Team Discraft: Blaine Kinkel Disc Golf Bio

	NAME:	Blaine 'Hurricane' Kinkel
	TEAM:	Core
	HOMETOWN:	Charleston, SC
	PDGA #:	34968
	2009 PDGA RATING:	994
	BORN:	1982
	STARTED IN DISC GOLF:	2008
	day gig:	Operator, water treatment plant
	disc cred:	2009 US Am Champion 2009 Bowling Green Am Champion 5th, 2009 Am World Championships

MEMORABLE DISC GOLF MOMENT:

Winning up in MI at the US Am National Championship after the Charleston disc golf club put together a secret fundraiser tournament to get me there. They surprised me by giving all of the tournament registration cash to me at the awards ceremony after making sure I bought in to play.

Blaine's Disc Golf Tips

Lean into your shots. A lot of players learning to throw end up naturally leaning back when they try to throw hard. A good (backhand) disc golf motion is really pretty unnatural for the body. Starting with your arm high in your back swing rather than down in your pocket, and finishing at the same level not up in the air. A good way to correct this is to think about the orientation of your leading knee and shoulder at the release point. If you are leaning back, your shoulder is going to end up being behind your knee on a vertical plane and your arm is going to naturally finish up in the air. Concentrate on getting your shoulder over the top of the knee during release. This will force you to keep the disc on a lower, more flat line making your release naturally finish on an even plane.

Blaine Kinkel / Team Discraft

Smooth is power. When you're watching the distance that more advanced players get, your first, most natural thought might be that they throw harder. In fact smooth is power. Don't be at a full run by the time you get to the end of the teebox, you don't need to. Good form and technique are the keys to throwing farther and with more accuracy. A lot of the technique necessary is a matter of timing: starting at your contact with the ground which drives your body's' momentum. Think about using all the joints in your body between your ankles and your wrist/fingers. It starts with turning away from the target, the plant foot ankle turning, immediately followed by knee, followed by your hips which drives your spine to uncoil, followed by the shoulder, followed by the wrist translating to your hand at the moment of release. find the right timing and you'll be amazed at what can happen when you learn to control it.

Learning your mids: A lot of somewhat experienced players have figured out how to throw the driver, for the most part. I hear a lot of questions coming out of this group like: 'how do you get a midrange to do that?' or 'How do you throw a midrange? I can't figure them out.' Midrange discs are a very important and are instrumental to my game. The first thing you have to understand is that midranges aren't drivers. They don't handle the spin and arm speed in combination like a driver can. Quit trying to throw them like a driver, the midrange disc will go a long way without having to put so much arm behind it. They still need spin to fly and glide, but when you try to put the same arm speed into the midrange as you do a driver you are going to be disappointed. Find a friend, go out in a field and play catch. Experiment with how much hyzer you can put on that particular disc, how much anhyzer? Throw at about 100 feet or so then keep moving away from each other once you get the hang of it. Before you know it you're standing 250 feet away from each other and hitting your partner close enough they don't have to hardly chase it. The repetition and sheer amount of throws with the same disc back and forth will teach you what you can do with them.

Minimizing those 'blow-up' rounds: I tried to think of something helpful for people, something that I am relatively good at to relate to other players. Being still relatively new to this sport (and still learning plenty!!), I find myself in the same mental battles as anyone else who plays competitive sports, especially golf. How is it that you can play so consistently one round then turn around and play so poorly, in comparison, the next?? To me, minimizing those 'blow-up' rounds, is to amputate before it really festers. It's a mindset. You start your round, you know you can make most if not every shot on the course, even though it rarely turns out that way. OK, you threw a bad shot or played a hole poorly-fine. No problem, plenty of golf to play. A problem arises when you either get upset and take it into your next shot or you really try not to and still end up playing the next shot/hole poorly as well. Don't take the mindset that it's just not your day and mentally give up, but don't try to completely overanalyze every stroke and confuse your game. Rather, acceptance is one key. Accept that you are human, accept the fact that you aren't really in the groove, and accept the fact that you know how to make that disc fly where you want! Amputate those worrisome thoughts of doubt and realize that you can still make the next shot and the one after that!

One thing I have seen in my game, mentally, that has started to keep me from falling apart during a round is that I have started to accept a bad hole/shot much more gracefully, then turn around and play the next hole/shot better. I'm not saying that you can turn a bad round into an amazing one all the time, but get a few decent shots going between the bad ones and you can turn those 'Blow-ups' into respectable rounds, those rounds aren't what you WANT, but being able to fight back to a decent round is what you NEED to get better. Remember that you don't necessarily NEED to play lights out every round to win a tourney, sometimes that's the case, but you do NEED to minimize the dreaded 'blow-up' to finish in the money.

