DuckhookDenny

I DID try too hard at golf, absolutely. You can definitely try too hard I think. I cant really be bothered taking more lessons because I cant be bothered to work on the things they tell you. And truthfully i cant be bothered paying more money to improve slightly at a game i dont enjoy that much anyway. My issue is losing interest during rounds because of bad shots. When a few bad shots show up, id rather just walk off and play computer games.

No, im undoubtedly worse. I stopped playing golf for a few years because of yips. But this year, i got the urge to play golf again and for the largest part, i seem to have cured my yips. I havent scored one iota better now ive got my yips under control than I did when i had actual yips, and to be honest im quickly becoming bored of the game again. Ive had some lessons, doing range work, none of it is making any difference whatsoever and i dont particularly like the course im a member at that much. At first i convinced myself i just needed time and it was rust and the scores would come, but to be honest im playing awful.

Hi Everyone Im really struggling with the chipping and pitching action. Im quite yippy but been working hard on that and full swing starting to feel good. I dont feel i have good control of my chipping and pitching action though. The swing thought im going with is to start with some slight shaft lean and slight weight set forward, and to return my hands at impact to present the shaft lean at impact. However, the strikes are inconsistent, and because they are, i cant control flight and spin in a meaningful way. Particularly when using loft. I feel relatively comfortable with a pitch and run type action with a pitching wedge or 9 iron, but i dont feel i have control of the bounce angle on lofted wedges at all. My bad strike tends to be more of a slightly heavy contact which pops the ball up a little higher with less spin. Usually you kind of "get away" with this kind of contact as it will release out a little bit, but its struck poorly. Anyone got any really simple thoughts I can work on over the coming weeks? Thank You

ive hit balls just not played a round. ive had yips but im seeing progress now except my chipping and pitching where im shanking some of my shots

Thats kind of my point. Dont you run the risk of ruining your mechanics because you arent hitting a ball. I could swing the sticks massively fast, but it wouldnt create a good golf shot

Hi Everyone Im about to play my first round of golf for 2 years in a weeks time, and ive been working with the superspeed golf swing sticks to loosen me up. Problem is, how useful are these sticks? its easy to swing anything fast when technique is irrelevant and theres no ball. How effectively does this translate to a real golf swing?

Hello Everyone Over the past 5-6 years ive had massive problems with full swing yips. I gave up playing mostly for the last 2-2.5 years, but im feeling an urge to get back playing. I used to be quite good, i got to a 2 handicap then started to play dreadfully with full swing yips. Ive read some good psychology articles and books, but one thing ive been noticing whilst watching a bit of golf recently is the swings of certain players like Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Brandt Snedeker are three in particular ive really noticed. If we take this example firstly, i know its a driver off the deck, but Phils swing starts with quite a pronounced "lift" upwards of the club and then he swings back freely. This is DJ in a taylormade promotional video. His swing again starts with a "lift" and then he swings back. From a technical perspective, i dont know why they do this. But I notice from my own yips that ive really struggled to take the club back, and i cant start a swing at all. Ironically, i can chip and putt balls no problem though. What i tend to experience is i want to push more and more weight into the ground, almost to the point the shaft bends, and i simply cant move the club back. It means i have no rhythm, no speed, and it throws the whole swing off. When i could play golf quite well i would swing a 6 iron at around 90mph. It would be 80 with the yips...if im lucky. When i saw these swings that started with the club being lifted up and then swung, i kind of instinctively felt this might work as a swing thought to "start" the swing, the lift becomes the start of the swing. What do you think about this? I can imagine it puts a reliance on hand eye coordination but i dont really care if the shots are bad, just so long as i can swing fast and not yip! Thanks Everyone

Hi mate thanks for getting in touch. I wouldnt say something else is affecting my golf, but i would say i cant see the point anymore in speding a hard day at work, coming home to put effort into something that i used to do naturally and cant. I just see it as a waste of time, effort and money. I have gone 2 months without playing now and I couldnt care less from a disappointment point of view. However theres this feeling i SHOULD be doing something productive with my out of work life, rather than spending it playing computer games and watching sports on tv. If golf is on, i just turn it off because I cant be bothered with it either. The thing is, I WANT to be the golfer i was when i didnt yip, because then it would be fun. But it wont go away. Ive had expensive psychology lessons, its cost me hundreds of pounds. Its SO HARD for me to contain the disappointment of working hard all week, to think im going to go out to enjoy something at the weekend, which after 20 mins turns into walking around aimlessly, hitting it like an absolute idiot and wishing i was at home. Im trying not to be melodramatic, but its how i feel

