Can you dunk??

[QUOTE=Underballer]nice dude. what have you been doing to maintain your vertical? try using imgur btw.[/QUOTE]I just try to stay active, man. One of the bigger things is just getting out on the court and playing. I've been coaching teams during the winter in years past and I actually fully participate in most of the drills for which we take part, so that helps. Otherwise, it can be tough to find a lot of available basketball during the snowy midwestern winters.

When the winter doldrums hit though, in recent years I've been tinkering with a program called Air Alert, not so much for getting a 40'' vert (which I'll never have) but more as a means of just keeping the body active, working, and jumping. I also try to jog, run, jump rope, and mountain bike. I'm not sure which ones are good for jumping and which aren't, but I figure if nothing else, exercise will serve a purpose one way or another.

Also, thanks for the imugr recommendation. I'll give it a shot.

[QUOTE=Rake2204]I just try to stay active, man. One of the bigger things is just getting out on the court and playing. I've been coaching teams during the winter in years past and I actually fully participate in most of the drills for which we take part, so that helps. Otherwise, it can be tough to find a lot of available basketball during the snowy midwestern winters.

When the winter doldrums hit though, in recent years I've been tinkering with a program called Air Alert, not so much for getting a 40'' vert (which I'll never have) but more as a means of just keeping the body active, working, and jumping. I also try to jog, run, jump rope, and mountain bike. I'm not sure which ones are good for jumping and which aren't, but I figure if nothing else, exercise will serve a purpose one way or another.

Also, thanks for the imugr recommendation. I'll give it a shot.[/QUOTE]

ah, i see. whats your standing reach and wingspan btw?

[QUOTE=Underballer]ah, i see. whats your standing reach and wingspan btw?[/QUOTE]My standing reach is 7'11'' (95 inches). I do not know my wingspan off-hand, but I believe it correlates almost directly to my height (6'3''). I was not blessed with long arms or big hands (cannot palm a ball).

It has been nearly 10 years since I dunked.

A quick note regarding would-be dunkers: if you cannot palm a ball, still try when attempting to dunk. I've found over the years I sometimes go through these lapses where I'm just naturally holding the ball when I'm trying to elevate for a dunk. It's not a super weak grip, but just not a super strong one either.

I've found if I consciously try to squeeze the rock when I'm collecting for a dunk, it gives me more control and possibly more momentum, as the flexing or exertion in the arms may contribute to a more aggressive takeoff. I used to think one can either palm the ball or they can't, but I think there's a whole range of middle ground. A slight bit of grip is better than having none at all, and by making certain to spread your fingers on the ball and trying to grip it hard, a little more control can be had.

Maybe that sounds obvious to everyone, but I thought I'd share just in case. Like I said, for some reason I go through lapses where I elevate with a good grip on the ball, but not quite a great grip, and it negatively affects my ability to finish above the rim.

[QUOTE=Myth]It has been nearly 10 years since I dunked.[/QUOTE]How old are you?

^^^ Will keep that in mind. I'm training again right now to put down some dunks and I'm right in that middle ground in terms of palming.

How much can you increase your vert in around 3-4 months? Right now I'm around 6'1" in shoes, 175 pounds. I can hang on rim, can't quite dunk.

5'11 white boy. I've dunked maybe 10-15 times in my life. All warm up or open gym though, never in game situation and it's been a year or two since I have cleanly dunked since I'm not as dedicated physically as I was when I was in school. Got up and hanging on the rim pretty effortlessly the other night at pickup though. Felt damn good.

I know I was just talking above about dunking without palming, but I played with an Under Armour rock last night that I [i]could[/i] palm and it's crazy how much easier it is to dunk in that manner. I mean, dunking [i]without[/i] palming isn't exactly rocket science either, but I was feeling like Dr. J out there. So much more control, and dunking itself becomes a risk-free plop-in opportunity, where you can star out your legs and whatnot, as opposed to the full body commitment required of a non-palm jam. Almost feels cheap.

[QUOTE=Milbuck]How much can you increase your vert in around 3-4 months? Right now I'm around 6'1" in shoes, 175 pounds. I can hang on rim, can't quite dunk.[/QUOTE]I'd say for common folk there's usually a solid opportunity for vertical increase over four months if a person commits to a solid workout. It's tough to put a number on things though.

