What’s the first thing you look at when you are dunking a basketball? Is it the rim? The net? The board?
Or you just concentrate on your legs? Try to jump as high as it gets? I don’t blame you. The truth is.. Whenever I tell a friend of mine to keep his eyes on “something” he doesn’t make it. Why? Because you cannot learn how to dunk a basketball unless you fail dozens of times.
Haven’t you noticed that when you perform those windmills or you try to, it’s far easier to do them when you have a big crowd behind your back than doing them on your own?
Sounds familiar? No doubt about the fact that you try your best to slam the ball when you want to show off your jumping ability.
This feeling that I have when I know someone sees me as I go towards the basket and I’m dunking a basketball helped me to discover that.
Now watch this video for some inspiration.
If you are determined to dunk with authority (or “anger”) everytime you are dunking a basketball, and you lower your buttocks little more than usual you can pull off maybe 2-3 inches from you vertical. It’s true.
I’ll say that again. Having faith that you will jump so high that eventually your eyes will see the rim right in front of you, and you will lower you legs more than you normally do (in other words – as if you are going to crouch), can easily add 2-3 more inches to your vertical leap. Try it!
And what about no-look dunks. To make a long story short, you need to try to do them several times before you can make it when dunking a basketball.
But the best tip I can give you is that you should always visualize the rim when dunking a basketball. Think of the net and the distance between you and the basket. Right after you close your eyes, keep the picture of the basket that you just saw and be determined that you can dunk with your eyes closed.
Of course the first attempt will be the most difficult, but hey, hang in there:)
Aaahh, windmill dunks. Powerful dunks. They look so artistic and yet they are so brutal. I hear you whining they are too good for me? Well stop whining.
When I first saw Dominique Wilkins as he takes off and does a 360 windmill I said to myself: “I’ll never live the day when I’d be able to do something like that”. But now I take that back. And you can too, in case you were thinking as I was.
I basically started doing simple exercises that I knew that they involved the same muscles that you need developed so that you can do a simple windmill.
Initially I was feeling a little pain in my abdominal muscles but I knew back then that that was what I wanted. And be reminded that I never thought, not in a single moment that all that pain will pay off that good.
Do you know that, even if you could jump as high as Spud Webb (53-inch vertical), and even if you were 6-8, still you wouldn’t have been able to do the same dunks that Jordan was doing back in his Chicago days? It’s merely due to the level of muscle development.
The dunking itself is gradually separating from the basketball as a particular activity. More and more ballers are “in love with basketball” because they get to dunk in their opponent’s face or experience the joy of flight or whatever the reason may be.
Have you tried doing a 360 spin? Or 180? Well I have. And I’m telling you a learned them the hard way. And by hard I mean really hard. I had bruises all over my body. I used to practice them in my backyard and I had this iron fence near the basket and some sharp stones.
Oh boy, what was it that kept me falling when I was dunking a basketball? I don’t know. But I do know that every time I fell on my back I was full of fury, and I’d go back and foolishly attempt to do it again. Until I started analyzing the dunk itself. The “shocking truth” got me pissed off. It’s all in the landing. Of course the practice is the major part but you have to use your brain as well.
I learned that I had been landing with one foot and then touch the ground with the other one everytime I was dunking a basketball. Naturally I was beating myself up.
Later, as I wanted to perfect my 360s, I found out that before you go for a spin, you should follow your head. By this I mean the first thing you should spin is the very head. Because the entire body follows the head.
So as you start spinning concentrate on the head. Before you can position your limbs towards the rim your head should have already seen the rim. After several successful dunks I didn’t have to think about the head at all. And the same goes for you and your basketball dunking.
This is the posture you should take before you jump if you are..
And another important thing to remember.
If you want to dunk with both hands and you’ve been doing one-handed 360s, it’s more than obvious that you will find this difficult. In my case, since I couldn’t palm the basket so good, I used flattened ball. Or maybe smaller ball to brake the ice.
Ok, listen up..
If you are left-handed like me, you should spin the way Vince Carter spins, even though he is right-handed. He spins in the “wrong” direction. Or, if that upsets you:), he spins in the more difficult direction.
As he goes for the spin he puts his left leg in front of his right before he takes off. And if he wants to dunk with both hands he palms the basket in his right hand. At least that would be his “leading” hand. He focuses on that hand and he “can’t” dunk before his right hand comes right next to the rim. And then he grabs the ball with both hands and boom!! He wins the crowd.
This is the exact way you want to do if you are left-handed. Harold Miner, (exceptional power dunker) was left handed and he used to dunk the right way described above when he was dunking a basketball.
And if you are right-handed, which I believe you are, you should do 360s the way players like Kobe Bryant, Kenny Walker, Spud Webb, Jason Richardson and so many more do.
So, this time you do the opposite.
First you step with your right foot, palm the ball in your left hand, spin all the way, grab it with both hands and slam it where it belongs.
Thus, you can practice this principle and as the time will pass, you won’t even have to think at all. Your subconscious mind will take care of that, everytime you are dunking a basketball.