How Do You Cure The Chipping and Putting Yips? Start Here!
Hi David MacKenzie here,
If you’re a player that’s struggled with the chipping or putting yips for any length of time it’s too long!
Since I began focusing on mental coaching for golf over 10 years ago, curing the yips is something that I continually get asked about. It’s probably the highest pain-point in golf.
Firstly, I know exactly how you feel. I talk to new students each week (many very good players), who have had their scores ad enjoyment destroyed by this horrible affliction. But it’s time to change it…
After realizing how much this issue was affecting players of all levels, I sought about finding techniques to help eliminate the yips and get golfers back to playing their natural games (and getting better). Although I’ve had plenty of success with my one on one coaching via Skype, I did not have all my methods written down, in a book. So that’s what I’ve spent the past several months creating!
How To Cure The Yips by David MacKenzie
What is “The Yips”? 5
Why are the yips more prevalent in the short game and putting? 9
Overcontrol and fear of impact 9
Why do the yips rarely happen in practice and during practice swings/strokes 11
A little (basic) brain science 12
3 Causes of The Yips 14
Focal Dystonia (Neurological Yips) 14
Yips caused by performance anxiety 16
Yips caused by poor technique 17
How to determine what type of yips you have 18
Curing The Yips: Breaking the Cycle
What causes performance anxiety? 20
Fear of embarrassment and failure 20
The physical and mental symptoms of performance anxiety 21
What is the “stress response”? 22
How to reduce performance anxiety 23
Breathing 23
Meditation 25
Being in touch with your senses 25
Slowing everything down 26
Self-talk 26
Self-awareness and thought substitution 27
Separating you the player from you the person 28
Physical tension 29
Finding and relieving physical tension 29
Changing your beliefs
Positive Affirmations 29
Anchors (NLP) 30
Stop talking about the yips! 31
Visualization (Mental Imagery) 31
Pre-round Visualization 32
Keeping a success journal 33
The Importance of The Shot Routine
How The Shot Routine Helps The Yips 36
Shot Routine Fundamentals 38
Pre-shot routine 38
Focus on a pre-determined sequence: You can try something like “align, look, glance, look, go! 47
Initiating the stroke 47
During the stroke/swing 48
After the shot: Choose your response 53
Your mental game scorecard 54
Technical Cures For The Putting Yips
One handed practice (This can also be tried with chipping). 56
Grip changes 57
How Bernhard Langer cured the yips 58
How Mark O’Meara Cured The Putting Yips 59
Paddle Grip 62
Over-sized grip 63
Improving Alignment 64
Swinging blind 64
Keeping the “Y” (for putting) 65
A Longer Back-swing 66
Weight distribution (for putting) 67
Set-up has to match putting style 67
Technical Aspects of The Chipping Yips
Club going too far inside on back-swing 68
Choosing the right shot 68
Weight slightly on left foot 69
Ball position for chipping 69
Keep the shoulders and hands moving together 70
Pressure Practice Drills 70