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Possible Causes Of Your Yips Part 2

Your putting yips may be easier to fix than you think. Take a look at these 3 common culprits and ask yourself whether or not they are getting in your way of a successful putt:

Over-analysis: You may get so caught up in the mechanics of your stroke that you paralyze your natural movement. You become so self-conscious of your body position, putting stroke, and movements, they can barely take the putter back in any simple, straight fashion, along the target line. You may find yourself watching the putterhead go back and come through the ball or looking up to see how the ball rolls.

Steering: Instead of letting the putterhead freely swing through the ball and propel it toward the hole, you may find yourself trying to steer the ball into the hole. Steering is typically a tension filled attempt to guide the ball into the hole due to a lack of confidence in the putting stroke. Tension can cause you to push the putterhead toward the hole and mistakenly get your wrists or legs into the act.

Insecurity: Getting nervous and insecure over a putt, especially a short one, is a sure way to miss it. Without confidence, you allow all manner of negative thoughts to enter your head and your play. What can you do to make the putt? Will it go in? Can you lose the hole or the match by missing it? Will you feel embarrassed in front of the other players by missing it?

End Your Putting Yips By Fixing Your Alignment

Are you seeing too many angles when you stand over a putt? Have you checked to see if you may be lined up incorrectly? Your conscious alignment may be at war with your subconscious sense of straightness, and your putting stroke is caught in the middle as your body tries to issue a correction.

Pick a hole on a flat spot on the practice green and drop your ball the few feet from the hole. Stand behind the ball and line up the putt. Be sure to use the printed brand name on the ball as a helper. Position the ball so that the name points straight at the hole. When you get over the ball with your putter, match the aiming line on top of your putter to the line of the logo on the ball.

Put the putterhead flush behind the ball on this line. Now take notice of your feet. Are they perpendicular to the line created by the logo? How about your shoulders? Finally, are you taking the putter head straight back and straight through during the stroke?

End Your Putting Yips By Clearing Your Head

Because the major contributors to the yips are tension, anxiety, and ack of confidence, one way to help rid yourself of the yips is to empty your mind. Play in the subconscious - forget about the stroke, forget about the results, and forget about the circumstances. Just play, in the literal sense of the word.

If you step inside your local pub to play darts or shoot some pool, you probably do not get all bogged down in your technique when you toss the darts or set up for your corner shot. You may want to win the pool game, but you probably do not hang the balance of the world on your shot on the 8-ball, right? You just play casually, sipping a beer, and enjoying yourself, even when you miss.

Try to put yourself into the same mindset when you putt. Just play and let it happen. Let your athletic instincts take over. Trust the practice and effort you have put toward your game thus far. Just step up to your position and make the shot, putting in the subconscious.

Possible Causes Of Your Yips Part 1

What exactly causes the yips? Wouldn’t it be great if a pharmaceutical company developed a pill that would automatically make all of your personal yips disappear, especially when you are getting ready to putt?

Anxiety: Your yips may be caused by anxiety over making a putt. If you look up too quickly to see the ball falling into the hole, you may not complete the stroke properly, pulling or pushing with your hands. Your hands may even shake and wobble.

Wrist Breakdown: A breakdown in your right wrist (for right-handed golfers) can result in the yips. Often, a breakdown or flick of the wrist happens just before impact. This is a mechanical flaw that can send the putt off-line.

Alignment: If you line up improperly before you hit the putt, and you misalign on your putterhead, your body may subconsciously cause you to alter the swing path in mid stroke in an attempt to make a correction. Attempting to correct the path of your putter in mid stroke is immensely difficult and likely to result in a push or pull, or the putter head may cut across the ball and cause it to spin.

Putting Tip: Keep Your Eyes Over The Ball

Ball position is as important in the putting stroke as it is in the full swing. There are two factors to bear in mind:

1) Firstly, the ball should be forward in your stance to encourage a slight ascending blow when the putter-face meets the ball. This imparts a good roll on your putts.

2) Secondly, your eyes should ideally be directed over the ball, as this gives you the best perspective of the line from the ball to the hole.

A Simple Routine

Here is one simple routine that helps give you the perfect ball position:

Adopt a comfortable posture and then drop a golf ball from the bridge of your nose. The spot on which it lands represents perfect ball position for you.

Putting Tip: Take Dead Aim

It goes without saying that the aim of the putter is obviously a crucial determining factor in how many putts you make. After all, if you don’t aim correctly then how can you expect to hit your target?

A Simple Method

One method that should help you eliminate the likelihood of poor aim is to place the golf ball on the green in such a way that the manufacturer’s name corresponds exactly with the line on which you want the ball to start its journey.

You should then set the putter face behind the ball so that it is exactly perpendicular to that line. Alternatively, draw a line on the ball.

This is a very effective method, adopted by many of the leading professional players, because it provides you with a visual image of the perfect aim and path to the hole.

Drills To Defeat The Yips

In your journey to defeating the yips, head on over to the practice green and work on creating your own remedy. To get you started here are a few drills:

1. Try hitting some putts with your eyes closed.

2. Test different putting grips. Include the cross handed grip.

3. Hit a few putts with your eyes focused on the hole.

4. Hit some putts while keeping your wrists, hands, arms, and shoulders all moving as one unit, stiff like a robot.

5. Try hitting some putts by hitting the middle of the golf ball with the bottom portion (leading edge) of the putter blade. Of course do not use this type of putt in a real game, but it is great shock therapy to help get your mind from the yips.

6. Ram several putts into the hole with some extra speed and power.

7. Try hitting some putts with only the grip of your leading hand. Totally neutralize your other hand by tucking it in your pocket. You may find that you putt more solid this way. If so then this learning experience may tell you that when your back hand is gripping the putter, the back wrist may be flipping before impact.

Bumpy Putting Tip

When putting the ball on greens that are spiked or bumpy, the most important factor is the necessity of controlling the golf ball both at the moment of impact - and immediately after.

When putting on bumpy greens with your typical style, the ball has practically no spin when it leaves the club head. For the first several inches (depending on the length of your putt) the ball is really just skidding along. Then it picks up it’s own rotation and rolls towards the hole.

Now when the green is unusually bumpy then the standard putt as described above becomes a problem due to the lack of spin. The ball may hit something small on the way and deflect from the target, long before it creates its own inertia. Being knocked off just a half an inch in the beginning becomes a few feet by the time it reaches the hole.

The Solution

To develop the control you need in such a bumpy problem try to putt the ball with an upswing. Although this is just a small change in the stroke, hitting with an upswing will give the ball over-spin from the time it leaves the club head. This over-spin will help the ball to remain on target, especially during those first few crucial inches.

A Secret Putting Tip

Every golf shot combines two basic elements: One is judging distance and the effects of the terrain and wind on the ball. The other is a complete execution of your swing. When it comes to putting, the mental calculations count more for for this shot than any other shot you will make.

Putt shots will also prove to be more difficult as well, but there are ways to help yourself.

Many golfers simply pace the distance to the cup. Instead of this common practice, try to just stand over the ball and look at the line to the hole, while at the same time measuring the distance in 5 or 10 foot intervals. Then check the texture of the grass and remember this last important tip: Take notice of which direction the grass is growing!

You obviously do not have to hit a putt as hard when the grass is growing towards the hole, as opposed of growing towards you, but the grain can be a little difficult to see unless you look closely. So take a moment and use the direction of the grass growth as a gauge to aid in how much power you need (or less) in your putt.