golf’s most dreaded malady.
