Stephen Hendry made a name for himself in the sport of snooker. He dominated the game in the 1990s when he won the World Championship a record seven times. Stephen won his first title at the age of 21 making him the youngest-ever world champion, a record that still stands to this day. Ranking number one for eight consecutive seasons, his astounding success came to a screeching halt when he was diagnosed with a serious health condition.
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Stephen was diagnosed with a condition known as the yips.
The yips is the loss of fine motor skills in athletes.
The condition occurs suddenly and without apparent explanation, usually in mature athletes with years of experience.
Stephen revealed his health woes in his autobiography entitled, Me and the Table.
In the book Stephen said: “I can’t overstate the part the yips played in bringing my career to a close.
“I think the word yips trivialises it; it is completely debilitating, like a cancer spreading through your game and just destroying it.
“It affects golfers, causing them to struggle with what should be simple putts. In my case, the inability to cue ‘through’ the ball results in weak shots.
“There is a debate about whether the yips is a physical or psychological condition, or a mixture of both.”
How the condition affected his game
“In around 2000 I became aware of a recurring problem of the ‘tightness’ around my cueing action, which somehow stops me believing that I can play the shot even shots I could previously play with my eyes shut.
“Even though I say to myself that I was seven-times World Champion, the voice in my head says, ‘You can’t play this shot.’, It’s completely mental – quite literally.
“My confidence is sapped every time this happens. Before, I could play every shot in the game. Now, I feel that it is nothing less than a handicap that creates difficulties during matches.
“I can’t dominate matches and I’m finding it very hard to win anything.
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What the condition feels like
“It’s like trying to paint without ever using red, or write without using the letter ‘s’. It took away a major part of what I could do as a player and to this day there are shots I can’t play properly because I’m not hitting the ball correctly.
“I always loved playing in front of big audiences; now I’m jittery if one person is in the room watching me.
“However much I try, I can’t shake off the effects of the yips. For me, it’s a psychological difficulty that has translated into a physical one and although I’d love to play more snooker I really don’t think there is a way back for me now.”
The yips as an involuntary wrist spasm that occurs most commonly when golfers try to putt.
It was once thought that the yips were always associated with performance anxiety.
The Mayo Clinic said: “It appears that some people have the yips due to a neurological condition affecting specific muscles.
Changing the way you perform the affected task might help you find relief from the yips.
The most common symptom associated with the yips is an involuntary muscle jerk, although some people experience tremors, twitches, spasms or freezing. In some people, the yips are a type of focal dystonia, a condition that causes involuntary muscle contractions during a specific task.
It’s most likely related to overuse of a certain set of muscles, similar to writer’s cramp.
Anxiety worsens the effect.” Risk factors for the yips include older age, more experience playing golf or tournament play.
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