Genius Project (Week 2)

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!

Genius Project Intro (Week 1)

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!