This was the big week. The moment that I had been waiting for. The moment that the entire class had been waiting for. It was presentation week, and let me tell you, it wasn't easy getting to this point. I can honestly say that I've never put so much work into a single topic as much as I did with my plyometric exercises. It was a grind, and it was difficult at some points because I just wanted to take it easy, do my other homework, and go to bed. However, the end result was well worth it. But now it was time to taken all that I've learned, and put it into a presentation where I had to "Share an idea that could change the world". Now I didn't learn how to do spoken poetry, or learn a new language. I simply learned a type of exercise, and applied that to a specific sport.
It wasn't easy coming up with an idea that fell in the category as "stereotypical" or "cliche". Of course there was the idea of never giving up, because I didn't gain any height on my vertical jump after the first week. That idea certainly wasn't going to change the world. Then there was the idea that if you put your mind to something, then you can achieve you goal. Again, another cliche topic. I obviously had to come up with an idea that was unique. Then I saw a GMC commercial with the slogan "Beat Average", and thought that I could take that idea somewhere. I knew I wanted to have a higher vertical, and be able to multiple types of dunks. I wasn't at that point when the final week came, so I came up with an idea to never settle with being satisfied, and took it to the podium, or stage rather.
As for my presentation, I was very confident with a well rehearsed script. I was excited to show people my progress, and how big of a difference three weeks of training made on my ability to jump and fly through the air. I believe that I provided a unique idea with the audience, that can be applied to nearly anything. Whether you take part in school, music, dance, or anything that requires a passion, then never settle for being satisfied. Once you settle with satisfied, then you lose your chance at greatness because there is always room for improvement. I believe that this message was taken well by the audience, as I saw few nods of approval. I will most likely continue with small updates to keep you posted on what happens in my next few weeks of training. Who knows, maybe I'll be the next LeBron James (In reference to dunking of course).
With Week 5 coming to a close now, and the presentations rolling around, my plyometrics training is coming to an end. This week was another success, as I reached 31 inches to my vertical leap. This means that I gained a grand total of 3 inches over four weeks (excluding the first week where I gained zero inches). This was a huge moment for me, in the sense that my project had actually made a great impact on my goal.
From Week 2 to Week 5, you can see a crazy difference in my dunking ability, and I can't help but watch the videos from this week over and over again! It's really exciting stuff. In addition, the weather has been getting warmer and warmer out, making it a lot easier to get my legs warmed and staying loose.
As for the plyometrics side of things, I didn't exactly change anything from what it was last week. kept the sets and reps constant, but I picked up on something interesting. The whole purpose of the training is to reduce the time it takes to get from the load to the explosion. I realized that I wasn't making explosive movements throughout my workout, which could've been hindering the results. So this week, especially with the horizontal leg bounds, I decided to go for quicker speeds, rather than doing it the right way. By now, I had most of the workouts muscle memorized, so I was to worried about injuring myself.
Below are a couple of videos from Week 5, and I hope you enjoy as much as I did!
As you can see in the video, I have officially reached the point where a one footed jump is almost automatic, which is way farther than I could've ever imagined. This leads me to the next step in the process. Of course the project is ending and the presentations are this week, however I will continue my training long after I get on stage for my TED Talk.
The reason why? I want more. That's basically it. I'm to the point where I am satisfied, but it's sure not going to make me a dynamic basketball player in any way shape or form. What I want to do is to be able to catch ally-oops, throw a self-oop of the backboard, I want to be able to dunk like I'm in the NBA.
Now I know that's certainly a stretch, but hey, you can't find your limit until you've given it all, and then some. As you can see in the video below, I've got quite a way to go until I'm successfully dunking off the backboard, but I'm sure by increasing sets and reps, and by making quicker movements during the training, I can gain another 3 or 4 inches to my vertical.
Lastly, I had to have a little fun while doing my training. I lowered my hoop down to seven feet, and I felt like doing a dunk contest for the fun of it. Since you guys have been a great audience for my blog, I felt the need to share my Hoopsmixtape. Enjoy!
As another Day 6 comes around, so do another blog post, thus concluding the fourth week of my Genius Project. As you can see on my video, it was a milestone week for me in my quest to increase my vertical. I was blessed with the accomplishment of dunking, and my vertical increased to 30 inches!! Check in next week for more updates.
