Anyone ever get the YIPS?

ideologist

I don't never exaggerate
Silver Member
A loss or change of fine motor skills can make relatively simple task seem impossible. I remember years ago when Jon Lester went through his YIPS, he couldn't throw a ball from the mound to first base. I always thought it was strange how he had been doing it his whole life, but there for a while, he just couldn't.

I usually shoot somewhere around a low 6 speed. But the last few days it's been more like a low 3 speed lol. I'm not just missing shots, I'm missing easy shots BADLY. I'm taking on new task at work which may be affecting a change in fine motor skills, but other than that everything has been normal in life. Have yall ever just been so wildly off your game that you couldn't even explain it, and if so how long did it last?

My entire game is yips mixed with occasional streaks of genius
 

grindz

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
This is what I wrote on Facebook on Simone that week.

"Warning: Long post to follow about Simone Biles:

I hesitated on sharing this, but I'm going to. This is about Simone Biles and what I have in common with her. For my non-pool playing friends... I play competitive pool
Sorry for your loss.....

The OP seems to be talking about something different, but to me it sounds like you have an essential tremor (familial tremor).. am I understanding
you correctly? I do have that and it sounds quite similar to your symptoms. With it, or alongside it seems to be the nervous system goes
haywire and can take the tremors from moderate to out of control quite easily. What once was the excited amped up ready for competition, and
getting into take no prisoners mode goes into fight or flight lifesaving mode.

Anyway, age affects us all, and a temporary lapse of play quality can be a result of just getting down on the ball differently from
a workout that tightens you up in a place or places where you usually aren't tight.... or sore.

td
 

Fore Rail

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
On the pool table no. On the golf course yes!!

If my nerves ever get to the point where I can’t pull the trigger or interferes with delivery I will quit.
 

axejunkie

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Sorry, this has nothing to do with the yips. I don’t want you to ever feel the yips. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.

I’ve chronicle my woes with the Yips here and on Facebook. If someone were to rack the balls, and I’m not physically at the table, I literally cannot put my hand on the table to make a bridge. The Yips won’t let me. Do a search for me and Yips, and I show a simple shot that I literally can’t put my bridge hand down because of the Yips. The moment I touch my bridge hand down, my back arm fires as if it has Tourette’s. If I’m lucky, I’ll catch it. I would say 19 out of 20, I’m not lucky.

I am literally a stroke instructor from Jerry Briesath. This is not about having a repeatable stroke and pre-shot routine. This isn’t about nerves or contenderosis. I get the Yips playing at home by myself.

If people “think they have they Yips,” they don’t. They’d know it.
Thanks for posting this. Been reading this thread as I started uncontrollably one-stroking the ball about a year ago. I've never been a one-stroker prior to that.

Nowadays I get down on the ball and just before practice stroking, I get this urge to shoot and my arm just lets it rip. It varies in severity, seems the worst on the money ball, breaking or any power stroke shot.
 

Cornerman

Cue Author...Sometimes
Gold Member
Silver Member
Sorry for your loss.....

The OP seems to be talking about something different, but to me it sounds like you have an essential tremor (familial tremor).. am I understanding
you correctly? I do have that and it sounds quite similar to your symptoms. With it, or alongside it seems to be the nervous system goes
haywire and can take the tremors from moderate to out of control quite easily. What once was the excited amped up ready for competition, and
getting into take no prisoners mode goes into fight or flight lifesaving mode.

Anyway, age affects us all, and a temporary lapse of play quality can be a result of just getting down on the ball differently from
a workout that tightens you up in a place or places where you usually aren't tight.... or sore.

td
No, nothing like tremors at all. And what I'm talking about is what the OP correctly wrote as a definition, but definitely is not what he has. See posts from Wobblystroke and Mr Machine. There are two parts to Yips: prior to execution and during execution. Prior to execution is what Mr Machine describes. A total freeze of the body as if it has no idea what the next proverbial step in the mechanics is, despite doing it for decades. It's also what Wobblystroke mentions. Imagine not being able to begin to sign your name because your hands have forgotten the first thing to do , and you can't just will it it to do it (not because of dementia or alzheimer's). The second part is the execution. So if the first part isn't there, the execution is the disastrous spaz mechanics trying to do some semblance of something without any connection to conscious understanding or subconscious muscle memory.


