Psychological Factors in Curing the Putting Yips (Video) - by Pete Styles
Psychological Factors in Curing the Putting Yips (Video) - by Pete Styles

Now it is said that up to half of all golfers will experience the yips at some point during their career. Now if you can imagine you are a professional golfer and you rely on that little golf ball going in that little hole to pay the bills, to pay the mortgage, to pay for the petrol to get home from a tournament, you can understand how having the yips can actually cause a downward spiral where you’re putting more and more pressure, more and more anxiety, less and less enjoyment on your golf, and particularly this aspect of the game.

And professionals they’ve often said that the yips are more acute for them because often they’re going to be the good players tee to green so we drive the ball down the middle nicely, knock a good iron shot towards the green, little chip onto three feet and then miss the birdie putt and rock it three foot by, miss the return putt, made a bogey, having hit 2 brilliant shots, 3 brilliant shots to three feet away from the hole. So maybe he’s a club golfer, high handicap golfer, not to take away from those guys but if you’re lining up this putt for a 6 and miss it and make 8, this maybe doesn’t feel as painful as missing this for a 3 or 4. So for those professional golfers where this becomes their world, you can understand how the psychological impact of having the yips can cause you to sort of have that downward spiral. So you really got to work hard on trying to find some clarity, some definition of how important that putt actually is. But also how simple that putt is. It’s not a difficult process to hole that putt. The club has to move backwards and forwards only a matter of inches, so in comparison to how difficult a full swing might be trying to drive the ball 250 yards is far harder than trying to knock that putt in. So it’s important for golfers to understand and get some clarity behind how important holing that putt is, how difficult holing that putt is. And how actually by starting to hole a few and gain a little bit of confidence, it’ll self perpetuate and once you’ve holed a few, you’ll start holing a few more. And hopefully we can turn that downward spiral into an upward spiral and make this a strength in the game rather than a weakness in the game. 2015-08-11

Now it is said that up to half of all golfers will experience the yips at some point during their career. Now if you can imagine you are a professional golfer and you rely on that little golf ball going in that little hole to pay the bills, to pay the mortgage, to pay for the petrol to get home from a tournament, you can understand how having the yips can actually cause a downward spiral where you’re putting more and more pressure, more and more anxiety, less and less enjoyment on your golf, and particularly this aspect of the game.

And professionals they’ve often said that the yips are more acute for them because often they’re going to be the good players tee to green so we drive the ball down the middle nicely, knock a good iron shot towards the green, little chip onto three feet and then miss the birdie putt and rock it three foot by, miss the return putt, made a bogey, having hit 2 brilliant shots, 3 brilliant shots to three feet away from the hole.

So maybe he’s a club golfer, high handicap golfer, not to take away from those guys but if you’re lining up this putt for a 6 and miss it and make 8, this maybe doesn’t feel as painful as missing this for a 3 or 4. So for those professional golfers where this becomes their world, you can understand how the psychological impact of having the yips can cause you to sort of have that downward spiral. So you really got to work hard on trying to find some clarity, some definition of how important that putt actually is.

But also how simple that putt is. It’s not a difficult process to hole that putt. The club has to move backwards and forwards only a matter of inches, so in comparison to how difficult a full swing might be trying to drive the ball 250 yards is far harder than trying to knock that putt in. So it’s important for golfers to understand and get some clarity behind how important holing that putt is, how difficult holing that putt is.

And how actually by starting to hole a few and gain a little bit of confidence, it’ll self perpetuate and once you’ve holed a few, you’ll start holing a few more. And hopefully we can turn that downward spiral into an upward spiral and make this a strength in the game rather than a weakness in the game.