I love when I come across a word I don’t know. This one happened upon me the other day.
The word?
Yips.
Make the distinction here. Yips is quite different from Yip.
When I think of a “yip,” a dog comes to mind, making some kind of noise between a bark and a yell. And sure enough, that is what the dictionary says about a yip: A short, sharp cry or yelp, especially of excitement or delight.
But yips are quite different. More commonly known as “the yips.”
Again, from Webster:
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yips
noun | YIPS
What It Means
Yips is a plural noun that refers to a state of nervousness that affects an athlete (such as a golfer) when they’re about to make an important move or play. It is almost always used in the phrase “the yips.”
“Afflicted with a sudden case of the yips, Doug tensed up and pulled his putt too far to the left.”
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I had to see what the Mayo Clinic said about them. Quite a lot, actually.
To quote:
“The yips are involuntary wrist spasms that occur most commonly when golfers are trying to putt. However, the yips also can affect people who play other sports — such as cricket, darts, and baseball.
It was once thought that the yips were always associated with performance anxiety. However, it now appears that some people have the yips due to a neurological condition affecting specific muscles. This condition is known as focal dystonia.”
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I don’t think I’ve ever had the yips. The most common symptom associated with the yips is an involuntary muscle jerk, although some people experience tremors, twitches, spasms, or freezing.
Some athletes become so anxious and self-focused that their ability to perform a simple skill, such as putting a little ball into a hole, gets all out of whack. They let the mind games get to them and overthink things to the point of distraction.
The Yips.
Not to be confused with John McClain’s “Yippee-Ki-Yay Mother Forker.” Although, maybe he had a form of the yips.
I should point out, too, that it is an anagram of “I spy.”
People, I think we are on to something, here.
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“My mother always used to say: The older you get, the better you get, unless you’re a banana.”
—Rose (Betty White), The Golden Girls
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“Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them and you have their shoes.”
—Jack Handey
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“I’m not superstitious, but I am a little stitious.”
—Michael Scott (Steve Carrell), The Office
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The Yips. Not the yippy kind, but the jerky kind.
