The Intentional Disc Golfer
Unleash your disc golf potential with The Intentional Disc Golfer podcast! Join us as we dive deep into the physical and mental aspects of this incredible sport, helping you become the player you've always dreamed of being. We're here to elevate your game, share expert insights, and inspire intentional growth on and off the course. Support our mission by becoming a part of our avid listener community. Together, let's take your disc golf journey to new heights! Email us at theintentionaldiscgolfer@gmail.com to support or be featured on our show. Let's tee off towards greatness!
The Intentional Disc Golfer
Disc Golf Insights: From Healing to Success
Ever wondered why some people are so good at disc golf and how they manage to always stay focused during the game? What about how disc golf can be used as a powerful tool for personal healing and growth? Well, we had an amazing chat about these topics and more, and you're going to want to hear all about it.
We start with our personal journeys, reflecting on our growth as players and how we've been working on improving our scores and tournament standings. Then we delve into a deeper topic - how disc golf has been instrumental in our personal healing process. We share how the sport has taught us mindfulness, courage, and the importance of setting personal boundaries.
Moving on, we talk about our experiences at the Evergreen Women's Series and the strategic decisions that led to our success. We also discuss what we've observed about attitudes and behaviors in the game, and how they can impact other players. We explore how visualization and focusing on basics can dramatically improve your game. Lastly, we reflect on how disc golf has not only improved our skills but also brought about personal growth and improved relationships. So, tune in and get ready to learn about disc golf and more!
Disc Golf Changes Lives <3
To support this podcast or arrange for an interview please contact us at theintentionaldiscgolfer@gmail.com
Mom Dad's making a disc golf podcast.
Jenni:Thank you for tuning in to the Intentional Disc Golf for Podcast. We are excited to have you join us on our disc golf journey. This podcast explores the physical, mental and technical aspects of disc golf performance. We will also be discussing tools and techniques to improve your disc golf game as we work on improving ours. Now here are your hosts, brandon and Jenny Soprinski.
Brandon:Alright, we are back, and thanks for listening to the Intentional Disc Golf podcast. I am one of your intentional disc golfers. My name is Brandon and… my name is Jenny, your other intentional disc golfer, and if you love us, enjoy listening to us. You can like, subscribe, follow us, tell all of your friends. We are available on all major podcasting platforms, including social media. We have a Twitter handle now. It is . That is our Twitter handle, @the IDG podcast, and on Facebook and Instagram at Czuprynski Disc Golf. That is CZUPRYNSKI Disc Golf. Please give us a like and a follow. Also, we can do live events. So if you would like us to appear at your tournament, play some songs, interview some of the participants maybe the tournament director and find out what they have been doing, or book yourself as a guest or interview or even sponsor the program, you can get ahold of us at theintentionaldiscgolferatgmailcom. That is theintentionaldiscgolfer@gmailcom.
Jenni:And I think we are getting to the point where we have a lot of listeners that would like to share their disc golf journey and disc golf story. So reach out to us and we can get you on here so you can share your story.
Brandon:You don't have to be anything special, just have something to share. You can be special. You can be special If you want. If you want to be special, hey, being a part of this podcast is pretty special.
Jenni:Oh yeah, oh yeah, good reminder.
Brandon:Good reminder, all right. So, jenny, what are we in store for this episode?
Jenni:Well, we have been busy. We've been living the disc golf life, living the parenting life and living the getting back to school life. Over the past few months and at our tournaments, we've had a lot of people asking us about all the changes we've been making, all the things we've been working on, because it's starting to really show in our games. So that's what we're going to focus on today in this episode. That sounds great.
Brandon:All right, so we will be talking about that. This is kind of our reflection episode looking at some of the things that have been working for us and the changes that we've been making to lower our scores and even have a few podium finishes as far as I'm concerned. So, anyway, please listen to a word from a few of our sponsors and we'll be right back.
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Brandon:BC Construction Services is dedicated to growing the sport of disc golf, from sponsoring tournaments and events to volunteering with the Paul McBeth Foundation. When you hire BC Construction Services for your project, you are supporting growing the sport that we love. Get a free quote now by contacting them at bcconstructionnwcom or at 360-271-3441. That is 271-3441. Serving the greater Kitsap and Eastern Jefferson County area. Let's go to Eric Oakley here and you are listening to the Intentional Disc.
Jenni:Golfer Podcast.
Brandon:And we are back Now. Before we kick this off, we're going to turn this over to Jenny here. If you would like to come see us, be a part of what we're doing, or even just chat up, follow us on PDGA Live. Where are we going to be next, jenny?
Jenni:Next. Well, we just finished up the Ironman Challenge presented by Emerald City Discs. That was an amazing tournament three rounds one day. I'm exhausted. I have muscles that hurt. I didn't know I had. King of the Jungle is returning to Fairgrounds at Bremerton. We will be there September 23rd. And then shortly thereafter is the Evergreen Women's Season finale the Queen of the Jungle, presented by Moonpebble Designs, and that is going to be a lot of fun. I'm so excited for that one. It's at Fairgrounds too. And then the Fall Fling presented by the West Sound Disc Golf Association on October 14th, and after that we don't have any that we have committed to so far.
Brandon:Yeah, after that we typically take our off season a little bit and we do some training, some practicing work on health stuff and also securing the old household here.
Jenni:Well, and then the Women's Only Pudding League on Facebook starts right about that time, and that is a private group that you can certainly look up. It is the Women Only Virtual Pudding League, sponsored by Dying 2 Disc Golf. Check that out, it is a lot of fun.
Brandon:All right. So, getting into our topic, Jenny, you have been on a tear lately. So if you've been listening for a while you've been one of our listeners for a while and go back with us to maybe the first couple of episodes. I remember we talked about that. You were having a real rough time. You were finishing dead last in your division. You were having rounds that made you feel awful. I mean, at some point I even remember having the conversation of trying to convince you not to quit.
Jenni:Excuse me, it was after Ladies of the Lake last year, which was like June-ish of last year, things started to slide, things went down, like you know.
Brandon:Like a water slide, Like like.
Jenni:No, it was just. You know. I would assume that a lot of our listeners would know that point where, like man, nothing's working, Like why am I grip locking, why am I this, why am I that? And you start coming up with all these terms to kind of describe why you're doing so poorly.
Brandon:So you feel like you have a pretty good handle on the game, and then it just all comes unwound at once.
Jenni:Yeah, it's kind of like yeah, who took my lucky rabbit's foot? What happened Right?
Brandon:Yeah, right. So, and then this year you had a bit of a rough start. It wasn't the best start, you know. You went back and forth a little bit, struggled with a few things and over, I would say pretty much since May, middle of May, your second women's series event. You have just stepped it up and went on, have gone on this tear of just not just winning but dominating competition. We have people from multiple divisions, even men, coming up to you asking you what are you doing? What changes have you made? How are you doing this? I mean you. I mean, we went out and practiced at Ladies of the Lake this year. That was kind of your big redemption event, man. That was so much fun. That was, that was awesome.
Jenni:The practice round was fun too. I actually forgot about that until you mentioned it.
Brandon:Yeah, the practice round and fun was fun, and so now you're at the point where you're actually giving some of the men a run for their money.
Jenni:I want to jump in on that. So I was the only woman at the Washington state finale for the NADGT at Stillacoum and that was when it really hit me, because I was playing with two guys from MA3 and then a doctor, or coach Green, who's also a disc golfer. He was on our card and they were talking about how straight my shots are and they're like wow, I wish I could do that. And I've had that mindset for a while with other people of, wow, how do you do that? I wish I could do that. That's just amazing. And so that's when it really hit me that other people are noticing that I've made those changes.
Brandon:That you've turned a corner, yeah, awesome. So walk, walk our listeners here. I mean, it's hard for me to talk about it because I've been on a lot of the journey with you, caddying or otherwise. Walk our listeners through your journey, like what happens that made you flip the switch and start progressing so quickly.
Jenni:Well, honestly, what it is is, I went through some pretty severe trauma about seven or eight years ago and that propelled me to be very angry and very hard to deal with my emotions and my mindset, and so that has been something I have personally been recovering from for years and slowly made my way back to doing the things I used to do. I've gotten back into being in the education field and gone back into management and slowly worked my way through some of those more stressful things to kind of build myself back up and then going out on the course and being very angry and getting easily very frustrated with myself. Taking the time to work on moving past that and having some grace for myself. It's actually been the biggest thing. More than anything I've done physically with changing my discs, changing my stance, changing any of that has been changing the mindset.
