Putt yips are a dangerous situation on the golf course. Like shanks or a simple, inexplicable ability to hit the ball, putting yips will send your scores and handicap skyrocketing, and you may find yourself struggling, out of breath, in an attempt to get your game back.
Yips have been a problem for golfers at the higher levels of the sport, even affecting professionals like Bernhard Langer and Ben Hogan. Both Masters winners, these golfers found their game crumbling from peak to trough, and these conditions can happen to the best amateur and highest handicapper, and can be devastating.
Putting strokes can manifest in your inability to move the putter, or it can be as simple as losing line or speed at all. Any of these conditions, some worse than others, will force you to lose your love for a game that probably meant a lot to you.
You may now feel confident on the ball. You like it, you won’t be able to do the kind of swing you’ve always done. You won’t be able to get the stick back without jerking it, and then you won’t be able to bring it back down at all.
Your brain will tell you to freeze every time you try to hit the ball well. Whether known as yips or shanks, the condition is a nerve affliction that prevented you from hitting the ball like you knew you could.
You’ll no longer have confidence in a putt, and you just won’t feel like hitting the ball. It will be as if you are afraid to swing the ball. Golf swing stems will prevent him from playing his game, and he will be shaking and stabbing the ball.
So nervous about the ball that putting strokes won’t allow you to make a normal putt. He will try to change his swing to stop the problem, but the yips will remain.
The new swing, the new club path, will keep you from thinking about yips, but will only confuse your game with new fundamentals and mechanics. The yips of the putt will still be under the new swing.
Trying to fix it by changing my mechanics will be like trying to clean your bathroom after your sink has leaked, without first turning off the water. Mopping up the water with a mop, with the water still running, will allow you to clean up the mess, but you will only have more standing water. You need to turn off the water first, and get rid of your golf yips, before cleaning up the mess.
This can be done with the correct practices and you will be able to tackle the problem at the root of the nervous system. You’ll get back to playing your game with confidence and hitting the shots you’ve always had in your bag.