You might find yourself sweating on the tee box, with your hands shaking and your knees knocking. And it won’t be because you are nervous about your next shot, you have six skins on it or your club championship is on the line. No, it likely won’t even be because you’re the last man in your four-man scramble, but you’ll still be nervous as hell.

If this is your shape, your game has likely evolved past a simple case of the shanks, into the world of the dreaded golfing yips. If the yips are the end result of your game, you’re probably considering hanging up the clubs from the season and just parking it for a couple months. The golfing yips can be so draining on your game, it will be hard to pull yourself from up under them.

Because of the golfing yips, your body is telling you to STOP. It is telling you to forget your instincts and removing your brain any memory of the past 1000 swings you have taken in your life. If this is the case, the golfing yips were likely caused by some past trauma on the links, and can destroy your game if you do not remedy the problem.

These yips represent themselves in the form of small twitches, jerks or staggers, and can force tremors throughout your body. Professional golfers have been quoted as saying that watching a fellow pro in the throes on the golfing yips can be a sad sight indeed. It has happened in other sports, notable in baseball with Yankee second baseman Chuck Knoblauch and Cardinals outfielder Rick Ankiel.

To look at it another way: the changing mechanical approach to the yips is like trying to mow over your lawn, simply to get rid of a week problem. Mowing the lawn will remove the weeds for a few days, but they will inevitably grow back. Changing your mechanics to an unnatural style will have the same effect. You will focus on your new grip, or putter or swing for a few days, but the yips will return to this new style as well.

This weed killer for your golf game can be found in the form of a psychological and mental approach to the game. You must attack the problem at its core, and rid yourself of the nervousness and anxiety that is forcing your golfing yips.

The yips sadly cost Doug Sanders a British Open, and they would cost later golfers other prizes, but there are now recognized ways to cure yourself of the golfing yips. Whether they are chipping yips, putting yips or golf swing shanks, you can get rid of your problem and regain your confidence.