Brandon:Okay.
Jenni:Not what you were expecting.
Brandon:No, no, it's a lot of not what I was expecting, so anyway, so can you fill in some of the gaps in that I mean?
Jenni:some of the other parts.
Brandon:No, no, I guess. I guess what I'm trying to ask is how did being involved and getting involved with this golf facilitate that healing process for you?
Jenni:It's. You know, I want to do a full episode on this in the future. I have a lot of mostly women because I played mostly the women's events and now that I'm doing events where there's not a lot of women showing up, I'm also hearing it from the men that this golf saved my marriage. This golf saved me.
Jenni:This golf changed who I am Women to the point where I we had a student there was in a pretty bad place, in a pretty rough spot, and to hear his guardian speak up in support of expanding the course by saying that he's seen how much just learning to play disc golf within the past three or four months has changed him, his mindset, his attitude toward things and it's one of the guys I was talking with this on the third round at Iron man. We were talking about how much of it truly is mindset, and he was saying you know, I used to play team sports and I could blame my team. I can't blame my team when I disc golf, like it is such an independent sport, because I was talking about the fact that, since I was the only female there, I was truly only playing against myself, and so my goal was to have a better score than I've ever had at that course, and I managed to do that for all three rounds.
Brandon:I agree with that is I've played team sports at very high levels and when you have a team around you, you still have to be a strong individual player, the strongest that you can be. But you have a little bit of buffer for mistakes with your team, because your team will come and help you and cover for you in some situations and there's a safety net there. With this, at least in a single goals type format, there's not really a buffer zone or a safety net. You are responsible for everything that you do and it can be very humbling and even humiliating, less embarrassing at some points.
Jenni:Yeah, I can talk about the embarrassment, some of those rounds. If you've ever been on a card with my husband, you know he's always joking around and you know he doesn't ever stop talking, makes a lot of comments, and so it was truly some of those really difficult rounds when he wasn't encouraging me anymore or just didn't have anything to say. It was just the whole attitude of the card just kind of went down Like that's really hard, harder than just dealing with it yourself. It's when the entire card is like man that sucks.
Brandon:Well, we talked about it a little bit in the Eric Oakley episode. The third person she's talking about is me, the he. I'm the he.
Jenni:Yes, yes, my catty, my catty extraordinaire. His rating went down for a few months. As a catty I got to say like your rating went way down my rating suffered. My catty rating suffered.
Brandon:Oh my gosh Was I not like on it with snacks, and no you stopped commenting Like.
Jenni:this was probably way back at the beginning of your rating. It's all fallen off by now.
Brandon:Okay, so we're on a new things, on a new things.
Jenni:I do want to say you just mentioned the episode with Eric Oakley and if you haven't listened to it as one of our followers, I strongly recommend that you listen to it, because that is what goes through my head every time I play, every time I go out there, and that's actually given me the strength and courage to also say no, I'm not going to go out there because I know I'm too upset, I'm too angry today, and if I go out there and throw, I'm going to be even angrier. Doesn't happen very often, on a rare occasion. But it's just knowing yourself and I don't want to put that negative energy out there into my game anymore.
Brandon:And I think that's very astute I mean, I'm personally of a different persuasion is that's when I need to go out and do something either practice, play, do field work because I feel like that experience forces me to get a handle on that type of stuff, because it's like I'm discolfing, like how can you be mad? Well, I agree. However, I've been out there when you've been angry.
Jenni:Well, I'll tell, I'll go ahead and tell myself Hold on, I've been out there when you've been angry and I've been angry and I can tell when I'm frustrated and then going out there is fine. And then I can tell when it's just not going to happen that day, Like don't, even if I throw a single disc it's going to make me mad because I'm not in control of myself at that time. Like there's different types of angry. It's more like introspective, like you know. I'd rather go hide under a rock type of people.
Brandon:People handle things in different ways, and I think that's what we're talking about here is a little bit is the control aspect of it, and you know, for me, sports helps me refocus and get back in control, especially disc golf, because it's such a mentally and emotionally heavy sport.
Jenni:So no, I'll tell myself a little bit.
Brandon:So in the air Coakley episode I believe I had made mention of, I was scorekeeping for several of the cards at the Cascade Challenge over here in Shelton Washington.
Brandon:The Silver Series event got to meet a lot of pros and and every single one of those professional players were very nice, very gracious and we treated everybody very well.
Brandon:But being behind the tee box and walking down the fairway with them, you know some of them had some pretty off rounds, at least the ones I was on and we're starting to get very frustrated and starting to do the negative self talk and you know it happens to the pros. But to be a third party spectator in that situation and so close to it, I think, and so close to it where you know you are a part of that action and a part of that atmosphere, it really kind of opened my eyes to how much that kind of attitude and that kind of negativity brings down everybody else on your card. And I'm not saying that I'm exactly perfect at it at all times and but then again I've been on some cards where you know we're the last place card but everybody's having fun and having a great time and laughing their butts off, and you know, some of the funnest rounds I've ever played have been the worst rounds I've played.
Jenni:Well and and, as somebody who's usually playing somewhere on the same field, when you're having those funds round, it is incredibly distracting to everybody else. Like your voice carries, like I can tell when you're you're on, that I'm having a good time card and I'm glad you're having a good time. However, you're a big distraction to me.
Brandon:I have a loud, booming voice that carries. And having been married for what? Eight years? Now coming up on eight years depends on you ask depends who you ask.
Brandon:Little family conspiracy theory there. But you know, you, you are attuned to my voice and can pick it out into a crowd anywhere, anywhere. So I can understand that. But I remember this. You know, this year I'll go back all the way back to last year. It's C-Tac. I was having a terrible, terrible day and I was actually playing with the husband of one of Jenny's friends and it was like the first time I've ever played with him and I was having a terrible day and I was just putting on a show for everyone, not a positive one and that was his first impression of me. Now, luckily we're still, you know, pretty good friends to these this day and we joke around and you know we've been able to mend that relationship. But his first impression of me was not good because I was having a horrible round and then go on to this year at one of the North Bend tournaments. I hit every tree, every hole, bunker, out of bounds. It was one of those days.
Jenni:This is a former golf course. There are not a lot of trees. There are two rows of incredibly unnaturally straight trees and then there's some random trees. But it's an open golf course. So you saying you're hitting every tree? You have some talent there.
Brandon:Yeah, we're not in. Yeah, she's right, put this in perspective. We're not in the woods, somewhere where there's, you know, a tree every 10 feet. We are on a fairly open former municipal golf course where there's a few obstacles, but mostly like out of bounds and bunkers and thing in bushes and things of that nature, and somehow I managed to find myself in every single one of them. I shot. What a plus 25 on a course that I regularly are. Maybe plus be somewhere between plus five and plus seven.
Jenni:I have no idea.
Brandon:Yeah, like it was, it was awful and my attitude was horrible and I have to commend you personally for that, because somehow you pulled through it and still maintained, even though I was being Mr Meanyhead, but yeah, I don't know where I was going that, but I'm telling on myself.
Jenni:You're having a confessional confessional. Do I need to go grab the?
Brandon:squirrel statue. I know, you know my therapy session would be, you know, but um, you know, so it's, I guess, where I'm going with that is. It's easier said than done. You know when you're, when you're up in it. It's sometimes really difficult to control that because you know it is an individual sport and it's very personal and a lot, of, a lot of the sport has to do with decision making, and so it hits you not only in your scorecard but it hits underneath the skin Well and like.
Jenni:So you just brought up, um, I don't remember what made me think about this, but the way you play your game, ah, the decision making. So, like you have the new, the fancy Bushnell rangefinder thingy, merbob, that you got- oh baby right.
Jenni:So here's, here's the difference in our game. So I'm watching you from afar. You go up to your disc, look at it, go back, get your rangefinder, go up there, measure it, decide what disc you're going to do. And there's, there's a lot of like I feel it's very ADHD decision making of all the shiny things, gather all the information into one box and then decide which shiny thing I'm going to go with versus that. So this weekend when you're like, do you want my rangefinder, I'm like no, I'm going to throw this and it and it just worked. I feel like that's a little difference between our game with our decision making too. It's like you need all the information possible and I just need. Well, it looks like it's about this far. That's about as far as that disc goes. Or I took out whatever I would have normally thrown because I'm trying to tear down my bag and so I just throw the closest thing to it.
