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Road to a +HCP - yips and a belated update


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Hey there, WRX!

First, some background: I started to play golf in the year of 2011/2012. I practiced a ton the first few years. First season I got down to a ~6 hcp, second season I broke par, and the third I broke 70 and also shot under par in competition. Somewhere here I started to develop "yips" in my chipping game. What used to be my strongest point: chipping and pitching (25 yards and in), was now the worst part of my game BY FAR. I began to hit those dreaded fat pitches, which subsequently resulted in thinned pitches - and a ball that didn't lose momentum until it reached an out of bounds or bunker.

 

Even though it wasn't fun, it was still playable. However, about 3 years ago my yips started to bleed into my lag-putting, and later also my full swing.

 

On the green, I lost all sense of length control, and longer puts (20 feet and up) I could push/pull a few feet.

 

Tee to green, my push draw transformed into a MASSIVE pull slice with all my clubs. The sensation I got was an involuntary flip, it felt like everything stopped my body and arms, everything except for my wrists. Looking at the swing I still had forward lean to my irons and it looked nothing like it felt.

Nonetheless, it resulted in 30 yard pull slices with an 8i.

Anyhow, the season in Sweden recently began and the Masters gave me some golfurge again.

These are the first few swings in about 8 months, so there's a few things here that I see that I dont normally do: like the small bend in my left arm during the backswing and also the overly long backswing.

 

I hit the ball decently and hopefully my brain has lost a few of the neurons that caused some suffering the last few years. During the session I hit pushes, push draws and push fades - finally!

I'm looking forward to any thoughts and comments that you guys may have. Thanks.

 

 

Slow motions swings of the above:

 

Driver swing from 2014 - pre yips.

 

There's a few older swings in a thread I started years ago:

https://forums.golfwrx.com/discussion/comment/10493905#Comment_10493905

 

Edit: added slow motion swings.

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Good luck in your quest

This won't help but I have a solid buddy that was a +2 cap 40 years back and got a golf scholarship to Texas. Top player in our province

Developed the full swing yips and now plays off anywhere from a 20 to 26 cap in the summer. He can play 6 holes under par but he can also hit it 80 yards off line. Hard to watch. He hits it great on the range

He has a stall and flip and ball focused. Just too much mental damage to unsee

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Ping G400 3w 15.1* GD AD IZ 5x

Ping G400 7w 19.5* Ventus Red 6x 

Ping G425 4h 22* Blueboard HY 80x

Ping i210 6i & s55 7i - PW Steelfiber 110s

Ping Glide Wrx 49*, 54*, 59*ES, Tour W 64* SF 125s

EvnRoll ER9
 

 

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> @cardoustie said:

> Good luck in your quest

> This won't help but I have a solid buddy that was a +2 cap 40 years back and got a golf scholarship to Texas. Top player in our province

> Developed the full swing yips and now plays off anywhere from a 20 to 26 cap in the summer. He can play 6 holes under par but he can also hit it 80 yards off line. Hard to watch. He hits it great on the range

> He has a stall and flip and ball focused. Just too much mental damage to unsee

 

Thank you.

Well, damn. That's reassuring..?

See, that wouldn't be pleasurable at all to me. One of the reasons that I fell in love with golf was the clear concrete improvement. You can feel it, you can see it, on video, your stats and your score - even if that's highly volatile. I was unsure if I even wanted to play this year - the last 3 years have been excruciating (in the realm of golf). I still love to practice, but if I still have yips after this season I'm not sure I can continue to play any longer.

It's weird how that works. Stenson had the same thing, but Pete Cowen (the trainer who got rid of Stensons yips) claims it wasn't psychological but flawed technique.

With that in mind, I'm hopeful that this is something that can be eradicated, or at least alleviated, by time and practice.

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> @VinnyG41 said:

> Well I won't be able to help you but I feel like I am trying to go down a similar path that you've gone down. Best of luck to ya! If you don't mind me asking, what's your best one piece of advice for someone looking to break par/70 this year?

 

Thank you.

To break par you have to make more birdies than bogeys - or worse.

