Solved:  The Mystery of the Throwing Yips

By Dr. Tom Hanson

Find the Cure at

www.YipsBeGone.com

Erik Jones is terrified.

His mouth is dry.  His heart is thumping.  His chest is tight.

He’s got a knot in his stomach, his hands are clammy, and his arm is tense.

Given that he’s a Division I college sophomore, scholarship athlete, you’d think he was about to step on a tight rope strung 400 feet above the ground.

Or about to give a speech to 1,000 people.

Or at least mustering the courage to lean in and go for a first kiss.

No, Erik is about to throw a baseball to a fellow player just 40 feet away.

Hello Yips!

The throwing yips have been a mystery for years now.  Until lately, it was unsolved.

Baseball doesn’t use the term “yips” as much as golf does, but that’s how I’ll refer to it.  It also goes by “The Throwing Problem,” or “The Thing,” or “That thing that Steve Sax got that knocked him out of baseball.”

Rick Ankiel pitched his team into the World Series, then pitched himself into the outfield.

Chuck Knoblauch played 2B well enough to win a Gold Glove, then badly enough to move to the outfield.

The yips take many forms.  Sometimes it’s a pitcher that can’t find the plate.  Sometimes it’s a catcher that can gun a runner down stealing, but can’t throw the ball back to the pitcher.

I’ve also worked with several pitchers who are okay pitching, but can’t throw to bases.  I recently asked one stand out pitcher what the most stressful part of the game was for him, and he said, “When the catcher puts the sign down for me to throw to first base.”

Second basemen are also common victims of yips, becoming unable to get the ball to first on easy ground balls.

Outfielders get it.  I just finished working with a pro player who could make the long OF throws, but dreaded the thought of playing catch to get loose.

Coaches at all levels get it and can’t throw BP (see below).

Typically a player can make a tough, hurried throw, but are stricken with seizure-like arm action on easy throws.

These players may laugh and smile with their teammates, but on the inside they’re dying.

Understanding the Yips

The yips can be tough to understand.

Until recently, the yips kicked my butt.  It was sort of like cancer: if I got a call from a player really early on, I could help him a lot.

But if it was an advanced case, I could help him cope with it, but not lose it.  I’d have him breathe and visualize and do a routine, but I couldn’t dig in there and root it out.

One thing that helped me understand the yips was better understanding how the brain functions.

As I understand it, the brain has three parts, non-technically referred to as

1)   the Mental Brain (the cortex/neo-cortex that is responsible for higher brain functioning like thinking and remembering),

2)   the Emotional Brain (the mid-brain area responsible for emotions)

3)   the Physical Brain (the brain-stem area responsible for bodily functions and to some degree reflexes)

When information comes in to us through our senses it goes immediately to our Emotional Brain.  There a vital decision is made:  “Am I safe?”

If the Emotional Brain decides that the new information poses no threat, control of the situation is given to the Mental Brain.  As a result, we are calm and cool and able to remember things we’ve been told or read.

But if the Emotional Brain decides that the new information says “DANGER,” it shifts control to the Physical Brain and the primal responses of fight, flight, or freeze kick in.  None of those are good options when you’re trying to throw a small ball at a relatively small target.

You may recall from Ken Ravizza’s and my book, Heads-Up Baseball, that one disastrous form of pitching is called “Primal Pitching.”  This happens when a pitcher perceives his current situation as threatening – that his well-being is under attack – and he forgets all he’s been told about how to pitch and he humps up and throws like a cave man throwing a rock at a charging T-Rex.

So the key here is that when a player perceives a situation as threatening, the Mental Brain, where he keeps all the coaching he’s given on how to throw, is by-passed.

Anyone who has coached a player with the yips – or had them -- will tell you that words don’t matter.

“Relax,” “Just throw it easy,” “Don’t try so hard, just let it happen” and so on do no good.

That information goes into the Mental Brain and sits on the bench as the Emotional and Physical Brains play the game.

How You Get the Yips

Let’s go back to poor Erik.  He’s a composite of the yippers I’ve worked with lately.  Something happened to Erik that significantly embarrassed or humiliated him.

It was most likely a baseball and in particular a throwing-related event, but it doesn’t have to be.  It may have been an acute (one-time) event, or something more chronic.  It may have involved his parents – primarily dad – but it may not have.

But something happened so that now his brain judges making certain kinds of throws as threatening.

He may not even remember the event.  But for some reason his Emotional Brain created a program that says “X type of throwing situation is threatening.”

As a result, his body kicks into “fight, flight or freeze” mode and a seizure-like, spastic arm action flings the ball almost randomly.  The bad throw is humiliating, and the pattern is reinforced.

(“See,” says the Emotional Brain, “having to make that throw IS threatening.”)

Once the ball gets rolling (literally and figuratively), it’s tough to stop it.

But why wouldn’t it happen all the time?  Why would Knoblaugh and Ankiel and others be fine for so long, then have it kick in?

I see it sort of like herpes.  The herpes virus sits dormant in your system until a stressful time hits or your immune system is low for some reason.  Then it wreaks havoc.

I would bet those two and others with the yips have some event or series of events in their past where they got “infected.” 

(I’m not a psychologist.  I’ve always focused people much more on their future and present then their past.  But in this case, I’ve found that identifying events in the past and neutralizing them can speed yip elimination greatly.)

Although it could get some cheap laughs, I don’t call the yips “throwing herpes” because unlike herpes, the yips can be cured.

Throwaballaphobia

I see the yips as a phobia.  A fear of throwing the ball.  An irrational fear.  