Brandon:Well, in in it's. You know we were talking about this a little bit on the right home. The whole reason I wanted the rangefinder in to begin with was because I have my discs ranged in. I know which disc goes how far and how they all behave Like she's saying I'm very to somebody. It looks like an you know somebody. On the outside it might look like an ADHD attack. You're very analytical.
Jenni:So you need all the data.
Brandon:I'm extremely analytical when I'm up there. So yes, I'll go up there and look at my line. And where the rangefinder comes in is that there's not much difference visually between a 200 foot shot and 180 foot shot. And so I ran into that situation this weekend. A lot is. It was somewhere between 180 and 200. And, depending on the wind and everything, I knew that I could hit 200 with my putter. That would be pushing it. So I'd have to really rip it and put a lot of gusto on it to been able to get it there, but I was going to lose accuracy. So that gave me the information I needed to say hey, brandon, why don't you disc up a bit and put a lot less power on it and gain more control? So the rangefinder actually helped me make those decisions and it also helped you Well if you brought it back.
Jenni:Yeah, there's been like a couple shots where, because of that, I learned I can throw my driver again and make that distance up where if I wouldn't have, I would have had to do two shots. So it has helped a couple of times. Other than that, one of the guys I was at the drop zone and he was measuring it and he's like that's 200. I'm like so it just solidified what I already knew by what I had been throwing.
Brandon:The rangefinder has been a great tool and speaking of that, that was. I got that little toy because that was our deal. I got to brag a little bit.
Jenni:You wanted a cart. However, I wanted to be too big.
Brandon:I wanted a Zooka cart, yeah, and I got big feet. So it's like I know I can lengthen the thing out, but then it feels like I'm, you know, dragging like a little red wagon behind me. Oh, dude, I totally.
Jenni:I always feel like I have my little wagon. You're a little wagon.
Brandon:I loved my wagon, you can do that I have the radio flyer, the wooden one. I love it. You're built more like normal human beings.
Jenni:I'm built more like the little girl on the outside of the salt the Morton salt packet, yeah yeah.
Brandon:I'm, I'm me. I'm a giant, I have very large features and I'm very good at taking up space and I get in the way of myself and everybody else, depending on anything.
Jenni:That's why you were a goalie.
Brandon:That's why I was a goal tender. That's right. Very good at taking up space. Hi, this is Paul Wright with the Paul McBeth Foundation. Support the Builders Club and support the intentional disc golfer. Anyway, um no, the way the rangefinder thing came about, I get to brag a little bit. Jenny. Jenny's putting me up to this is um, I actually got my first W. I ended up winning MA four at the rain shadow open this year and, uh, which was bittersweet, because I don't feel like I. I feel like I played well, like my first two rounds and then my uh, third round. I feel like I just kind of limped it in and, uh, just kind of hung on by the skid of my teeth. So I'm happy that I won, but it didn't feel like a win.
Jenni:Yeah, that's how I felt, uh, with the last two rounds this weekend.
Brandon:Oh, at the it didn't feel like it didn't feel like a win because you didn't play well or you weren't happy with your the way that you played.
Jenni:Yeah, it wasn't as clean as I would have liked it to have been, and you know it's. One of the things that I really appreciate is that I've been in this game long enough and been doing this long enough and focusing on it long enough that I can actually say that and truly understand what that means for me, that my game wasn't clean, because I mean, I I remember when it would take me like seven shots to make something I can do in three now, and so when I'm hitting fives, it's like that was not clean. However, I have to say that the baskets at North Bend hate me. I always call her or cage out Like it's just, it's just the North Bend baskets. I need to like make them some drinks and take them cookies and some cupcakes the next time we're there, that's right yeah, leave some milk and cookies for the squirrels guys.
Jenni:I'll make some special trail mix for the squirrels. There you go, there you go, but and and this is this is also like I actually went OB into the garden. That was a first for me, like I didn't think that was even possible.
Brandon:That gets better, because I played on the card with the. After that round I played on the card with the guy that you were playing with and he told me he's like oh yeah, jenny, she threw it up in the air and then the wind just took it and pushed it like a hundred feet over right into the garden and it was. You know it's bad when the other people are telling you about it.
Jenni:I was like well, I always wanted to see the garden. Like it was just sitting there right in the path. I got to go. Like it was all the way at the end of the garden. I needed to get that out. I was like, well, I've always wanted a reason to go see it. And they're like well, now you have yeah sure.
Brandon:So we kind of went on this tirade about a negative mindset and the negative self feedback loops and how it's bad and it really brings down the card. What helped you turn the corner? Because I remember at Ladies of the Lake this year, can I tell the story? You want to tell the story, ladies of the Lake? I mean, it was really kind of like the world series as far as you're concerned.
Jenni:Yeah, you can tell it what do we do. I need to look up what we did right before, because that's where things kind of changed. Okay, gotcha.
Brandon:While you're looking up that, I'm gonna fill in. So, granted, all this is from our perspective and I was cadding for Jenny at the Ladies of the Lake. She's moved up a division this year and is participating in the FA3 divisions.
Jenni:Yep, melissa and I decided. Well, melissa decided to. So Melissa is my disc golf buddy, so it's Hannah. Hannah moved up to the 40 division and I'm not quite there yet. It won't even let me. I don't even have the option yet you do. But Melissa's like I'm gonna move up to FA3. Because it's my second year doing all the tournaments and so I wanna leave that division for the true new people, trying to do the noble thing and then also playing up, learn more, supposedly. So I went ahead and I'm like well, after you made that speech, I can't let you go off without me. So I went up.
Brandon:Yeah, so we're at Ladies of the Lake, which is kind of the mid-season women's series, one of the big events for the year, because there's a lot of people signing up and it's at a great course in the middle of Lakewood and it's 20 holes. Each round is 20 holes, and that's where things really turned around for you.
Jenni:So it was back in May, before the Silver Series, when I did that clinic with Ella and Holland.
Brandon:Yeah, yeah, you did a clinic with Ella and Ella Hansen and Holland Hanley and they gave you some pointers and stuff. What was the main thing that you took away from that that you've changed in your game?
Jenni:It's. The thing that really hit me was a reach back, because that is the one thing that because you, you big man, keep saying just pull through, pull through, pull through the chest. And here I'm sitting like there's too much chest to pull through. So how do I deal with that? And trying to even okay, to be honest, trying to Google large-chested women and how to disc golf like there's nothing out there. There's seriously nothing out there. No, I'm not going on a left here, I'm talking seriously.
Jenni:Cause my body type there's not a lot of options cause it's mostly like men, let's just say you tend to get in your own way.
Jenni:Yes so, but it's most of the the the um YouTube help videos are men and they're like you, you reach back and pull through the chest and that just it didn't work for me. So having them say, uh, like more, like a 45 degree angle, because that gives you all this space to then turn and do the whip action, you make this pocket, that was the biggest thing for me and that's what I keep trying to tell um anyone that's asking me right now is like what's the biggest thing? It's like reach back 45 degrees, don't I'm trying not to spill anything either while I'm doing this. Like 45 degrees, not straight back, because it's going to take less time for you to then bring the disc out than if you're reaching straight back.
Brandon:Well, and and on that I've been doing the power disc golf academy to from the Paul LaBari one. Um, yes, we paid for the subscription and all that.
Brandon:Yeah, nice guy he was. He was really nice to me, but, um, he said he's saying the same thing. And then the physics behind that is when you reach back 45 through your pullback, you're actually putting your disc down your line and rotating around your disc instead of your desk rotating around you. So that's what rounding actually is is your natural tendency to want your disc to clear your body. So what's happening is your body is actually moving into your power pocket and then you got to bring your disc out and around your body to get it back online and release it in front of you.
Jenni:You know, and that's that's another thing. He brought up the rounding. Like I have not been rounding as much as I had been before, now that I do that and there were a couple of throws like three rounds in one day, like in 80s plus degree weather that hasn't been that hot for a while, like that was hard. And so I did start like bending over and stuff and like no, I see him doing that, I can recognize it now and I know how to fix it.
Brandon:So you're saying that you, you have become more disciplined? In fundamentals?
Jenni:I have become more aware of myself and I can understand things better.
Brandon:Your body position and things.
Jenni:Yeah. It's it's a lot more self awareness and also being able to say, okay, this is what I need to change in myself. Not, oh, I'm going to blame my disc Like that's a bad disc. I do blame my one disc that it's gotten. It was too like I used up all the magic. Used up all the oh I used up all the James Conrad magic. James, I still need you to sign my next two Nomads so I can use them like one of these days.
