Hey students
I know this site is about great ballstriking but thought I'd start a topic about the yips. First a bit of background info followed some potential solutions.
Fortunately over the last few decades I have been blessed with decent putting and never had a prolonged "putting slump" until this year. It all started with 20 footers uphill or anything I felt I needed to compress/hit the putt a bit.
It's been very odd/maddening..Downhill/flat putts I'm fine and can practice for an hour and not have the yips at all falsely thinking I'm cured! The yips would start "sometime" during the round. Not always on the 1st hole and maybe not until 17?...And once they showed up I might as well just putt with my left hand only the rest of the way in.
I tried everything from Long putters, Face-on, looking at the hole & all kinds of grips. I fashioned a chip roller and got worse because it increased my mental aversion to hitting the putt. (I never bought the ABS Putting Module to be clear/fair) For any type of claw grip, my yip would happen in the down to the ground direction at impact and I would hit the putts fat!
Finally out of desperation, I started to putt left-handed. And yes the yips stopped. I'm not as good from the left side so I presently have 2 putters in the bag and have ditched 5-iron. Now since I think I have the cure in the bag, the right-handed putting has returned to normal as well for the last 3 weeks.
Also I have discovered that just before the yips happen, my mind would lose focus/blackout for a split second before impact inducing the right hand tremor. When you have the yips, you don't notice the micro-second mental flinch or can't imagine having one if you putt well.
Thirdly my stroke length was getting too short for the uphill putts. I like to go by the hole 12 inches if I miss. So my stroke length had been a distance good enough to roll the ball to the hole and "hit" it 12 inches past the hole..This "hit" past the hole was amplified for the uphill putts while inadvertently not increasing the length of the stroke for the uphill putts.
So now the simple solution is to create/generate a stroke length that will result a distance of 12 inches past the hole with little to no hit if possible..Ex: My stroke length might need to feel 3 feet past the hole for an extreme uphill putt to end up a foot by the hole.
Maybe these yips are only dormant and will come back next week but wanted to jot down my thoughts in case someone else has been afflicted with this insanity.