My friend needs to be able to dunk a basketball in a month and a half; how should he train? (Genuine Q--don't delete)

How far away from being able to dunk is he currently (inches)?

I suggest but do not advocate, a diet of string beans and rubber bands.

isi wrote:

How far away from being able to dunk is he currently (inches)?

He can grab the rim with one hand. So I think he's got a fair shot of getting it done with the right training.

His best bet is to get the strength shoes that Jimmy was wearing in a Seinfeld episode:

http://youtu.be/VlrWnahTiMo

Deer mods. Why you make delete reply made I did? I no make mean talk. Me make sad face to self in mirror amd weep bitter tears of bitter salt water.

Look up air alert. You can probably find the training schedule online and what each exercise on youtube. I did it for fun last winter and gained 9 inches, btw i started at 28 and got up to 37. Even though I'm a distance runner I still have a good jumping ability. The program is 15 weeks or somthing like that but the big improvements start around week 3 or 4. Good luck.

Still serious about this?

Tell him not to join a gym. I know how he can do it.

Box jumps will help. Jump up. Jump off and stick landing. Progress to jump up. Jump off and immediately jump onto another box.

The risk of injury is pretty high on box jumps, especially on the landing. There should be videos online showing the proper technique.

Another is the standing vertical leap. Stand under a bar, like a pullup bar. Jump up and touch the bar. Repeat until you can no longer reach as high. Over time progress to leaping higher.

That's all I got...

I would suggest training like a sprinter. I remember sprinters like Stanley Floyed and others were not tall - some only 5'4" and they all could dunk easily. I would do squats and deadlifts of course. But also heavily do plyometrics.

Okay now that I have googled, check this out:

The best training for improving leg strength and your vertical jump is called "explosive" training. Many NBA players use it and other Athletes who require leg strength. As the name suggests its a very fast paced movement.

Squat Jumps: Set yourself up for the basic squat position, lower yourself parallel to the floor, hold and then explode straight up leaving the floor and thrusting your arms upwards. As you land bend your knees back into the squat position and explode again. Continue for 3 sets of 8 repititions. (or what you are comfortable with)

Russian Lunge: (Essentially lunge jumps, similar to squat jumps but in the lunge position.) Place one foot 3 feet in front of the other and lower your body until your foward thigh is parallel to the floor. Quickly push yourself backup and spring off the floor, landing with the opposite leg foward. As soon as you land, lower yourself back into the lunge position. That's one rep. Then repeat. (This exercise is in fact used by Dwight Freeny of the Colts)

Once you find the exercises easy hold dumbells or wear a weight vest to increase the resistance.

Anything fast paced and explosive that causes stress in your leg muscles will aid in improving your leap. Other basic exercises like calf raises are also good.

Also, simple jumping exercises to improve futher is by doing a consecutive jumping drill. Begin by jumping as high as you can off both feet. Your hands should be above your head and rotating to help you jump high. As soon as you land, go right back up. Repeat this twenty-five times. Next, jump twenty-five times off your right foot, then twenty-five times off your left. Keep your hands up and go up as quickly as you can after landing. Next, jump twenty-five times bringing your knees to your chest. You can now bring your arms down in order to maintain balance, but continue jumping as quickly as possible. Then jump twenty-five times trying to kick your heals into your rear end. Finally, perform twenty-five Jerry Wests. A Jerry West is a jump in which you bend forward at the waist extending your arms at forty-five degree angles. Try to touch your fingertips to your toes.

Personally i don't like things like the leg press and other machines. though everything i just metioned and free weight exercises i find work the best but you won't really need weights for the exercises I mentioned until you really start to get stronger.

For further exercises for improving your jumping abilities I would advise you go to nike.com and follow the links for Nike SPARQ Training. It's in both the Basketball and Football sections. The training program is great, and the videos explain everything. This will give you exercises that will aid more in the overal jumping ability, compared to vertical jump.

I dunked a basketball from age 19 to about 31, when mileage

started to kill it.

I did jumps up on park benches, 2000 toe raises a day around

age 29, and 3 times 20 times maximum weight on the universal.

