Chipping Yips, Causes and Cures Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles
Chipping Yips, Causes and Cures Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles

You might be familiar with the term yipping, when it comes to putting, there are commentators on the TV, often talk about a player when he misses a shot, well he has got the yips and he has missed that one. But I actually see quite a few people, that actually yip the chips as well. So a chipping stroke and a putting stroke, could be similar, that it’s quite a short action, quite a delicate action. And in that respect, the golfer could get a little bit nervous and start to over think it and then the brain starts to get involved and tries to instruct the hands, what to do, the hands fight that instructions, that’s when we end up with the yips. And the yips are quite often resulting in a decelerating to the – deceleration to the stroke.

So the golfer gets a bit nervous and a bit twitchy, has a big backswing, and then a little short follow through and they get a bit yippy with that stroke. So what we want to try and do and we are chipping with the yips, is make sure that the backswing is quite short and the follow through is a little bit longer, just to really make sure that club accelerates through the ball. So during the set up phase, we are going to go narrow with the feet, which is a traditional chipping stance, leaning left again, which is traditional chipping. And then practicing just one third, two-thirds, one third, two thirds. And if the club goes back for a third and then forwards two-thirds, you would have to accelerate to make that action. It wouldn’t be a case of the long backswing and then the duff on the follow through.

It would be short and then long coming through, short and accelerating. And to that end, you would often find a golfer, sort of eradicate the yips out of that chipping action, gets a little bit crisper with the strike. It is going to come down to ultimately a lot of practice, because like I said before, the yips is mainly the mental issue.

The mental issue of lack of feel, lack of confidence as much as anything, so when we are practicing this chipping, it’s narrow, it’s down, it’s onto the front leg, left leg for the right handed golfer, short backswing, long follow through. And be nice and positive and accelerate through the ball and that’s how you cure your chipping yips.

2013-09-13

You might be familiar with the term yipping, when it comes to putting, there are commentators on the TV, often talk about a player when he misses a shot, well he has got the yips and he has missed that one. But I actually see quite a few people, that actually yip the chips as well. So a chipping stroke and a putting stroke, could be similar, that it’s quite a short action, quite a delicate action. And in that respect, the golfer could get a little bit nervous and start to over think it and then the brain starts to get involved and tries to instruct the hands, what to do, the hands fight that instructions, that’s when we end up with the yips. And the yips are quite often resulting in a decelerating to the – deceleration to the stroke.

So the golfer gets a bit nervous and a bit twitchy, has a big backswing, and then a little short follow through and they get a bit yippy with that stroke. So what we want to try and do and we are chipping with the yips, is make sure that the backswing is quite short and the follow through is a little bit longer, just to really make sure that club accelerates through the ball. So during the set up phase, we are going to go narrow with the feet, which is a traditional chipping stance, leaning left again, which is traditional chipping. And then practicing just one third, two-thirds, one third, two thirds. And if the club goes back for a third and then forwards two-thirds, you would have to accelerate to make that action. It wouldn’t be a case of the long backswing and then the duff on the follow through.

It would be short and then long coming through, short and accelerating. And to that end, you would often find a golfer, sort of eradicate the yips out of that chipping action, gets a little bit crisper with the strike. It is going to come down to ultimately a lot of practice, because like I said before, the yips is mainly the mental issue.

The mental issue of lack of feel, lack of confidence as much as anything, so when we are practicing this chipping, it’s narrow, it’s down, it’s onto the front leg, left leg for the right handed golfer, short backswing, long follow through. And be nice and positive and accelerate through the ball and that’s how you cure your chipping yips.