3-Step Drill to Cure The Yips

Sunday, 15 March 2009 23:36

Written by The Golf Drill Guru

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Ball Alignment

Solid fundamentals are key to helping cure your yips.  You have to understand that the brain is causing you to miss putts simply because you body does not feel comfortable with the shot it’s about to make. Ensure you fundamentals are sound, especially alignment, and this should help you rid your stroke from the yips.  To begin, start with your feet shoulder width apart, your arms hanging straight down from your shoulders and get your eyes looking down on the ball from above.  Be sure that you’re eyes are either directly over the ball, or somewhat behind it – refrain from setting up with your eyes ahead of the ball.  If you do, you’ll affect your swing path into the ball which will likely lead to more problems that it will solve.  Doing all this should help to quiet that annoying voice in the back of your head.  Once you are setup with these fundamentals, try this first step in my three step process to rid yourself of the yips.

When lining up your putt, rotate your ball so the logo is aligned at your target (make sure your ball is marked to do this within the rules).  This is perfectly legal and is a great tip to use all the time.  When considering many of the sports out there, pool for example, your eyes are directly behind your line of play – this makes aligning your shot quite easy.  In golf, on the other hand,  you’re looking down from above, and your aim will be slightly off because of it.  By aligning the logo at your target first, with your eyes directly looking down your target line you can be sure your alignment is correct. 

Now before you setup to the ball align the alignment aids on your putter to the logo or line on your golf ball.  Now align your feet and shoulders, so they are parallel to that line. This will ensure you’re square to your target line.  After this is all done, look at your target.  I’ll bet you that you feel miss-aligned.  Trust me, you’re not.  This is proof that your original putting style was starting you offline in the first place.   

That’s the first step.

Hole Focus

Next step -  get you’re mind off the fact that you feel miss-aligned.  This one is tricky, but very effective.  I got this idea from one of my members who routinely stared at the hole for a long time before putting.  It got me thinking; the mind is a powerful instrument.  We’ve all seen its effects on our golf swing.  For example, self-comments like “don’t go in the water” always result in a hitting three from beside the hazard.  So if we focused on hitting the fairway or the green, would the brain make it happen?  If you trusted your swing, the simple answer is yes. 

Back to the yips, and how that member’s putting style gave me a great drill for curing them.  After you’ve setup as seen in Part One, trust your original alignment, say for this specific putt it was dead straight (the red x in the image to the right) .  Turn your head in your putting position and focus deeply on where you want the ball to go.  In this case it would be a specific spot on the back of the cup.  Look at this target, then move you eyes back to the ball.  Without wasting any time on second guessing your alignment, make your stroke immediately. 

This will help your brain by not giving it anytime to second guess anything.  You’re moving directly from target focus to action without and slow time for negative thoughts to creep into your head.  It is highly effective. 

Use this drill for all putts, and remember to focus on where you are aiming and only that spot.  This means that if the putt breaks a foot or is a downhill slider, get your eyes to focus on a spot a different spot as shown by the blue x’s. This may sound familiar, if you’ve ever played a Tiger Woods PGA Tour golf game by EA Sports – aim identical to this for breaking putts.    

Give it a try, you won’t be disappointed.

Grass Focus

A very common problem that seems to lead to the putting yips is eye and head movement.  I would have to attribute this to the brain wanting to see the results before they happen.  The results are never good.  To help get rid of this problem, your eyes must be focused on a specific, non-moving target. 

Watching your putter swing back, or your ball moving towards the hole is not an option.  This will only cause you to miss more putts.  Eye and head movement is a killer in putting, as it is pretty tough to feel yourself doing.  Try this great drill below and incorporate it into your putting routine to stabilize your eyes and head throughout your putting stroke.

Instead of focusing on the ball when putting, pick a specific blade of grass to focus on between your putter and your ball.  Focus on this spot, throughout your stroke and well after the ball has been hit.  Doing so will ensure your eyes and head are staying still throughout your stroke. If you want to take it a step further, have a friend place a coin under your ball on the putting green.  Putt the ball focusing on keep your eyes and head stationary, and do not lift your head up until you can determine whether the coin is heads or tails.

I hope this drills give you the confidence your stroke and mind needs to rid yourself of the  dreaded yips.

Good Luck!