Rickie Fowler Admits to Fighting the Yips!

[saevel25]

Rickie Fowler makes fascinating admission: He's fighting the yips

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Rickie Fowler made an admission some pros are unwilling to: He's been battling the putting yips. But he thinks he's turning things around.

 

Quote

“I would say over the last few years I’ve dealt with a little bit of my right hand having a little bit of twitch at times, which you could call it some sort of a ‘yip’, or there’s all kind of names for it,” said Fowler. Lewis visibly reacted to the word “yip,” which is rarely uttered voluntarily by a player, but Fowler put him at ease.

Sounds like the yips to me. I believe the yips are neurological. For one of the better putters, this is sad to see. I like Rickie and wouldn't wish the yips on anyone. I hope he finds something that works for him. 

 

 

[Ty_Webb]

3 hours ago, saevel25 said:

Rickie Fowler makes fascinating admission: He's fighting the yips

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Rickie Fowler made an admission some pros are unwilling to: He's been battling the putting yips. But he thinks he's turning things around.

 

Sounds like the yips to me. I believe the yips are neurological. For one of the better putters, this is sad to see. I like Rickie and wouldn't wish the yips on anyone. I hope he finds something that works for him. 

 

 

 

Having had them myself for the past, checks notes, 23 years, I feel his pain. I think there are three types, with some overlaps. There is the genuinely physical type that the Mayo clinic talks about and is some kind of focal dystonia. I also think that's incredibly rare. There is the some technical issue that grows. I think this one is where you get yourself into a sub-optimal position somehow and then your subconscious knows that what you're trying to do is not going to work, so it sets about not letting you do the thing that consciously you're trying to do and that disconnect causes trouble. Then there is the mental type where for whatever reason you become scared of a possible result and your lizard brain tries to stop you from getting that result - problem is it does it by not letting you try. That's the type that stops people from even being able to start their swing. 

I think in golf, the majority of the time, it starts with the second type and over time that causes the third type to arise. More thoughts to follow:

The third one can affect other sports as well. Darts is a good example there. Eric Bristow, who was one of the best players in the world suddenly found himself unable to let go of the dart. That one starts from a fear of embarrassment - the hard part is it is a vicious circle. The yip causes bad results, which causes embarrassment, which creates more fear of embarrassment, which creates a bigger yip, which creates more embarrassment - etc. etc. etc. Not fun.

Mine started one day on the chipping green at a course in England. I had a friend who had terrible trouble with yips with his putting. He yipped one from four feet one time and didn't get it to the hole. I didn't understand it at all. In my mind I just thought why didn't you just hit it harder. I wish I still didn't know. Anyway, I was getting ready to go out and play and decided to hit a few chips. I couldn't do anything other than just flub them short and right. It was such a weird feeling. I didn't particularly care about the outcome - just on the chipping green. I would take the club back and as I started back down again, the first time, I just didn't release it. Then I tried again and the same thing happened. Then again and I tried to release it that time, nope. Then again and this time I forced myself to do it and the ball went 30* left and over the green. Yikes. Been fighting it ever since.

Knowing what I know now, I am pretty sure that it was a technical issue of some description. I'm not sure exactly what that issue was then. The one I noticed recently is I have a tendency to handle drag somewhat. So I get my hands to the ball, while the club is still behind me and probably quite a lot open. I am not sure there is any contortion of hands or wrist or arms that can get the club back onto the ball in that situation. Subconsciously I know that, so my brain says "nope, not gonna do that" and I yip. I'm now working on something which seems promising from shortgamechef. It works in my back yard and I've had it work reasonably well on the golf course, even when I feel like I'm going to yip it, so it's promising. My problem now is that I've had them so long I have a pretty good dose of the third type as well. So I still don't feel remotely comfortable, but work in progress.

Incidentally for the longest time I was convinced it was not technique based. Two reasons - one I had days where they just weren't there. I could do literally anything with the club, like take it forwards, over my head and then hit it and be fine. I could take the club back almost clipping my right ankle and hit a shot. On the days when I had it, there was nothing I could do. So how could it be technique? The other was it started to affect other things too. I one day tried to throw a rock onto a frozen pond to see if it would break the ice. I was on a bridge over it and threw it and yipped the throw and missed the pond. Probably went six feet left of where I was trying to throw it. No technique involved in that surely. 

Cutting back on caffeine and alcohol both helped and I find CBD helpful too. That might be in my head. Not sure. I concur with the wouldn't wish them on anyone.