"Kinney" close challenge. Prize money!

[greppstark]

When I was younger I really believed Joe Kinney closed the #4 or atleast I hoped it was real. You know how it is when you are young and look up to your "role models, super heros".. But now when I'm older it seems to good just to be true. But one thing I've never seen is somebody crushing a soda/beer can like I saw Joe Kinney do in the Get A Grip movie. He did it in two different styles. One was holding his arms away from his body so he could not use his chest like I've seen many strongmans do and then simply crush it with pure Grip strength, and the other was just shoving his thumb right thrue the can. Is there anybody able to imitate those or one of those feats? That would be really cool to watch

Btw I'm glad my interest for gripstrength has increased again

[slazbob]

5 hours ago, greppstark said:

When I was younger I really believed Joe Kinney closed the #4 or atleast I hoped it was real. You know how it is when you are young and look up to your "role models, super heros".. But now when I'm older it seems to good just to be true. But one thing I've never seen is somebody crushing a soda/beer can like I saw Joe Kinney do in the Get A Grip movie. He did it in two different styles. One was holding his arms away from his body so he could not use his chest like I've seen many strongmans do and then simply crush it with pure Grip strength, and the other was just shoving his thumb right thrue the can. Is there anybody able to imitate those or one of those feats? That would be really cool to watch

Btw I'm glad my interest for gripstrength has increased again

Sadly, I can’t believe anything that Joe claimed anymore. But, the can bursting he said he was able to do when he closed the no.3 with both hands. He did train his thumbs differently than most, so I think he could have done the thumb drive.

every time I have a can in my hand I always push on it with my thumb and imagine doing itbut never try. If you can hold 30lbs or so with one thumb on the TTK you should have the strength to do it.

[Alawadhi]

On 6/19/2021 at 3:59 AM, greppstark said:

When I was younger I really believed Joe Kinney closed the #4 or atleast I hoped it was real. You know how it is when you are young and look up to your "role models, super heros".. But now when I'm older it seems to good just to be true. But one thing I've never seen is somebody crushing a soda/beer can like I saw Joe Kinney do in the Get A Grip movie. He did it in two different styles. One was holding his arms away from his body so he could not use his chest like I've seen many strongmans do and then simply crush it with pure Grip strength, and the other was just shoving his thumb right thrue the can. Is there anybody able to imitate those or one of those feats? That would be really cool to watch

Btw I'm glad my interest for gripstrength has increased again

I remember back at grippermania 2006 Clay Edgin (a #4 closer) said he believed Joe had a nail head sticking to his gloves or something and popped it. That being said, this isn't that hard of a feat. I believe @Tommy J. has done it with one thumb only. I believe he can crush with without the use of his chest too. That isn't an indicator that Joe closed the #4 the way he did. I also believe I can do it with one thumb. I can break potatoes in half with one thumb so that's isn't a big deal.

[slazbob]

11 hours ago, Alawadhi said:

I remember back at grippermania 2006 Clay Edgin (a #4 closer) said he believed Joe had a nail head sticking to his gloves or something and popped it. That being said, this isn't that hard of a feat. I believe @Tommy J. has done it with one thumb only. I believe he can crush with without the use of his chest too. That isn't an indicator that Joe closed the #4 the way he did. I also believe I can do it with one thumb. I can break potatoes in half with one thumb so that's isn't a big deal.

To be fair, Tommy didn’t drive his thumb through…he kind of kneaded at it and it eventually gave. Unless there is a different video than I remember. Both feats are very doable. 

[bruce1337]

On 6/19/2021 at 1:59 AM, greppstark said:

When I was younger I really believed Joe Kinney closed the #4 or atleast I hoped it was real. You know how it is when you are young and look up to your "role models, super heros".. But now when I'm older it seems to good just to be true. But one thing I've never seen is somebody crushing a soda/beer can like I saw Joe Kinney do in the Get A Grip movie. He did it in two different styles. One was holding his arms away from his body so he could not use his chest like I've seen many strongmans do and then simply crush it with pure Grip strength, and the other was just shoving his thumb right thrue the can. Is there anybody able to imitate those or one of those feats? That would be really cool to watch

Btw I'm glad my interest for gripstrength has increased again

Can you explain the method he used to shove his thumb through the can?

