YIPS- The Male Dominated Golf Club No One Wants to Join

 YIPS - The Fairway Physician Investigates 

Inclusivity - the word that captures the zeitgeist of the moment. Nothing can be exclusive, everyone should be given the opportunity to become part of the group.

Golf, in particular, has been accused of being less than open and welcoming especially towards women. So it can be surprising to find an element of golf that afflicts mainly males and that females want to stay well clear of - the dreaded 'Yips'.

For those that do not know 'Yips' are defined as an involuntary jerky movement when the required movement is a smooth action. It is particularly noticeable in golf in putting and chipping.

In a recent study (presented at the World Scientific Congress of Golf) Dutch researchers looked at the prevalence of this issue. They sampled golfers at a Dutch golf club and 234 golfers responded. A whopping 22% indicated that they suffered from the yips.

However the researchers noted that the majority of the club did NOT respond and, assuming that none of the rest bothered as they do NOT have the yips, the real percentage was more likely to be 5-6%.

Even at this much lower value that would still indicate over 273,000 golfers in the UK suffer from this affliction based on the last figures from golfing bodies/government statistics- with most of them being men.

If the Dutch sample is representative then the Yips is a very male oriented phenomenon. 87% of those indicating they suffered were male. This neuroscientist dug into the numbers a bit more and it would seem to indicate that as much as 30% of all male golfers can suffer from the yips but only 8% of female golfers. 

This may be an artefact of the fact that more males play golf or the pathways that bring males and females into the game. There could be an underlying sex based/genetic component but the root causes for this problem are not understood.

Whatever drives the yips to appear it's one club that females are happy to be excluded from.

There were some other interesting factors that seemed to be at play.

1. Yips are more likely to develop in elite/better  players - not the higher handicappers 

2. Those who suffer were more likely to smoke or had been smokers in the past - as smoking reduces in younger generations will we see the yips decrease?

3. There was a familial effect with those suffering seeing it more often in relatives- does this indicate a genetic predisposition?

The researchers noted that there were some overlaps with other, similar, conditions (known as dystonias) but golf yips were unique and seemed to have a higher prevalence than observed in other sports or areas such as music where performers are known to suffer similar afflictions.

As the researchers suggested this condition is very poorly researched and a lot more needs to be done if we are ever to truly understand what causes it and how we can help people who get it.

Stephen Smith - The Fairway Physician