#45. Overcoming the Yips: Get out of Your Own Way and Play Freely

The Golf Hypnotherapist (00:02.334)

I believe the most detrimental mistake that you can make when attempting to overcome your self diagnosed and self labeled a YIP problem is the actual process of diagnosing and labeling your challenge as a YIP problem, as a case of the YIPs. Hey fellow golfer, welcome back to another episode of the Scratch Golfers Mindset Podcast.

I’m your host, Paul Salter, the golf hypnotherapist. And yet again, how about them Redskins? Whew, I can’t get enough of it. I can’t get enough of it. There have been so few moments in my three plus decades on this earth that I’ve been able to proudly identify as a Redskins fan. So many negative moments.

that I am going to capitalize on this, but all jokes aside, welcome back. Thrilled you are here today and excited to, as you know, dive into all things associated with the problem that must not be named. Now I’m not going to go full he who must not be named on you. I will say Voldemort. I am a Gryffindor. It’s okay. And I will say Yips.

In today’s episode, I want to take perhaps a different approach to uncovering the crux, the core of your self-diagnosed YIPs problem. And it’s really been a fascinating journey process. I’m not sure what the correct word is, just digging into the concept of the YIPs.

Coming from a background that is first and foremost rooted in high performance through a lens of entrepreneurial ship, business owners, athletics, professional poker players, but athletics more related to other sports aside from golf for a very long time and understanding what the unique strong sports psychology and human performance background coupled with just my own unique walks of life story and experience the last 15 plus years of coaching. I have a bit of a different approach.

The Golf Hypnotherapist (02:22.15)

message about the yips, if you will. And I’d like to talk about that today. And throughout our conversation, I will weave in concepts and frameworks around the yips, why they’re calls, what to do about them that you are familiar with. But my aim is to begin to get you to think differently today. Because I think the crux of your problem, if you’re someone who has

or currently does identify as a golfer with the case of the yips, whether on short putts, anywhere on the green or anywhere around the green. I think you have created a bigger, more challenging uphill battle that needs to be fought, an uphill mountain that needs to be climbed, the necessary. I think you are creating a monster and making this into something that it’s really not.

And I want to talk about that from the angle of identity. I identify as a diehard fucking Redskins fan as you’re beginning to learn. You have several identities. We all have several hats, identities that we wear if you will. And these identities are valuable in many ways, but most importantly at their core,

two things I want to bring up. First and foremost, an identity is a way to get our biological needs of acceptance, belonging, connection, and love met. When we identify with a tribe, a cause,

We begin to act as a magnet to like-minded people who align with our values, our missions, our beliefs, and our cares.

The Golf Hypnotherapist (04:13.258)

When we unpack the concept of identity, we can get very granular. know, what encompasses our identity? If we reverse engineer, we have our results and experiences that are a byproduct of our habits and behaviors, which are our byproduct of our beliefs, our thoughts, and the words we use to speak to and about ourself. All of this in one sense.

can be traced back to the words you use to speak to it about yourself. And a lot of that is an unconscious collection of programs that speaks through the language of emotion. Remember emotion, meaning energy in motion. This negative energy of fear permeates our words, our thoughts, our beliefs, and our actions. And you’ll see in a moment how fear is such a common through line or thread in the case of the yips. But I wanna really connect with this identity attachment for a minute.

When you begin to label yourself as someone with the yips or self-diagnose and declare, I have a yip problem.

There is a part of me that can understand rationally and logically how this can be beneficial. Your diagnosis creates clarity that opens a gateway for potential solutions. When you know what the problem is or when you can give a label or something to attach the problem to that resonates with other people, particularly coaches who can help you.

that can provide some ease in arriving at a solution or in this case, conquering or overcoming the problem. Yet on the flip side and really where my mind first approached this topic as I entered into the golf space and really began to dig deep and niche down is I believe identifying and labeling is counterproductive in this case, because when you identify as someone