If I am in full on Yips before I break, I cannot put my bridge hand on the table without my grip hand firing forward. I've even tried to close my eyes, and my grip hand still fires forward. So you'll see me literally hitting the cueball while I'm still getting down on the shot. My body won't let me stop the motion of my grip hand. It can't follow the known most basic process (get your bridge hand down first, then aim, then fire).
 
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MattPoland

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I guess it’s fair to say my experience was moreso a form of “choking” rather than the “yips” in a formal sense because it didn’t involve certain physical manifestations of spasms or tremors. Though I think some people in a lay sense might refer to choking or going on tilt as the yips. I appreciate being better aware of the distinction.
 

Jobear

Registered
Yeah. I have days like that unfortunately. Usually not a long term thing like some people deal with in golf and stuff. But I can shoot great one match and awful the next. It's something that gets better the more I play but when I'm playing just once or twice a week it can be an issue.

Had one league night recently where I just couldn't make simple shots. I could make hard shots but I was missing the easy ones....a lot. It was very weird and very frustrating.

I think, for me, it often comes down to nerves and expectations. When the shot is hard there is a little internal pressure that gets lifted because I know it's a tough shot and I may miss and if I miss I can chalk it up to being a hard shot. But on the simple ones, once I miss one it can get in my head a little because I know I should make that shot every time....so then it adds internal pressure and expectation along with fear of the miss and it just spirals from there.

Something I need to work on with my mental game for sure

I don't think anyone is immune to the occasional case of the yips. I missed a tap in on a money ball. It was even easier now, more like a nudge in. My opponent missed a six inch shot! I knocked the ball in the hole just to put us both out of our misery.

My eyes or mind went south on me one tournament, I couldn't line up shots, easy shots. I wasn't feeling any pressure and I shot fine the day before and the day after. "Stuff" happens. Brown stinky stuff!

Hu
I had a day like that today playing 8 ball scotch doubles. When two went home two of us played 9 ball and it all came back, lol??? Crazy game and mind.
 

maha

from way back when
Silver Member
i guess the yips is a medical condition,and i dont know much about that and feel sorry for those that have it as it can make doing things unbearable.

most think wrongly that the yips is like freezing under pressure called chocking and that is mental. and usually happens to those that dont play enough under pressure or gamble for serious money to them.

one you are stuck with unless there is a cure and the other you can work out of it. both are miserable.
 

book collector

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
A loss or change of fine motor skills can make relatively simple task seem impossible. I remember years ago when Jon Lester went through his YIPS, he couldn't throw a ball from the mound to first base. I always thought it was strange how he had been doing it his whole life, but there for a while, he just couldn't.

I usually shoot somewhere around a low 6 speed. But the last few days it's been more like a low 3 speed lol. I'm not just missing shots, I'm missing easy shots BADLY. I'm taking on new task at work which may be affecting a change in fine motor skills, but other than that everything has been normal in life. Have yall ever just been so wildly off your game that you couldn't even explain it, and if so how long did it last?
Yeah , I bought a Meucci cue and within a year I was jumping up on every shot, anybody else would have changed cues after a week , but oh not not me , I was going to make this cue work because I spent too much on it and couldn't get my money back. I ended up giving it to my daughter who plays about once a year, she loved it.
That cue had a way of miscueing on about half the critical shots. I know it was me , but I am still not positive it wasn't posessed.
 
now I can’t say I recommend this. But every once in a while a certain shot will throw you off all day. Some of you know where I’m coming from with this. We’ve all had that day where it is just 1 shot that you keep missing over and over


I was able to counteract that the last time it happened. About a month ago I was having trouble with a 9 ball shot that comes up often. OB near the middle of the table CB up table. Not a hard cut, just a typical long 9 ball cut shot(And one you should practice regularly btw) I missed it like 3 times straight. So the 4th time I didn’t even look at the pocket. I focused only on the cue ball and the object ball and took the shot. It went! Try the same(no look) the next time it came up and missed. But every other time after that, I made it shooting normal again. It’s like sometimes your brain needs a quick reboot. Other times it needs a full reset.
 

Flakeandrun

Well-known member
It's similar to getting a certain song in your head you can't get out.

It's like a nightmare (Grady Seasons).
Right, absolutely. Like a little nagging voice in your ear 🤣
There were some crazy rolls in the game too, which helped me ease off on myself a little, so I didn't go into full 'WHAT IS HAPPENING' mode after I bottled it. Just saw the funny side to it.