Another Day 6 rolls around, concluding another great week of training with plyometrics! This week was a little different from the last, and a little less disappointing. If you remember, last week I did not see an increase in my vertical, and I was not even close to dunking. I do the first two days of working out in my basement, and then on Sunday's I go to a place called NexGen, which is where I do my testing. After my visit this Sunday at NexGen, I found that I gained an half of an inch on my vertical. Now I know that I said that I wanted to gain an inch a week, but after not seeing an increase last week, anything is good enough for me. It makes me wonder if I had set my goals a little too high for someone partaking in beginner exercises.
Speaking of beginner exercises, after the disappointment last week, I decided to change up the training a little bit. Last week, my program was eight exercise where I had to do three sets of 12 reps. Seeing that I didn't have an increase, I altered the sets and reps to 4 sets of 15 reps. Now that I am two weeks into the program, it's time to start ramping up the intensity. With only four weeks left, and a half an inch increase in my vertical, it's time to get serious if I want to be dunking consistently by the end of the timeline. Here are a few of the workouts that I am doing...
The first one is the squat jumps. This exercise targets explosiveness from a position of rest. When in a basketball game, you could either be jumping up for an offensive rebound, or you could be leaping through the air to steal a floating pass.
This exercise here is called the power skips. Power skips are an exercise that targets the calves, quadriceps, and it helps strengthen your ankles. This exercise is applicable to my basketball journey because its the same action as a one footed jumps. In addition to the dunking aspect, it also goes through the same motions as trying to block a shot on defense. Like I'm sure I've said before, defense is the nucleus of my game, and making it stronger will only increase my chances at playing on the varsity team next year.
This last exercise is the squat jumps. This exercise targets explosiveness from a position of rest, just as the squat jumps do. The squat jumps and box jumps are nearly identical, however this one focuses on the quick transfer of energy from the starting point to the explosion upwards, or in scientific terms, you want to shorten the time it takes to get from the eccentric stage to the concentric stage. This idea is important when it comes to dunking, because when you plant your foot before the jumping action, like seen below, you will lose more kinetic energy the longer it takes to get up off of the plant.
(Zach LaVine foot is planted below)
After Week 3 was all said and done, I was very satisfied with progress. Although I am very behind schedule in the increase of my vertical jump, I still found a way to break even and increase it by half of an inch, which is a lot considering I'm walking myself through a beginner's workout. However, next week I plan to increase my workout regime from 4 sets by 15 reps, to 4 sets by 20 reps. As I continue to do the exercises, I feel that they are getting easier and easier. I hardly am working up a sweat! Desperate times call for desperate measure, and I think with a couple of weeks left that I really need to crank up the intensity. As for the dunking aspect of my training, all this week I will be trying to dunk off of one foot and "throw it down". I am feeling confident that either this week or the next will finally be the week where I break through, and start to feel a little more like Zach LaVine or Michael Jordan. I will be in touch with my blog sometime in the middle of the week with a side by side comparison of when I tried dunking last week to when I try dunking this week. I'm totally confident that there will be an astounding difference between the two, and that sooner or later my training will finally start to pay dividends. Thanks for reading, and for your viewing pleasure, here are the top ten dunks of last week!
That concludes the first week of the High Flying Slam Dunk Training! Over the past week, I have been working nearly and hour and a half on plyometrics and dunking. My schedule of the first week consisted of plyometrics on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. On Tuesday and Thursday, I went outside and spent half an hour trying to dunk. Unfortunately I was unable to get up high enough to "throw it down", but sooner than later I know it's bound to happen!
Below is the training that I got from STACK.com, which is a worldwide source for athletes looking for training or drills specific to their sport. As you can see, it seems to be a very light workout. That's because I consider myself as a beginner in the program. It was also a precautionary measure that I took because I didn't want to rush into some crazy workout program for professional athletes, were I am clearly nowhere close to a professional basketball player. As noted, I took three days to perform these exercises, which is more than a normal beginner should according to STACK. However, I took the training slowly, and performed the jumps in a controlled manner, to avoid putting a ton of pressure on my joints and knees.