I have had lessons in the past. In addition to this ive read countless ideas on the swing by so many people and watched gold constantly. When i was good at golf, i had a swing where i attacked the ball very much from the inside and played with a strong draw. My grip was odd...the left hand pretty neutral but the right hand strong. The swing was very short and had a very fast tempo, not dissimilar to someone like Nicholas Thompson off the PGA tour. I got down to a 2 handicap at lowest, and usually a low 3 handicapper hovering around 2.5, 2.6 index. I wanted to get better as i never felt i hit the ball that well, so i sought out lessons and i saw the trackman numbers and such. We worked on getting the grip better, actually aligning to the target better (whereas before i would just kind of walk up to the ball, shuffle around a bit till i felt it was ok and hit), i started really focusing on things that i still think are good like alignment, routine etc. And the swing path became less inside out. For a while i played great, then i started getting steeper and steeper and hitting disgusting pull slices all day. THEN, it started getting to the point where, my mind wouldnt let me take the club away. I would do all kinds of crazy stuff like the club would bounce up and down and my takeaway totally frozen even though pros recommended trigger moves etc. Then because the game wasnt enjoyable because of the yipping, id start taking time off because i didnt want to go through with all of this and then, i started losing my flexibility, getting bigger etc. Now I just dont want to go because the only emotions i ever feel are frustration, resentment, annoyance, wanting it to be over after 10 mins and feeling like theres 4 more hours left etc. If you could take me back to a time where i did not yip, i would play the game again and absolutely love it, but its never ever coming back. Ive tried everything. It HURTS. Ive never been any good at ANYTHING else in my life. I put everything into golf from the age of 12 up to about 25. The last 10 years has just been too much for me. i just cant take it

Its a possibility. It might be the only possibility to be honest. Its just too much effort and emotional toil to be worth it now the way im going. I dont get any enjoyment out of the game, its a slide towards playing worse i cant get out of, i cant hit any shots (other than a big slice, and to have reached 2 and 3 handicap in my life i didnt hit a yip slice to get there.) It just feels like something i dont want to do in my time off. I work full time and work hard. The last thing on my mind is going to a golf course, yipping, feeling low, starting the week all over again at work until another weekend of yipping comes or night on the range trying to not yip. Theres no escape. Ive tried visualisation lessons. Ive tried triggers. Tried just going up to the ball and hitting it. Tried not caring. Tried caring like its a PGA tour event. Tried everything. Its the only thing in my life ive ever been any good at but i just cant handle anymore.

I think ive had enough. I just dont want to spend time working on golf anymore or playing. Just want something else to become a passion.

The way to get good smash factor is just an efficient hit, no crazy spin lofts or glancing strikes. just a solid strike produces the 1.48-1.50 smash factors.

Course dependent? I could imagine if you put someone onto a 460 yard par 4 they might think i need to give this everything to try and make a par. I play courses where if you hit it another 10 yards, youll just be 10 yards further into the trees. My home course has hardly any bailout on some tees. Also, is an avatar needed?

Really? not saying your experience is wrong but im surprised. I guess theres a distinction between swinging harder and faster too though. And also, law of diminishing returns.....swing faster, miss middle of face, get lower ball speed than a slower more solid strike

I would say in my experience, people do not swing as fast on the course, as they do in the vacuum environment of a driving range or into a net with a launch monitor. A swing of 105mph is not slow in my opinion. That would be significantly faster than the average LPGA tour player who can flat out play, and i would imagine quite a few champions tour players are in the 105mph region and they can play courses of 6,700-6,800 yards very well. I think its easy (ish) to record a high swing speed when making a free pass at it OR with the objective of trying to record a high swing speed, but on the course you are trying to put the ball into a certain area, not record a high swing speed. Throw in bunkers, deep rough, water and OB into the equation and most peoples swing speed goes down (in my experience)