Brandon:Yep, james Conrad, if you're out there. Yep, if you're out there, send us an email.
Jenni:And I do try and do the James Conrad uh frolic step on the way to the, to using the disc.
Brandon:Well, that's how you recharge it. Is it after frolic?
Jenni:Yeah, but this one it's got like my thumb print, like it wobbles. Huh, it's got my thumb print in it. Those are the best discs that have your thumb print in them. No, I did it.
Brandon:Yeah, yeah, but you know, the reach back is actually like a reach out instead of a reach back.
Jenni:Yeah, so that's the biggest thing I would um attribute the changes to. Another thing is I've committed to the standstill, and that was in learning. I went back and forth between standstills and trying to do a walk up and then trying to do a different walk up and then. So I just I committed to doing the standstills. And the other thing is so I put my plant foot and I look to see where is it aiming, because it's more about where your foot's aiming than anything else. So I put my plant foot down and then I look at my leg and see, okay, is that aiming where I want it to? And then I line up my other foot with the, so the heel of my plant foot. I align my toe with my back foot to the heel to make that 45 degree ish angle, to make that pocket, so that when I reach back I have like a 90 degree pocket that I can whip in.
Brandon:And what I, yeah, and what I learned about that with the foot position too is that when you're right there, when you drive that knee down and wherever that knee goes, that's the line that you're going to be on. So your back knee, when you drive that down to push off of your power leg, that, wherever that knee is pointed, is where your drive goes.
Jenni:So having that kind of in your you know, aiming with that back knee is a useful kind of hack to you know Well, and that's one of the things that because so, since Brandon decided too that he needed that additional help with the Disc Golf Academy, because you're starting to go through a little bit, what I went through, like yours was a lot shorter than mine.
Brandon:Well, let's address that real quick. Is that you always say that when you fall off and you're really struggling, you're on the brink of making a big breakthrough?
Jenni:Yeah, and that's I think that's what most sports people say is that when, because you have to go through that that struggle, the productive struggle, in order to blossom into, you know, a hatching an egg or turning into a butterfly, like you got to do that stuff, there's a point that I really wanted to make.
Brandon:You were going to make a point.
Jenni:I don't remember. Well, I think I got distracted by the thought of butterflies. Oh, so Brandon and I made a deal when he started doing. He's like oh, you got to this, you got to that. I'm like no, I have a tournament coming up. You're not going to tell me anything. I don't want to know. I'm satisfied with how my game is right now. I'm not going to change anything. And that was before the summertime fling, which is the most recent women's series.
Jenni:We'll go back to ladies at Lake in a second. But that's one of the biggest things is that there's a lot that I still need to change, but you're not allowed to tell me. So the other thing that I've started doing and I will the night before or a couple nights before I will walk through when I'm going to bed. I will lay in bed and walk through the course in my head of what I'm going to throw where, about it's going to land and what I'm going to do from there.
Jenni:Is that why I had a black eye the other day. To the point where if I'm laying on my left side, I wake myself up because I'm actually starting to throw. So I have to sleep on my right side, which is my throwing arm, so that I'm not discolfing in my sleep.
Brandon:You end up heaving yourself off the bed one night. Okay, yeah.
Jenni:So that's, that's one of the other things that I've been doing.
Jenni:that's made a huge so you're talking about visualization visualization and then also going through, and one thing that I had a hard time with. So a lot of the women I would golf with had their husbands or partners or someone there telling them what disc to throw and how to throw it. Well, I kind of pride in myself on having not having my husband there and being able to pick my disc and decide what it's going to do. So that was a struggle for me was knowing which disc to throw, to the point where I was tracking it at the beginning of this year on you disc of what disc I threw and then keeping notes of my phone so I could refer back to it and have that to look up, look at. And now that I've really pared down my discs, it's pretty much.
Jenni:I have my four molds, so I have my road runner Occasionally, I can finally throw the diamond. Now. That's been a huge change for me because I've had those ever since I started playing in 2020 and I just know this year I'm able to throw it. And then the paradox. I went up to a heavier paradox. I had to retire my pearl. I have it for like a few shots, like Freddy's. You started to roll that one over. Yeah, I have it for a couple things, but that was my go to disc. And then I just threw in your proxy and I have my nomad. And then my watt is my putter putter. Oh, my envy.
Brandon:The watt is so nice so he has such a good feel to it. I just I haven't worn out my envy yet, and I have put so much time into that envy as a putting putter that I'm not going to give it up until it literally falls apart.
Jenni:That's OK, you're watching my bag.
Brandon:Oh, you took my watt Just kidding. What? No, you're not. Whatever, it's still in the windows.
Jenni:Window so we have discs everywhere in our house. Oh, and another pride thing this is so totally off topic so at Chief Kitsap Paul Macbeth Foundation put in the disc golf course. They've been donating discs. We've had a huge change this year with our staff and morale and stuff in the school and I have to say I'm very happy that some of the staff members have their Paul Macbeth discs hanging on the wall in their offices and your contribution to interior decorating.
Jenni:The kids are playing every day and it's just. It's great. Thank you so much to the Paul Macbeth Foundation and to Paul Wright for designing the course.
Brandon:So, on that note, I remember we were on the way to Evergreen and we were riding in the van early and the disc golf van the disc golf van, not as cool as the Mabitz disc golf van, but we'll get there someday.
Jenni:Well, ours has most stickers there's. Has less windows, you're right, but anyway.
Brandon:No, we were riding one day and down to the Evergreen fling and I asked you what your keys to the day were. We were kind of having this discussion of what have you been doing, what have you found out, and you, maybe, maybe we should go back a little bit. You list it off. Oh, go back to what?
Jenni:Let's go back to Lays of the Lake and then, and then I can talk about my game plan.
Brandon:Oh OK.
Jenni:So actually, so it was that in May, and then I looked this up, we had throw pink. Which do? You took that one, didn't you?
Brandon:No.
Jenni:I had a finish. I was on the podium, you're finished, yeah. And then it was the NAD GT which I won, that one.
Brandon:That's because there was no one else there, but you still, I had to battle with Kerry oh you're talking about that one, yeah, the one at North Bend. The one at North Bend, not the state finale. No, ok.
Jenni:And then it was Diskin and the Sun, which I didn't win, I didn't place, I didn't podium on that one. But that was our three weeks in a row of going to North Bend. That was a bear. And then South Fork open.
Brandon:Oh my gosh. Well, you won the South Fork open, did you? I remember it was three weeks of North Bend in a row. That was a grind North Bend's about an hour and a half away from Silver Mountains and everything else. It's like going to Grandma's house.
Jenni:And then you and James did the trilogy challenge, and then it was Ladies of the Lake.
Brandon:Hi there, this is Brandon from the Intentional Disculfur Podcast and I want to talk to you about Discrafter, the ultimate disc cleaning tool. I have one attached to my Discult bag and it keeps me playing my best on those wet and sloppy days. Then when I'm done, I can just flip it inside out, throw it in the wash and it's that simple. Discrafter is made from tough materials for durability, but it's microfiber and soft scrubbing insides are gentle on your discs. Discrafter is also a US owned and operated company. I've spoken to the owner, colin, personally, and this is an entrepreneur that you can trust. Get yours today at Discraftercom. That's D-I-S-C-R-A-P-T-O-Rcom. Discrafter is a proud sponsor of the Intentional Disculfur Podcast. Now that we've ADHD'd our way back to the ladies of the lake, it was on the side of a mountain and there were Pygmies there. Just kidding Paul Wright and the Pygmy people.
Jenni:Sounds like a band, doesn't it?
Brandon:Doesn't it sound like a band? All right, where are ADHD's, paul Wright and the Pygmies? All right, I know. So, ladies of the lake, jenny has given me the enormous privilege of being able to tell this story.
Jenni:The ladies of the lake is the one tournament. When I found out about tournaments in 2021. I was like, dude, I want to do that one, but it's so close and I'm not comfortable. Then I did it in 2022 and I was like this is the one to do. I turned the sound off. Okay, good Lord. Cellular devices.
Brandon:Nobody talks to you all day, and then, when we try to sit down on podcasts, your phone starts going on.
Jenni:I know we're the most popular people at the end of the day.
Brandon:I know right. Anyway, ladies of the lake, from my perspective, because I'm just a spectator at this one, it's a women's only event, but this is kind of the mid-season big tournament that all the ladies try to get to. I remember you tried to get into it the one year and it was full and you couldn't get into it.