COURSES YOU SHOULD PLAY:
Course	Comments
Trophy Lakes Johns Island, SC	Home course. Just an all around beautiful, well kept piece of property with two wonderfully challenging sets of tees. Plays around and over Lakes, 12 holes with potential water in play. Par 62/59
Winthrop Gold Rock Hill, SC	An amazingly challenging course when the OB ropes are up. Tests every part of your game while demanding accuracy with every throw.
Kensington Toboggan Milford, MI	So much fun! Heck of a hike around/up and down a gorgeous piece of this park. Great combination of golf shots and bombs that will keep you wondering why you didn't play that hole smarter.
Hornets Nest Charlotte, NC	You can't help but start grinning with excitement as you enter this park. Very attractive and well kept, playing both layouts at this course are different stories and both enthralling tales!
Beaver Ranch Conifer, CO	Original home town. This course has multiple placements on every hole creating a myriad of different layouts. If you can handle the hike in the thin air at high altitude you need to check this one out. Crazy elevation playing along a set of ridges in the Rockies outside of Denver.

In The Disc Golf Bag: Drivers
Disc	Comments
ESP and Z Force (174 gm)	Often used for high speed shots. The Z line Force is my overstable headwind fighter while the ESP is not quite as stable after a little use and versatile enough to use for flex, dead straight, or hyzer shots
Z Stalker (174 gm)	This disc went straight in the bag. I received some prototype Stalkers the week before 09 Worlds, and after throwing this thing for only a couple rounds I was confident enough with its 'pure' flight characteristics to add it to my arsenal. Perfect speed between the driver and midrange, perfect stability for stand up hyzers, dead straight gliders, or an easy anhyzer that will still tail back at low speed.
ESP Flash (170 - 174)	One of my favorite drivers in the bag. Very fast and great for flip hyzer or highly controlled straight shots without much low speed fade. Hadn't ever tried one till I was complaining about how I couldn't find a nice high-speed driver that would just go straight for a long time without a lot of fade. A player on the card said 'try this', after throwing the shot all I could say to the guy is 'I'm convinced!'
X Avenger (174)	This is the driver I go to when I don't need max distance. A little slower and highly controllable, this disc is versatile enough to use for everything from flex to straight to hyzer shots. In this plastic the Avenger isn't as stable as its ESP or Elite Z versions and will break in on you so refreshing the Avenger in my bag is common every few months or so.
FLX Avenger SS (171 - 173)	Understable version of the Avenger with all the same speed, glide and feel as its big brother. Great for rollers and turnover shots. I tend to use this disc most often in a strong tailwind or long uphill shots.
Z Tracker (170 - 174)	Awesome fairway driver! I keep two of these in the bag a heavy one that is stable enough to handle a good headwind and a lighter less stable one for those 'do anything' shots. A perfect disc for those 'tweener' shots that are a bit to short to pull out the driver but long enough to be outside the comfort zone of your midrange shot. It has a relatively flat shaped wing making it a naturally good skip disc when necessary.

In The Disc Golf Bag: Midrange
Disc	Comments
ESP Comet (178 gm)	Probably my most commonly used midrange. After throwing this disc for the first time I couldn't help but giggle and wonder why I had never heard of this thing! Slow, understable, always lands flat with no skips or rollaways, this thing is the FOREVERGLIDE. Throw it firm and flat with a little bit of air under it and watch it go and go and keep going! I throw this disc differently from everything else in my bag. So controllable that I am never scared of a tight wooded tunnel or a big right turning corner with this bad boy around!!
FLX Drone (178 gm)	A meathook of a midrange! Not the fastest or prettiest, but if you need to fight a headwind or make sure to stay away from danger on one side this disc will always fade hard and soon!
Z Buzzz (178 gm)	Anyone will tell you what an all around workhorse the Buzzz is. Anyone will tell you this disc holds whatever line you put it on. Everyone who has thrown the Buzzz for a little while will tell you they love it! The point here-everyone says these things because they're TRUE!!! If you haven't tried one yet you are missing out.

In The Disc Golf Bag: Putt and Approach
Disc	Comments
X Soft APX (174 gm)	This is my putter of choice, and it was love at first flight! I have more of a touch shot, not a power putt so this is the perfect disc for my style. Straight as an arrow without a lot of snap, this thing will glide the distance whatever that may be. I use the old Swirl APX, that are now out of production, for my jump putts getting a little more stability, not quite as much glide and a slightly lower profile feel to it.
ESP Zone (170-172 gm)	The Drone of putt/approach. A meathook of a putter that is slow and overstable. I use this disc as a thrower but a player with a hard spin putt will fall in love with this one.
ESP Banger-GT and Soft X Banger-GT (170-172 gm)	The ESP run is a perfectly stable approach disc for me, stable enough to use it for a bit of flex. The soft version is less stable after a bit of use and is great for a touch disc on shorter approaches. This disc sits down without a lot of glide and the groove top fits surprisingly comfortably in the hand for a consistent release every time.

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