Yips are involuntary movements affecting motor skills which impact your ability to perform tasks that were previously possible without this involuntary intervention of undesirable movements.
I have seen it with others in golf and have experienced it myself with chipping in golf. I play to a high level, yet it can develop seemingly from nowhere when you previously enjoyed entirely good form.
It is very well known in golf and has affected some of the best players in the world, so it is nothing to do with a lack of ability. It is, i believe, to do with the brain becoming sub consciously involved in a movement due to an unseen fear or anxiety attached to the movement. Most likely from recent fear or failure when making the movement. So with golf, it tends to happen with slow movements like putting or chipping rather than fast and explosive movements like driving or iron play. Slowing down to achieve some type of tempo once more can help but basically I believe it is reps and removing the sub conscious doubt by realising good results again, which allows the brain to let go of this attachment to previous failure. Symptoms I felt included things like tension in muscles, hands and shoulders when addressing a chip when it is desirable to be very loose and have a very loose grip on the club. When making changes in golf, I work on the basis of going as much to the extreme as possible. So I started to practice without my thumbs on the grip to promote a very loose attachment to the club. This resulted in less tension and therefore less involuntary jabs at the ball. I also removed the outcome from the practice. So I wasn't chipping towards a target or a flag. I chipping in to a net or hung blanket at home. The ball was only travelling a yard before it hit the net. So everything was simply targeted on club and ball and a lack of tension and it was impossible for me to attach failure to the end result as there wasn't an end result. I was breaking down the task in to smaller chunks and working from there.
For shooting, are you finding you are snatching whilst also feeling very tight? The rifle needs controlling somewhat but you don't want to be hanging on to it.
If you are not scared of recoil, it is likely the brain attaching too much significance to result. Take shots with incredibly loose grip on the rifle and work on doing whatever it takes not to flinch. The rifle cannot hurt you. The brain will learn these things and it will become easier to do it on autopilot once more.
The brain is a funny thing. Yips are no joke in golf. I saw it destroy the putting of someone I knew who was a very a good player a few years ago. They gave up the game despite being a plus index player. They went from shooting mid-high 60's to literally not being able to keep it under 80 due to what i can only describe as carnage on the greens. It was brutal to watch.
