Dreaded YIPS !

[sunny3909]

It's been 11 months since I'v had the YIPS.
Was fortunate enough to meet Alan Trigg(world snooker coach) at mega Academy here in Delhi,he was here for coaching camp.
He told it usually develops from when players have a long backswing with backpause.
And as I suspected he reiterated that its combination of physical and psychological factors.
I usually tend to have less Yips when I' m feeling fresher physically and mentally and it worsens when I get tired.
But It's safe to say I'm over the worst part say about 40% recovered.
Alan Trigg said it takes roughly 2 years to go.
He advised me to go for spot therapy to get the particular muscles relaxed.
He said it may have started with soft tissue damage on my arm,shoulder which has triggered the nerve.

Can someone on the forum share his experiences regarding the Yips and how to overcome it.

It's a difficult thing to explain and I know how bad it is and feel for the players who have suffered it.
Being a century player it hit my game badly I couldn't make a 20 break.
You have no cueing freedom and it gives you a sense of choking as you can't deliver the cue.

Are there any particular excercise for strengthing the snooker arm?

Any help or advice is much appreciated.

[vmax4steve]

I have a friend who is currently going through it. I have had a couple of coaching sessions with him and we have worked out that he has an obsession with looking at the cue ball due his anxiety when striking the cue ball with power.
Playing slow shots he is fine and looks at the object ball on the strike, playing with power however he is so anxious about striking the cue ball correctly that he stares at it and his cue action just explodes from the shoulder, straight from the address position with no backswing.
When I'm talking him through the shot, telling him where and when to look and when to take the cue back etc he plays fine but he can't do it for himself when playing in matches and that for me is something I find very hard to understand, knowing what is wrong, knowing what to do to prevent it but not being able to it unless being talked through it.

[hotpot]

I,ve had this before especially when cueing from under the cush . I think its all psychological and stems from loss of confidence which makes you think about the shot too much and it affects your timing big time . I overcome it by forgetting about form , if i won or lost and hitting the cueball when i intended to . It takes time and your game will suffer but you have just relax and hit the white when you intend to no matter what the end result is .

[bolton-cueman]

I used to suffer tremendously from a yips-like thing where on a screw or topspin shot or pretty much any shot that needed a little bit of juice, even on a simple black on its spot I would rush and throw a quick one in.

Got to the stage where even as I was walking round to the shot my should would get tensed up - even before I was down on the shot! it was like I was rushing just to get the shot over with.

Strangely enough if the shot was a 'difficult' shot say playing from baulk with 8-9 feet between balls and stunning or screwing to hold for the black etc I'd have no problem at all and would cue smoothly.

Was truly bizarre...

Spoke to several 'good players' even 2 pros (well, one current pro, one ex pro who now coaches) and one identified that I could and would rationalise missing a tough pot as 'its miss-able because it was a hard pot', but would beat myself up by missing a simple pot such as a black off its spot. This built up and up into the yips-like thing.

I've kinda got it under control now by timing my shots with a deliberate almost metronome like routine of address the cue ball 1,2,3, waggles, slow back swing, slight pause then deliver.

It's very mechanical and very deliberate and was certainly not natural to begin with but I'd honestly say I still throw the odd quick one in as we all do from time to time but the 'mighty snatch' as I used to call it has pretty much gone.

[jrc750]

I thought the yips was the opposite of "throwing a quick one in" ???
Ie you just cannot let the cue go thro and hit the cue ball

[bolton-cueman]

I thought the yips was the opposite of "throwing a quick one in" ???
Ie you just cannot let the cue go thro and hit the cue ball

I suppose technically speaking then, using your definition, if you had the yips you'd never be able to play as you wouldn't be able to hit a ball

I couldn't push the cue through correctly / smoothly on certain shots so used to just throw my arm at it to get the shot over with

[jrc750]

The "A" team captain in my club had this for a while, on certain shots he just couldn't deliver the cue at all, made for very very long frames lol

[GeordieDS]

I remember watching an opposing team member playing at our club a couple of years ago who had this and it was unreal........he would cue for an eternity and then move his whole body towards the table and not release the cue then repeat a few times before firing.....it made very uncomfortable viewing and i found it amazing he had won 11 and only lost 1 frame at that point in the season.

[sunny3909]

I usually tend to suffer more on drop shots,my long game is till okay.
there is no certain definition of Yips,it could be of any type.
Talking of pros Patsy Fagen had the Yips with rest,he couldn't play with rest for years.

[seanhalligan147]

I have got rid of this for people in less than half an hour in the past. Concentrate on you number of strokes/feathers and count them out loud as you do so, try to take the same number of strokes on every shot. It will soon pass.

[hotpot]

Would like to Hear Chris Small ,s views on this .