“I’ve got the yips,” the golfer said. “I’ve lost confidence in my putting. It’s driving me crazy.”
I leaned forward, interested. Having done a lot of work in sports psychology, the yips are a common form of performance anxiety. It’s the loss of fine motor control, often without warning, so your feel for the game (or particular action) deserts you.
Mainly used by golfers referring to their short game, the yips also show up in baseball, bowls, basketball or netball shooting and goalkeeping duties — generally tasks involving the upper body.
At best, the yips sets up a flood of self-criticism and doubt which can spike all enjoyment and be hard to shake. At worst, it ends careers, sending talented athletes shuffling for the sidelines, forever wondering what went wrong.
Some research shows the yips to be a physical problem of twitch muscle fibre. However any psychologist will tell you that’s a one-dimensional approach to a problem which almost always demands an overhaul of the athlete’s thinking and adding techniques to aid anxiety.
So here’s a process for tackling the yips which can be applied to any sudden, distressing loss of confidence leading to poor performance.
How to Cure the Yips in Golf (and in Life)
1. Stare down the problem.
Take your head out of the bunker and acknowledge what’s going on. When things go wrong it’s an opportunity to improve. Step one is to accept there is a problem and put your hand up for help if you need to.
2. Know your story.
Why did the sudden loss of form, fall off in confidence occur? Usually (and this may need professional help to unpack) it can be tracked to an event, a negative comment or criticism, an injury or other layoff. Knowing the story helps you to make sense of it and to promote rational thought. Understanding your story gives you a starting point for your comeback.
3. Check your technique.
Have this done by a coach, trainer, video, whatever it takes. You do need to know whether a glitch has crept in and you have begun to ingrain it. This is a critical step — if you just resolve to work harder then you risk of grooving in a problematic action. So get someone who knows your game, and whose judgement you respect, to help with this. If you are still not sure, get a second opinion.
4. Make a change.
Make a change to the way you’ve been doing things — even a tiny one (e.g. change in routine, what you do in training, getting a new training partner, adjusting the time, adding variety). The reason for doing this is that you need to send a message to your brain that you are DOING THINGS DIFFERENTLY. That is important step in rebuilding confidence. You can tell yourself: I have made an adjustment so things are back on track. Don’t neglect this step or your brain will revert back to same old, same old and if you hit another stumbling block you will struggle.
5. Switch your focus to what you have to DO (not HOW you go about it)
Once you’re assured your technique is okay, put it aside. Overthinking HOW to play a shot, or game, is death to talent. So throw away the shopping list of instructions and give yourself one simple command for WHAT you have to do. Strike the ball. Swing like a pendulum. Then just do it.
6. Forget the end game.
Extreme focus on outcome is the other way of psychologically dying in sport (and in life). It increases anxiety and makes you tentative. Goals are good but what you do in pursuit of them is what makes you great. So stay focused on WHAT you need to do (the process) and let the end game take care of itself.
7. Reset your goals.
Make them tiny and achievable at first. So you achieve them! If you make them too hard initially (and potentially fail) you risk undermining your confidence further.
8. Breathe.
Anxiety is normal, especially when you’re playing poorly, but it needs to be managed. Have a pocketful of sound anxiety management techniques. Start with breathing properly from the diaphragm and being able to calm yourself through your breath.
9. Assess your life.
I know, big question. But what’s going on for you generally? Is there any other stress in the mix? Do you have other ways to feel good about yourself — or is it all about the sport? Sport is challenging- but don’t let it dominate because when you go through a rough patch (and you will) you won’t have other ways to keep your self-worth afloat.
10. Go back to work.
Like the old Chinese proverb says, Fall over seven times. Get up seven times. Success is not about how many times you go down, it’s about how many times you stand up. (And following a process.)
My golfing client turned his putting woes around quickly with a small change to his technique. Most helpful, he said, was simplifying the focus to WHAT he had to do and forgetting about the outcome. It had also been a wake up call for him generally. “It’s what you do with your life that matters,” he said, “not worrying where it’s going to land.”