What Are The Yips in Golf?

Defining The Yips in Golf

Dr. Patrick Cohn, golf psychology expert and author of the “Golfer’s Mental Edge” CD program and Breaking The Yips Cycle DVD program, teaches amateur to tour professional golfers how to improve their mental game of golf using golf psychology strategies developed over the last 20 years of his career.

Have you ever heard of the term “yips” in golf?

In this week’s golf psychology session, mental game of golf expert and author of The Mental Game of Golf, Dr. Cohn, responds to a question from Darin who wants to know more about the yips in golf.

Darin wrote in and said:

“What are the yips? I’ve been a coach for 40 years and never heard of them. I can surmise what they are from your article, but please can you explain what they are?”

COHN: Most people that know golfers have seen golfers miss putts from 2 feet or 1 foot. Or if you’ve ever seen someone like Charles Barkley swing a golf club, he has what’s called the full swing yips. Or Tiger Woods went through a period in his career where he had the chipping yips.

COHN: What happens in your swing is that it feels like you’re stabbing, yipping, pulling back, freezing…

COHN: A lot of golfers describe it as if someone has control over their arms like they lose full control of their arms and then they jerk and stab the ball.

COHN: It can affect you on the putting green typically with short putts within 4 feet or more. It can also affect golfers with chipping.

But where do the yips come from?

Listen to the podcast now to learn what mental game tips Dr. Cohn gives to help golfers who want to know where the yips come from:

Subscribe to The Golf Psychology Podcast via iTunes

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