Abnormal co-contraction in yips-affected but not unaffected golfers: Evidence for focal dystonia

Up to 30% of golfers develop the yips, an inability to complete a golf stroke, most often affecting short putts, which worsens with anxiety.1,2 Yips may be organic (task-specific dystonia) or psychological (anxiety or “choking”).2–4 We previously found abnormal trains of 4 to 8 Hz, rhythmic, co-contracting bursts of EMG activity in arm muscles of three golfers suggesting a movement disorder. This led to the current investigation. We studied 20 age- and handicap-matched male right-handed golfers, 10 with the yips and 10 without. Handicap is the golfer's average score over par over the past ∼10 rounds of golf. Surface EMG electrodes were placed bilaterally on the pectoralis major, deltoid, biceps, triceps, wrist flexors, pronator teres, flexor pollicis longis, wrist extensors, abductor pollicis brevis, and abductor digiti minimi. EEG electrodes were in a standard montage. Recordings were made at a sampling rate of 1,000 Hz, bandpass 1 to 200 Hz using the Neuroscan system (Neuroscan Compumedics, El Paso, TX). Investigators were not …