Objective: To identify and quantify differences in shot kinematics using motion capture and Electromyography (EMG) correlates during a Golf Putting task among professional golfers for shots with and without yips.

Background: Occupational dystonias seen in sports like golf, baseball or cricket are popularly called as Yips. In Golf, the yips has been defined as “involuntary and painless jerks, trembling, or cramping of the hand and/or lower arm” just prior to ball impact. Although the yips have been frequently associated with ‘choking’, it is still debated how to confirm such effects objectively when players get affected. With minor yips symptoms which are not apparently visible, we performed an EMG Motion capture for their detection.

Methods: A prior Questionnaire based study was done to investigate the epidemiology and characteristics of the yips among golfers. Based on this survey, we recruited golfers who suffered from ‘Putter yips’ for an EMG-Motion analysis study. A 2 meter long green track was prepared in the lab for the Putting task. Motion capture cameras continuously monitored the players’ swing and EMG electrodes attached to the forearm and arm muscles provided the muscle potentials. Golfers were asked to report their subjective experience during the shots whether or not they had yips during the trials. The safety of the study was approved by the local ethics committee and informed consent was obtained.

Results: We show the motion capture data of 2 golfers with yips and 1 golfer with both motion capture and EMG data below. In the first 2 golfers, in shots with yips, (irrespective of misses or successful hits) the ball trajectory shifted more to the left with respect to the hole. In shots without yips, there were fewer misses. The impact position of the ball was also similarly deviated as shown [figure1]. In the 3rd golfer, visualization of the normalized power spectrum density between the left and right pronator muscles showed a broadband increase is power for yips condition suggestive of abnormal co-contraction between the muscle groups [figure2].

Conclusions: By virtue of their infrequent presentation and healthy profile of the players, evaluation of yips is difficult and mostly done using psychological tests. Although we tested in the lab and not in a real gaming environment, we were able to assess the use of motion tracking and EMG data to correctly identify minor yips. Such a setup could provide early detection and classification of yips.

References: 1. Philip Clarke, David Sheffield & Sally Akehurst (2015) The yips in sport: A systematic review, International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 8:1, 156-184, DOI: 10.1080/1750984X.2015.1052088. 2. Y. Gon, M. Mihara, S. Kawamura, K. Nakata, D. Kabata, A. Shintani, H. Mochizuki. Epidemiological investigation of yips among Golfers in Japan [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2016; 31 (suppl 2).

« Back to 2018 International Congress

MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/an-emg-motion-capture-analysis-of-golfers-with-the-yips/