Hi Baseballmom, I had a catcher this season who started out the season with a bad case of the yips. I thought it was mechanics and tried to address it by looking for breakdowns in his form. We checked everything from his grip to his footwork. No amount of tweaking had an effect. During a game he could not get the ball back to the pitcher. He actually threw one that bounced five feet in front of him and over the pitcher's head. People in the stands began watching his throwback more closely than the game. His dad was devastated and began looking for cures on the internet.
He found a psychologist on google who claimed to be able to cure the yips. I think his name was Crowley, the dad said he had a website that described the yips and why it is purely mental. He called the man and discussed the problem. They scheduled several telephone sessions between the psychologist and player. I asked the dad how much this was costing and he declined to tell, but said it was pretty expensive. I'm going to assume that means it was several hundred dollars, but I don't know.
I told the dad that I thought this might be a scam, but he was desperate. He said the guy asked us not to work mechanics or try change anything about the player's throws for a few weeks. We did. After a couple of weeks, the kid was throwing much better. He did some mental tricks like swiping his glove in the dirt or tapping his head before throwing the ball. It looked a little strange, but his throwbacks were clean. That's been about a month and a half ago and he still swipes his glove sometimes, but I haven't seen a bad throw in a while.
I was very skeptical when the Dad told me he was going to have his son talk to this guy. I have to say now that my skepticism may have been misplaced. The dad says that it was money well spent and he is very happy.
