The Yips and the Twisties
- Holly Farris
- Apr 3
- 3 min read
Updated: May 3
If you’re a competitive athlete, these words are probably taboo to say aloud. You are probably cringing just reading them. And now you feel compelled to knock on some wood or pray to your higher power that you didn’t just jinx yourself. And that’s part of the problem.
As athletes, we blur the lines between routines, rituals, superstitions, and OCD for the sake of
performance, consistency, and warding off “That Which Shall Not Be Named.” If we can control all aspects of our performance, surely, we won’t fail. Surely, we won’t make a bad throw, bail out of a backflip, or short a putt. We suppress our doubts, swallow our fears, and don’t dare to speak about slumps, the yips, or the twisties for fear we will summon them upon us and kill our careers.
But that imaginary wall of protection is the perfect breeding ground for mental blocks, choking, and the dreaded yips/twisties.
For those of you blessed not to understand the fear surrounding these words, let me explain:
You’ve spent the majority of your life, time, energy, and effort successfully performing highly
skilled movements. You can do them in your sleep, and often you do. They are so effortless at
this point that they are like breathing. Then one day, it doesn’t work. And not just one time, like, oopsie daisy, my bad, but with each subsequent attempt, the skill just isn’t there. That skill you could rely on has seemingly disappeared, and you’re left with an unfamiliar version of yourself.
The routine throw across the diamond goes sailing into the stands.
The 3-foot putt misses because all of a sudden, your back swing is jerky instead of smooth.
The backflip that you’ve done since you were little feels foreign in your body, and now you feel
unsure and unsafe in the air.
What happened? What went wrong? How long will this last? Where did it go? How can I find it
again? What if I can never perform like before?
Before you panic, take a pause. Let’s understand what’s happening.
The hitches in your giddy up could be physical (focal dystonia) or psychological (performance
anxiety, choking).
Focal dystonia has been observed in golfers and musicians. Golfers and musicians with focal
dystonia will experience cramping, spasms, or tightening of muscles needed for performing
specific tasks, which then cause the athlete or musician to mess up.
Performance anxiety is the tip of the iceberg that your skills (the Titanic) crashed into. Underneath, you will find fear (of failure, of rejection, or letting others down, of disappointing
yourself, etc.), doubt (in your talent, in your preparation, in yourself, in your future), worry (what others will think, that you won’t be enough, that you’ll lose your spot, you won’t make the cut), insecure identity (who am I without this sport?), trauma (life off the field, mistakes on the field), and other intrusive or irrational thoughts.
Now that we know what we’re dealing with, let’s talk about what to do next.
For focal dystonia, some research suggests Botox and various oral medications can help with
temporary relief by calming the nerves that are impacted and relaxing the affected muscles.
Please consult a licensed physician or neurologist before starting treatment for focal dystonia.
The best medicine for the psychological yips/twisties is preventative medicine, but if you’ve
found yourself having similar experiences to Simone Biles (twisties), Rick Ankiel (the yips), or
Charles Barkley playing golf, here are ways to untwist your twisties.
Identify your fears, doubts, worries, insecurities, intrusive, and irrational thoughts.
Incorporate visualization into your daily practice – successes AND FAILURES.
Go back to the basics. Fun-da-men-tals (clap, clap, clap-clap-clap).
Take a break from your sport. Give yourself an offseason. Play a different sport. Try new hobbies. Rest.
Play a different position. Use a different piece of equipment.
Breathing. Relaxation. Meditation.
Create a distraction – sing a song in your head, have a conversation with someone, talk yourself through the movement, challenge yourself to make a bad throw instead of a good one.
Focus awareness – panorama, portrait, macro. Being able to zoom in and out regularly.
As a Division 1 softball player, I had teammates – that’s right, with an “s”, plural, more than 1
teammate – who struggled with the yips. I coached a college athlete who had the yips. I’ve
professionally worked with athletes who had the yips.
I know I’m biased because it’s my job, but I highly recommend working through these with a
professional. My purpose is to be the person my teammates didn’t have to help them through
their struggles.
If you’re in the market for preventing the yips, working through the yips, or want to learn more
about how to optimize your performance and reduce your performance anxiety, shoot me an
email and let’s talk!