The term comes up most frequently in golf and baseball. In 1998, L.A. Times writer Thomas Bonk interviewed elderly PGA golfers like Byron Nelson, Gene Sarazen, and Paul Runyan, whose career went back to the 1920s and 1930s, to find out if they knew the origin of the word “yips.” Nelson said, “I first heard it when I was on the tour in the ’30s. It was always just there” (Thomas Bonk, 2/26/98, “‘Yips’ or ‘Twitches,’ Who Knows Origin?”). 

No less than the Mayo Clinic discuss this condition, which they describe as “involuntary wrist spasms that occur most commonly when golfers are trying to putt.” But, as they point out, anxiety makes it worse as the athlete “becomes nervous and self-focused–overthinking to the point of distraction–that their ability to execute a skill, such as putting, is impaired."

The American Heritage Dictionary defines it as “Nervousness or tension that causes an athlete to fail to perform effectively, especially in missing short putts in golf.” I am more familiar with this term in baseball. Mackey Sasser was a catcher who, after a home plate collision, began having difficulty accurately throwing the baseball back to the pitcher. Second baseman Chuck Knoblauch started having trouble throwing accurately to first base. Pitcher Rick Ankiel could not keep from throwing wild pitches and Jon Lester, another pitcher, has had trouble for years throwing the ball to first base. 

Just Google “yips” and you can read about how traumatic and life-changing it is for those who once mindlessly, successfully did a task they ultimately found debilitatingly difficult to do. They consulted psychologists and hypnotists, struggling to get back to where they just didn’t think about the fundamental task that now overwhelmed them.

But, some have succeeded. Steve Sax, who suffered from the yips in 1983–the second baseman had 26 errors by the All-Star Break–would rebound to be the best defensive second baseman in 1989. He credits a conversation with his ailing father during the 1983 break. His father told him it wasn’t a mental block, but a temporary loss of confidence, that he needed to practice being more confident and it would positively affect his play.

Lest you think history cannot repeat itself:

Jews emerging from a synagogue in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk say they were handed leaflets by masked gunmen that ordered the city's Jews to provide a list of property they own and pay a registration fee "or else have their citizenship revoked, face deportation and see their assets confiscated," reported Ynet News, Israel's largest news website.

The fingerpointing has begun over who is responsible for the distribution of the leaflets and whether they are "real" or fake. It could be argued, however, that leaflets handed out by masked gunmen, are real, whether they have the force of law behind them or not.

"The leaflets bear a striking resemblance to the Fascist registration decrees that preceded the Holocaust. Fake or not, these 21st century instruments of intimidation sent a chill throughout the Jewish world and beyond," reports RNS news.

The ages old war against God's people Israel is clearly not over. Indeed, dark days once again loom on the horizon for the Jewish people as a new wave of anti-Semitism spreads across Europe and much of the world.

In fact, Scripture attests that a day is soon coming when Satan Himself will attempt one final, all-out assault against them in an effort to thwart the ultimate fulfillment of God's prophetic promises to them. 

As rockets rained down on the Middle East today amid the newest flare in tensions between Israel and Hamas, Hollywood celebrity Kim Kardashian discovered the hard way that expressing support for the Israeli nation and its people in today's post-modern, post-Christian climate, is not only unpopular, it could be downright dangerous. Hollie McKay of Fox News reports:

On Friday morning Kim Kardashian sent out a supportive Israel tweet, declaring to her almost 17 million followers that she was “Praying for everyone in Israel.” What she probably wasn’t anticipating was the violent backlash, including death wishes.

“Die in hell,” wrote one, another called the E! sensation a “bit*h” who “should die there,” while others went even further. Less brutal detractors said they had “lost all respect for her,” were giving her “the middle finger,” and called her a “disgrace to her people” and outright “disgusting.”

Others told her she should be “praying for Palestine, not Israel.” So she reportedly tried that.

According to Twitchy.com ... Kardashian attempted to appease her haters with the follow-up tweet: “praying for everyone in Palestine and across the world!”

However, both tweets soon disappeared from her account and she has returned to discussing other important things – like her two-hour Tracy Anderson workout this morning.