Solved: The Mystery of the
Throwing Yips
By Dr. Tom
Hanson
www.BaseballConfidence.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
Jeremy Sheetinger, a graduate assistant at the
University of Kentucky, kindly agreed to let me share his
story. Note the emotions expressed –
very normal for the yips. He initially
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
Special to Collegiate
Baseball
The full yips cure is pretty
involved, but Collegiate Baseball has
arranged with Dr. Tom to teach you
the basic process on
line. To learn his
technique, visit
www.BaseballConfidence.com/cb.html
Winning the Emotional Game
of Baseball
By Dr. Tom
Hanson
www.BaseballConfidence.com
What do all these stories
have in common?
- A college senior
pitcher’s shoulder hurts so badly
on each pitch that he is close to
shutting it down and having
surgery – but then is
miraculously healed and has his
best Fall ever;
- An upper level minor
leaguer had been trying to
shorten his hand path all season,
then has a major breakthrough and
creates a new habit in a few
days;
- A young softball pitcher
tops out at 58mph, then minutes
later throws a pitch
63mph;
- A 12-year-old is so
scared of the ball that he takes
his top hand off the bat and
steps back as a pitch is being
thrown, then stands in and rips a
few foul balls in his very next
game;
- A college sophomore
rates his current level of
frustration and anger at his
hitting as an “8” on a 1 to 10
scale, then two minutes later
says it’s “0 or 1.”
- A high school catcher
goes from saying “I can throw to
the bases, but throwing the ball
back to the pitcher is
killing me,” to “I’m
completely and utterly confident
I can throw the ball to the
pitcher easily and accurately” in
just a few days;
These stories have two
things in common: first, I recently
coached each player through their
change, and second, I couldn’t have
done it a year ago.
At least not as fast and
easy. In some
cases I wouldn’t have even
tried.
(Incidentally, with just one
exception, the coaching was done over
the phone.)
A major change is coming to
college baseball.
In my mind this is like telling an
investor about Microsoft when it was
two years old.
You can either get out in
front of this one, or play this
season at a significant
disadvantage.
Don’t be like
me…
I Wasted 3
½
Years
Three and a half years ago I
sat in on a teleseminar (a class
taught over the phone on a conference
line) that taught a weird technique
that involved tapping my fingers on
different spots on my body while I
repeated hokey sentences.
The guy teaching it was the
“guru” of the technique.
It did nothing for me and I
dismissed it.
Last spring I met a guy who
said he uses it and I made a snide
remark about how it didn’t
work.
“Then you didn’t really do
it,” he said and offered me a free
lesson.
I will never coach the same
way again.
What I’m about to say will
have more weight if you have a sense
of where I’ve
been. I have a
Ph.D. in sport psychology and was the
hitting coach at UVA for 3 years
before being a Division III head
coach at Skidmore for 7
years.
I consulted/coached with the
Rangers for a couple of years before
being hired full-time by the Yankees
for a year.
I wrote Heads-Up
Baseball: Playing the Game One Pitch
at a Time with Ken Ravizza back
in 1995.
I’m a “seeker,” always
looking for new things, new ways to
help people perform better and be
more fulfilled (starting with me…),
so for 20 years I’ve been trying out
new things, going to seminars,
reading books, being coached – almost
all outside of baseball.
(I find baseball generally
inbred – not very open to new ideas
that don’t come from within the game
itself.)
In my opinion, this
is…
The Best Tool
Ever
This technique is by far the
most powerful tool for performance
enhancement I’ve ever
seen.
I’m still amazed with it
daily after 7 months of intense study
and practice. It
not only is the basis for how I cure
the yips, it can remove all kinds of
negative emotions and replace them
with positive ones.
It can speed injury
recovery, reduce pain, speed up mechanical
changes, and increase
flexibility.
I believe I could teach a
person off the street enough about it
in two hours to make him be more
effective at helping players than
most mental game
coaches. He’d
certainly be able to do things I
couldn’t do myself before I learned
this technique.