Jenni:No, the first time it was too soon and I didn't really feel confident in doing tournaments. That was the first year we did it, but the second year. So last year we committed to doing all the tournaments.
Brandon:Gotcha yeah. So ladies of the lake is kind of the big mid-season women's tournament for the Washington State women's series. It's the one that anybody who's anybody in women's disc golf around here goes to. You can miss a few here and there, but everybody goes to the ladies of the lake.
Jenni:It's the only one that's three rounds.
Brandon:It's the only tournament that's three rounds. I didn't know that. It's the only one in the series. It's a beautiful course. It has its own challenges. It's in a public park and it's 20 holes and they have their own layout for ladies of the lake.
Jenni:I forgot it was 20 holes. It's 20 holes oh my God, I forgot about that.
Brandon:So this was like Jenny's walk off grand slam story, and maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit, but this is how I remember it in my mind is we played the practice round with a few friends.
Jenni:Hannah and RJ.
Brandon:The night before. Well, yeah, and Melissa and Phil were watching your scores or whatever on UDisc or something.
Jenni:No no.
Brandon:I thought they were. No, they found out about it somehow.
Jenni:Hannah.
Brandon:Oh, hannah, hannah and RJ oh. Hannah and RJ told them. So Jenny went out there and you know, the night before we got to play with them and two in Jenny went out there and beat all three of us and RJ and I are not bad discolors and Jenny beat all three of us and shot like what? A plus three or something like that.
Jenni:I beat you and RJ.
Brandon:Yeah, oh, you beat me and RJ, I don't know, so it's like okay. Well, whatever I want to say, it was like a plus nine Maybe, I don't know. I think you beat us, I don't know.
Jenni:I don't know. Maybe I felt like it RJ is going to call me and be like hey, what are you talking about?
Brandon:But anyway, so we get into the tournament and it's a stacked competition and some people that we know that are perennial favorites to be able to take it and that are really good, and people that we have a lot of respect for because they are really good.
Jenni:Yeah, I think there were 12 people in the division. Yeah.
Brandon:It was a big division, especially for a women's tournament.
Jenni:Yeah, and a lot of the women that I competed with last year, that was their first tournament, so that's where I met Kayla. That's where I met Alicia, and congratulations on your wedding, alicia, good job.
Brandon:Yeah, I just have to comment on Alicia. We had the opportunity to see her warm up and she has improved so much, oh yeah, and her form is really come along and she's just she's throwing the heck out of those discs.
Jenni:She's been throwing the heck out of those discs.
Brandon:Well, her distance has increased significantly, and her accuracy, and so, like I'm not going to lie, we were standing on the T-pad when she was warming up and I'm like she's in your division. You have to go up against that.
Jenni:I went up against her last year too.
Brandon:Well, yeah, and she won. Well, yeah, she won. No, she won last year and then this year, like she came into the division and she was like you have to go up against that Well, and it was kind of the same with Kendra too, when Kendra oh yeah. Kendra came in and warm, warmed up and I'm like, oh God, we're screwed.
Jenni:And then was it Mary, is that? Maybe who the other one was. Yeah, I think it's.
Brandon:Anyway, so well. Jenny that weekend shot three personal bests in a row. She shot like a two over and then she said like the most birdie she's ever shot in her life.
Jenni:I think it's six, birdies six birdies or something like that. Dude, there was some like impossible birdies to like. Oh my God.
Brandon:Yeah, she was playing like she was possessed I was. But fast forward to that, that final day. Jenny's under par and so we come in, we come into that final day. She's in fourth place, not even a podium finish, and she, you're what? Four down, five down. Well, I was playing with.
Jenni:Kendra and Leilani, which I've spent all weekend playing with yeah, so I played round one and round two. Leilani, I know, happy that she's moved close by. And then Kendra this is her first tournament, so I played with them both one and two and three.
Brandon:Leilani is a heck of a good player. Yeah, she's. I mean when we played with her. She's going through some stuff and working some stuff out, like with her game. But when she gets that figured out she's going to be real good.
Jenni:And she's been real good she's been real good anyway. Yeah, she's just going to get better.
Brandon:She's just, yeah, she's going to, she's going to go to the mood. So, leilani, keep working hard. We know what we think you listen to this. So Leilani, who we know when we played with a bunch, and then the Southern Gal I forget her name.
Jenni:I think it was Mary. Mary who I also met at last year Last year, yeah.
Brandon:You're, you're out. You're out of the podium by like four shots and I'm like, okay, well, you might be able to make it back the third. There's no way you're going to make it to the top.
Jenni:Yeah.
Brandon:I was. You were 12 down from the leader. No, I think it was eight down. You're eight down. I don't know. It was a lot. It was a lot.
Jenni:One point Leilani and I were tied for third.
Brandon:It was a member that. Well, and then you started going on this tirade. I mean, you had a couple, a couple holes where you took like a double, but then you like really pulled it together and started shooting the round of your life. And you know, I'm watching the scores. You have no idea what's going on, but I'm getting all excited because you know, first you, you gain that four shots back and you, you know, move into the spot for third place.
Jenni:Going into round two Kendra was at plus seven. Marissa was at plus eight. I was at plus 12 and Leilani was at plus 13. So that was round two, going into round three, okay.
Brandon:So it's, you know, four shots is a lot to make up, because they still got to play the game too. And if there's five, five shots, and if there's still, if there, you know, you still got to play the game too. I mean, you know. So if they're shooting that good, they're going to continue to shoot. You know, somewhere around there at least theory would be. But then when you started to like birdie, birdie, birdie, I mean you started off the round. What? Two under, three under? It was weird. Oh, I don't know.
Jenni:I really don't know. Like I didn't know until, uh for sure it was after I finished.
Brandon:Yeah, yeah. So you caught up to Marissa and I'm like, okay, this is interesting. And then you kept playing really, really well, and I don't think you shot another bogey the whole rest of the round.
Jenni:But it was. I don't think I had a single bogey.
Brandon:You had. You had like a double starting off. Anyway, we got to what we got, to hole 12 or something like that, which would have been like hole 17 for you guys with your 20 holes. So we got, we got back to one of the holes Jenny. Jenny was able to make a few great shots and some things ended up working out that Jenny was able to work her way back to negative one after being positive, and then in then coming into that last hole, that final hole yeah, this is foreshadowing with the bomb.
Brandon:Yeah, okay, I think you were tied for first or you were one down from first, and it was just like one of those magical things where you you had not only did you have to play well, but there had to been some things work out in your favor. And I think the magical part about it is that you played so, so well and you could have went negative one, but you sacrificed your negative one For an even round, your first ever even round that wasn't a ace run, very difficult course and and the weird thing about it was when she finished People on the other T-pads and that were finishing up and that we know Were started cheering and clapping for well, it was before that, because we were over on what is it?
Jenni:whole seven, what they made. Whole seven, the whole six or whatever. And that's when Some of our friends from FA2 division were behind us and they started cheering and they were watching and I guess a lot of people were watching.
Brandon:It was weird because people are watching you and following you on PDGA live and it, you know, need the needless say, it was an epic comeback and Jenny had no idea what had happened until I told her and she was walking off the hill with her disc like tears running down her face. She couldn't flip and believe it. She had taken the whole thing. And then when we finally got back to the awards ceremony you know there's the typical people that you know Win stuff all the time or always in the running and yeah, woohoo, you know, but nobody expected Jenny to take this thing and especially in the state of affairs that she was in, and she was the only one that like got a drum roll and people were like standing and cheering for her because it was such an epic Comeback is like hitting a walk-off grand slam, like it was Amazing and people were coming up to you at.
Brandon:Ever since then people have been coming up to you be, what are you doing? Teach me, I want to learn from your game. What's going on? You know, even guys are like what can you show me? And it's been just this really surreal experience. She's crying right now.
Jenni:I Think the best part was that a lot of our friends were like I feel like I just won. Isn't that the?
Brandon:best. The best part is when you can, we bring some people with you. Yeah, I mean, they're generally genuinely happy for you. So, anyway, that's kind of a long introduction and story, but but, like you know, we're an hour into this, we're just getting to the introduction, you know. So what, what got you there? What, what was going through your head? What have? Because there was a, there was a point during that final round where you started to fall apart and you, I think you shot double, double on probably three holes. You shot two doubles in three holes.
Jenni:Yeah, no, that was well.