Ive played a course with no bunkers on it at all, and found it very challenging, in some places much harder than a course with bunkers. To give an example, on one hole there is a par 3 that plays 185-195 yards usually. The green itself is relatively flat, but the lie of the land around the green is quite significantly left to right. If there were bunkers around the green, your ball would stay in the general area around the green and id fancy myself to hit a decent bunker shot and at least have a putt at par, even if not a great bunker shot i could be say, 12 feet from the hole. However with no bunkers, if you miss the green on the right side, the ball could kick wickedly away from the green perhaps 30 or 40 yards away into some really questionable gorsey type lies, and then youd have to pitch uphill to a green thats quite a bit above you, all whilst getting less spin than from the bunker. A crappy bunker might look ugly, but they are hazards afterall, so if it meant some dodgy bunkers or some needed to be filled in to save a course im not against that

For me personally (when i was yip free), ball above my feet was a nice lie. not if its massively above your feet, but i liked the feeling of the slightly flatter swing path and contact was usually very nice. I found from a lie like this, the ball might start a little more left than normal. Ball below the feet, horrible. if the ball was below my feet and going downhill, it would probably go 80 yards short and barely airborne with an awful "fade" if you could call it that. a total slap. With the ball below my feet what i tended to do was actually aim a little right, and basically pull the ball at the green. not ideal, but a repeatable pattern for me. Ball on an uphill lie.....this i found a bit of an issue with weight transfer so id set more weight forwards and swing. take more club to negate the higher effective loft, and vice versa for a downhill lie. I should also add that on tour, so many courses are FLAT relative to the crap courses we have to play as amateurs built 150 years ago on unnatural hills. it makes hitting consistent distances and getting a consistent set up very hard. sorry to be controversial but i hate how people talk about courses being "interesting" because they feature tons of sloping lies that you never see on tv.

i use an intermediate target to START the ball on a certain line with the intention itll curve to the distant target. However What tends to confuse my mind is, i align with the intermediate target but my mind wants to focus in on the distant target, the flag etc, which is NOT the starting line target just in front of me. Im not sure how to get out of this to stop being drawn over towards the flag

Hello everyone firstly, thank you for contributing to my original thread which is this one: For the last 5 or so years, ive really been battling full swing yips, most specifically at takeaway where ive been struggling to take the club away, freezing, changing my posture, ultimately feeling very uncomfortable and losing speed, and then hitting poor shots. I had a few days off playing and id just sat watching my dad playing on the range. Hes a more than adequate golfer, hes 70 but a nice 14 handicap and still fit from playing other sports in his youth. We had a chat and one thing that became apparent is, my golf game started going down hill when i started taking more of an interest in equipment and "numbers". I would get interested in things like swing speeds, ball speeds, maximising ball speed, playing clubs with lighter shafts and lighter swing weights. When i was playing nicely a few years ago, i had a set of AP2s, and in them some x100 shafts. Im at best an "average" hitter, and perhaps shouldnt be technically using those clubs and shafts. But they feel really nice. Since then, ive tried shafts from all the different manufacturers and never really liked them. ive played around with lie angles too, mostly going more upright in a bit to tame an out of control cut shot. Anyway i had a range session tonight, and i dug out my old AP2s. The thing that struck me about them was, compared to the ping I's with Nippon 105s that i broke, how HEAVY my clubs felt. Like at first, almost unusable they were so heavy. But, as i started to swing, my takeaway became a little more one piece. i wasnt just picking the club up with my hands and arms, i was actually turning my body into the backswing. And then as i would transition, i could feel the club was flattening out a little more and coming into impact a little more shallow. From that position, it felt like rather than my arms disappearing around my body left, like my arms would extend out down the target line just a little more. The strike seemed to feel crisper, and the wipey cut started to go away. Now, one thing i had been doing occasionally was hitting balls off the toe. Disaster. Lost a lot of distance and launch if i did. But i started to gain some confidence shot by shot and i noticed, my tempo felt nice and smooth, and almost slow through the ball. I think the heavier irons are starting to make my takeaway and transition much more "familiar" to what it was 5 or so years ago, i feel like my tempo is much more even and smooth, and im coming a little more from the inside. Now, i freely admiit i probably shouldnt use DG x100 shafts. But ive tried all the others, and i cant get on board with the feel. Project X are really, really bad in any flex. I like the KBS Tours a little more. But im thinking, embrace the FEEL of the equipment and dont worry about the numbers. Forget ball speed, launch angle, spin rate, swing speed. The clubs FEEL good. thats all that i need, at an amateur level, to play the game. And theyre slowly starting to make ME groove a better swing, ball by ball. Im going to play 2 rounds this weekend, and rather than use my 50g Kuro Kage in a PXG 0811x Head, im going to take out my old Ping G driver, with a nice Oban Kiyoshi Purple 65 gram shaft in it, and see if the same thing happens with my driving with the extra weight of the shaft. Am i on to something, or was this all coincidence do you think? Thanks Everyone