The Golf Hypnotherapist (06:16.246)

with the yips, who has the yips. You are now identifying with the characteristics, traits, habits, beliefs, and thoughts of someone with the yips. So maybe you just had a bad round. Maybe a couple bad rounds. Maybe one or two really costly shots. And you’re so stuck, glued, connected to that one moment or that finite period of time.

that you make a big stretch and just declare a problem, assume an identity, and your subconscious is always working to make your thoughts real. Your subconscious would love to bring that identity fruition if that’s all you’re giving your thoughts, your time, and your energy to. So the more you dwell on and declare you have the yips,

The more your subconscious works to bring that to fruition, the more you will continue to struggle thinning, sculling, chunking the ball, leaving putts shorts, blowing putts past the hole, missing three putts like it’s your job. Because you’re embodying it. This label is weighing down upon you. This negative energy, this weight, this pressure is permeating your words, your thoughts, your beliefs, and your actions.

collectively shaping your results, collectively influencing your identity and outcomes. So if you take anything away from this episode, I really want you to understand that it can be incredibly destructive to declare and label yourself as someone with the yips.

And I want you to really think about that.

The Golf Hypnotherapist (08:12.642)

Truthfully speaking, if you are an avid golfer, you may play hundreds, thousands of rounds in your lifetime. Why are you going to let an incredibly microscopic time sample, one shot, one hole, one round, a couple holes, a couple rounds, influence your identity to the point where now you’re embodying somebody with

The yips. Everything you think, feel and believe is a representation of the yips. And if we go to the next steps to really start unpacking the yips.

Well, I think we need to invite in this definition, this, they’re not definition rather this, this operating belief and framework we’re going to use as a foundation for the remainder of this discussion. And that’s that the yips are caused by a combination of mental overthinking, fear, emotional distress, which promote anxiety and tension, the two biggest enemies of a fluid, consistent swing.

Again, the yips are caused by a combination of mental overthinking, fear, and emotional distress, which promote anxiety and tension, the two enemies, the antithesis, antitheses, not sure if that’s a word, of that fluid consistent swing.

Each of those on their own, overthinking, fear, fear of success, failure, judgment, abandonment, rejection, embarrassment, emotional distress, unmanaged emotions, anger, shame, fear, regret, guilt, sadness. All of these are individual problems that can be identified, pinpointed, uncovered, diffuse, tackled, let go of, upgraded on their own.

The Golf Hypnotherapist (10:06.786)

When you label yourself as someone with the yips, it’s almost as if you become a magnet for the collection of overthinking, fear, emotional distress, anxiety, and tension, and the problem perpetuates. And then all of a sudden you expect it. You expect to thin the ball, to chunk it. You expect to leave the three foot putt short or to blow it past the hole. This expectation

leads to self-fulfilling prophecy. Remember, your subconscious wants to make your thoughts real. And if you continue to fine-tune and grain that neural pathway of expecting failure, expecting a case of the yips, it’s going to fucking happen.

The Golf Hypnotherapist (10:49.311)

And truthfully, I think we could end the podcast here.

I have an imagination you’re thinking. Your wheels are spinning, but we’ll press on. At the core of your YIP problem is fear.

And this fear is rooted in judgment, fear of rejection, fear of failure, fear of embarrassment. And this fear is incredibly irrational. Yet in the present moment, it’s like a symphony of emotions, a cacophony of emotions is permeating every single cell of your body. It’s visceral, it’s real.

It’s indescribably present. It feels like life or death because the painful of experience of thinning the ball over the green and then doing it again and then leaving the putt short, yet you were only putting from six feet away and to then miss the next one. Let’s be frank.

It can feel embarrassing. It can feel gut wrenching. And then on top of the collection of feelings you’re already experiencing, it’s the guilt and the shame knowing how all of your playing partners are feeling witnessing this unfold. So naturally, because of how humiliating that moment was, your subconscious

The Golf Hypnotherapist (12:33.994)

Its goal, its priority to protect you and keep you safe, immediately prioritizes the formation of belief, trepidation, cautiousness around shots near or on the green to prevent this outcome. Your subconscious tries so hard and it always thinks that helping you, that it produces tension, timidness, and tightness, and fear. A very powerful potent

recipe to further mess up and miss it on and around the green. So again, the core of your YIP problem typically is going to stem from one hole, one shot, one moment, one round, or maybe a few moments collected together in a short period of time. And this fear permeates your self-talk, thoughts, beliefs, and your internal locus of control. It physically manifests as tension and tightness. It breeds doubt.