On the 9, hill-hill in the first set. He misses and leaves me to the table. Not an absolute 'gimme' of a shot, but one I expect to make 99% of the time. CB an Inch off the top cushion (so I had enough room for comfort), OB just off straight and an inch from the bottom right rail. Half way up. I remember thinking to myself 'would be a hell of a time to get the yips' - from start to finish I knew I wasn't gonna sink it...

Second set, I left myself horribly from the 8, so I had to over-cut the 9 into the bottom corner from mid table. I was thinking 'well, here I am again, not making this am I?' hahaha

If much of the same happens tonight, I will consider it a minor case of the Yips, and take a visit to the Yipsologist for treatment 🤣
 
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Shooter08

Runde Aficianado
Silver Member
The real yips won’t allow you to shoot period or make a phone call. Not a joke, it’s debilitating.
 

Flakeandrun

Well-known member
The real yips won’t allow you to shoot period or make a phone call. Not a joke, it’s debilitating.
I'd always used/heard the 'yips' used in a jovial way, relating specifically to sports. In fact, I had only heard it in reference to playing cricket for a long time (essentially when the ball gets stuck in your hand as a bowler, which I experienced and detailed in the thread earlier). But also, later in relation to golf.

Just doing a bit of reading since you mention it. Certainly an interesting, and complex psychological phenomenon.

My general attitude at present, is that treating these situations in jest at an early stage and making jokes about it could help lessen the anxiety that causes the issues to become consistent. Thus, the humour encourages having a more accepting attitude, and could aid in discouraging performance related anxiety. Hopefully preventing issues arising that become more debilitating.

Naturally, to anyone suffering from it (in any other form) - much like suffering from anything else - sincerest hopes that you overcome your issues. Searching Le Googlé and It's certainly an interesting bit of morning reading.
 

Shooter08

Runde Aficianado
Silver Member
I'd always used/heard the 'yips' used in a jovial way, relating specifically to sports. In fact, I had only heard it in reference to playing cricket for a long time (essentially when the ball gets stuck in your hand as a bowler, which I experienced and detailed in the thread earlier). But also, later in relation to golf.

Just doing a bit of reading since you mention it. Certainly an interesting, and complex psychological phenomenon.

My general attitude at present, is that treating these situations in jest at an early stage and making jokes about it could help lessen the anxiety that causes the issues to become consistent. Thus, the humour encourages having a more accepting attitude, and could aid in discouraging performance related anxiety. Hopefully preventing issues arising that become more debilitating.

Naturally, to anyone suffering from it (in any other form) - much like suffering from anything else - sincerest hopes that you overcome your issues. Searching Le Googlé and It's certainly an interesting bit of morning reading.
I understand the humor, but when it effects you, like depression and you can’t resolve it in your own mind, it drives you crazy.
 

Shooter08

Runde Aficianado
Silver Member
Ok so what are the twisties? Sounds like maybe she was losing her patience.
Inability to land a dangerous gymnastic routine knowing you will land on your feet and not on your head or spine. Give her nothing short of amazing credit. Smart responsible young woman, setting a great example in a sport where risk unfortunately is not taken seriously, young girls have no fear. Simone was a adult, 100% admiration.
 

ribdoner

SATISFACTION GUARANTEED
Silver Member
To those afflicted by the dreaded yips

hopefully they exit your body as mysteriously as they began

sounds awful

i stopped playing for about 20 years and started up during the covid nightmare

just as i was feeling a little comfortable my butt hand started to shake/tremble.

no issues shooting a handgun...weird

diagnosed as essential tremors, could be neuropathy related which i have in both arms and legs

still there, but, i can beat it to a degree by minimizing warm up strokes, being confident with my psr and desired positional path of the q ball
 

Shooter08

Runde Aficianado
Silver Member
To those afflicted by the dreaded yips

hopefully they exit your body as mysteriously as they began

sounds awful

i stopped playing for about 20 years and started up during the covid nightmare

just as i was feeling a little comfortable my butt hand started to shake/tremble.

no issues shooting a handgun...weird

diagnosed as essential tremors, could be neuropathy related which i have in both arms and legs

still there, but, i can beat it to a degree by minimizing warm up strokes, being confident with my psr and desired positional path of the q ball
There is no explanation. King Kong can by a teddy bear and nobody can explain. The worst is the shame and embarrassment, not knowing wtf is the issue.
 
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