Simplified, you do this by **avoiding bogeys (and up):**

-Short game (25 yards in) This is were you save pats. Practice chips and pitches - play either a running shot or a higher one. You can break par without being a flop shot virtuoso, but you need to be inside 4 feet on the majority of basic pitch- and chip shots.

- Putting. Practice either lagputts or 10 feet and in. Buy a Peltz putting tutor and learn how to always start the ball on line and also how to read greens with it. This is a quite complicated process with a few diffrents elements, but I could expand on that if you're actually interested.

- Always be in play of the tee. Chose a stock-shot (fade or draw) and use that both with you're irons and longer clubs.

- Hit greens. If your stock shot is a 5 yard fade, then aim 2.5 yards left of the pin. If you're length is correct this will average out 2.5 yards from the pin on your well struck irons - this is schematic of course, the particular yardage makes these numbers only speculative. The idea is to play for your average shot - not your perfect shot.

If you get a 5 yard fade you're 2.5 yards of the pin, if you accidentally hit it straight, then you have a 5 yard putt.

- HIT GREENS - this needs to be a priority.

It's the single best stat correlating to score. The average numbers are: 3 GIRs to break 90, 8 to break 80 and 13 to break 70. This is averages, but it works fine for pragmatic purposes.

 

This post is getting out of hand lengthwise, so I'll finish with this. **Making birdies**

- Distance control 80-120 yards. You're aim should be to be clinical with the wedges. Aim for the 5% rule. 100 yard shot = 5 yard average from pin. That's your goal. Hit 10 shots towards a pin, measure the accumulative length to pin / by ten and go from there.

- Prey on par 5s. I have a driver swing speed around 124 mph. If you're below 110 then this is something I would work on by strength and flexibility regimen. Strength, in particular, legs and abs and flexibility in general.

 

There's a lot more, and you asked for one piece of advice..

 

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I can tell you that my buddy with the yips doesn't play inside his feet ... his weight is wide going back and too far forward thru the ball

Turn back and post around your left leg .. simplify

To the guy asking about breaking par .... when I go sub 70, it is about my driver and my wedges that day. I don't want to write an essay. (I think I have two hole by hole posts on wrx when I shot my PB of 68 on a 74/144 home track (and another when I first went 69 there)

 

Ping G400 LST 11* Ventus Black TR 5x

Ping G400 3w 15.1* GD AD IZ 5x

Ping G400 7w 19.5* Ventus Red 6x 

Ping G425 4h 22* Blueboard HY 80x

Ping i210 6i & s55 7i - PW Steelfiber 110s

Ping Glide Wrx 49*, 54*, 59*ES, Tour W 64* SF 125s

EvnRoll ER9
 

 

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get an on-line lesson with iteach if I may suggest that sir

Ping G400 LST 11* Ventus Black TR 5x

Ping G400 3w 15.1* GD AD IZ 5x

Ping G400 7w 19.5* Ventus Red 6x 

Ping G425 4h 22* Blueboard HY 80x

Ping i210 6i & s55 7i - PW Steelfiber 110s

Ping Glide Wrx 49*, 54*, 59*ES, Tour W 64* SF 125s

EvnRoll ER9
 

 

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> @cardoustie said:

> I can tell you that my buddy with the yips doesn't play inside his feet ... his weight is wide going back and too far forward thru the ball

> Turn back and post around your left leg .. simplify

Thanks, thats something I will work on. I had a coach in FL for a while, who used to play the PGA tour in the late 70s and early 80s.

He still carried a ~+4 cap in his early 60s.

The first time we played together it struck me how compact his swing looked like compared to mine. And it's something that I've noticed repeatedly in other excellent players. I've disliked how loose my swing looks since. So, definitely something I'll think about in the coming range sessions.

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> @SmthCriminl said:

> > @cardoustie said:

> > get an on-line lesson with iteach if I may suggest that sir

>

> Who is that? I'm open to it.

>

 

Iteachgolf is the handle of a very good instructor thats posts regularly in the instruction forum. Real name is Dan Carraher.

