THPStrength

Isaiah: 00:00

What's up everybody? My name is Isaiah Rivera. I have a 50.5 inch vertical, which is a world record, and I also happen to be pretty good at dunking, specifically trick dunking. I am one of the best dunkers in the world, which is why I am qualified to speak on the subject that I'm going to talk about today, which is how to get better at the technical aspect of dunking. I know a lot of the videos I make are about purely how to jump higher, but at the end of the day, my biggest passion and the reason I got even got into jump training is because of dunking.

Isaiah: 00:33

And not just jumping high for dunking, but the technical aspect of it. Right? Trick dunks. It is the reason I have so much fun with jump training and the reason I want to jump high is because it's really fun to learn how to do trick dunks. So having said that, if you are not interested in the sport of dunking at all, this is probably not the video for you.

Isaiah: 00:55

But if you want to get better at it, this is going to be one of the most valuable videos you ever watch. And if you are not a dunker or if you've never dunked, let's say you're a volleyball player or you just want to get jump higher for sports, I highly highly recommend you to go on a low rim, on an eight foot rim, and just have a thirty minute dunk session trying to hit a new dunk, and you will understand why I'm so passionate about this subject. And you will probably turn into a dunker by doing so. I very truly believe that it is the most fun thing on this planet. So having said all that, let's get into it.

Isaiah: 01:33

But first, I wanna give a quick shout out to our sponsors at thpstrength.com. If you want to jump higher and get rid of knee pain, go to thpstrength.com. We have a guarantee there that if you don't gain at least three inches vertical in the next six months, we'll train you for free until you do. Having said that by the way, that is a joke. I am the sponsor of my own podcast.

Isaiah: 01:53

But having said that, I did write some just random dunk tips down that should lead into some pretty interesting conversation. So let's get right into the very first thing, which you guys probably already know, but it is gonna be the importance of reps and low rimming. What I mean by reps, mean repetition. If you wanna get better at dunking, at doing any kind of trick dunk, you have to put in reps and reps and reps and reps and reps. One of the one of the things that I used to hear all the time growing up is something called the 10,000 rule.

Isaiah: 02:29

It's if you wanna become a master at anything. I believe it came from the book called Mastery, which is another highly recommended book that I think everybody that wants to reach the pinnacle of whatever they're trying to achieve, they should read that book. But I believe oh, and I think it was Malcolm Goodwill's Outliers. That's the book that mentioned that. But there's another book called Mastery.

Isaiah: 02:51

But, anyways, yeah, those are two great books, but the ten thousand hour rule is originally from the book Outliers, I believe. But it's basically, if you wanna achieve mastery of anything, you have to put in at least ten thousand hours. I think that he looked at a bunch of outliers and different things in life, sports, music, those type of things. And the average amount of time that those outliers spent at doing whatever they were good at was ten thousand hours. And the same thing applies for dunking.

Isaiah: 03:23

And specifically if you're trying to hit, let's say, a between the legs dunk, I always tell athletes, send me a video first of you attempting to do the dunk. And ideally you would have a lot of reps put in trying to hit it. Specifically for the for the between the legs dunk, I remember there was times where I would put my hoop on a height where I could barely hit the dunk and then I would try well into the nighttime and when my bounce would would start leaving me, I would just lower the rim even more and then attempt attempt the dunk at those lower rim heights as well. And it and I practiced it so much that I wouldn't even be able to see. The street lights weren't even on, and I was still trying to practice East Bay dunks.

Isaiah: 04:06

And the same thing for all the dunks that I consider fundamental dunks, I put in the same level of effort and repetition into learning those dunks. What are those fundamental dunks? First, I'll define what I even mean by a fundamental dunk. These are dunks that if you learn them, every other dunk is basically gonna come from those fundamental dunks. The technique is gonna be super similar.

