Exploring Throwing Yips in Youth Baseball Players: Prevalence,Symptoms,Players’ Psychological Characteristics,and Triggers

Abstract

Symptoms of “the yips” manifest in various sports and often cause athletes to retire prematurely from competition. While there have been case studies on yips-affected baseballers (YBBs), there has been no comprehensive demographic profile of YBBs, and contributing factors are only partially understood. We aimed to describe youth YBBs’ demographic characteristics and explore contributing factors to yips symptoms. We analyzed a self-report questionnaire administered to 285 youth baseballers to investigate yips symptoms and identify both players’ psychological characteristics and trigger factors for yips. We defined YBBs as players who exhibited symptoms of involuntary muscle contractions, characterized by jerks, tremors, or freezing during planned movements that resulted in unpredictability when throwing a baseball. Individuals without these symptoms were categorized as non-yips-affected baseballers (NBBs). In our total sample, there was a YBB prevalence of 10.2% with a significantly higher occurrence among pitchers than among players in other positions (p < .05). Additionally, YBBs showed a significantly higher incidence of self-reported anxiety during throwing compared to NBBs (p < .001), and a significantly greater proportion of YBBs than NBBs struggled particularly with gentle or light motion throws (p < .001), especially at short distances (75.0% of the YBBs). Furthermore, 62.1% of YBBs faced difficulties in appropriately releasing the ball. Thus, we found approximately one in 10 youth baseballers experienced yips symptoms that were influenced by throwing distance and high-pressure situations. Our descriptive study advances an understanding of yips-related performance problems in youth baseballers.