My Workout (Week 1)
When working out, I developed a love for the box jumps. The reason why is because I knew that they would the most beneficial to my goal of being able to dunk. It resembles the exact motion that you would do when trying to "throw it down", and it gives you a goal. If you were just jumping up and down, you might not think of getting as high as you can. With the box, it forces you to give it your all. You can watch an example of the box jumps below. I will be posting my videos of my working out as well.
When week one came to a close, I was a bit disappointed. After trying to dunk on Tuesday and Thursday, I felt very little improvement in my vertical. To start the week, my vertical jump was 28 inches. After week one, I went to test my vertical and found very upsetting results. My jump was 28 inches again, so I saw no increase after my first week of training. However I realized that due to the way I preformed the exercises, my jump did not increase an inch, which was my original goal. By not trying my hardest, I'm sure it affected the results. Like I said before, it was a precautionary measure, because I want to ease into the program, and get comfortable with the exercises. Now that I'm going into the second week, you can count on me putting a lot more effort in, and hopefully getting the results I want out.
This is me after the first week of training. Now it was 20 degrees outside, so my legs got cold fast, as you can see in the sad, first attempt to dunk. I have a long way to go, but I'm confident that the hard work will pay off!
At the beginning of the basketball season, I remember watching Ron Brundage and Brandon Pace dunking with ease at the end of practices. Then whenever I would try it, I would come nowhere close to the leaping ability of Pace and Ron. The goal of being a varsity starter next year is going to keep me moving forward, even though I had a rough go around and saw no improvement. What I have to do know is take the workouts seriously, and to use my goal of playing varsity to motivate me to keep going and to get better!
I'll check in next week with hopefully a ton of progress!
On Saturday, February 14, 2015, the NBA hosted their annual dunk contest on TNT. The dunk contest is where four of the best dunkers in the league come together on one stage, and show off their jumping ability. There was one stand out performer of the night, and his name was Zach LaVine from the Minnesota Timberwolves. Here all the highlights of his legendary performance.
While I was watching LaVine take flight, I thought to myself, "Hopefully I will be able to do that one day." However, I was not blessed with the incredible leaping ability that Zach LaVine was blessed with, so in order for me to dunk, then I need to find some sort of training. After researching ways to increase your vertical, I came across a certain way that many people loved, even professional athletes.
Learning how to dunk through plyometric training means a lot to me, due to the fact that I have a love for basketball, and I play for the high school. This year, I was placed on the junior varsity team, and was unable to get any playing time at the varsity level. My goal that I made at the end of the year was to be a starting small forward on Coach Wilson's team next year, and I believe that becoming more athletic and explosive can be a contributing factor in making the team. However, the plyometric training won't just allow me to dunk, but my defense would reap the benefits as well. I would be able to block shots, get down the court faster, and I would be able to grab defensive rebounds with ease.
Unlike typical strength training exercises that involve long, slow movements to increase muscular strength and mass, plyometric exercises involve quick, explosive movements designed to increase speed and power.
Phases of Plyometrics
Eccentric: This is the first step of plyometrics. Eccentric contraction is a rapid muscle lengthening movement where energy is stored in the muscles in preparation for the amortization stage.
Amortization: The second stage is where there is a short resting period in the muscles, which stabilizes the energy and the muscle for the concentric stage.
Concentric: This is the final stage of the training. The athlete engages in an explosive muscle contraction where the muscle shortens. All of the energy is released that was stored in the muscles as the athlete springs upwards.
The goal of plyometrics training is to decrease the time in between the the eccentric and concentric movement. By doing so would, the athlete will become faster, more powerful, and of course, more explosive. These are three traits necessary in order for me to dunk. Now you might be wondering, how do plyometrics increase your vertical, or make you more powerful? Well, physical power is defined as the ability to convert strength into speed as quick as possible. In order to increase your power, you have to strengthen the muscle fibers responsible for turning strength into speed. There fibers are also referred to as "fast-twitch fibers". The stronger the fiber, the faster the muscle contraction, the more power you possess.
To wrap up my first blog, here is a man doing power skips, which is a beginning plyometrics exercise. Since I don't have any experience in this type of training, I will be researching for a beginners workout program to start, and as time progresses, I will add more and more, creating an intense program by the 5th or 6th week!