Isaiah: 04:34

So I'll I'll I'll give a East Bay, a three sixty and a behind the back as a good example. The most basic, like fundamental part of a dunk, of a trick dunk is gonna be the transfer. So espe dunk is gonna be a transfer from your left hand to your right hand or your right hand to your left hand. And the way you transfer that is always gonna be the same. Your wrist always stay bent.

Isaiah: 04:58

I call this the the home of basketball. Right? Is this position with the wrist bent, fingers spread wide, and when you transfer to your other hand, you get your hand under the ball and then you flick. You flick hard and you stay in contact with the ball for as long as possible. That transfer is essentially gonna be the same for any dunk that you ever do, and it's the same for catching a basketball as well.

Isaiah: 05:23

Anytime you do a one hand catch, you catch it into that position, that fingers spread wide, wrist bent position. Anytime you transfer, or behind the back in an East Bay, it's essentially the same thing. Catching it from here and doing a windmill, it's gonna be the same thing. So when you learn how to do a between the legs dunk, a behind the back, a windmill, those are dunks that are teaching you how to transfer the ball and how to use momentum to keep the ball, to to move the ball around space without losing it. And then once you get into more complex dunks, for example, a three oh, another fundamental one is a three sixty.

Isaiah: 06:01

You spin. Right? And then a reverse is another one. Once you learn windmill between the legs behind the back, three sixty and reverses, you essentially have the formula and you master them. You put in thousands of reps with each one and you master them.

Isaiah: 06:14

You have the formula to be able to do anything. A three sixty East Bay is just combining the three sixty between the legs dunk. If you know how to do both, it's gonna be pretty, it's gonna feel intuitive on how to on how to do the dunk. And then I would say past those fundamental levels of dunks, there's another level below where you get kinda into the more complex straight dunks like the three sixty East Bays, three sixty Behind the Backs, three sixty Windmills, and that that sort of thing. And then once you have those two levels of dunks down, everything else is the same, and it becomes relatively easier to learn the more complex dunks when compared when you compare going from zero to learning those more complex trick dunks.

Isaiah: 06:58

Which, as a side note, there's this thing called dunk camp, happens every single summer. I would Google it, thedunkcamp.com. They actually we made this thing called the dunk levels, and it's kinda like in martial arts where you level up and you get a a certain color band or a certain color belt. We made a thing called the dunk levels for dunking. And it kinda shows a progression for that.

Isaiah: 07:25

And it's a really good progression for just learning learning those dunks. And then another aside note is at THP, I actually made an entire guide on how to progress from basic to more complex dunks. But all that to say that when it comes to those fundamental dunks, kinda have to choose those five, six variations and then just rep the living hell out of those dunks, and you will get a lot better as a dunker. Now, the second part of what I I had mentioned was low rimming. Low rimming is the most potent tool to learning how to how to dunk, how to become better at the technical aspect of dunking.

Isaiah: 08:05

And then what's cool is it's gonna transfer just to jumping higher because you're gonna have a lot more fun, you're gonna have more intent in jumps. And as if you've been watching my videos, know, plyometrics self intensifies. You jump higher, you get a bigger adaptation, a bigger training effect from that plyometric loading. Dunking and low rimming, it's so fun that you're gonna have it's gonna be easy to have maximum intent. It's way easier to have maximum intent when trying to do a between the legs dunk than it is when you're just in a gym by yourself trying to do a plyo.

Isaiah: 08:35

Because there is a goal in mind, and there's just way more dopamine that you get when you hit a dunk versus doing a proper plyometric rep just in space. So that's just the extra benefit from lowering, but, again, I'm trying to keep it just to the technical aspect of dunking in this video. My rule is practice on a height where you can barely make the dunk. If you haven't made a dunk yet, like if you haven't made it on a certain rim height, I would practice on a height where it feels possible to hit. So I wouldn't practice, you know, let's say a three sixty double Eastbay for me.