From what I could find theres a technique known as the "thumb gun" and apparently is a pretty common party trick. So if thats what he's doing then its not very impressive. 

[slazbob]

1 hour ago, bruce1337 said:

Can you explain the method he used to shove his thumb through the can?

From what I could find theres a technique known as the "thumb gun" and apparently is a pretty common party trick. So if thats what he's doing then its not very impressive. 

I didn’t know that was a “thing” yeah, that’s pretty much what he did.

[Alawadhi]

15 hours ago, bruce1337 said:

Can you explain the method he used to shove his thumb through the can?

From what I could find theres a technique known as the "thumb gun" and apparently is a pretty common party trick. So if thats what he's doing then its not very impressive. 

Oh God I googled "thumb gun party trick" and got many videos. This one was LOL. The more someone see's the more JK appears to not be impressive.

Edit: Look at this!

 

Edited June 24, 2021 by Alawadhi

[MilGrip]

How anyone is mistaking "thumb gunning" for a stranglehold, shotgun like report and explosion that is displayed is Kinneys video is beyond me. Holle, Wood, Bearcat, and others have talked/met/seen Kinney and have walked away impressed/impressioned to the fact that the man was uncommonly strong.

[Hubgeezer]

21 minutes ago, MilGrip said:

How anyone is mistaking "thumb gunning" for a stranglehold, shotgun like report and explosion that is displayed is Kinneys video is beyond me. Holle, Wood, Bearcat, and others have talked/met/seen Kinney and have walked away impressed/impressioned to the fact that the man was uncommonly strong.

Yep.

[Alawadhi]

On 8/6/2021 at 1:18 PM, MilGrip said:

How anyone is mistaking "thumb gunning" for a stranglehold, shotgun like report and explosion that is displayed is Kinneys video is beyond me. Holle, Wood, Bearcat, and others have talked/met/seen Kinney and have walked away impressed/impressioned to the fact that the man was uncommonly strong.

Holle never met JK. Wood's father Kim said all of his players used to close the CoC #4 casually while eating pop corn and watching a movie. Heath (Bearcat) saw JK close only a CoC #2, not any higher despite trying.

[Alawadhi]

1 hour ago, Joe Sullivan said:

Sounds like a Walt Disney extravaganza, some of these yarns folks spin, eh? Closing #4s eating popcorn watching a movie. CLASSIC!! Hahahaha

I wish I could find where he said it, but it was written long ago. I don't want to dig that deep. But from memory I found very close one's where his Bengal players close a #3 and a #4 without chalk and warm up https://www.ironmind-forum.com/forum/strength-medley/other-strength-topics/1779-pms There are claims and then there is what Kim says. And 

 and 

 

Edited August 8, 2021 by Alawadhi

[Hubgeezer]

On 8/6/2021 at 2:18 AM, MilGrip said:

How anyone is mistaking "thumb gunning" for a stranglehold, shotgun like report and explosion that is displayed is Kinneys video is beyond me. Holle, Wood, Bearcat, and others have talked/met/seen Kinney and have walked away impressed/impressioned to the fact that the man was uncommonly strong.

Hollé never met Joe Kinney. Hollé has gone on record stating what he thinks of him. All good things. They have spoken to each other on a device known as the telephone.

Some fellow (who I do not know, MilGrip) makes a factual reasonable statement. It appears that much energy has been expended to discredit his statement. Nice try.

[MilGrip]

41 minutes ago, Hubgeezer said:

Hollé never met Joe Kinney. Hollé has gone on record stating what he thinks of him. All good things. They have spoken to each other on a device known as the telephone.

Some fellow (who I do not know, MilGrip) makes a factual reasonable statement. It appears that much energy has been expended to discredit his statement. Nice try.

Indeed. Some need to read carefully before inserting foot quickly into mouth. For those of us who followed ALL of what Kinney produced, ALL those who interacted with him, and all well documented attempts to replicate him based off said histories, we need not to revisit the past in vain attempts to feel better about particular shortcomings.