Brandon:What one of the middle in the middle of the round you started to struggle a little bit.
Jenni:Well, a couple things. So, going back to just knowing yourself and knowing your game, excuse me, I found that if my heart rate is at a certain point like I have a hard time throwing, either if I'm too warm or if I'm getting tired or if I'm getting agitated, and I don't know what that actual heart rate is. It's just kind of a feeling thing. So I actually did. I don't remember where I learned it from, but they're like I Probably one of those those hippie things where they're like, oh, just go shake it off and like it actually Changes your mindset because you're actually like physically shaking it off. So I did that, like you didn't see me, I went off to sign.
Jenni:I just actually kind of like shook it all off and yeah, that's what I did you shook it, you shook it off Did all right, that was a part of it and that's part of you know, having a couple bad holes okay, a lot of it happens with If I notice I'm getting tired, I need to eat something, so it takes a little while for the fact that I just ate something, so it can be bad for like two or three holes when I first start eating or when I first eat something.
Brandon:Yeah, well, and that leads us up to what you said to me at evergreen, or on the way to evergreen is. I asked you what your strategy was for today, because I wasn't gonna you know for that day, and I well. I wasn't gonna plan anything in your head.
Jenni:Well, hold on. Let me let me go back to when I did ladies at the lake. Because? So the evergreen series. There is a tracking sheet for the entire series and you can win at the very end, like I won FA4 last year, because I showed up to every event and I got First place because people know no one showed up in that division.
Jenni:Well, there's some that you you won, but you know it wasn't nearly as competitive as it has been this year right, and that's you know, because I showed up to all the events and so I not only did I win FA4, but I had the most points out of all divisions last year because I showed up to every event except for one. So this year I missed the opener. I Got three points. On the first one I was bottom. For the first one, the honey be open I didn't place for mine sirens of the spring, so yeah, and those were both before right, ella Hansen and Holland Hanley right intervention.
Jenni:So I had those Couple points and then diskin in the sun. I didn't place on the podium either, so I was just getting. The three points were showing up. So when I won Ladies of the Lake, I also tied with Eva, who had been winning. So Eva and I were tied at that point, after Ladies of the Lake, to be in the lead for the FA3 division. And so that's when I was telling you, hey, I have to win this, because then I have a chance to actually win the finale, and I think Kayla is also really close. Melissa was up in the lead too and it's still really close that they can still Take me if they get the nine points at the end at the finale.
Brandon:They can still get you yeah.
Brandon:So on a side note, real quick, I just want to give a shout out to all the ladies out there oh no, I'm just kidding a lot of you. We have been out on the courses with either practice rounds or tournament rounds, been on cards with. I've been following around because I've been Jenny's catty and a lot of you out there. You know we talk about Kayla, melissa. Keep growing and keep going. You get. All of you have improved so much. Keep doing it, because the compass competition is just getting better and better and better and you guys are all driving each other and it's been wonderful to see Everybody develop and watch and even in some of the men's divisions, to some of the people that I've known over the years is it's just gotten better and better and better and we've been all driving each other, so that that's been just a wonderful experience. But keep growing women's disc golf and keep pushing that competition, because it's been really, really fun to watch our Friends grow with us.
Jenni:Well, and that's one of the things that for me, it's kind of bittersweet that Hannah went up to the age protective division, because we don't get to play against each other very often.
Brandon:Yeah, yeah, and I like RJ to these good, good peoples. Yeah, so the three things that you said to me on the way to Evergreen Do you remember what they were? I?
Jenni:kept telling you I'm gonna win it, and you wouldn't entertain that. That's all I remember. Well, I was trying to get you to not be cocky and Stay cocky. It was I'm going to win this. It's kind of like an ear of confidence.
Brandon:It's like, it's like saying, it's like saying my.
Jenni:My password is I have passing grades.
Brandon:But One of them was is that you were just gonna play smart, you were going to to take care of yourself. And what was the third one I think it was monitor your heart rate, was it? I know those were the two is that you were gonna play smart and you're gonna take care of yourself.
Jenni:I. They may have been just play the game I'm gonna play.
Brandon:No, because you're like, I'm gonna win this.
Jenni:Well, yeah, that's the game. I was gonna play. That's right, because I like evergreen, I'm comfortable with evergreen, I'm familiar with evergreen and I went out and played it the week before in a hundred degree weather, so that when we played an 80 or 90 degree weather, you know it wasn't as bad.
Brandon:Yeah. So when you say those things, you know. When you say take care of yourself, what are you talking about? What? What are some things that you do out there in the course to take care of yourself? You started to get into it a little bit, but let's go further.
Jenni:Drink water, drink coffee that's profound.
Jenni:Yeah, water and coffee, especially with the summer ones, making sure that you have the electrolytes and the cooling towel and the hat and I Didn't take the umbrella this year. I did last year when I did it with the kids was we all had umbrellas. I Don't know, most of it's just internal, like Watch what I'm saying in my head, type of stuff, like honestly at ladies of the lake. The song that got stuck in my head was Madonna's vogue and like are you kidding? No, I've told you that before. But yeah, so it was vogue and that really helped me through the room, I know. Yeah.
Jenni:It's better than the Peyton Parish. I can't look, I'll make a man out of you. I can't even look at you, the same knowing that like.
Brandon:I told you that you listen to Madonna while you're disc golfing.
Jenni:No, it popped into my head. I didn't even use my Bluetooth at all. I.
Brandon:Can't Jenny like a pose I.
Jenni:Don't know, take care of myself on the course, like Recognize when I was getting upset, and if I need to take a break, take a break, take a breath Something I'm really working on. Now, though, still is like when it pops in my head of oh, maybe I should step away to actually do it and not just push through.
Brandon:So actually putting some action behind your things that you're thinking.
Jenni:Yeah, but the other thing is try not to think too much Like go with that first. If I think I'm gonna throw this disc, stick with it and go with that line. Don't look at this other weird line that's over here that you could possibly maybe because you just got to go with the flow instead of yeah, because if I, if I see a second line, I usually end up throwing in the middle, which is a tree.
Brandon:Yes, yeah, because if there was a tree there to begin with, it wouldn't have been a line. Yeah, yeah, yep, now Vogue. Okay, so taking care of yourself, making sure that you're drinking a million water, monitoring your blood sugar levels.
Jenni:Well, because we've been. I've been fasting for longer but I've been fasting and just working on nutrition and probiotics and all that jazz anyways. So that's been helpful, but it's not really anything I did specific for that day. It's mostly just trying to stay cool when it's really hot.
Brandon:Yeah.
Jenni:And dealing with your heart rate when it gets hot.
Brandon:So the heart rate thing is a big thing for you.
Jenni:Yeah, ever since I went through the trauma and ended up with the really bad anxiety like the littlest things, I have to recognize that that's just a physical whatever. I'm not in any danger, I'm not having like an anxiety attack, it's just something else.
Brandon:Has it gotten easier to deal with that over time? Over I mean in the disc golf perspective.
Jenni:Yes and no.
Brandon:Yeah.
Jenni:That's why I say I know when there's days that I can't go play because I'm just too angry.
Brandon:Now, what about playing smart? What is playing smart mean? To you Boring golf is scoring Okay, what does that?
Jenni:mean. Well, a big change for me too has been that I don't have to use my counters that I made anymore, because I can keep score of I'm hitting three or four or five or six or seven, but not as often as I used to, it's not every single one, so I don't have to use the bead counter anymore. So, making those smart choices and there's like certain phrases that I can't let get into my head, like you also, you used to always tell me to have like a nice easy throw, like a calm gentle, whatever, I can't think that if I think that, like I have to step away, take a break, and I can't think that.
Brandon:So you're talking about stepping off your line resetting?
Jenni:Yeah.
Brandon:All right, any changes that you've made to your practice routine.
Jenni:Oh yeah, stretching.
Brandon:That's been a big one.
Jenni:Oh, so warm up. Yeah, I've gotten older Not quite an age protected division yet, but yeah, so stretching. I watched a YouTube video on like the stretches to do to warm up, because I think wasn't that something Eric said too, was that?
Brandon:It's not healthy for you to just get out of the car and start throwing yeah.
Jenni:Yeah, so it was stretching routine, so I started doing I don't even know what to call it like a half lunge and a twist, something that you saw on YouTube and a half lunge and a twist. I saw it on YouTube and so doing that for a little bit and then stretching my shoulders and my neck and my wrists.