Isaiah: 09:09

It's impossible to hit on 10 feet, would probably benefit more from hitting it on nine feet. I haven't hit it on nine feet, but I know I have the vertical to hit it on nine feet. So practice on a height where you know you can hit it, and then if you're trying to get more consistent on a dunk, at a height where you can make like two or three out of two or three out of 10 attempts. The reason we do this is so that you, again, you have more intent in the jumps. Because you have to be able to learn how to bridge the gap between jumping high and then jumping high while doing a trick dunk.

Isaiah: 09:36

That's what separates the very elite athletes in the sport of dunking from the guys that aren't as good. It's the elite athletes. Jordan Koganan is a perfect example of that. Jordan Koganan is the best at using a 100% of his vertical on every jump attempt, every dunk attempt that he that he has. So that's kind of my guidelines for reps and then low rim dunking.

Isaiah: 10:03

Now, I'm gonna go into this next topic, which is how exactly do I hit so many dunks in sessions. I've hit an extraordinary amount of dunks, some dunks that have never been done before. And, I can pretty regularly hit new dunks. And, the reason I got so good at hitting dunks that I've never even done before is because I had made one rule for myself. Literally one rule for myself that I've always followed, specifically during periods of time when I wanna get better at dunking.

Isaiah: 10:36

And it is, every time you have a dunk session, you have to hit a new dunk. And you're not going leave the court until you hit the new dunk. And what's cool about dunking is that if you have enough bounce to hit, say a one hander or a two hander, guess what you can do? You can hit a lob. If you can hit a one hander off the dribble, that means you can hit it off a lob, you can hit it off the backboard, you can hit a Dwight tap.

Isaiah: 11:03

You have enough vertical for those things. It's just a matter of getting technically better at at the at those passes and and how to jump high with those different variations. So that is literally the number one rule that I have for that is every time you step on on the court is you have to do something that you've never done before. Doing that progressed me so far, and it was it was probably one of the most important things that that I ever did in terms of progressing my ability to dunk basketball. So follow that rule and you will get way better.

Isaiah: 11:35

And then if you combine that with a high frequency of practicing the sessions, like, your progress is gonna be astronomical. Now I'm gonna get into more, I guess, like actionable information, more tactical things that for sessions to get into the nitty gritty technique things of dunking. One, lick the ball into your hands. I learned this from baseball, which, an aside, one of the most important things you can do if you're a young athlete is to play a lot of sports. I played baseball, football, basketball.

Isaiah: 12:15

I wrestled. I did track and field. I dabbled with random things. Like, I would play freaking tennis for fun, soccer for fun. I was always messing around in playgrounds.

Isaiah: 12:28

I'd mess around with parkour for a couple of years. It is one of having a wide variety of sports is as a young athlete, is one of the best things you can do for your long term athletic development. And I've learned so much, and it's improved my ability to pick up new skills and to learn new motor patterns. And when I practice new dunks, helps a lot. And there's just random tips that I have from other sports that I apply into my dunking.

Isaiah: 12:54

For example, this tip I got from baseball. In baseball, they always say, when you catch the ball, look it into your glove. In basketball, when you're gonna catch a when you're gonna catch the basketball from a lob, let's do it let's say you're doing a self lob or off the backboard or anything really, now you up in game, you're gonna look the ball into your hands. You're gonna lob it, if you're doing one hand catch, look into your hands. As soon as you look the ball into your hands, look at the rim.

Isaiah: 13:19

That goes for any dunk that has a passing element to it. Look into your hands, at the rim. Somebody that I want you guys to study is Guy Dupuyt, and I want you to pay attention to Guy's eyes when he is doing any trick dunk. His eyes, he literally looks like he's boring holes into the basketball. He's about to do some very mean things to the basketball.

Isaiah: 13:42

His eyes are like this, he loves it, he's looking at it, looking at it, tracking the ball, tracking the ball, looks it into his hand, straight to the rim and demolishes the dunk. So it takes tremendous levels of focus and when you do enough repetitions of this, you're not gonna be thinking about it anymore, it becomes subconscious and that's when things get really interesting. You start to get really good at dunking, but that's one actionable tip for you guys. Second one, lob the ball, then wait. Too many times I see athletes lob it and they instantly start trying to run at the basketball.

