Can Blanka Vlasic dunk??

I totally respect her. Don't doubt that.

chikin wrote:

What you're saying isn't making sense to me. Not trying to be a jerk.

I agree, his center of mass is rising 2-3 feet. What does that have to do with his vertical leaping ability from a STANDSTILL? What does his HURDLING 66" (I'm assuming you're referring to the hurdle heights) have to do with his VERTICAL LEAP?

I'm 6'2" my center of mass is at most 38" (which is above my belly button). Obviously, for low hurdles I don't lift my center of mass at all, but when hurdles start getting around intermediate height, I'm going to have to start lift my center of mass. If a hurdle is 36" inches, I'm going to have to lift my center of mass above 36" because my butt is below my center of mass. From experience this is about 3-4". Any hurdle height above this will mean that I will have to lift my center of mass an X-36" + 3" inches to clear that height. So if the hurdle is is 66" (the last one shows them at eye height for him) I would have to lift my center of mass 66-36+3=33".

If you want to argue about standing leaps, you'd have to demonstrate that Holm is a) running quickly and b) losing velocity when he hurdles, both of which are not true.

I think the evidence from those videos would allow a pretty confident minimum of 30" for Holm.

Also, what is your evidence that he can only jump 22"?

I'm 6'5" and standing with my right arm fully extended up I can touch 8 feet. This means I need to only jump 24" to touch the rim or maybe an additional 4 to 6 inches to get up enough to dunk.

I'm very much a runner with zero jumping ability and I can dunk one handed with a running start (most times). I think Blanka will have NO problem dunking considering she may have a 36" - 40" vertical.

WhiteChicksCanDunk wrote:

I think Blanka will have NO problem dunking considering she may have a 36" - 40" vertical.

There is absolutely no way that she has a 36" vertical leap. 0.0% chance.

Look, I don't know if she can do it or not, but I think a lot of you guys would be completely amazed to see what women look like when they try to explode off the ground with their upper torso in a vertical position.

Think of all those female gymnasts that can do flips in the air -- do you think they have some amazing vertical leaping ability? Hell no! They're just good at being flexible enough to get their upper body down and around while their hips are up. Just like a high jumper...

LVD wrote:

Think of all those female gymnasts that can do flips in the air -- do you think they have some amazing vertical leaping ability? Hell no! They're just good at being flexible enough to get their upper body down and around while their hips are up. Just like a high jumper...

You want vertical jumping? Watch how high Midori Ito gets on some of these jumps while doing something a lot more technical than putting a ball in a hoop:

23" and the "evidence" is weak. A translation from a swedish video that has been removed from youtube. But that's the only evidence of anything.

doodle dandy wrote:

You want vertical jumping? Watch how high Midori Ito gets on some of these jumps while doing something a lot more technical than putting a ball in a hoop:

This video actually supports the counterargument. Look how she has to position her body to get her hips that far off the ground -- she never could get her hips that high off the ground with her upper torso and upper limbs pointed to the sky.

(Also, to state the obvious, she's using the ridiculous speed of the blade on ice to propel her in the air, and could never do this on dry land...)

Does anyone know if she's ever tried the long jump? That would tell us a lot more about her chances to dunk than the HJ. I did a quick Google and didn't see anything.

For the record, Acuff was actually an amazing junior long jumper, which probably explains her dunking ability.

So you think the 2nd greatest high jumper jumps that way due to form and some magical hip powers? If Parker had good HJ technique would she clear 7 feet?

Worst thread/posters of the year?

I just found the answer.

Check out this video from 2009:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scnmfmwJExo

If she could dunk, they definitely would have put it in this video.

(Also, turns out she grew up playing basketball (her mom was a top amateur), but gave it up, so the notion that this is just something she never considered is incorrect.)

I wouldn't call it an "answer" but she does not look very coordinated while dribbling the ball.

LVD wrote:

I just found the answer.

Check out this video from 2009:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scnmfmwJExo

If she could dunk, they definitely would have put it in this video.

(Also, turns out she grew up playing basketball (her mom was a top amateur), but gave it up, so the notion that this is just something she never considered is incorrect.)

chikin wrote:

I wouldn't call it an "answer" but she does not look very coordinated while dribbling the ball.

You don't have to be coordinated to dunk, you just have to be able to jump high. This is a ridiculous thread.

Mr. Obvious wrote:

You don't have to be coordinated to dunk, you just have to be able to jump high. This is a ridiculous thread.

So you think through they went through all that trouble to film a video of her (1) spinning a basketball, (2) fumbling around with a basketball as she tried to dribble it, and (3) jumping over a basketball player, and yet they left out the shot of her dunking?

This video is obviously not definitive proof of anything, but after seeing this, I seriously doubt she can dunk.

LVD wrote:

There is absolutely no way that she has a 36" vertical leap. 0.0% chance.

Look, I don't know if she can do it or not, but I think a lot of you guys would be completely amazed to see what women look like when they try to explode off the ground with their upper torso in a vertical position.

Think of all those female gymnasts that can do flips in the air -- do you think they have some amazing vertical leaping ability? Hell no! They're just good at being flexible enough to get their upper body down and around while their hips are up. Just like a high jumper...

Okay lets say that Vlasic is a good HJ because she is as flexible as a noodle of spaghetti and she can really only get her shoulders to 6'9" and from there just somehow noodles around the bar. Even then, she would just need to have her hands a little over 3' above her shoulder to dunk. My shoulder to hand distance is a little over 3' and I am 5'10", she is 6'4". She can dunk.

LVD wrote:

So you think through they went through all that trouble to film a video of her (1) spinning a basketball, (2) fumbling around with a basketball as she tried to dribble it, and (3) jumping over a basketball player, and yet they left out the shot of her dunking?

I don't see a hoop anywhere in shot... And if they included shots of her fumbling the intention of the clip obviously wasn't to show off anything about her basketball skills.

chikin wrote:

23" and the "evidence" is weak. A translation from a swedish video that has been removed from youtube. But that's the only evidence of anything.

What is the weak evidence in my argument? He is clearly lifting his center of gravity eye height. Note that hurdling is not like flopping-- your center of gravity goes over the hurdle.

You're now just denying.

deraylicious wrote:

Okay lets say that Vlasic is a good HJ because she is as flexible as a noodle of spaghetti and she can really only get her shoulders to 6'9" and from there just somehow noodles around the bar.

For some reason I really want to order in some noodles..

chikin wrote:

If Yasen dunked in a game for Purdue in 96-97', it would have been all over the news and there would be either video or some other evidence. Fowles, Snow, Parker were all on Sportscenter and in the paper. Why no mention of Yasen?

"They say she could electrify an arena, at 6 feet tall and able to dunk a basketball."

"She had eight steals one game. She scored 23 points against national power Tennessee. On fast breaks, the crowd would yell for Yasen to dunk the ball, a feat she often did in practice."

Probably why you don't see much mention of her is because she tragically passed away in 2001.