For instance, if you haven't played a ton of basketball lately and you can hang on the rim even though your legs aren't in super shape, I think that'd tend to bode well, meaning you likely have a wider opportunity for increase. And even if you are in game shape, finding a jumping program (or something of that ilk) will likely result in positive change if done consistently with full energy.

I've done a fair portion of the 15 week Air Alert program and while I could already leap alright prior, I felt it did serve as a means of keeping my legs active if nothing else, while perhaps adding a small bit of vert. I've never made it to the end of that program though, which is where the biggest changes are likely precipitated (the workouts get nuts).

[QUOTE=Milbuck]How much can you increase your vert in around 3-4 months? Right now I'm around 6'1" in shoes, 175 pounds. I can hang on rim, can't quite dunk.[/QUOTE]

3-4 months you can gain around 5-6 inches on your vert with the biggest gains coming a couple months apart. There will be weeks where you don't really improve for whatever reason. If you are really committed though you fight through that and keep going. You need proper rest days and a lot of calories/protein for building the explosive muscle and energy your body will require. If you would like a sample routine I can post one... It's not complicated you just have to put in the work and not overdo it. The 4 things you need to take into account are flexibly, stability, strength, and power. A routine that incorporates those is infallible if you do the work.

[QUOTE=Swaggin916]3-4 months you can gain around 5-6 inches on your vert with the biggest gains coming a couple months apart. There will be weeks where you don't really improve for whatever reason. If you are really committed though you fight through that and keep going. You need proper rest days and a lot of calories/protein for building the explosive muscle and energy your body will require. If you would like a sample routine I can post one... It's not complicated you just have to put in the work and not overdo it. The 4 things you need to take into account are flexibly, stability, strength, and power. A routine that incorporates those is infallible if you do the work.[/QUOTE]

Bro can you post your program please??

Hell no, I'm a little white boy with short arms. :lol

Don't even hardly play ball anymore since I got into bodybuilding.

this is a must read for anyone thats really serious about increasing their vertical jump: [url]http://msuathletics.ru/books/bible/vert_jump_bible.pdf[/url]

it includes a lot of free programs depending on your training level and it explains most things you need to know about jumping higher.

Programs like air alert are bad and will only get you hurt. There is no reasonning behind it. It just makes you jump over 300 times on some exercises which is just pointless.

Im close to dunking with 2 hands now at 5'8''. Can grab rim from a standstill too

Yeah I can, nothing fancy though. I am 6'2,5.

Been dunking on a 10 foot hoop since I was 15.

Lies. Daryl can't dunk. He's 5-8 soaking wet.

6 foot in shoes here and i can throw it down if i'm pumped up enough. i only have a 6'1 wingspan too, i think i would be able to throw down with ease if i had longer arms

6' yes i can dunk easily windmills n stuff [COLOR=White](and by 6' i meant the rim)[/COLOR]

[QUOTE=Im Still Ballin]Lies. Daryl can't dunk. He's 5-8 soaking wet.[/QUOTE]
Im 6'3

[QUOTE=Smook A.]Im 6'3[/QUOTE]

Daryl, how did people find out that your name is Daryl?

[QUOTE=Smook A.]Im 6'3[/QUOTE]
Funny how you weren't even close to dunking last time we played. And 6'3"? You must've grown half a foot since then too :oldlol:

[QUOTE=Milbuck]Funny how you weren't even close to dunking last time we played. And 6'3"? You must've grown half a foot since then too :oldlol:[/QUOTE]
Bro I posterized you like prime VC when we played :lol

The crowd stood up. They chanted my name. People fainted in awe, and I felt like god

Yes.

can anyone dunk both off one foot and two foot take offs?

[QUOTE=willy_yep]can anyone dunk both off one foot and two foot take offs?[/QUOTE]I can but I am partial to one-foot takeoffs. I've said this story a million times here but I started as only a one-foot dunker my freshman year, learned two foot dunking my sophomore year, shifted completely to two-foot dunking and then subsequently eliminated any chance of me dunking in a game for the rest of high school. I needed open floor to dunk but I'd rush setting both of my feet and slip or lose my bounce from rushing and using bad technique (or I'd get fouled from behind).

Anywho, around age 20, I committed to re-learning one-foot dunking and it's been pretty legit ever since. 95% of my in-game dunks are one-footed these days. However, if I'm [i]wide[/i] open on a fast break (like off a turnover where everyone was headed in the opposite direction), I still sometimes go with the two-foot dunk. It's clean, but I tend to have way more power off one-foot in games.