(And by the way, did you
notice the Oregon State player
tapping his head in the dugout on TV
in the CWS? Are
you willing to stretch out of your
comfort zone in order to experience
success?)
I’d Blown Off the
Guru
The “guru” I mentioned is
Gary Craig. He
master-minded the approach and is a
truly amazing man.
I could keep what I’m doing
a secret and make a lot of money
quietly producing great results, but
the spirit of the technique that
Craig has created, along with my
broader goal to make a huge
improvement in the experience
players, coaches and parents have in
baseball led me to return my new
friend’s favor and offer you a free
lesson.
I mentioned in my previous
article that I’m now doing
acupuncture.
That’s how I’m curing the
yips.
This form of acupuncture
does NOT use
needles. I’m not
telling players over the phone where
to stick themselves with sharp
objects.
Instead, you simply tap on
certain points with your finger tips,
as if you are tapping repeatedly on a
keyboard key.
If it hurts or you get
tired, you’re doing it
wrong.
How Tapping
Works
The Western explanation is
that the tapping releases peptides
that are stuck in receptor sites in
your cells.
The Eastern explanation is
that your energy flow is blocked like
an internal traffic jam and the
tapping clears the way.
Craig says that “All
negative emotions result from a
disruption in your energy
flow.”
The tapping “works” on
whatever you’re focused on, so
ironically the key to getting rid of
a negative emotion – frustration,
anger, disappointment – is to focus
ON the negative while you
tap.
So I’ll actually encourage
you to “think negative” during the
exercise.
The process affects your
body at a level below the Mental
Brain. In my
previous article I discussed how the
Emotional Brain is the initial
decision maker in the brain; if it
decides you are safe, the information
in your Mental Brain that you’ve
learned or been taught comes into
play.
But if you’re Emotional
Brain decides you are threatened,
control goes to the survival
mechanism in your Physical Brain and
by-passes the information in your
Mental Brain.
So what you “know” and have
been told about what to do in your
current situation doesn’t come into
play.
The tapping works on the
Emotional Brain.
It “main veins” the good vibrations
into your system way beyond what mere
words can do.
Its sort of like a
glass bottle of ketchup – you can try to
force the ketchup out and fail, and you can
try to talk the ketchup out of the bottle
and
fail.
But just tap the glass in
the right place and the ketchup
flows.
Go With the
Flow
As coaches we want to
produce flowing
performances.
Performing in the “zone” is
synonymously called being in
“flow.”
Free flowing performance
happens when nothing is
stuck. Nothing is
forced
Yes, there’s effort, but
powerful pitching and hitting actions
feel effortless.
For those of you who have
read Heads-Up Baseball or heard us
speak, you’re familiar with the
Traffic Light metaphor.
When you have a Yellow or
Red Light, you’ve got a “disruption
in your energy flow,” or in other
words, you’ve got peptides stuck in
your cells that are blocking your
free flow of movement.
When you have a Green Light
you are freed up; no excess tension,
nothing in your
way. You’re free
to play to your full
ability.
I’ve always taught players
(and I’m sure always will) to take a
deep breath between pitches, and to
step away and take a few if they get
a Yellow Light.
Now I’ve added another piece
– tap. You can tap
under your eye or under your collar
bone, or tap on the sides of your
fingers (must less
conspicuous).
This will help you clear out
the negative emotions and tension and
get you on your way back to Green
before the next pitch.
Like other forms of mental
training, there are many exercises
you can do off the field that free
you for greater success on the
field.
How to Learn Craig’s
Technique
Although ultimately the
technique (formally known as the
Emotional Freedom Techniques, or EFT)
is very simple, it is a bit involved
to learn the first time, so I’ve
created a video to demonstrate it to
you. This is your
free lesson, passing on the one that
was given to me.
You can get the
lesson and learn much more about
the technique at
www.BaseballConfidence.com/cb.html
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
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