How to fix the "yips"

evergruven said:
not an instructor
but how about loosening your butt grip?
relaxing your grip might help relax your mind
it also seems more difficult to "poke" with a light grip
and if you happen to shake, I think the shaking would show up less when the grip isn't as tight
good luck!
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Actually my grip is on the lightest side possible but what you said makes sense. I have fixed the issue, though the explanation may or may not make sense.
WobblyStroke said:
One of the best bits of knowledge on the yips I ever came across came from Gravity Golf's David Lee. He explains that slack in joints can often lead to spasams in muscles to compensate for a broken kinetic chain. While there def seems to be a mental component, it would be wise to address any physical reasons for the appearance of yips in your game. David Lee's examples are obv highly geared towards golf but the principle of removing slack can be easily applied to pool. Esp if you're the type not to be really down on the cue, you can develop an inconsistent relationship between the arm and body. Being all the way down like snooker players sets the shoulder rotation near if not full max which takes out all slack and leaves no wiggle room. If, however, you have your chin a few inches off the cue and a high shoulder you can achieve the same look to your stance and setup while carrying varying levels of tension in your shoulder and an inconsistent feel to your stroke. Any time that shoulder tension is too low you lose connection and can snatch at the shot. A fix for this would be to be mindful of your posture through your back in your setup or to preset your arm position in your preshot routine by either forcing your elbow back or bringing it up as high as it goes when getting down, or simply trying to keep the longest stress free distance from your head to your elbow... any of these three will keep the relationship between your body and your cue arm consistent and remove slack from the shoulder joint which should at least make the yips less likely and eliminate a physical cause of them.
Here is the David Lee clip on yips :
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Yes this is very useful. I have already realized that this is part of the issue as well as the vision of the shot I have. I have a wonky neck that hurts more and more the longer the shot is. Since I can't effectively angle my head up I am going down on the shot at all different heights to try and compensate it. And I think my brain is realizing it is off and trying to compensate. So I need to dial in a more consistent set up procedure and taking out the slack will help with that. Since realizing this I have been better but need to dial it in
 
johnnysd said:
Actually my grip is on the lightest side possible but what you said makes sense. I have fixed the issue, though the explanation may or may not make sense.

Yes this is very useful. I have already realized that this is part of the issue as well as the vision of the shot I have. I have a wonky neck that hurts more and more the longer the shot is. Since I can't effectively angle my head up I am going down on the shot at all different heights to try and compensate it. And I think my brain is realizing it is off and trying to compensate. So I need to dial in a more consistent set up procedure and taking out the slack will help with that. Since realizing this I have been better but need to dial it in
Click to expand...
Glad the slack vid on yips resonated with you. You pretty much nail a, if not THE, major contributing factor to any yips in the bold statement. The problem with sighting from various heights is that shots actually look different with the same alignment so you could be on target and see it as 'off' or vice versa. If you are playing from various heights of stance making alignment errors will be easy and it will happen often. Luckily we have those subconscious compensations you mention which try and bring us back to conditions that will likely match the shot we are envisioning. To use another golf analogy, many ppl have beautiful practice swings and then awful looking swipes at the ball. I've heard more than one top teacher say that if those ugly compensations weren't in the final delivery, the shots would come out way worse IF they even hit the ball all. The reason being that when swinging at air the exact alignment of clubface doesn't matter but when you give the brain a task of hitting the ball at a target, it quickly figures out that the rehearsed swing won't make it happen and the adjustments and compensations save the day by at least making some shots work out from an otherwise doomed setup. By starting at various heights, I'd bet you start out in a doomed setup way too often, your mind recognizes this, and in trying to get the result of the shot you intend, it causes big deviations from where you are setup (incorrectly). The corollary is that you may be setup correctly but got used to seeing the game from a certain angle and from the height for the current stroke, the correct angle just looks wrong to you. In this case your compensations really work against you and cause adjustments towards what looks right but is wrong.

A really solid preshot routine and remaining mindful of keeping the relationships between body and arm, as well as the height from which you sight shots as consistent as possible stroke to stroke is the way to dial it in. One helpful tidbit, always make sure you are fully aimed up and in line before getting down to give yourself less to do when you are down there and angles get distorted.
 
WobblyStroke said:
Glad the slack vid on yips resonated with you. You pretty much nail a, if not THE, major contributing factor to any yips in the bold statement. The problem with sighting from various heights is that shots actually look different with the same alignment so you could be on target and see it as 'off' or vice versa. If you are playing from various heights of stance making alignment errors will be easy and it will happen often. Luckily we have those subconscious compensations you mention which try and bring us back to conditions that will likely match the shot we are envisioning. To use another golf analogy, many ppl have beautiful practice swings and then awful looking swipes at the ball. I've heard more than one top teacher say that if those ugly compensations weren't in the final delivery, the shots would come out way worse IF they even hit the ball all. The reason being that when swinging at air the exact alignment of clubface doesn't matter but when you give the brain a task of hitting the ball at a target, it quickly figures out that the rehearsed swing won't make it happen and the adjustments and compensations save the day by at least making some shots work out from an otherwise doomed setup. By starting at various heights, I'd bet you start out in a doomed setup way too often, your mind recognizes this, and in trying to get the result of the shot you intend, it causes big deviations from where you are setup (incorrectly). The corollary is that you may be setup correctly but got used to seeing the game from a certain angle and from the height for the current stroke, the correct angle just looks wrong to you. In this case your compensations really work against you and cause adjustments towards what looks right but is wrong.

