Trying to gain 8" on Vertical to DUNK

H

holabuster

0
Hey everyone. I'm around 5'10", 17 years old. I've got a reach of about 7'6" and a vertical of about 30" so i can just touch the rim on a regulation hoop (10'). I'm trying to improve my vertical jump so i can dunk.

My first question is how much will I have to improve my jump? I'm thinking 8" will be enough to consistently be able to make dunks.

My next question is how should i go about working on improving my vertical? I've heard plyometrics are the best way. I heard that jumpsoles (weighted shoes) may help but lead to longterm damage so i'm staying away from those.

Once I start my training, I'll be able to work out about 1 hr each day, so I'm wondering what is the best plyometrics/weight training routine to do in that time?

Thanks so much guys.
 
Well I am attempting to do the same thing and have read up on it quite a bit. You may want to try the program called Air Alert 3, it's a 15 week program designed specifically to get you an extra 8-12 inches on your vertical leap. I am starting week 9 tomorrow and so far have seen around 3-4 inches in gains, which makes me optimistic because most gains are seen in the last 7 weeks. I would recommend this program if you have a fairly strong base, good knees and back. There are also alternate methods of increasing your vertical by doing things such as squats, leg curls, calf raises, ect.

thats a good place to go to ask any questions about gaining vert.
 
I did Air Alert 2 a while back, and I did it maybe 3 weeks or so and noticed like 1-2inches on my vertical jump. I would have continued but I got lazy.
 
Hmm, I'll look into the Air Alert. I heard it's really complicated and time consuming. What is the time commitment for the program, since the two of you have tried it before?

thanks.
 
It takes increasingly more time as you move on in the program as the number of reps and sets increase each week. However, it really doesn't take that much time. I just did my first workout for week 9 which took about 35-40 minutes including stretching beforehand. Week 1 workouts took around 15 minutes and even the final workouts probably dont take more than an hour. That and you only do it 3 times per week so it really isn't all that bad from that viewpoint. Word of advice, week 8 is a rest week in the program, if you make it that far do SOMETHING with your legs to keep them somewhat ready. For me week 8 coincided with thanksgiving break so i sat around alot ate thanksgiving dinner, ect. I definitely paid for it today heh. Always be sure to wait at least 90 minutes after eating before doing Air Alert too, all that jumping around just after eating can cause you to lose your dinner. Anyways, good luck finding something that works for you, and be careful of those free online Air alerts, make sure you are doing the excercises correctly or you can injure yourself.
 
Yea me and my lil bro were doing it. Its was like 2 years back. It was fun and all except I didn't have the right things around the house that I could jump on top of. All you needed was a sturdy small table. I had to use stairs, and it was hard to keep my balance.
 
Cool. So you don't have to use weights/dumbbells/barbells?

Cnat, how close are you to dunking?
And sunten1, what about you? Or why did you both do these programs?
 
I did it because I wanted to get better at jumping... My brother and I both never were close enough to dunk to began with. We were just doing it because he read on his basketball sites that people were getting massive gains. So I said I will do it with him.

I think on the new one (aa3) you need to do squats. I was like 5.6 when I was trying this program. My brother was like 5.3 maybe...We both didn't have a chance in hell in dunking. We were just doing it to show off.(look how high i can jump..blah blah blah)
 
I'm a 5'8 white guy, can't jump too high lol. My reach is about 7'7 and my vert is around 27 or 28 inches now. When I began it was about 24 inches. At the moment I'm about an inch away from touching rim still, by the end I should be able to grab rim. When I started I was just getting rim on 9 ft 6 inches. Even after air alert I will start doing weights and such for further development and increase in my vertical. One thing you have to remember is that like 70% of your vertical is training and the other 30% is genetics. That being said, you actually have more control than you think on your vertical leap. For instance, my friend on the basketball team increased his vert from 20" to 34" between freshman and junior years. That makes a huge difference.
 
Wow, that is VERY impressive. I've always had a decent vert (though I can't thanks my parents who are as land bound as can be). Weird thing is I never trained my legs that much.

Hopefully, after some serious legwork I can get those last 8".
 
With a 30" vert starting out it will be more difficult to get the gains but I believe if you work at it hard enough you can get around 40" probably since you've never done leg training before for your vert. Not sure how much air alert will do for someone with a 30" vert already, probably can get you to 35+ though, and then after that try some type of weight program to further increase your jumping ability. May that link, it has some good programs in some of the posts there.
 
I think these exercises would be good for martial artists also. I am going to try this stuff out. Has anyone here ever tried this for martials arts??
 
According to one of the articles on one of the sites you suggested, there are three parts to vertical jump.

1) Limit Strength
2) Explosive Strength
3) Reactive Strength



Could someone please clarify the difference between explosive and reactive strengths?

I think my strongest area is reactive strength (from just looking at the exercises), then explosive strength, and finally limit strength. According to the article, I should work harder on increasing my limit strength while making smaller gains on the other two.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top