Isaiah: 14:15

Be patient. You wanna catch every lob at the apex of its path. So if you don't know kinematics and physics, any object in motion that's in the air is gonna have a point where it hits its apex and it's gonna have zero velocity. It is easier to catch something that is not moving that has zero velocity than something that's on its way up or on its way down. It's gonna take practice to do this and it varies depending on how high you're gonna toss the ball.

Isaiah: 14:40

But lob the ball, then wait. I literally used to count. Now, as far as how to throw a lob or where to throw it, before you throw a lob, I want you to visualize where you want the ball to end up and choose the dunk. So let's say it's a one hander. Let's say you were rim grazing.

Isaiah: 14:57

You're barely able to dunk or you're trying to get your first dunk. You want that ball to end up this is the hoop, you want it to end up right above the hoop and away from the basket. I want you to picture the ball going there, and then practice hitting there. Then you lob it, and once you get good at lobbing it there, then it's just a matter of lobbing, waiting, and then you start running at the same time. It's hard to time it, but guess how we improve our timing?

Isaiah: 15:19

With practice. Reps and reps and reps and reps. If you do it, if you throw a thousand lobs, you're gonna know how to time it properly. But I used to always count, alright? For a two hander, you want the ball right below the rim and offset from the rim a little bit.

Isaiah: 15:34

For a windmill, you wanna catch it. So when you're at toe off, hands should be up high. This goes for any trick dunk off a lob. You wanna catch it like the inch your feet are off the first inch that your feet are off the ground, you wanna contact the ball. If you wait too long after that, then you're gonna have a lot of wasted time.

Isaiah: 15:53

Right? To to you're not gonna have enough time in the air to do the dunk. And then if you catch it too early, you're gonna cut your arm swing short, and then you're not gonna jump as high. So those are my tips for for lobbing the bat for lobbing the basketball and then how to time how to time that up as well. I had a ton of tips that as I was talking, but that that went through my mind.

Isaiah: 16:17

I completely forgot about them. Another one. For finishing dunks. You always wanna flick down as you finish. This is especially important if you're trying to do a trick dunk where you barely have enough bounce for it, or if you're barely able to dunk, or if you're trying to get your first dunk.

Isaiah: 16:31

When you're dunking, you want as much of your hand over the ball as possible. However, if you can only get half of your hand over the rim, you gotta use your fingers to flick and you can't afford to dunk it hard at that if you're jumping that high. The higher you jump, the more room for air you have. You can get more of your your hand over the ball, but the issue with that, the more of your hand goes over the ball, the ball's this big. Right?

Isaiah: 16:56

You're gonna have to get almost elbow level if you're completely cuffed as you're finishing. So what you do is you wanna be cuffed as you're transferring or as you're doing a trick dunk. Then as you're coming up, you uncuff, uncuff, uncuff, let the ball cross over the rim and then flick down as you finish. A drill to practice this, practice on a on a rim where you can dunk without jumping, ideally where you only have half your hand, and then just practice finishing dunks. And then practice finishing dunks harder.

Isaiah: 17:23

Then practice doing windmills and east bays, and then finishing. And accelerate through. When you're in the air, you don't slow down as you finish. A really common mistake when guys are low rimming while standing is they slow down, but make sure you accelerate throughout the entire motion of the dunk. And you're gonna become a beast at finishing dunks with that drill.

Isaiah: 17:46

Off the dribble tips. Drive the ball up hard. Punch the ball into the air when you're dunking off the dribble, and if you're doing any trick dunk off the dribble. Second thing, pump the ball up to around head height or slightly above head height. Too often I see athletes that are trying to do a trick dunk off the dribble, they pump it to like chest level.

Isaiah: 18:08

You're gonna be able to get the motion started a lot more quickly, but you're gonna you're gonna cut a lot of your jump height. So the sweet spot that I have found for most dunks is pump it to around head height, and that's kind of a good combination between jump height and having enough time to hit to do the trick while you're in the air. Next one, pistol Pete Maravich drills. I want you guys to Google pistol Pete Maravich drills. There's three of them I believe.