As a result of all that, unless a player is somewhat tall or lanky (say, with a wingspan of 6'6'' or greater), I tend to recommend most up and coming guys to skew toward one-foot dunking if they're looking to maximize their in-game opportunities. It was [i]way[/i] easier to snag in-game dunks when I could just sprint into the open floor and rise, as opposed to worrying about setting both feet while attempting to elude and outrun defenders.

Straight answer, no. i have negative hops

also, does anyone have any tips on lobbing the ball for yourself off the ground?

[QUOTE=willy_yep]also, does anyone have any tips on lobbing the ball for yourself off the ground?[/QUOTE]I use a lot of arc. I see many who do not realize what it is they want the ball to do. Baby lobs with little arc will result in having to try to take the ball up with you, breaking your upward momentum in the process. The idea behind a lob is to put the ball in an area where all you have to worry about is getting your form and approach right so you can maximize your jump and go get the ball.

On the other side, it's important to know how high you can reach. For me, that means having my rock bounce just a little bit above the rim, since I'm not a guy that's soaring over 11 feet or anything. Also, as someone who prefers approaching from the left wing headed right, I try to put the ball near the front of the rim unless I'm trying to extend, at which point I'll have the ball bounce a little further out (usually necessitating a one-footed takeoff).

Here's one where the bounce came up a little short, limiting extension a little:

[img]http://cdn.makeagif.com/media/7-26-2014/EICghS.gif[/img]

And then here's a slightly higher bounce, leading to more extension:

[img]http://cdn.makeagif.com/media/7-26-2014/HCDmB6.gif[/img]

oh, i see. will keep note to bounce the ball a bit above the rim. unfortunately i'm not even close to that level yet lol. i'm a pretty good shooter, but i'm having trouble bouncing the ball even close to the net. and when i do even get it close, i'm having trouble timing the run up to dunk it.

top rim

Been able to dunk since 10 grade. So that's 15 years old. Only was 5-9 then but. 6-1 now. Genetically gifted vert. Never measured it but I estimate it would be close to 40. Former elite junior high jumper, never had the technique down so I never jumped as high as I should. Currently squatting 3x a week, bulking phase, when I recomp I should be jumping out of the gym.

I'm 5'9 and half mexican/white...what do you think?

[QUOTE=Smoke117]I'm 5'9 and half mexican/white...what do you think?[/QUOTE]
Believe. Achieve. Ascend to GLORY.

how high would you say you have to touch in order to dunk? i can touch 10'6 which puts me at a 34 inch vert, but i'm getting rim stuffed at 9'10. i can do 2 hand dunks on 9'5 though.

[QUOTE=willy_yep]how high would you say you have to touch in order to dunk? i can touch 10'6 which puts me at a 34 inch vert, but i'm getting rim stuffed at 9'10. i can do 2 hand dunks on 9'5 though.[/QUOTE]I don't know man. If you can touch 10'6", that'd put you about eight inches above the rim on the 9'10'' goal you say you're getting stuffed on. Do you at least makes [i]some[/i] dunks on 9'10''?

My max reach has been around 10'10'' over the years and I'd venture to say I usually don't get that high on my dunks. As such, I think it's safe to say that I've been able to dunk when I was just about as much over the rim as you on a 9'10'' rim.

Any videos of your attempts?

[QUOTE=willy_yep]how high would you say you have to touch in order to dunk? i can touch 10'6 which puts me at a 34 inch vert, but i'm getting rim stuffed at 9'10. i can do 2 hand dunks on 9'5 though.[/QUOTE]

You have to be at 10'8 at least and even then you will throw most of them back off the rim especially if you can't palm it. I would say 10'10 like Rake is the point to where you can consistently put them in. If you are a one leg jumper that helps too they are easier to put in when you are right at the cusp.

I was pretty close to where you were... I was hitting like 10'4 on the rims and wasn't even close to dunking on 10 ft. I kept throwing it off back rim on 9'7 rim with one hand (2 footed jumper) but obviously I was really close. I got one 2 hand dunk on the 9'7 where I just barely put it in and hung on the rim. I was probably hitting 10'2 with my 2 hand attempts so that would put me 7 inches over the 9'7 rim on my 2 hand attempts and 9 inches on my on my one hand attempts. I feel like if I was an inch higher I could have gotten over that hump of throwing them off back iron and dunked it almost every time... or at least half the time. That's where I got the 10 inch over number from to dunk consistently. And of course like I said, if you are 10" over jumping off one foot, you will dunk it more often than a 2 footed jumper 10" over the rim. I have a friend who is 10" over the rim on a good day and he can only put them in half the time on those days... When he was up around/over 12" over a few years ago he could throw it in easy. Here is a video:

[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYxoFzeuD5A&list=UU0fBdUXLk4pJxuQwfn4ARCg#t=167[/url]

I will try to get one up of where he is now so you can see the difference.

