TerribleBPthrower posted:My son, 2023 C, will be making his first HS start behind the dish tonight on varsity. He developed a severe case of the yips about 2 weeks ago. Can't throw the ball back to the pitcher. This is a kid that walked 2 batters in 31 innings over the past 2 years. He can normally put the ball anywhere he wants. It hurts to see him struggle. We've done a done of drills and worked with his pitching coach on his throwing mechanics. He's great when it is just us, but he is really struggling on the field. for some reason. The head coach told him he's not going to take him out if he struggles in the game and he's going to have to work through it.
So, with that in mind, any positive vibes, mojo, or prayers are greatly appreciated.
We dealt with this a few years ago. We were at a tournament at OU in front of quite a few coaches and late in the game he airmailed one to the pitcher. Then he did it again. I think he had a few more but the game ended and we won so no one really paid any attention to it. We got in the car and it was clearly in his head. Between games we went to a park and worked on him throwing it back to me. Thought it was fixed but it reared its ugly head again. The more he thought about it the worst it got. Here is how he got through it and then out of it. To manage it we developed a count. I think it was something like knee to the ground was 1, arm up 2, throw to pitcher 3 or something like that. It helped. What we learned was that the harder he threw it back to the pitcher the better he was and the more he tried to aim the worse it got. The count evolved into fire it back to the pitcher and eventually the yips disappeared. He also tried taking a few steps and shortening the distance but that just seemed to make it worse.
It was hard to watch, but the other players and parents didn't really notice. I can remember telling a dad about it and he said he had no idea. The only time they will really notice is when it costs you a base runner, a run scores or if it is happening every throw. Not to add to the pain, but it is probably going to be rougher on a 2023 playing HS ball than it was for my kid playing on a showcase team with kids his own age.
Now for the good news. He made it through it. The year before we had a 2021 kid play on our 2020 team and he developed something pretty close to the yips. He ended up lobbing everything back to the pitcher. The next year he committed to a solid D1 school. He made it through it too. I hate that your son is going through it but he will also get through it. Be positive, patient and give him a hug when he needs it.