Brandon:It's been helpful. It's been very helpful.
Jenni:It's been very helpful for me.
Brandon:Yeah.
Jenni:That's made a big difference, totally forgot. I do it every time.
Brandon:It's been so helpful for you that I've started doing it.
Jenni:Yeah.
Brandon:Yeah, yeah.
Jenni:Yeah, stretching is a good idea.
Brandon:Yeah, so it's throwing. I still don't like putting the day of the tournament. If I put the day of the tournament like to warm up, I'm screwed.
Jenni:I'm done so that was another thing is being very confident in my putting and, to the point where I remember it, ladies does the lake. I was nowhere near a basket when we were warming up for our first hole, so I was just putting pretending there was a basket there and I pretend I was throwing my disc. So just the visualization again. And what I do. If I do go out and put, I go to the shortest distance possible until I make every single throw. And just remember that routine of what I did and, on a positive note, so kind of like superficially inflating all of my disc golf to like raise it to that higher level. If you get what I'm saying. No, Like, oh, look, I just made all three baskets and I have my my throw. It's set. I was like 10 feet away but in reality I was making what? 30 foot putts.
Brandon:Oh, more than that. Yeah you were going from circle to.
Jenni:Yeah.
Brandon:Okay, so that helped. Yeah, yeah, yeah, artificially kind of elevating my game. So how do you, how do you weigh that between being overinflated and and and building yourself up to something that you're not capable of yet? And how do you, how do you find the balance between between?
Jenni:Well, it's like.
Brandon:To me, it's in my consciousness and and confidence.
Jenni:Have I shared that even with you until now? What's that what I'm doing? Have I have I shared with you the way that I kind of artificially inflate stuff in my own head? Or is this the first time I'm really telling you?
Brandon:Jenny, we know.
Jenni:No, I'm serious.
Brandon:I think this is the first time that you're actually talking about it.
Jenni:But so then that's not cockiness.
Brandon:I think that's a golf thing because it's like I think every golfer disc golfer, otherwise, or athlete envisages it in a certain way and plans it out in a certain way. That is probably pretty unrealistic compared to what's gonna happen. At least I do.
Jenni:Well, I don't.
Brandon:And that's just it Okay so talk to us.
Jenni:That's what I'm saying. Is that cockiness would be me talking about the fact that, oh, I just made all these putts and blah, blah, blah. They were so great. Like I'm totally pumped, blah, blah. I don't do any of that. Like I do it for myself to end on a high note, so that I'm carrying around that happy thought instead of man, I just wasted all my good putts.
Brandon:It's like Tinkerbell. Yes we'll go with Tinkerbell On the way. Second start on the right.
Jenni:No.
Brandon:Learn to fly with happy thought.
Jenni:You're kind of getting silly. A lot of it is the visualizing and the positive mindset, and I think I saw Kristen Tatar was talking about that. If she thinks about her putts, she messes them up, but if she doesn't think about them doesn't get in her head. They go in and they're better. And that's what it is is trying to find that calm, zen space where you're just kind of going through the motions and you're so practiced and you know what you're doing that it just kind of naturally happens.
Jenni:And it's when you think about it at least for me, that's when I start making mistakes and so I can't if I spend too much time thinking about it. And that's the difference between what I notice with my game and your game, how you're gathering all this information and all of that. That would be way too much for me and I wouldn't be able to do well if I was pulling all that information. I have to kind of do what Aliyah would do, which is, eh, that just just felt right, like I'm kind of somewhere between the hippie metaphysical and the data gathering analytical. It made sense to me. Yeah, I just did it, you know, it just felt right. So somewhere in between the middle of those and just trying to stick with the happy, happy throws.
Brandon:The happy, happy little throws.
Jenni:Yes, the happy little throws the happy little throws into the happy little trees Exactly.
Brandon:Maybe we'll have a happy little accident with our squirrel friend. What that?
Jenni:sounds wrong.
Brandon:Sounds nuts oh Bob.
Jenni:At the rate you're going, we're not gonna be able to use any of the end of this.
Brandon:We'll be able to use some of it. Maybe I don't know. I'm just trying to put together, like, what have you been doing differently? What's been working for you? What are the things that you've discovered that make it possible for you? I mean, you're playing so well, and so pretty Well, Like it's watching you play is a thing of beauty, and the only thing that you're lacking is the big distance, and that's the only reason that you're not shooting under par on a consistent basis.
Jenni:My skirt game is not on point.
Brandon:Gotta have. I need to work on my skirt game. Gotta have your skirt game.
Jenni:Gotta work on that. Yeah, I've also noticed. So I saw that Tony Morgan, she went out and she bought a bunch of new clothes for disc golfing and so going out and buying some nicer things like that's kind of helped me too.
Brandon:Kind of boost yourself a steam a bit.
Jenni:Yeah, have that mindset.
Brandon:Encyclical. Well, I know there's one thing that you do the night before the tournament my nails I love doing.
Jenni:I do my tournament nails and I was super happy that the green I did for the summertime fling lasted long enough for the 360 open, so very happy about that.
Brandon:Did you win the 360 open too? Yeah.
Jenni:Oh, okay, yeah, Jesus, that one was the even more battle. Remember, like Leilani and I were within like three points of each other going back and forth.
Brandon:Really? Yeah, I was playing my own round, yeah, trying to.
Jenni:Yeah, we battled.
Brandon:You battled it was good.
Jenni:It was a good game and it's funny now that I know Ava was like I can't wait to lose to Jenny at the finale.
Brandon:I know I felt bad for her, though, when she said that, because she was like she's just kind of speaking that in reality, if she's always already got that into her head.
Jenni:She doesn't, though, like she was so kind that she.
Jenni:so I went over to Kennewick for work and I met up with her and a couple other ladies that are in the pro division and we all played and it was a great game and it was really nice. So for me, I'm not really not a sports person. So to get to the point where I can go out with strangers, I don't know, that's huge. To go to a course I don't know is huge. But to ask them what the heck am I aiming at? Because I'm over here in the desert and there's these random trees. I have to throw over them to a basket.
Jenni:I don't see, and they're like do this, and I know what they're saying. And then I actually did it. Like I'm to the point where if I hit a tree and I was aiming for it, I am so excited that I hit that tree because I was actually aiming for that tree, like it's not just going off to whatever. And that's why I was really excited about going out OB into the garden, because I haven't done that before.
Brandon:You're aiming for the garden.
Jenni:No, it's really pretty, I'm not really good. Yeah, so that's a lot of. It is just understanding understanding myself, understanding my game and secretly also understanding my competition and their games Talk more about that?
Jenni:I don't know, you know. The other thing with this really changed with disc golf is now that we're doing this podcast and coming out here and sharing our stories and even taking the chance to be vulnerable not only be vulnerable, but to be able to talk about these other people and these things that we admire about them. I think that has really grown what I know about the game Because at work, so I'm the pro at work, I know right, isn't that hilarious? I'm the pro and people are intimidated playing with me Halfway serious but halfway not.
Jenni:Like I find it absolutely hilarious because I know what I've been through to get where I'm at and so it's like that's super sweet and I'm sorry you feel that way. Like I just even playing with some of the guys I played with yesterday, they're like oh, I started in May and then they're like, how do you get your throw so straight? Like, how do you do that? Oh, my God, you're out driving So-and-so and it's like I have been working my butt off for three years to get here.
Brandon:Well, it's like in what the second episode, that quote from Michelangelo about the Sistine Chapel, he was like if you knew what it took to become a master, you would think it was nothing special at all.
Jenni:Yeah, well, I think that's. Another thing too, is that you and I have both really committed to this I'm gonna say stupid game that I tried to avoid for years.
Brandon:Now it consumes our life.
Jenni:It's a healthy obsession and it's weird because it's an obsession that we both share and we can talk about it and our kids talk about it too, and it's just changed. It has changed so much in me and, I think, in our relationship and our family's relationship too, because we never used to go out and now we don't mind going out for three hours and playing around a disc golf, Like true, our kids have gotten older and our families are willing to help watch the kids so that we can go do these tournaments.
Brandon:Yeah.
Jenni:Maybe not for a full week at Nationals, so I'm not going this year. However, it's on the to-do list.
Brandon:Next year it's on the to-do Texas, here we come. I love Texas.
