Perception of yips among professional Japanese golfers: perspectives from a network modelled approach

'Yips' in golf is a complex spectrum of anxiety and movement-disorder that affects competitive sporting performance. With unclear etiology and high prevalence documented in western literature, the perception and management of this psycho-neuromuscular problem among Japanese elite golfers is unknown. The objective of this study was to explore factors associated with yips, investigate the performance deficits and the strategies implemented to prevent yips. We surveyed approx. 1300 professional golfers on their golfing habits, anxiety and musculoskeletal problems, kinematic deficits, changes in training and their outcomes. Statistical procedures included multiple logistic regression and network analysis. 35% of the respondents had experienced yips in their career, their odds increasing proportionally to their golfing experience. Regardless of musculoskeletal symptoms, about 57% of all yips-golfers attributed their symptoms to psychological causes. Network analysis highlighted characteristic movement patterns, i.e. slowing, forceful or freezing of movement for putting, approach and teeing shots respectively. Golfers' self-administered strategies to relieve yips were mostly inconsequential. Within the limits of our self-reported survey, most golfers perceived yips as a psychological phenomenon despite evidence pointing to a movement-disorder. While self-administered interventions were satisfactory at best, it may be imperative to sensitize golfers from a movement-disorder standpoint for early management of the problem.

Personality Predictors of Yips and Choking Susceptibility

The ability to perform under heightened levels of pressures is one of the largest discriminators of those who achieve success in competition and those who do not. There are several phenomena associated with breakdowns in an athlete's performance in a high-pressure environment, collectively known as paradoxical performances. The two most prevalent and researched forms of paradoxical performance are the yips and choking. The aim of the current study is to investigate a range of psychological traits (fear of negative evaluation, individual differences, anxiety sensitivity, self-consciousness, perfectionistic self-presentation, and perfectionism) and their ability to predict susceptibility to choking and the yips in an experienced athlete sample. 155 athletes (Golfers n = 86; Archers n = 69) completed six trait measures and a self-report measure of yips or choking experience. The prevalence rate for choking and yips in both archers and golfers was 67.7 and 39.4%, respectively. A 2 × 2 × 2 MANOVA and discriminant function analysis revealed that a combination of 11 variables correctly classified 71% of choking and non-choking participants. Furthermore, analysis confirmed that a combination of four variables correctly classified 69% of the yips and non-yips affected participants. In this first study to examine both paradoxical performances simultaneously, these findings revealed that for the yips, all predictors stemmed from social sources (i.e., perfectionistic self-presentation), whereas choking was associated with anxiety and perfectionism, as well as social traits. This important distinction identified here should now be tested to understand the role of these traits as development or consequential factors of choking and the yips.

Psychodiagnostics: Classification of the Yips Phenomenon based on Musician's Dystonia

PURPOSE

Similar to musician's focal dystonia, a task-specific phenomenon known as yips, has also been reported in professional athletes. Yips is usually described as focal dystonia, or choking under pressure, or as lying on a continuum between both. Based on the common occupational conditions across musicians and athletes, the present exploratory study aimed to investigate whether musicians diagnosed with focal dystonia and golfers affected with yips, can be similarly subclassified based on their psychological profiles.

METHODS

Twenty healthy musicians, 20 musicians with focal dystonia, 20 healthy golfers, and 20 yips-affected golfers went through a test battery including three psycho-diagnostic standardized questionnaires (the Competitive Trait Anxiety Inventory, the Frost's Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale, and the Stress Coping Questionnaire), measuring trait cognitive and somatic anxiety, perfectionistic tendencies and different stress coping strategies.

RESULTS

Findings based on a clustering procedure suggest that similar to musician's dystonia, yips-affected golfers can be classified into those with and those without specific elevated perfectionistic, stress and anxiety traits. The roles of these different psychological profiles as possible triggering factors of the yips are discussed and compared with those of musician's dystonia.

CONCLUSIONS

The current study suggests that the yips phenomenon might cover a broader range of different subtypes of movement disturbances than those already suggested in the literature. Finally, a theoretical model, which explains the role of the different triggering factors in the discrimination of the different subtypes, is suggested. A better classification and understanding of the different subtypes of yips could lead to a more accurate diagnosis and to the design of more individualized treatment intervention.

Maladaptive Plasticity Induces Degradation of Fine Motor Skills in Musicians

Abstract. Performing music at a professional level is probably one of the most complex human accomplishments requiring extensive training periods. The superior skills of musicians are mirrored in plastic adaptations of the brain involving gray and white matter increase in sensory motor and auditory areas and enlargement of receptive fields. Motor disturbances in musicians are common and include mild forms, such as temporary motor fatigue, painful overuse injuries following prolonged practice, anxiety-related motor failures during performances, and more persistent losses of motor control, termed “dynamic stereotypes.” Musician’s dystonia is characterized by a permanent loss of motor control when playing a musical instrument linked to genetic susceptibility and to maladaptive plasticity. In this review article, we argue that these motor failures developing on a continuum from motor fatigue to musician’s dystonia require client tailored treatment and accordingly specific psychological and neurological interventions.

Apollo's curse: neurological causes of motor impairments in musicians

Performing music at a professional level is probably one of the most complex human accomplishments. Extremely fast and complex, temporo-spatially predefined movement patterns have to be learned, memorized, and retrieved with high reliability in order to meet the expectations of listeners. Performing music requires not only the integration of multimodal sensory and motor information, and its precise monitoring via auditory and kinesthetic feedback, but also emotional communicative skills, which provide a "speaking" rendition of a musical masterpiece. To acquire these specialized auditory-sensory-motor and emotional skills, musicians must undergo extensive training periods over many years, which start in early childhood and continue on through stages of increasing physical and strategic complexities. Performance anxiety, linked to high societal pressures such as the fear of failure and heightened self-demands, frequently accompanies these learning processes. Motor disturbances in musicians are common and include mild forms, such as temporary motor fatigue with short-term reduction of motor skills, painful overuse injuries following prolonged practice, anxiety-related motor failures during performances (choking under pressure), as well as more persistent losses of motor control, here termed "dynamic stereotypes" (DSs). Musician's dystonia (MD), which is characterized by the permanent loss of control of highly skilled movements when playing a musical instrument, is the gravest manifestation of dysfunctional motor programs, frequently linked to a genetic susceptibility to develop such motor disturbances. In this review chapter, we focus on different types of motor failures in musicians. We argue that motor failures in musicians develop along a continuum, starting with subtle transient degradations due to fatigue, overuse, or performance stress, which transform by and by into more permanent, still fluctuating motor degradations, the DSs, until a more irreversible condition, MD manifests. We will review the epidemiology and the principles of medical treatment of MD and discuss prevention strategies.