NBA Dunk Contest

The NBA dunk contest is only a couple of days away. What will these athletes come up with to amaze us this year? Who knows? One thing I do know, is that over the last number of years the winners have been some strong dudes. Dwight Howard and Nate Robinson have definitely spent their fair share of time hitting the iron. And I’m sure the most impressive dunks this year will once again come from some players with muscles popping out of their bodies.

I’ve talked about this (either in writing or conversation) about 300 times now, and I’m going to bring it up again. In Eric Cressey’s book, “The Optimal Off-Season Training Manual,” he brings up a rather incredible stat; in the 2003 NFL combine there were 12 quarterbacks that jumped over 35 inches in the vertical jump test. In the 2003 NBA combine, only 1 of 76 prospects had a vertical over 35 inches, and the average was actually less than 30 inches! This just reiterates the fact that strength training plays a huge role in improving vertical jumping ability. I guarantee the football players preparing for the NFL put in some serious time in the weight room. And the majority of these NBA prospects played basketball, basketball, and more basketball. Don’t get me wrong, working on your game has to be done. But can you imagine what combining strength training with basketball skill training can do?!? How does increased jumping ability, decreased chance of injury, and a heck of a lot more And-1s, sound?

In college, when the season ended we’d go play some pick up ball and the players from the football team would often come in the gym to take us on. Now, we’d usually beat them, but let me tell you, their athleticism was crazy! Very fast, very strong, and very explosive. We’d win because we had better skill, and we knew how to play the game better. But again, mixing some of the athleticism that they displayed with the skill that we had, and we could have been a scary team. BUT, only a couple of us basketball players actually took weight training seriously. What a shame, because we got pushed around pretty good on the court during the season. And I’m sure that translated to a few extra Ls.

Anyway, back to the dunk contest. Have you ever seen a dunk contest from the old contest days? Ever notice that the majority of the competitors jumped off one foot when dunking? Nowadays the majority of dunkers are taking off on two feet. This is the influence of strength training. One-foot jumpers usually are more “springy,” meaning that they rely on the stored energy in the tendons to spring off the ground. When you see a player jumping off of two legs, that means he is “muscleing” his leap from the ground. And again, the best dunkers for awhile now have been two-feet jumpers. Weight room! This doesn’t mean a two-feet jumper cant throw down an impressive dunk when leaping off of one foot. But you’ll see the majority of his dunks coming from two feet.

Basketball players, embrace the power of weights. And everyone, enjoy the dunk contest. It makes it more interesting to watch when you take into account whether the player is jumping off of one foot or two. It will give you an idea of how the weight room may or may not have influenced the athlete at this point in his career.