[Climber028]

Eye witness testimony is slightly better than no evidence at all, so almost meaningless. Every single other elite grip athlete has dozens of videos of their feats, all very clear, competes in sanctioned events, and has everything very well documented. Is it possible that JK is as strong as he claims? Maybe, but there is such a lack of concrete evidence that you'd have to be insane to be 100% convinced one way or the other. 

I absolutely believe he had a stronger than average grip, but that's true of almost everybody on this forum so not exactly a stunning revelation. 

[slazbob]

8 hours ago, Joe Sullivan said:

It’s amazing how back and forth this issue gets..... it will never die. A Small few are true believers and most do not believe at all..... 

that’s the beauty of it…we can have our own opinions. And if you think Joe couldn’t have been fibbing because he’s nice to talk to…then he should have been a politician. 
some stay neutral, some pick sides…nothing really to see here anymore. 

[slazbob]

1 hour ago, Joe Sullivan said:

I just don’t understand why anyone even cares anymore.... most think it’s a fraud, very few think it’s legit and even less are undecided. It should have been buried a long time ago. 

I agree …just some points had to be scrutinized to see what it really was. Now, for the people that believe this story- maybe he did close the no.4….but that one in the video is not real. 
IMO 

[Alawadhi]

On 8/10/2021 at 3:34 AM, slazbob said:

that’s the beauty of it…we can have our own opinions. And if you think Joe couldn’t have been fibbing because he’s nice to talk to…then he should have been a politician. 
some stay neutral, some pick sides…nothing really to see here anymore. 

Lol this

[Hubgeezer]

On 5/24/2021 at 7:32 PM, John McCarter said:

If everyone wants to argue about Kinney's close and his publicly stated claims, please move it over to a different thread.

This is a contest to see who can duplicate Kinney's close under @Cannon request.

This was posted on May 24. The contest ended June 14. Seems like the Thread ought to be closed by now. 

[John McCarter]

6 hours ago, Hubgeezer said:

This was posted on May 24. The contest ended June 14. Seems like the Thread ought to be closed by now. 

I'll let @Cannon handle it.

5 hours ago, Joe Sullivan said:

The JK stuff just doesn’t seem to die. I don’t see why so many people are infatuated with it, how long ago was it? Like 20 years ago? The funeral precession  should’ve been over a long time ago And the burial complete.

23 years and counting.

[John McCarter]

2 hours ago, Joe Sullivan said:

Geez Louise! When’s it gonna die???

It's probably never going to end. People want to beat this dead horse of a topic of "Joe Kinney" into another galaxy. Whatever happened in 1998,  it doesn't matter at this point. 

The Kinney topics should go the way of the dodo.

[David_wigren]

I think the main reason it lives on is that it’s a neat story that inspires people. People like the idea that a regular sized 180lbs man could become the strongest grip athlete of all times with no more than about 18 months of training. They project Kinney’s story to their own aspirations and they think they could achieve the same thing if they just try hard enough. True or not, it’s a great marketing story to sell grip equipment.

[SeNoLD]

1 hour ago, David_wigren said:

I think the main reason it lives on is that it’s a neat story that inspires people. People like the idea that a regular sized 180lbs man could become the strongest grip athlete of all times with no more than about 18 months of training. They project Kinney’s story to their own aspirations and they think they could achieve the same thing if they just try hard enough. True or not, it’s a great marketing story to sell grip equipment.

It reminds of the strongmen of the century before last, who, while there is no video, "lifted" more than modern 180kg professional strongmen. Someone wants to believe in it, because it gives hope.

[Bill Piche]

It is legend and will always be a major thing in grip. It will never go away.  Just like the Inch Dumbbell where Tommy found that video.  And, just like the Inch dumbbell will always be discussed.  

[ChimpGrip]

When did Ironmind first release the black spring, single stamp grippers (like what we see in the video)? Was it 1997?

Someone told me that the Nebraska football team started using Ironmind grippers in their off-season training in the mid-90's. 

[Cannon]

On 8/11/2021 at 8:16 PM, John McCarter said:

I'll let @Cannon handle it.

Thanks John. I don't mind if people continue to debate the Kinney legend. If the posts stay civil and within the rules then I guess it's just what people want to talk about