Jenni:Bernie, I'm hanging out with you. Love Texas, I'm here for a warrant, so that's, you know it's. It's been a lot of work and I still have. I saw the ways to go and A lot of that has to do with just with personal growth and and sharing excuse me, sharing the gratitude of playing the sport and getting to play with other people and helping them grow and being able to. You know, I'm, I've always wanted to be a teacher. I am a teacher. I'm not teaching math anymore Now I'm teaching people how to play disc golf, because I'm no longer in the classroom now I'm in admin.
Jenni:I'm on the dark side on the dark side on the dark side and then trying to come up with. You know, I Was telling. What was it? Sarah, today or yesterday? Sarah and Brian.
Brandon:Oh, yeah, it was one of their first tournaments.
Jenni:And so, sarah, I was like, do you play? Because there were a lot of women there caddying. Yeah and I even told my car I was like I could have caddied or I could have played, so I'm gonna play. That's kind of what it boils down to a Caddy for you once this year. That was enough.
Brandon:Your bag is so heavy.
Jenni:But I was like you should come to one of the women's tournaments. Go to go to ladies of the lake, it's the one to go to. They're like a party. You go to the women's event, they're themed, they have like so the Ironman the one that Brian put on for Emerald City discs Probably would have had someone in an Ironman t-shirt and like there would have been action figures as the trophies, like Ironman, and probably would have made fun of like well, you weren't so good, so you got Superman and then you got Batman. Sorry, but something like that. Like Really making it into an event, something people are gonna remember, and even making it fun for the caddies.
Brandon:Well, even I enjoy going to the women's events. I know that's the only reason you caddy.
Brandon:Well, there's raffles and the the party, the party the raffle, the raffle sizes is Respectively small and there's a lot of stuff, so you have a great chance of winning and all of the raffle money goes to support a great cause, whatever Charity or nonprofit there donating to that tournament. It varies but it just. It'll be having daughters and It'll be great, and a wife, of course, but it'll be great to have To see more women out there playing and getting involved in the sport of disc golf.
Jenni:I want to see more families out there, and so that's my goal for Next year or in the next coming years, is to figure out how to do. I want to do some family events and I'm really thinking that this is like a three-part carnival type of thing, where you go through this challenge with your family of playing these three different events, still not sure how it's gonna work out and not sure what it's gonna look like. But this is one of those, those Sports kind of like, how bowling was Back in the what 50s, 60, 70s like everybody can play bowling. I remember my dad would take, we would all go bowling. I loved bowling.
Jenni:I can't hold a bowling ball anymore, but I can throw a frisbee, yeah. And even there were two older gentlemen walking their dogs on the course yesterday and they came over to me and they're like, what are you guys doing? Like, how do you do this? Are you launching a rocket from that thing? Why do you have such a big cart? I'm like, well, honestly, I just like to carry a lot of stuff with me and then trying to explain that each disc is like a different iron, and so they started kind of like they started to get a little interested and then they're like oh no, I play real golf.
Brandon:I play real golf.
Jenni:I play real golf but everyone can play, like there's kids out there. You can have cool discs like you can paint them, you can get different colors like, and you say you know, get more families involved.
Brandon:You know I'm I'm a married man. I know and I knew that happened eight years ago. Oh.
Jenni:It's like let me check, you can.
Brandon:The, the. The key to getting more families involved is to Get the moms involved, because the moms are the, the leaders of the household. The mom are the. I'm not talking about gender roles or anything, but anybody knows that mom wears the pants in the family. And if you want to get the kids and the families and the husbands and if you want to grow the sport, you have to get more women out there playing.
Jenni:Well, and if you want to grow the sport, this is something that they did with fairgrounds and they did this with Shelton. They really took a look at their courses and said Can my beginners come out here and play? And that's something that paul did really well with chief kids app and being able to talk to uh tribal council, the decision makers that we want to have a bigger course that's more challenging, that's not the beginner level. They really saw that. They really understood it. So I did not like Shelton and I spoke to uh the mason county disc golf, one of the, the leaders of it, and they were really trying to make it more woman friendly or beginner friendly, and so I really challenged myself by running my tournament there because I didn't like that course and they made it so user friendly that I would love to go back.
Brandon:Yeah, well, let's. You mentioned fairgrounds. I think that's a great example. Oh yeah so, uh, kids app county fairgrounds, one of our home courses. Um, the first few times we went there we used to dread playing that course. Even I did, because it was blue teas only the holes were long.
Jenni:There's a fair amount of elevation change, very narrow fairways and it's heavily wooded, there's ravines and there's these ferns, beautiful, they come up to, like your hips, some of them. And kaley, my, my daughter would throw a disc. It would go 10 feet. And disappear and it was abducted. We never got those back, like they disappeared.
Brandon:So as it became one of these courses very quickly that we feared because it wasn't accessible, you can take your kids out there. You didn't want to go there because you always had to throw you know, send out spotters early. You always knew that you were going to expect to lose a disc or two and it was, you know, a really expensive course to play and a lot of respects, thanks. But then I can't remember what event it was for, but they then they came in and they added a bunch of red tea positions. It was for a throw pink is for throw pink last year. Last year, okay, they added a bunch of red tea positions and it changed the entire Dynamic of the course. It was playable, it's accessible and it really turned into one of our favorite courses to play and we have no bones about Taking the kids out there and playing with the kids.
Jenni:And it's even one that now the kids will say let's go there.
Brandon:Yeah, the kids will volunteer to go there, as where before we wouldn't touch it.
Jenni:Yeah, and, and they have gotten better too. They have a better understanding of their abilities too, and so it's it's. It's just amazing the way that doing that changes the course. Yeah, yeah so, whatever it takes to make it more accessible, like, look at some of your courses that maybe Aren't getting the number of stats that you'd like to see on uDisc and start seeing, well, what changes could I make? Because they, even at rain, shadow, will talk to your local clubs.
Jenni:Well, that's what I'm talking about those people who are running it Like, look at your stats, because I can see the chief kids up stats. Um, but even at rain shadow there were a few that we played for. The first one Was it ripping in the roadies?
Brandon:Yeah.
Jenni:I didn't think it was the women's event one of them, maybe it was. They shortened a couple holes, which I didn't think they would do, but it made a difference In just those those couple holes that are a lot longer or a lot more technical.
Brandon:Even knocking 50 feet off of a hole makes a big difference or even moving up the par.
Jenni:I mean, if you want to deal with people taking that long still, if you want to shorten it up so that people can Um not have those backups, oh, like a pace of play.
Jenni:Yeah, so like adding that Mando on 13 at North Bend Unnecessary. Well, I understand why they did that to make it more challenging. So you're not just going around like I did and like it makes you have to think about it and that's what you know. Paul was saying With our course at chief kids app how there's a couple where you could put in a Mando to make it more challenging and technical. But why For now? Because it's a beginners course. Yeah, but that really lengthened the the pace of play on that hole, which is normally long because it's a longer hole and it's a par four.
Brandon:Well, you start off with a brutal tunnel, tunnel shot.
Jenni:Well, but that's not what I'm even talking about.
Brandon:Okay.
Jenni:I'm just saying that they threw in that Mando which made the pace of play longer on that hole. And was it necessary? Maybe, maybe not like it, it was good to try it out. I would have, maybe for the iron man challenge, removed it, maybe on the last, last round, but I mean, I'm sure they had their reasons, I don't know they. They did it on the other one, the laura memorial one.
Brandon:Things to consider things, to consider lots of stuff, lots of stuff. A reflection on a year in disc golf.
Jenni:Yeah, so Still have one more Tournament to go in the women's series this year and I got a few more too.
Jenni:Looking forward to the finale, which is so funny that so king of the jungle Totally feel like it's geared towards men, but they have the women's division open and who's playing? So I signed up for f a3 and now all my friends who are my competition, who are playing in the finale for the women's series at the same course for queen of the jungle, are all in the division, so it's going to be a blast.
Brandon:Well, it's halfway because of you, and halfway because of it's the women's series, because of you and halfway because of it's the finale.
Jenni:I know, but it's going to be such a blast it's going to be a ton of fun. I'm so excited.
Brandon:Yeah, I'm excited about that.
Jenni:Yeah, there's one lady I haven't played with who's in f a3. So I'm excited for that.
Brandon:Anywho, well, that does it for the intentional disc golfer podcast. This episode has been a year in review and improvements that we have made and things that we have learned, and hopefully Our experiences are able to help you out and grow your game and grow the sport. So, anyway, uh, here at the intentional disc golfer, we do believe that disc golf changes lives for the better, so don't hesitate to go out there and grow the sport.