A really solid preshot routine and remaining mindful of keeping the relationships between body and arm, as well as the height from which you sight shots as consistent as possible stroke to stroke is the way to dial it in. One helpful tidbit, always make sure you are fully aimed up and in line before getting down to give yourself less to do when you are down there and angles get distorted.
Click to expand...
This is very good. Thanks.
 
WobblyStroke said:
Glad the slack vid on yips resonated with you. You pretty much nail a, if not THE, major contributing factor to any yips in the bold statement. The problem with sighting from various heights is that shots actually look different with the same alignment so you could be on target and see it as 'off' or vice versa. If you are playing from various heights of stance making alignment errors will be easy and it will happen often. Luckily we have those subconscious compensations you mention which try and bring us back to conditions that will likely match the shot we are envisioning. To use another golf analogy, many ppl have beautiful practice swings and then awful looking swipes at the ball. I've heard more than one top teacher say that if those ugly compensations weren't in the final delivery, the shots would come out way worse IF they even hit the ball all. The reason being that when swinging at air the exact alignment of clubface doesn't matter but when you give the brain a task of hitting the ball at a target, it quickly figures out that the rehearsed swing won't make it happen and the adjustments and compensations save the day by at least making some shots work out from an otherwise doomed setup. By starting at various heights, I'd bet you start out in a doomed setup way too often, your mind recognizes this, and in trying to get the result of the shot you intend, it causes big deviations from where you are setup (incorrectly). The corollary is that you may be setup correctly but got used to seeing the game from a certain angle and from the height for the current stroke, the correct angle just looks wrong to you. In this case your compensations really work against you and cause adjustments towards what looks right but is wrong.

A really solid preshot routine and remaining mindful of keeping the relationships between body and arm, as well as the height from which you sight shots as consistent as possible stroke to stroke is the way to dial it in. One helpful tidbit, always make sure you are fully aimed up and in line before getting down to give yourself less to do when you are down there and angles get distorted.
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This from a guy named WobblyStroke :) just kidding.
 
Per the article Bob linked to, stop playing for a while to rest that arm.

I have a tremor that adds to the yips, but this past 2 weeks or so, my 'yips' numbers have gone up significantly.

I'm holding off practicing for a while. I'll post if it helps or not.


Jeff Livingston
 
chefjeff said:
Per the article Bob linked to, stop playing for a while to rest that arm.

I have a tremor that adds to the yips, but this past 2 weeks or so, my 'yips' numbers have gone up significantly.

I'm holding off practicing for a while. I'll post if it helps or not.


Jeff Livingston
Click to expand...


It didn't help, it got worse. I didn't play the rest of the week....then....

...We played this weekend in a league's city tournament and I had to sit out all but my first match in which I sucked baaaaad with twitching and yippin'. Good news is, we won a trip to Vegas for our team. Not APA. My team didn't need me to do it. Not sure how I feel about that.


Jeff Livingston
 
Appreciate all the responses. I have been playing much better. Only things I changed were to keep my eye line level consistent, and just being slower especially practice strokes. Maybe it was all mental but just being consistent has worked wonders. It has made me want to work on a pre-shot routine like you have in golf. Like so many practice strokes and time for each stage so each shot is the same.
 
johnnysd said:
I have a wonky neck that hurts more and more the longer the shot is. Since I can't effectively angle my head up I am going down on the shot at all different heights to try and compensate it.
Click to expand...
At the risk of starting an argument, I'm not an instructor 😄

Something that helped me when I had a similar issue was bending both knees a little. Maybe worth trying.
 
johnnysd said:
Appreciate all the responses. I have been playing much better. Only things I changed were to keep my eye line level consistent, and just being slower especially practice strokes. Maybe it was all mental but just being consistent has worked wonders. It has made me want to work on a pre-shot routine like you have in golf. Like so many practice strokes and time for each stage so each shot is the same.
Click to expand...
Good to hear you've seen some improvement. Not surprising that shoring up some physical issues cleaned up mental issues. It is just so hard to be comfortable and confident if you aren't sure if the angle you are seeing is the correct one, or if your can't trust your stroke is going to show up because you haven't done the things in your pre-shot routine to make sure it does. A lot of mental issues can arise from those simple physical causes. A good pre-shot routine addresses many of those issues and is especially vital in pressure situation. Not only does it settle a restless mind by confirming alignment, arm/body relationship, grip, etc. are all as they are supposed to be which in and of itself will fill you with confidence, but there is a calming effect going into a routine that communicates to your body that this is something you have done before countless times. There was a tournament aired on TV that had the players hooked up to heartrate monitors...as players went into their pre-shot routine and got down over balls, their heart rates slowed way down. Now all top pros have a very carefully constructed pre-shot routines so this is somewhat expected, but I wonder how amateurs without those pre-shot rituals would fare on heart rate monitors. In any case, there are many wonderful benefits to a pre-shot routine, both physical and mental, so good luck developing yours.
 
I've gone back to using b-complex. I played yesterday and no yips.

My Mom swore by b-complex for her tremors.


Jeff Livingston
 
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