At first, I howled and wanted to tear my hair out….
I was reading an article about the problems a famous golfer was having with his putting during the PGA Masters tournament in Augusta, GA.
In it, the author attributed the golfer’s wretched putting to the involuntary wrist spasms golfers colloquially call “the yips.”
I could see how the writer’s mind was working, “OK… ‘yips’ isn’t really a word people outside of golfing will understand. I need to define it.”
“Medically, the yips are called DYSTONIA…. a recognized medical condition that affects people who have made the same movement for years. ”
Oh no, she did NOT!
How DARE she trivialize a condition that can be so painful people would rather drive headfirst into a tree than endure for one more second the pain dystonia causes them.
But then I settled down….
You capture people’s attention by discussing something fairly light and “golfy,” and gradually work into the serious consequences caused by debilitating forms of the condition, such as cervical dystonia.
So thinking of it that way, maybe using the yips to explain dystonia is genius!… Maybe.
I’ll let you fine folks be the judge!
