Bryson DeChambeau plays with Former President.
A golf-science, apolitical blog post
The most amazing thing about a very interesting ‘BREAK 50’ challenge played out recently by Bryson DeChambeau and the former president was how the latter was able to hole out several times and leave several more putts close to the hole while having what is most likely to be the putting ‘yips’. Must require years of experience!
Most golfers with the yips can never get the distance right, because the yips is usually considered to be a neurological issue and causes a jerk (rate of change of acceleration) at ball contact so the golfer can never know how far and in what direction the ball will go.
Yips is a term used mostly by golfers, for a symptom that is pervasive throughout many sports and other human pastimes. The condition, when considered to be a task-dependent dystonia (a movement disorder that causes muscles to contract) has often been referred to as type I yips or golfer’s cramp and may be observed as a twitch of the hands, primarily the trail hand of a golfer, during putting (or chipping). If the yips is believed to be an anxiety issue from performing under pressure, it is referred to as a type II yips.
According to Adler C.H. et al. (2005), up to 30% of golfers develop the yips, which is an ‘inability to complete a golf stroke’. It typically affects short putts, and worsens with anxiety. Yips may be organic (task-specific dystonia) or psychological (anxiety or “choking”). The researchers, based on their research findings that both the flexors and extensors of the wrists co-contract simultaneously, concluded that it was dystonia and not anxiety.
One phenomenal systematic review study on the yips in sports (Clarke et al., 2015 – free access available online: type “The yips in sport: A systematic review” in google scholar for the link) looked at the psychological, neurological and physiological parameters of the yips and their impact on performance.
Another very recent systematic review (the highly meticulous kind of review!) by Nijenhuis et al. (2024) talks about treatments that have been tried on people with task-specific dystonia in sports. There are at least 12 published papers on different treatments that have been tried! Would you believe that all sorts of things have been tried on golfers to help cure their yips? From botulinum toxin injections, to acupuncture, propranolol (also used to slow down heart-rate), mematine (used in Alzheimer’s disease treatment) and deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery in which fine metal wires are embedded into the brain to send electrical pulses to a part of the basal ganglia located deep inside the brain. Simpler ‘treatments’ have included asking golfers to look at the hole while putting, guided imagery, eye movements to process traumatic events (EMDR), cognitive behavioral intervention, and an emotional freedom technique.
All this to putt better? And here is someone who has probably simply adapted to the condition and can put putts close to, or in, the hole from a good distance, seemingly without any effort.
How amazing golfers are!
