Yips

Yips or the yips is an expression used to describe the apparent loss of certain fine motor skills seemingly without explanation in one of a number of different sports.

Professional or leading amateur sportsmen affected by the Yips sometimes recover their ability, sometimes compensate by changing technique, or may be forced to abandon their sport at the highest level.

In golf

In golf, the yips is a movement disorder known to interfere with putting. The term yips is said to have been popularized by Tommy Armour — a golf champion and later golf teacher — to explain the difficulties that led him to abandon tournament play. In describing the yips, golfers have used terms such as twitches, staggers, jitters and jerks.

The yips affects between one-quarter and one-half of all mature golfers. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic found that 33 percent to 48 percent of all serious golfers have experienced the yips. Golfers who have played for more than 25 years appear to be most prone to the condition. Golfers seriously afflicted by the yips include Bernhard Langer, Ben Hogan, Harry Vardon, and Sam Snead, whose late-career putting was "painful to watch" according to fellow pro golfer Ben Crenshaw.

Although the exact cause of the yips has yet to be determined, one possibility is that, in some golfers, the condition may result from biochemical changes in the brain that accompany aging. Excessive use of the involved muscles and intense demands of coordination and concentration may make the problem worse. Giving up golf for a month may help. Focal dystonia is mentioned as another possibility for the real cause of yips.

Therapeutically, persisting immature primitive reflexes, such as the asymmetrical tonic neck reflex, tonic labyrinthian reflex and/or the symmetrical tonic reflex can be inhibited through occupational, physical or other developmental therapists. These immature reflexes trigger unpredictable physical reactions when body and/or head movements are made. About ten repetitions of the movement tends to settle the reflex prior to hitting the ball or throwing.

In cricket

In cricket, the yips applies mostly to bowlers and seems predominantly to affect left-arm spinners. The affliction seems to involve bowlers having trouble releasing the ball at the end of their action. A notable recent example of this was Keith Medlycott, who was forced to abandon the sport, having reached the England squad. Another player, Gavin Hamilton, having played a Test as an all-rounder, largely abandoned his right-arm medium pace bowling, following the yips. He did not make another Test appearance, but has enjoyed a One Day International career for Scotland, predominantly as a specialist batsman.Collins Obuya was one of the stars of Kenya's 2003 World Cup - he gained a contract with Warwickshire on the back of it - but soon after his game fell apart when he developed the yips.

In other sports

The yips also affects players in other sports. Examples include baseball Pittsburgh Pirate pitcher Steve Blass was sent down to the minors to rid himself of the yips; the "Steve Blass Disease" diagnosis is applied to talented players (most notably Blass or New York Yankees second baseman Chuck Knoblauch) who inexplicably and permanently seem to lose their ability, basketball (Chuck Hayes' free throw shot), and tennis (Guillermo Coria and Elena Dementieva are examples). In darts the yips are known as dartitis, with five-time world champion Eric Bristow as the best example. In NFL Football, a normally reliable field goal kicker who starts struggling is also said to have the yips. Stephen Hendry, seven times snooker World Champion, revealed after his loss to Mark Williams in the UK Championship that he had been suffering from yips for 10 years, the condition had affected his ability to cue through the ball, causing him great difficulty in regaining his old form .

In popular culture

In 2007, the yips were a major part of the plot line of an episode of How I Met Your Mother, a CBS comedy. The episode was titled "The Yips", and uses the yips as a metaphor for the character Barney's sudden difficulties in hitting on women.

The yips were also mentioned on a 2007 episode of House titled "Family". House describes Foreman as suffering from the same affliction as Steve Blass, Scott Norwood and David Duval.

The yips were featured in 2009 on an episode of Psych, a comedy on USA Network. The episode, "Shawn Gets the Yips," shows the main character, Shawn, in need of a sports psychologist because he apparently suffers from the yips.

The 4th episode of the Psychology anime Kūchū Buranko involves a patient suffering the Yips.

In Season 5 Episode 1 of Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry discovers that the doctor performing surgery on his father has the yips during a game of golf.

Episode 9 of Human Target dealt with the main character, Christopher Chance, confronting a case of the yips during a martial arts tournament.

In Season 2 Episode 1 of Nip/Tuck a doctor tells Sean McNamara that he has the yips.

On their 1991 album, McIntyre, Treadmore And Davitt, English band Half Man Half Biscuit have a track called, Yipps (My Baby Got The).

In the manga series The Prince of Tennis, the character Yukimura Seiichi has a technique which gives his opponents a very bad case of the yips, so bad that they are actually rendered blind, deaf, and paralyzed in the middle of the game.

During the early episodes of the sixth season of Japanese baseball anime, Major, the main character, Goro, battles a case of the yips after being called up from AAA to pitch for the fictional MLB team, the Indiana Hornets.

See also

• Dartitis
• Target panic

External links

• Article on CNN Health