[QUOTE=Rake2204]I don't know man. If you can touch 10'6", that'd put you about eight inches above the rim on the 9'10'' goal you say you're getting stuffed on. Do you at least makes [i]some[/i] dunks on 9'10''?

My max reach has been around 10'10'' over the years and I'd venture to say I usually don't get that high on my dunks. As such, I think it's safe to say that I've been able to dunk when I was just about as much over the rim as you on a 9'10'' rim.

Any videos of your attempts?[/QUOTE]

i've dunked before on 10, but needed a lot of adrenaline to do it, and needed an alley oop. i havent played in a while, so im not sure if i can do it anymore. the dunks i did in the vid and on 9'10 were all outdoor, and i think i can jump higher on hardwood. also, they were off the dribble and the ball i was using was completely smooth. i also can't dunk off one foot on 9'5, but i'm touching 10'2 really easily.

you guys think they will raise the rims anytime soon? watched mamadou ndiaye play and he can dunk without jumping. makes me wonder how they lost, and why they dont just give the ball to him everytime.

My dunk confidence is about as bad as its been in well over 10 years. Two summers ago, I severely sprained my ankle twice in two months and combined with the fact I was approaching 30, I simply began wondering if my dunking days were supposed to be coming to an end.

Now, I'm officially in the "Dude, you should have just dunked that" zone. I still attack hard and explode off one foot but I'm afraid of failure - I don't believe I can do it - so I've just been laying everything up to be safe. Even when goofing around outside of games, I've dramatically reduced my dunk attempts because of the fear that I'll miss, or will have to hear I'm not getting as high as I used to. Of course, not practicing dunks only perpetuates the cycle.

On more than one occasion in the past month, I've laid one in only to hear some excitedly say on the sideline, "Woooo, I thought he was about to dunk that!" That's actually kind of helped my mindframe. I had a super, super weak dunk along the baseline against Lindsey Hunter's team a few weeks ago, but it was a casual flush I only attempted because the play was dead (I was whistled for a travel).

Following that game, with dead legs after two full runs, I back-rimmed a couple of attempts but my wrist was a healthy distance above the cylinder. An encouraging sign heading into the summer, where I tend to get in better playing shape and whatnot.

[QUOTE=Rake2204]My dunk confidence is about as bad as its been in well over 10 years. Two summers ago, I severely sprained my ankle twice in two months and combined with the fact I was approaching 30, I simply began wondering if my dunking days were supposed to be coming to an end.

Now, I'm officially in the "Dude, you should have just dunked that" zone. I still attack hard and explode off one foot but I'm afraid of failure - I don't believe I can do it - so I've just been laying everything up to be safe. Even when goofing around outside of games, I've dramatically reduced my dunk attempts because of the fear that I'll miss, or will have to hear I'm not getting as high as I used to. Of course, not practicing dunks only perpetuates the cycle.

On more than one occasion in the past month, I've laid one in only to hear some excitedly say on the sideline, "Woooo, I thought he was about to dunk that!" That's actually kind of helped my mindframe. I had a super, super weak dunk along the baseline against Lindsey Hunter's team a few weeks ago, but it was a casual flush I only attempted because the play was dead (I was whistled for a travel).

Following that game, with dead legs after two full runs, I back-rimmed a couple of attempts but my wrist was a healthy distance above the cylinder. An encouraging sign heading into the summer, where I tend to get in better playing shape and whatnot.[/QUOTE]

i know what you mean. I've been dealing with a hamstring strain for the past 2 months. I'm a left footed jumper and it's my left leg that's injured. i can still get up high enough but my landings are still shaky so I've been forced to two foot jump most of the time now. I still have a pretty good two foot vert but it takes away all my opportunities for a dunk because the extra step allows the help to come over.

it takes a while for the confidence to come back, and I feel as though once it does come back, you usually injure yourself again and start that cycle over :lol