Isaiah: 18:36

Do those every single day, a 100 reps each of them. Now you might be trying to do the math and you're like, Isaiah, there's a lot of drills. A 100 reps would take me like three hours a day to do it. Exactly. That's what I did when I was in high school.

Isaiah: 18:50

When I was in high school, I did ball handling for two to three hours every single day and it is why I have one of the best hands in the dunk world today. And why I can pick up dunks and learn them like this. Because those drills have some of the best transfer to dunking and transferring the ball and lobbing the ball and finishing dunks and catching a lob and timing. Some of the best transfer to all of those motor patterns, and you can't really replicate them with anything else aside from actually low rimming. So look those videos up, do a 100 each, every single day of those, and you will level up like crazy.

Isaiah: 19:27

Next, film your dunks. Film every single session, look at your dunks, study your technique, and then I want you to compare an elite dunker doing the dunk you're trying to learn, and compare it frame by frame. And I I literally mean frame by frame. On let's say it's a right left and a right left. Where did I plant my first right step?

Isaiah: 19:45

Okay. That's where his step was. All the way up to the frame by frame through the entirety of the entire approach, and then frame by frame when they're doing the trick duck, and then compare it to yours. Where am I putting the hand versus where you're putting the hand on an East Bay? Alright?

Isaiah: 19:58

How am I transferring the ball? And the best people to study are the ones that barely hit the dunk. Because what happens if you're studying someone that has a ton of bounce and they're crushing dunks, you can get away with bad technique. But study people that hit that dunk for the first time with like barely any room. Those are the athletes that have the best dunk technique.

Isaiah: 20:21

Next, variations in losing the ball and how to adjust. So when you're doing a transfer, I'm gonna just talk about East for now, but the same thing applies for like behind the back dunks as well and other transfers. In East Bay, if you're losing the ball, right, so the technique for it is you put the ball here, hand is under the ball, and then you finish. If the ball is rolling out this way, right, so if you're coming up and the ball is rolling out of your hand this way, that means you need to get more under the ball. So get that elbow back, hand under the ball, and you are probably going to finish and then just stay cuffed the entire way.

Isaiah: 20:54

So every cue that I always give during any transfer, three sixty me on the back is perfect for this. I'm getting under the ball, elbow back, and then I'm keeping my hand cuffed as I'm coming up. And that's every single transfer that you ever do. Okay? And then the final tip, missing dunks and how to adjust.

Isaiah: 21:13

If you are front rimming a dunk like this, probably just not jumping high enough. There's five things you can change in your approach, how you're driving the ball up, where you're catching the ball to where you you can finish a little higher up, but you need to change something that makes you get higher up. Okay? Jump higher, the number one tip. If you are rim stuffing on top of the rim, right here, that is the best finish that you can do.

Isaiah: 21:38

You just need to change the timing of how you're flicking the ball, but that basically means that you can hit the dunk. That is the best miss you can have. Back rimming. Back rimming means you're either jumping from too far, so I would jump from closer and then go more straight up in the air. It could also mean you're not high enough, so that happens a lot if a guy's not high enough, and then they kinda throw the ball at the rim instead of trying to dunk it downwards.

Isaiah: 22:03

And then which brings me to the last mistake is you're not getting on top of the ball enough. So if you're backrooming, you also need to get more of your hand over the ball or flick down as you finish a little more. Alright? Okay. Those are all the random dunking tips that I have.

Isaiah: 22:19

If you found this video valuable, please like the video. And if you're on a podcast platform, give it a five star. And like always, go to thpstrength.com if you wanna jump higher. And I can analyze your dunks whenever you want. You can literally send me videos of you dunking whenever if you're a THP athlete, I will help you with your dunk technique.

Isaiah: 22:38

Having said that, I will catch y'all in the next video. Peace out.