My buddy on the winning MSU basketball team ran 17 fleights

of stairs in a hotel.

I had another 6 foot tall friend who could dunk from just

doing maximum weight squats on the universal.

The best way to get there is to practice dunking over and over.

At my college I would see the pole vaulters doing all kinds of supplemental activities t improve their technique.

Then we had a new vaulter come in from Hungary.

He just jumped over and over, every day.

He went on to win 6 NCAA championships (3 in, 3 out) and a WC Silver medal behind Bubka.

toro wrote:

The best way to get there is to practice dunking over and over.

At my college I would see the pole vaulters doing all kinds of supplemental activities t improve their technique.

Then we had a new vaulter come in from Hungary.

He just jumped over and over, every day.

He went on to win 6 NCAA championships (3 in, 3 out) and a WC Silver medal behind Bubka.

If you can't dunk already it is going to look a bit silly continually trying to dunk but falling short.

I could dunk for about a month when I was playing ball a lot outdoors. (Let's just say it was never "gym certified" but I'll take it anyway.)

In my experience, dunking was as much about technique as it was about just jumping ability. It's kind of like the high jump in that way. You have to run at the hoop really fast, stretch out one side of your body through the whole motion of the jump (assuming it's one handed, which is easier if you're quick), palm or carry the ball to its highest point, and then flick the hell out of the ball as it gets over the rim - the more you can flick it downwards, the more dunkish it will look. (It looks weak if you throw it toward the back of the rim, and totally sweet if you can throw it straight down or back towards you.) Two-handed technique is different - you can hold the ball a little higher at its highest point, but I found that it took away from my vertical to jump off two legs. He should definitely try both though.

I also found that I had to be able to hit the rim at a point about two or three inches past my wrist with no ball to have a shot at it one-handed. So your friend is probably about six vertical inches away, and he has to be able to run with the ball and develop the wrist action at the top, which will take away from the vertical height by a couple inches.

The point being, your friend needs to spend more time with a ball on the hoop he's trying to dunk on, and not only in the gym. Also, he needs to actually play basketball to develop his hands and get in shape enough to not destroy his legs while putting in time practicing dunking.

Dunking a basketball was one of the most difficult athletic feats I've ever accomplished - it took about three months to do it and I was playing three or four days a week and trying everyday. If your friend has some hops and reach, he can probably pull it off easier than I did. Good luck.

To the previous poster's point, you need to learn the timing of when and where to take off and work on the hand-eye coordination of the dunk when you get to the rim.

You make look silly continually falling short but you have to work on the perfect timing if you can barely dunk.

There are two components, the vertical leaping ability, and the coordination of the actual dunk.

Just going to the rim over and over helps you work on both components.

Supplemental work like box jumps will surely help.

I'd just spend a lower percentage of training on that.

The Jimmy form Seinfeld reference is the first thing I thought of, though.

Well losing that 30lbs of fat is he carrying around would get him a couple of inches but he can't do that in a month.There are bunch of jump programs but they all basically break down to a) do squats and deadlfits to strength the lower body. Standard 3x5 is about as good as you can do for a 4 week cycleb) do various box/depth jumps to add power

Good Advices.

I played basketbsll in HS. 6'0 and at the time I could dunk with two hands off two feet.

I prefer Air Alert III + speed drills + wheights

[quote]toro wrote:

The best way to get there is to practice dunking over and over.

quote]

This. Set the rim at 9 feet and get used to dunking at that height. Then raise the rim two inches at a time until he can no longer dunk. Then back off 2" and practice more.

I am only 5'2" with short arms but I could touch the flange on the back of the hoop that attaches to the backboard. The above technique helped me get a lot higher - I was able to block shots of my 6 feet tall friends but obviously I could never dunk.

Can your friend palm the basketball (hold it with one hand, palm facing down)? If not, is he allowed to use pine pitch, stickem, or whatever needed to get a good grip?

Wearing the right shoes may help a little. I could always jump higher in running shoes than basketball shoes.

How high can he reach right now?

train like a sprinter

hamstring lunges, box jumps, hill sprints, squats/cleans

he should also practice the technique of actually dunking and develop a good run up to the hoop