Mile equivalent to dunking a basketball?

Sally Vixxxxxxxens wrote:

I have a tough time believing that your wife was able to dunk a volleyball and you were able to dunk at the age of 50. My high school team was ranked as high as second in the state of Texas and everyone could dunk with relative ease. But by the time I was 50 there was no way I could have dunked. I am 6' tall. I went from doing some really good dunks at 18 to hardly being able to tough the rim at 40. You lose so much spring by that age. And at 50? NO way and no way on your wife.

Its unlikely that his wife could dunk it when she was 50. However I have seen lots of guys that can dunk at 50 who are reasonably tall, say 6'6". As for your situation, thats just one instance and I would assume your not doing the same kind of jumping activities you are at 40 as you were at 18. I'm 41 and 6' tall and can still dunk it realatively easily.

The mile and dunking simply are so different that there is no way to relate the two. The mile is more fitness and jumping is more of a skill or a coordination.

Track runner in high school,

6' 2" could not palm ball. Could run a 4:50 mile off of 30 miles a week and dunk with 2 hands. I had endurance but not sprint speed. Was a basketball player wannabe but ran instead to get on a team.

Our track was very good with an average group of distance runners. 3 triple jumpers over 47 feet with 2 over 49 feet in the same meet. A 23 foot long jumper and 3 shot putters in the 50 foot range. Jav of nearly 200 ft. 6 ft 6 high jumper and good sprinters. Won our state class meet 3 years in a row. 2nd in state open competing against schools 5 times our size. A number of our team members including me competed in d1 teams.

Dunking really isn’t too hard. If you train for it like you train for a mile it’s not too bad as long as you’re tall enough (5’9ish). I could dunk when i was 5’11 - 6’0 my freshman year of high school and knew at least 10 other guys in my school that could. I would say around 5:15 for the mile.

Dingler wrote:

Had this discussion on a long run this weekend: “What time in the mile is equivalent to being able to dunk a basketball?” I was sure it would have been discussed here before but searched and couldn’t find anything...

I said around 4:10-4:15. Something basically everyone on a scholarship at a power5 college playing their sport can do.

Other answers ranged from 4:30 (this seems way too easy in my opinion, but I also know way more people who were runners than basketball players) to 4:00 (which is definitely too hard as only a handful of high schoolers have ever gone this fast but I’m guessing many high schoolers a year can dunk).

What say you?

definitely not 4:10. I absolutely hate the weight room and couldn't dunk in hs/college. stopped running post collegiately and only played basketball and I could dunk within 3 months pretty easily. Plus I have always played basketball so I would say a 4:40 mile is the equivalent.

for reference I am 6'0-6'1 175lbs and have not done real weights since freshman year of college

Dingler wrote:

Had this discussion on a long run this weekend: “What time in the mile is equivalent to being able to dunk a basketball?” I was sure it would have been discussed here before but searched and couldn’t find anything...

I said around 4:10-4:15. Something basically everyone on a scholarship at a power5 college playing their sport can do.

Other answers ranged from 4:30 (this seems way too easy in my opinion, but I also know way more people who were runners than basketball players) to 4:00 (which is definitely too hard as only a handful of high schoolers have ever gone this fast but I’m guessing many high schoolers a year can dunk).

What say you?

This is perhaps the dumbest question/comparison ever. Dunking a basketball takes no special skill other than being tall enough to do it. I know a guy who was 6'8" in high school, and of course he was on the basketball team, but he was very nonathletic and could barely dunk at that height. The fact that he could was because he was so tall.

Running a mile in 4:10 takes talent and training. This really is an idiotic question. Become better.

What does that do for the discussion?