Hello there thanks for the advice much appreciated. Ive spoken to my dad today and im just going to visit the range with him and help him out for a bit, hes improving steadily and a 14 handicap whilst i clear my head and enjoy a rest. also itll let my body rest. Hi There I do have the heads. Theyre old Ping I's. Even though im a very short hitter, i always preferred Dynamic Gold shafts. Always felt a certain way, distance didnt bother me too much. I hit an 8 iron 150 and i dont need any more than that. 7 iron 160 etc. thats fine for me. I did have Nippon Modus 105s in those irons but never really liked them. Just felt like "nothing". Actually to me FELT quite stiff, even though they arent. Thanks for the help!

unfortunately, no it wasnt just against the ground. I broke all of them. It just became too much for me. Im ashamed of it, i feel stupid of course i do. Ill aim to get video done if it would help people diagnose my faults. It feels like my weight never goes back, and that no matter what i do, my mind wont let my body turn backwards in the backswing. It just leads to a yippy takeaway thats always different and hideous strikes because i simply cant do anything instinctively. I really appreciate everyone taking their time to try and help me, it means a lot to me

Hello Everyone I honestly dont know what to do anymore. I used to be good at golf around 5 to 6 years ago. In the UK, a steady 2-3 handicap who had many rounds of par or better, ive broken 70 a few times and always saw myself improving and always wanted to be on the course. Almost it seems overnight, i completely lost my game, and it has never ever come back. I have full swing yips at takeaway. I must have lost 10mph of clubhead speed and i struggle to even take the club away. I used to play a nice draw shape on almost all my clubs. I now have a choppy, slappy fade/slice that goes absolutely nowhere and if into the wind, its not uncommon itll banana 70 yards right. I cant remember the last time i even hit a shot properly. Today, it really was the final straw for me. After 12 holes, i was already +6 on a very wide open course, having already hit two tee shots into water hazards (and made bogeys, birdying the hole with the second ball each time), i had topped a hybrid 30 yards straight out of bounds, fatted a 6 iron 10 yards, hit a 6 iron 60 yards right of a green, topped a 3 wood 180 yards off the tee along the ground all the way, and hit a 70 yard pitch shot sideways off the toe of the club. Even on the moderately good shots, i couldnt take the club away. It came to an awful head today where i walked off the 12th green and im ashamed to say, i smashed all my clubs up and said "im done" and walked off. I think im done with the same sadly, its brought me so much in the past but i just feel so over it and hopeless now. Id do anything to play decent again but it just feels like its all gone. Ive tried most things, lessons, changing clubs, even tried a little psychology but i cant seem to overcome the yips. Can anyone offer any advice? im at my lowest point ever. Thanks everyone

Bumping this topic as im considering a new driver (probably a Mavrik Callaway), and first time poster. I think Mark Crossfield's point is, in isolation a shaft doesnt do much. If you deliver the club the same way with a ladies flex club, as you do with an X flex, then other than very small differences in launch and spin, the results will be ALMOST identical. The shaft itself is much less of a factor in the launch and spin of the shot than the golfer's strike, and the strike especially for an average teen handicap amateur will be variable. BUT Shaft flex DOES matter, because we ARE human. And the different shafts cause us to deliver the club differently, which changes our contact, which then mean we like one shaft over the other because we start to hit the ball more solidly, and it feels the way that we want it to feel. I for one know that i do NOT like project X shafts, i dont like the butt stiff feeling and even though the numbers would suggest otherwise, i would instinctively deliver the club differently with a project X shafted club than i would with a dynamic gold shafted club. So it DOES matter, but it doesnt matter because its the shaft itself making the difference to your precise repeatable swing, but its the other way around..... that the shaft is what helps you (or hinders you) from delivering the clubhead to the ball with good angles/feeling