Distrust, hopelessness and helplessness. And that in and of itself is a potent fucking recipe to continue to struggle. If you’re struggling with the yips, there’s a fear-based mental block holding you back. And this fear, starting to lean into my second point here, this fear shows up as a lack of commitment to your shot. And here’s what I mean.

By this and I’m going to speak from my own personal example of where I get into trouble with lack of commitment that ultimately actually is a technique problem, which I don’t talk about very often. Let’s say you’re chipping, you’re around the green. You have your flop shot. You have a bump and run. You have a just make solid contact and pray it ends up six to 12 feet from the hole. And you probably have five other additional options. Depending on where you are in your game.

You might have uncertainty around the right club. Is it my gap wedge 52, 56, 60? Is it a bump and run? Is it a flop? Is it a lob and pray? Is it an alley-oop? And I’m just kidding there. Unless maybe that is a shot, but you know what I mean here. So this fear.

The Golf Hypnotherapist (14:53.922)

shows up as a lack of commitment. Your mind is racing. Remember that mental overthinking I was mentioning earlier? Which club do I use? What shot do I use? Which technique do I use? There’s so much conflicting information running in your mind. It’s cloudy, it’s hazy. It’s not clear. It weighs on you. You tighten, you tense up, you’re timid. And maybe when you’re initiating your backswing, you think you’re gonna do a flop, but by the time you get back there, my gosh, is the flop the correct answer? There’s so many swing thoughts. But then last second, you adjust like you’re gonna hit a bump and run, and then you just come.

thin the ball, skull it, chunk it, whatever it may be is a bad outcome. You end up jabbing at the ball as a result of decommitment, you second-guess yourself, and it becomes an expectation. And on and on we go, you have been hooked by this negative spiral, this perpetual cycle of fear, doubt, lack of commitment, yippity-doo-dah, it happens all day, every day. You’re stuck, you’re doomed, there’s no way out.

Seems pretty bleak, right?

The Golf Hypnotherapist (15:58.934)

With that said, I’ve mentioned the fear as a result of a humiliating and demoralizing experience. I want to mention a few other potential triggers. And I don’t even wish to continue saying triggers for a case of the yips, but triggers for a poor shot and ultimately triggers for a pattern of poor shots and mishits. Could be performance pressure.

high expectations during a round, during a specific hole or shot, if money’s on the line, a tournament pressure’s on the line, you want to impress a colleague, a coworker, a friend, or you want to kick your friend’s ass, the fear of failure, or this need to perform, creates anxiety and leads to overthinking and physical tension. There’s the inherent fear of failure and embarrassment that we’re all hardwired with. And…

It can be incredibly humiliating to look incompetent in front of peers, potential clients, friends, whoever it may be. So you try so hard, it produces a terrible result. Golf is one of the unique games in which you have to try less to better execute. You have to think less to better execute. So again, building off of that overthinking simple shots, you build a memory back.

bank of all your past failures that begins the predominant theme of your swing thoughts. This desire for perfectionism, competitive anxiety, physical fatigue, over-reliance on competing thoughts around different techniques, all trying to compete at one time. There are so many different triggers for poor shots, poor outcomes, poor performances, patterns of poor play. Fear is at the core. In addition to that is

fucking lack of knowledge and technique. mean, you’ve got to pick one specific club and technique. Regardless of your choice, you need to commit and follow through. Then you get to gain feedback through that lens of non-judgmental curiosity I’ve mentioned before. But you can’t be holding your 56 wishing you’re thinking maybe I should take my 52 or my 60 contemplating a flop shot only to hit a bump and run but sort of kind of jab at the ball.

