The Dreaded Yips

[jonny66]

I think that's the bowls equivalent of smashing the reds open on the break. Did you start a fight with your opponent at the end? Hann style.

[Shockerz]

I think that's the bowls equivalent of smashing the reds open on the break. Did you start a fight with your opponent at the end? Hann style.

I was probably around 18 at the time and they were around 150 years old so no fights.

Different days back then. I had to try and keep a low profile as only 2 or 3 people my age in there but times have changed now.

A fella in the club the other day was explaining to me that he'd had his first knockout in karate by punching someone in the stomach so times have certainly changed!

Still not sure how he managed that though?

[Catch 22]

I coached a team mate who had the yips and he could do this very easily, could shoot a ball past two balls that were partially blocking the pocket and also play the delivery stroke at an object ball with his eyes closed, but once that object ball was in vision on the delivery stroke it became part of the equation and back they came.
And before INMB chips in, his yips were only on screw shots because on screw shots he stared at the cue ball, on run throughs no problems because he looked at the object ball although he didn't believe that he did.

I proved it to him by making him hit balls straight into the pockets with extreme bottom on the cue ball, no problems there as he looked at the pocket, I watched him very closely and told him so, but put an object ball in the way and he looked at the cue ball, twitched and miscued almost every time, yet he argued with me that he always looked at the cue ball and had always done so and therefore I left him to it.
Still doing it now a couple of years later.

You can see that this exercise simply takes the object ball out of the equation, back to the very simplest raw basics, starting from scratch, learning again, developing new neural pathways and maybe opening up the old one, the one without the yips.

Playing across the cue ball is a marker that you're not looking at the correct target when getting the cue on the line of aim or on the delivery stroke or both, and the former is a major cause of one form of the yips, the body reacting when the eyes know the cue isn't on the line of aim, causing movement on the delivery stroke, extreme when it's done every time, becoming habit, hence the yips.

This should give you only two targets to worry about, get this right and then move on to the third and most important target which is the object ball, though some will argue against that.

Very good reply ...thanks for that

Find all this stuff very interesting

[jim evans]

No one else suffered from the yips?

Think ime very close to it,lol

[Giggity1984]

Lol. Me too actually! Paralysis by over analysis!

[Big Splash!]

Think ime very close to it,lol

It's contagious Jim! Half of it is pschyosomatic. Put some martial artists in a dojang and ask em to kick a tennis ball on a string with their weak leg. The look on their faces; they've already talked themselves out of it and some miss the target completely. Ask em to give it their best shot and they improve. PMA + it doesn't matter, it's not life or death. Take the bloody shot.

[Shockerz]

Think ime very close to it,lol

What's that Jim, just the occasional twitch!

[jim evans]

Getting close to not letting cue go,lol.

[jonny66]

I have a twitch in my bridge hand now. It's a nervous thing and I hate it. Doesn't happen in practice. How can you train something out if doesn't happen in training?

[Big Splash!]

I have a twitch in my bridge hand now. It's a nervous thing and I hate it. Doesn't happen in practice. How can you train something out if doesn't happen in training?

How do you grip the cue? For example, I use the ring grip with fairly open back fingers; the cue resting on the inside of the second digit of my pinkie. You?

I like to think about the feel of the inside of my thumb and forefinger on the cue, keeping both upright when I take the cue back and when I deliver it forward. This leads to no wrist rotation = straight cueing. I also like to think about the feeling of the cue on the second digit of the pinkie and which muscle the cue comes to rest on as I open my hand. In combination with feeling the ring and judging the weight of the shot, my brain is busy. Because it's busy, it can't do background twitches in other parts of the body. It's also a way of zoning into the shot and ignoring what's around you. Concentrate on feeling the cue. Give it a go and let us know.

[Shockerz]

How do you grip the cue? For example, I use the ring grip with fairly open back fingers; the cue resting on the inside of the second digit of my pinkie. You?

I like to think about the feel of the inside of my thumb and forefinger on the cue, keeping both upright when I take the cue back and when I deliver it forward. This leads to no wrist rotation = straight cueing. I also like to think about the feeling of the cue on the second digit of the pinkie and which muscle the cue comes to rest on as I open my hand. In combination with feeling the ring and judging the weight of the shot, my brain is busy. Because it's busy, it can't do background twitches in other parts of the body. It's also a way of zoning into the shot and ignoring what's around you. Concentrate on feeling the cue. Give it a go and let us know.

