Yip and Shank: The Brothers of Doom
From the movie, Tin Cup: Courtesy – Sidney Baldwin
There is an excellent column at World Golf written by The Golf Chick, Kristen Williams.
Kristen has been playing only since 2004 but she has a head for the game. Her column deals with the "yips".
I think the first time I heard of a professional golfer beset by the yips was when Bernhard Langer was going through his first bout with them. In fact, he struggled mightily for years, eventually becoming one of the early adapters of the broom-handle putter.
Williams watched a golf buddy who said he had the yips. On the practice green, he stroked the ball beautifully. But on the very first green during their round, Williams' friend demonstrated his uncontrollable yips.
She said it was "bizarre". Then she did some digging and discovered a study done on the yips by no less an august medical institution than the Mayo Clinic.
The yips are certainly an interesting phenomenon in golf but by no means the only one.
How about the dreaded shank? That scares me more than the yips because the shank goes right to the heart of the golf swing.
I have foolishly over-analyzed my swing to the point where I have calluses on my forehand from banging it against that brick wall. At times the golf swing has scared the be-jeezus out of me to the point where I don't even know how to take the club away from the ball.
Paralysis by analysis, pure and simple.
The yips are the same. The root cause lies in the head, often the weakest part of the body.
Williams points out that golfers never utter the word "yips"; it's a superstition. So is "shank". Remember Kevin Costner hushing Cheech Marin on the range in Tin Cup for saying the 's' word?
Marin told him to get off it and work it out instead of being afraid of it. As FDR said, "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself".
By the way, did you know that it's a sin to whistle on a boat? Guaranteed to bring on a major storm.
Ask any sailor.
Peter Jacobsen told a story once about playing in a pro-am with a very successful surgeon. Off the tee this gentlemans swing was wild and fast with predictable results, around the green he was skulling chips & rocketing putts past the hole. He gripped his clubs like a lumberjack with an anger management problem. Jacobsen asked him “Is this the sort of touch & feel you have in the operating theatre?…if it is, I’ll go elsewhere” Us average players can all lighten up on the course, get out of our own way and see better scores. When it comes to the pros, it could be a different problem…I guess thats how Bob Rotella makes his living.