The Golf Hypnotherapist (18:14.146)

Do you see how ridiculous that sounds? So you’ve got to do something about it. And again, I don’t think I can say this enough. The most detrimental mistake you can make when attempting to overcome your self-labeled diagnosed Voldemort problem is labeling.

this recent mistake or period of poor performance as a case of the yips, because that leads to you assuming this identity, stepping into someone who’s timid, tense, tight, anxious, non-committal, distrusting and doubtful, uncertain, and probably not a heck of a lot of fun to play with, to be honest. When you declare you have a case of the nips, you exude and embody this negative energy and identity. So stop diagnosing yourself.

Stop labeling yourself and humbly, confidently, courageously accept, fuck, you didn’t play well, you made a mistake, maybe you need to ask for help. Maybe it’s asking for help on the technical side. Maybe it’s asking for help on the emotional management resilience side. Or maybe it’s asking for help on the mental block side, getting unstuck or unblocked to free yourself up. Fortunately for you.

Last week’s edition of the More Pars Than Bogies newsletter is all about how to play free, letting go of the mental and emotional baggage to play to your potential. You can check that out at the newsletter or on the More Pars Than Bogies site, which is always linked below in the show notes. So I want to share with you some effective steps. Call it a combination of mental strategies, physical techniques,

to begin letting go, breaking free, breaking through this short-term period of poor performance or underperformance, letting go of the fear, anxiety, overthinking, and playing freely. And to do so, we need to address the mental, emotional, and physical aspects of the problem.

The Golf Hypnotherapist (20:24.194)

So as I’ve mentioned, and I’m not gonna get tired of doing this, first one, you gotta avoid self-diagnosing a case of the Ips, period, hands down. You need to detach from this label and just candidly reflect with yourself, be honest. What’s the real culprit of your recent mistakes? Lack of knowledge, poor technique, fear, pressure, anxiety. That’s all you need to do to go a step further. Start shifting your focus.

Process, process, process, not results. Instead of fixating on the outcome, focus on your process, your pre-shot routine, your breathing, staying present, breaking each shot down into manageable steps and focusing on executing them carefully because obsessing over results is going to amplify anxiety. Practicing mindfulness and deep breathing. Be in touch with your body. You should know, feel your heart rate.

Allow yourself to be able to feel tension, tightness, or the lack thereof in your body throughout the round. This mindfulness, adding in one of the aforementioned breathing strategies I’ve only shared dozens of times on the show, helps to calm the nervous system. Helps to turn down the volume of fear, doubt, and anxiety. And turn up the volume of clarity, confidence, certainty, and control.

Number four, reframe negative thoughts. Look, you’re not a robot. You can’t expect to be out there having 50 to 70,000 thoughts per day. And when you are standing over a three foot putt or you are attempting to chip over a bunker, it is normal to have moments of the past creep into your frame of mind. Remember your subconscious is hardwired to scan your environment for potential threats, dangers and red flags. It has an easy time attaching to experiences

that create negative emotions. So rather than trying to fight or repress those thoughts, rather than getting irritated and frustrated that you’re having those thoughts, know that they’re normal. Acknowledge them and begin to redirect them to something neutral, something positive, something present instead. Number five, simplify your technique. Go back to the basics. I’ll be honest, right now I only have a bump and run.

The Golf Hypnotherapist (22:53.314)

Well, I take that back. have two chipping strategies and I’m saying this hesitantly because my verbiage may not be correct. I have a bump and run around the green. I feel confident in, use my 52. I’m starting to practice it with different clubs with my gap wedge for some longer shots. But right now I don’t have a flop. I don’t have a do-si-do, a yippity-do-da. I’ve got two approaches.