Again, the Emotional Brain perceives a throwing situation as threatening and creates a fear.  Fear is designed to protect us, to warn us.  But in this case it messes us up.

Remember, rational thinking of the Mental Brain does not come in to play, so don’t get hooked on how this doesn’t make sense.

Actually, it makes perfect sense.  If we perceive a threat (it doesn’t matter that the fear isn’t rational), our body kicks in to its primal, physical safely mode.

The question becomes: How do we change how the Emotional Brain perceives the situation?

How to Cure the Yips

I’ve heard two people, an NFL long snapper and a former baseball player tell me they got through the yips by “toughing it out.”  They just sucked it up, got yelled at by a tough coach, and fought through it.

Well, a lot of tough people have failed to do that.  I was with the Yankees in 2001 and got to see Knoblaugh go through it up close.  I’ll always admire his courage for going out there, day after day, and facing his demon in front of tens of thousands of people.

He’s tough, so I don’t see force as a viable solution.

And we already determined we can’t just “talk it through.”

My answer has come from the East.  Not the Eastern Division, but Eastern philosophy.  Namely, acupuncture.

The Chinese came up with this about 5,000 years ago.  Their view of the body is that it runs on a flow of energy.  Like Einstein, they see everything as being made up of energy.  When that energy is flowing freely through our bodies we feel good and perform freely.

When that energy is blocked, we feel bad and perform badly.

In energy psychology terms, when someone has the yips there’s a disturbance in his energy flow around his throwing.  Sort of like a traffic jam. 

You might be in Tampa give yourself the message, “Drive to Orlando.”  But if you get stuck in traffic in Tampa your trip is disrupted and if it’s bad enough you have to take some long, crazy route to get to Orlando.

With the yipper, the message comes from the Mental Brain: “Throw the ball to that guy,” but message gets blocked and disrupted along the way.  The message has to take a long, crazy route to get delivered and executed, so you see some of the weirdest throwing actions ever.

So in Western terms, we need to change how the player’s Emotional Brain perceives throwing.  In Eastern terms, we need to remove the blockages to the player’s energy flow (those blockages were caused by the humiliating past incidents that now sit like car-wrecks on the player’s energetic freeway).

A form of acupuncture, somewhat skillfully applied, can do that.  Fortunately, this form of acupuncture doesn’t require needles, just fingers.   It can even be done over the phone.  I’ve never met most of the players I’ve cured.

Before and After Comments from Players

Most former yippers prefer to remain anonymous, but here are a few of their comments before and after participating in my Yip Elimination Program (YEP):

            Player 1 (DI catcher)

Before: “My hands are clammy and I don’t feel like I have any control over my arm” 

After: “Throwing short is a blast!  It’s going great.  I finally feel like a baseball player again.” 

            Player 2 (Pro OF)

Before: “I was so bad I couldn’t play catch with my brother in the back yard, let alone a teammate on the foul line.”

After: “Now I’m throwing with no problem.” 

            Player 3 (DI catcher)

Before: “Sometimes before the game I’m terrified of throwing to the pitcher,

After: “Throwing-wise I didn't have any problems at all,...I had to catch two games and it was so hot that I forgot totally about my throwing yips and concentrated on being able to endure the heat and to stay calm... my catching was very good thank God...Thanx for the help. (DI catcher)

Player 4 (DI catcher)

Before: “I’m always nervous about throwing the ball back, and everyone,including the scouts, know it.

After: “I’ve got this throwing thing handled.  I can throw the ball back firmly and easily.”  (DI catcher)

A Coach Who Couldn’t Throw BP

A graduate assistant at a DI university wrote:

“My current issue is that I have a great deal of trouble throwing Batting Practice. I have been coaching for 6 years, 3 years at the college level, and this has been an issue since then. BP is an essential part of what I do, as you know Dr. Hanson, and there would be nothing more I would love to do than throw my guys great BP and watch their skills improve.

“But taking the ‘mound’ to throw puts a fear of failure in me so deep, it locks my mind, most importantly, and then begins to lock up my body parts. Standing behind the L screen, not even throwing that day, gives me the willies. Instead of being able to hone in on the zone, the plate looks like forever and a day away and I feel like the loneliest man on earth.

“The batter becomes my focus, instead of focusing on throwing strikes. I am worried about their reactions to each bad pitch, and then I am so focused on what everyone is saying at the park; our batters, our shaggers, our coaches, the other team, other fans, etc. I hear every comment and by this time, my focus and mind are anywhere but throwing strikes…Bottom of the barrel!

A few weeks later he commented on the effectiveness of the program…

“The results I got were that I can now walk into a cage with live batters and begin throwing strikes. I am focusing through the screen and although I find myself looking at the batter from time to time, I can quickly stop myself and refocus on my spot and trust my mechanics to throw strikes. I am 100% more confident in my BP and can and will throw to our guys when needed.”

WayMore Than a Yips Cure

The big news for everyone in baseball, yips or not, is the amazing power of this technique to improve anyone’s performance.  If it is powerful enough to remove the yips, can you imagine how powerful it can be for non-yippers?

Oregon State already knows.

About the Author:

Dr. Tom Hanson has consulted with the Yankees, Rangers, Angels, Twins and many top professional players and teams.  He co-authored “Heads-Up Baseball: Playing the Game One Pitch at a Time, and now has several audio and DVD programs that take the mental game to the next level.

Get his free program, “5 Steps to Unstoppable Confidence” at his website www.BaseballConfidence.com

He’s also set up a new site dedicated to the yips, www.YipsBeGone.com

Find the Cure at

www.YipsBeGone.com