Researchers uncover methods to quantify the yips and golfer’s cramp

Almost every golfer knows the feeling. Minutes after a picture-perfect drive down the fairway, a cascade of inexplicable missed putts leads to a disappointing triple bogey. Golfers’ lapses in play sometimes are blamed on a mysterious twitching condition called “the yips.” But are yips physical or psychological? In a new Mayo Clinic study, published this month in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, researchers combined multiple methods to quantify golfers’ yips and identify those with a neurological cause.

The study examined 27 golfers who all appeared to have the yips before the study. Researchers from Mayo Clinic and Arizona State University videotaped subjects putting 10 times with both hands and 10 putts with the right hand only, with each attempt 10 feet away from the hole. They collected data on wrist and arm movements, putter movements, and whether there was co-contracting muscle activation in the forearm muscles.

Source: MedicalXpress