And I use my distance and of course my lie where the pin is yada, yada, yada to influence the decision. But more often than not, like my bump and run is my clutch. It’s my go-to. It’s, I it’s because it’s the only technique I’ve really, really practiced. feel proficient and quite confident in it. But if you’re finding yourself in a little rut, go back to the basics, whether it’s putting your chipping focus on a simplified version of your mechanics, avoid overanalyzing and just stick to a few.

fundamentals. Remember, these ruts in poor performance are often triggered by overthinking and over-complicating your technique, so simplify things down to the minimal effective dose to get the job done. 6. Gradual desensitization through practice. If you struggle with three-foot putts, go double-check your technique, break it down to its microscopic parts, its minimal effective dose simplistic technique,

and fucking practice three foot putts. That’s it. I heard something actually, don’t quote me on the source, but I believe it was Phil Mickelson on an episode of Breaking 50. Again, don’t quote me on that, right? But it does sound right. He was saying, he used to have to make, again, I’m gonna botch this a little bit, but he was saying something similar to every day he would make 100 short putts. I don’t know if it was three feet or six feet.

And he would just start kind of counting from a random number as the round progressed. He would say like, okay, 88, 89. So when he’s in a round, it feels routine. It feels familiar. Okay, this is my 89th short part of the day. This is my 90th short part of the day and so on and so forth. You want to practice so much these particular moments as best you can, simulating that real environment as best as you can. It just feels fucking normal, natural and expected when you are out on the course.

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Number seven, building off of that, use visualization, use mental imagery. Now here’s what you need to do here. You need to see yourself executing that shot. Every microscopic step that is involved, you need to feel it. Feel the club in your hands, the backswing, the putt, the follow through, the contact, and engage as many senses as you can. Hear the contact, feel the club, see it, smell the grass.

everything you can engage the senses and this might be your secret sauce. Visually work through stepping up to the shot, a putt, a feeling, hearing, sensing a bit of discomfort and doubt creep in and really go through the experience of backing away and starting over, preventing in any way shot or allowing yourself to see, feel and experience what it’s like to quiet your mind.

to use some of the aforementioned strategies to get that patient, calm, present state of mind to execute with confidence, trust, and ease. Number eight, let’s be candid, ask for help. Asking for help accelerates results. If you have struggled with a period of poor performance, if you are finding yourself stuck in the proverbial bunker, continuing to play well below your potential,

consider working with a mindset coach and hypnotherapist who can develop the right mental and emotional strategies, help you cultivate strong emotional resiliency to address the underlying fear, pressure, and anxiety and get you out of your own way, playing freely and playing to your potential. Obviously, I’m biased as a hypnotherapist, but the best, most effective method to do so, to confront some of these fears, pressures,

and collection of outdated beliefs and behaviors no longer serving you is hypnosis. Hypnosis is a fast and effective change modality that gets to the core of the underlying problem, allowing you to nip it in the bud rather than place a short-term band-aid on it. And the best part, all the benefits derived show up for you on and away from the course.

The Golf Hypnotherapist (27:34.358)

So there you have it, my playbook to overcoming a case of the problem that must not be named. In all seriousness, do yourself a favor. Stop labeling, diagnosing, and identifying as a golfer with the yips. Have the courage to admit you had a bad day, round, you’re stuck in a rut, something needs to change. As I shared very candidly in the last episode, you can’t change unless you change.

If you’re expecting a different outcome and you’re doing the same thing over and over, well, my friend, you’re fucking insane, as Albert Einstein would say. I sincerely thank you for listening to today’s episode. I have an imagination you found it quite valuable. And if that is the case, and I am not insane or delusional myself, please share this with a friend. Share it with a fellow golfer.

If you want more information, check out the dedicated newsletter I wrote on this topic. I’ll link it in the show notes below, but share this.

It means so much to me. helps support the show. And you and I both know there are so many golfers out there who need to hear this message and get out of their own way. And with that said, if you haven’t taken 30 seconds to leave a genuine rating and review, please take 30 seconds to do it. The show greatly appreciates it. I greatly appreciate it. All of your fellow golfers greatly appreciate it.

Leave a genuine rating or review, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you are listening to the show, it goes a long way. Have a fantastic day, a phenomenal weekend of play and practice, and I’ll catch you in the next episode.