yips-free sports

Sports & YIPS

Other sports and activities also show involuntary behavior of certain muscle groups within a specific movement structure. The following sports and activities outside of golf could be affected by the YIPS principle:

sports: tennis, darts, soccer, badminton, squash, billiards, cricket, bowling, miniature golf, table tennis, archery, shooting sports, boules, basketball, baseball, among others.

activities: making music - playing instruments (musician's spasm), writing (writer's spasm), other fine motor activities such as surgery, among others.

How does "tennis-YIPS" manifest itself?

In tennis, the YIPS symptomatology is more often seen in the movement of the forehand. The tennis player has enormous problems to play his forehand stroke in a controlled way. At the moment of impact or shortly before, the tennis racket wobbles and the result of the stroke is no longer predictable. Many balls end up in the net or far behind the baseline. The phenomenon intensifies when the player deliberately plays with "power."

tennis serve

The tennis serve can also be affected. The timing of the throw is disturbed. As a result the throwing height and direction can no longer be controlled. The throwing hand is cramped and overrides the ball throw. You can call it Toss Yips or Throwing Yips. It can also affect the striking hand with a wobbling movement of the racket at the point of impact.

unknown phenomenon

It is likely that many tennis players are affected without knowing about it. The phenomenon of YIPS is still an unknown quantity in tennis. Repeated drops in performance, unusual failures and peculiar problems with technique are classified and treated by coaches and the affected players as errors in stroke technique or as a mental problem. However, this overlooks the fact that the disturbed hitting technique may well have succeeded before or been mastered at an earlier stage.

cure the tennis-YIPS

Have you ever had a YIPS check? Based on your personal analysis, individualized exercises for intervention are tested and applied. A process of relearning is activated.

In darts, the problems in the throwing phase of the arrows are called dartitis. Again and again there are reports of "dramatic" incidents from the professional darts scene (click here). Similar to golf, the affected dart player loses control over the muscles of the hand. The timing of the throw no longer fits - sometimes the hand cramps and the release of the arrows is significantly disturbed.

glaring misses

Time and again in (professional) soccer, incomprehensible failures in the execution of the penalty shot can be observed. The player slips away with his standing leg during the run-up or in the immediate phase of the shot, hits the ground first, gets no pressure on the ball or leans backwards when hitting the ball. Spectacular and hard to explain misses are the result (

Beispiele: (https://www.spox.com/de/video/fussball-europa-league-highlights/2003/klaeglicher-weghorst-wolfsburg-stuermer-schiesst-elfmeter-in-den-nachthimmel-dazn-el.html) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFlf4_6cCdg).

psychologically demanding situation

In soccer, the penalty shootout is a typical situation for the occurrence of motor problems, which can also be explained by the YIPS phenomenon. The motor disorder manifests itself in the foot muscles. The tension in the legs and feet changes - the necessary muscular looseness and functionality is gone. Therefore the soccer player cannot reach his usual potential.

The phenomena mentioned can also occur in soccer in other situations, for example when the player is alone in front of the goal and has a so-called 100% chance.

A specific exercise program leads the affected players out of the conditioned reaction.

focal dystonia

In music, there is the phenomenon of musician's cramp. Affected musicians, mainly professional musicians, can no longer play their highly practiced and mastered instrument "fluently". A part of the hand, usually a finger, cramps up while playing music, sometimes significantly reducing performance. The musician's cramp and the associated problems are known, among others, in piano, guitar and violin playing (click here).

The musician's cramp is called focal dystonia by scienceclick here).

desperate interventions

The following help illustrate the desperation that sometimes exists in the field of motor disorders among those affected.

For example, musicians suffering from musician's cramp are injected with Botox into the locally affected muscles to relieve the cramping of the muscles and alleviate the symptoms. After the Botox has worn off, the problem reappears after about three to four months.

Open-brain surgery, as in the case of the American violinist Roger Frisch (click here), sind extreme Maßnahmen, die vielleicht mit anderen Therapiemaßnahmen, beispielsweise verhaltensbasierten, nicht nötig wären.

The use of psychotropic drugs or alcohol to block muscle activity and reduce anxiety are other negative attempts at solutions.

relearning as help

In my estimation, comparisons with the YIPS phenomenon suggest themselves. Accordingly, based on my research findings, a specific retraining program to counter-condition and unlearn the disorder could be a promising approach. The training exercises are based on the principles of the applied intervention exercises in my single case study of putt-YIPS.