 

In regards to your swing, first thing I'd address is setup posture. You are too bent over at the waist, weight too much in the toes.

Golfing Ginger
So glad I picked an outside activity...

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> @SmthCriminl said:

>

> > @VinnyG41 said:

> > Well I won't be able to help you but I feel like I am trying to go down a similar path that you've gone down. Best of luck to ya! If you don't mind me asking, what's your best one piece of advice for someone looking to break par/70 this year?

>

> Thank you.

> To break par you have to make more birdies than bogeys - or worse.

> Simplified, you do this by **avoiding bogeys (and up):**

> -Short game (25 yards in) This is were you save pats. Practice chips and pitches - play either a running shot or a higher one. You can break par without being a flop shot virtuoso, but you need to be inside 4 feet on the majority of basic pitch- and chip shots.

> - Putting. Practice either lagputts or 10 feet and in. Buy a Peltz putting tutor and learn how to always start the ball on line and also how to read greens with it. This is a quite complicated process with a few diffrents elements, but I could expand on that if you're actually interested.

> - Always be in play of the tee. Chose a stock-shot (fade or draw) and use that both with you're irons and longer clubs.

> - Hit greens. If your stock shot is a 5 yard fade, then aim 2.5 yards left of the pin. If you're length is correct this will average out 2.5 yards from the pin on your well struck irons - this is schematic of course, the particular yardage makes these numbers only speculative. The idea is to play for your average shot - not your perfect shot.

> If you get a 5 yard fade you're 2.5 yards of the pin, if you accidentally hit it straight, then you have a 5 yard putt.

> - HIT GREENS - this needs to be a priority.

> It's the single best stat correlating to score. The average numbers are: 3 GIRs to break 90, 8 to break 80 and 13 to break 70. This is averages, but it works fine for pragmatic purposes.

>

> This post is getting out of hand lengthwise, so I'll finish with this. **Making birdies**

> - Distance control 80-120 yards. You're aim should be to be clinical with the wedges. Aim for the 5% rule. 100 yard shot = 5 yard average from pin. That's your goal. Hit 10 shots towards a pin, measure the accumulative length to pin / by ten and go from there.

> - Prey on par 5s. I have a driver swing speed around 124 mph. If you're below 110 then this is something I would work on by strength and flexibility regimen. Strength, in particular, legs and abs and flexibility in general.

>

> There's a lot more, and you asked for one piece of advice..

>

 

Just asked for one piece of advice because I didn't want to ask too much of you lol. But all makes sense. I keep SG stats for myself and as long as my putting and off the tee is decent (rare, which is why I play off 7 still) I can score in the mid to low 70s. The pelz putting tutor has always interested me but I haven't taken the plunge. Reading greens has always been an issue for me and I feel like I could use a system, so yeah if you could expand on how that tool teaches you to read greens, that'd be great!

 

Driver swing speed is around 117mph on average but need to work on exactly what you said above that, staying safe off the tee. Taking lessons on that currently.

 

Thanks bud!

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  • 1 month later...

Your swing looks like an almost carbon copy of mine. Actually a little too shallow in the back swing which leads to steepness in the transition, you do however do a better job of keeping your hands lower at impact but still both of us greatly really on timing to square the club face. When its good its great when its bad its horrible. I consistently shoot the as much over par as how many double i have ha, play 15 holes really well ans generally have 2-3 tee shots that are off the planet and lead to said doubles.

 

Ive gotten several online lessons from Dan (iTeach) and he is good, ill say though sometimes I have a problem getting the feel from a recorded video that isn't giving me real time feedback but that's on me and he will critique follow up swing vids. The key to good rounds like you said is nothing more than bogey. Obviously there are good days and bad but if you can take doubles out we will generally make enough birds to zero out the bogeys, then just make a few more birdies and presto ha. The issue for me is getting rid of those 2-3 swings a round that turn 70 into 76.

 

I think the best thing is when you are playing, play. Dont swing. Thats probably my issue, too many thoughts and not enough commitment to the task at hand.

Stay Tuned...

 

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