Funny that is similar to myself at the moment. Trying to almost just feel the shot through being loose, seems to be going ok at the moment.

[dcrackers147]

OK so I have had experience with this a few years back. The root cause of mine was I shortened my cue action and opted for more deliberate feathers and rear pause which was giving me a lot more control in practice and resulting in consistent heavy scoring. Problem was though under match pressure any time I had to cue the ball well I would tense up and not get the cue back in order to time the shot and accelerate through it. I went back to my natural free flowing action made sure I took the cue back to the thumb slowly and focused on keeping still, planting my bridge hand and checked it for movement on delivering the cue. This worked for me and I have since been as good as ever under pressure... another thing to work on is being ok with hitting the ball with authority what I mean by this is try not to be too delicate as this causes you to decelerate on the shot and encourages the twitch playing the shot with authority and trusting you aim and action will encourage you to go through the ball and give you confidents. Hope this helps.

[Shockerz]

OK so I have had experience with this a few years back. The root cause of mine was I shortened my cue action and opted for more deliberate feathers and rear pause which was giving me a lot more control in practice and resulting in consistent heavy scoring. Problem was though under match pressure any time I had to cue the ball well I would tense up and not get the cue back in order to time the shot and accelerate through it. I went back to my natural free flowing action made sure I took the cue back to the thumb slowly and focused on keeping still, planting my bridge hand and checked it for movement on delivering the cue. This worked for me and I have since been as good as ever under pressure... another thing to work on is being ok with hitting the ball with authority what I mean by this is try not to be too delicate as this causes you to decelerate on the shot and encourages the twitch playing the shot with authority and trusting you aim and action will encourage you to go through the ball and give you confidents. Hope this helps.

The long cue action with the cue fully back works for me at the moment, pause and get through the ball. It still takes me a frame or two to find my rhythm again but that's fine.

[vmax4steve]

The long cue action with the cue fully back works for me at the moment, pause and get through the ball. It still takes me a frame or two to find my rhythm again but that's fine.

Not in single frame league or a best of three it isn't. Ronnie says he keeps the same length of cue action but increases his grip pressure through the delivery stroke the more power he needs, the grip pressure subconsciously accelerates the cue I guess.
Could work, works for him and Selby seems the same, but I'm of the school that your length of backswing depends on power needed, short for gentle strokes, longer as the power increases. Longer gives you time to accelerate the cue for power, shorter gives you no time, but no need as power isn't a requirement, just watch Ding.

For myself this is controlled by the opening of my grip hand, just a little for rolling balls in pocket weight, all the way open for max power, the hand is opened slowly and my elbow joint moves with it subconsciously, never move the elbow joint without opening the hand in conjunction with it, they must work together on the feathers as well as the delivery stroke.
The fingers barely move on gentle shots, but move they do and move they must as this determines (for me anyway) that there is an actual backswing and I don't play little strokes simply by dropping my upper arm from the shoulder which takes the cue offline.

Still take my eye off the object ball though, still inconsistant, pot sod all one frame, 70+ break the next, can't find a cure for this.

[Shockerz]

Not in single frame league or a best of three it isn't. Ronnie says he keeps the same length of cue action but increases his grip pressure through the delivery stroke the more power he needs, the grip pressure subconsciously accelerates the cue I guess.
Could work, works for him and Selby seems the same, but I'm of the school that your length of backswing depends on power needed, short for gentle strokes, longer as the power increases. Longer gives you time to accelerate the cue for power, shorter gives you no time, but no need as power isn't a requirement, just watch Ding.

For myself this is controlled by the opening of my grip hand, just a little for rolling balls in pocket weight, all the way open for max power, the hand is opened slowly and my elbow joint moves with it subconsciously, never move the elbow joint without opening the hand in conjunction with it, they must work together on the feathers as well as the delivery stroke.
The fingers barely move on gentle shots, but move they do and move they must as this determines (for me anyway) that there is an actual backswing and I don't play little strokes simply by dropping my upper arm from the shoulder which takes the cue offline.

Still take my eye off the object ball though, still inconsistant, pot sod all one frame, 70+ break the next, can't find a cure for this.

Your inconsistency sounds like mine, don't know if it's an age thing or not, who knows.

Played rubbish in the league Friday, horrible scrappy frame, got stuffed with an all time low of 8 break, 3 times; couldn't buy a bit of run and just couldn't see anything! Practiced this morning, got over a 100 in the line up and knocked an 80 dead in one of the practice frames; I just drove home shaking my head again as the cueing felt great this morning, so frustrating.