Now its time to face reality - what are the physical obstacles between me and a dunk?
First, the rim of the basket is 10 feet off the ground - 120 inches.
A basketball is 10 inches in diameter.
That means I'll have to be able to carry a basketball, at the minimum, 130 inches into the air.
With shoes on, I stand 5'11" - 71 inches.
My arms extend 18 inches above the top of my head, giving me an effective height of 89 inches.
That means I'll need to jump, at the minimum, 41 inches off the ground.
Now I'm a little intimidated. Football players have 40-inch verticals. Biology teachers recovering from surgery do not. But there are other considerations. One, I doubt I'll be doing a pure vertical. Most likely the only way I'll get up to the rim is by taking a running leap. Two, since I'll leaping rather than jumping, I can use the momentum of my arms for additional thrust away from Earth's surface. Third, I weigh a lot less than a football player, so maybe that'll work to my benefit. I haven't had a chance to weigh myself or measure my vertical, but I'll do those when I go to the gym next.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Dunking for Health
I do have a second, more humane reason for wanting to dunk a basketball: it will help me recover from surgery.
On 11/24/09, I had arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn labrum. Think of it like this: your shoulder and hip are the same type of joint. It's like a ball in a socket, allowing for a large range of motion. In order to keep the "ball" of your bone in the "socket", there is a thick ring of connective tissue. This ring is called the labrum (in your shoulder its commonly called the rotator cuff).
In order to perform the surgery with scopes they had to dislocate my hip and keep it separated for about an hour and a half. Add this to the surgery itself, and the expected recovery time is anywhere from three to six months, including physical therapy. I've had this torn labrum for almost 5 years however, so I was lucky in that it could be fixed relatively simply, and a few months of PT is a small price to pay. Here's me, pre-surgery:
Before the surgery I was running 4-5 miles three times a week. I also worked out in a weight room. Since the surgery however I've been more or less immobile. This was fine when I still had Percocet to keep me entertained, but when the prescription ran out I was stuck on a couch. I slowly built my way up to walking for short periods, then the whole day, and recently I started using a cycle at the gym.
Dunking a basketball will require maximum efficiency from my lower body. The types of exercises and stretching I'll need to do should shoehorn in nicely with my surgery recovery. I can't run or jump yet - that might be as much as a month away - but I can start building the foundation of a successful slam dunk by strengthening my lower body through my mandated physical therapy.
On 11/24/09, I had arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn labrum. Think of it like this: your shoulder and hip are the same type of joint. It's like a ball in a socket, allowing for a large range of motion. In order to keep the "ball" of your bone in the "socket", there is a thick ring of connective tissue. This ring is called the labrum (in your shoulder its commonly called the rotator cuff).
In order to perform the surgery with scopes they had to dislocate my hip and keep it separated for about an hour and a half. Add this to the surgery itself, and the expected recovery time is anywhere from three to six months, including physical therapy. I've had this torn labrum for almost 5 years however, so I was lucky in that it could be fixed relatively simply, and a few months of PT is a small price to pay. Here's me, pre-surgery:
Before the surgery I was running 4-5 miles three times a week. I also worked out in a weight room. Since the surgery however I've been more or less immobile. This was fine when I still had Percocet to keep me entertained, but when the prescription ran out I was stuck on a couch. I slowly built my way up to walking for short periods, then the whole day, and recently I started using a cycle at the gym.
Dunking a basketball will require maximum efficiency from my lower body. The types of exercises and stretching I'll need to do should shoehorn in nicely with my surgery recovery. I can't run or jump yet - that might be as much as a month away - but I can start building the foundation of a successful slam dunk by strengthening my lower body through my mandated physical therapy.
New Year's Resolution for 2010
I have started this blog to track my progress on my new year's resolution for 2010: Dunk a basketball.
Dunking has long been recognized as one of the most awesome things you can do. There are many opportunities in sports, and in life, for expressing your dominance over another individual. For example, in football you may bowl someone over to score a touchdown, or in a restaurant you can make a customer eat your spit. But dunking a basketball over someone may be the single best way to destroy another person's will.
While watching the NBA and going to a few Hawks games, I always enjoyed the monster dunks of players, either over or through other players, a high-flying alley-oop, or a breakaway show-stopper. The dunk immediately gets the crowd in the game and can swing momentum. It is a single play with a large impact.
So for 2010 I want to be able to dunk a basketball. I know I won't be able to fly from the free throw line or drop a windmill slam dunk. But I do want to reach that level of athleticism and prowess where I can definitively say, I can dunk a basketball.
Dunking has long been recognized as one of the most awesome things you can do. There are many opportunities in sports, and in life, for expressing your dominance over another individual. For example, in football you may bowl someone over to score a touchdown, or in a restaurant you can make a customer eat your spit. But dunking a basketball over someone may be the single best way to destroy another person's will.
While watching the NBA and going to a few Hawks games, I always enjoyed the monster dunks of players, either over or through other players, a high-flying alley-oop, or a breakaway show-stopper. The dunk immediately gets the crowd in the game and can swing momentum. It is a single play with a large impact.
So for 2010 I want to be able to dunk a basketball. I know I won't be able to fly from the free throw line or drop a windmill slam dunk. But I do want to reach that level of athleticism and prowess where I can definitively say, I can dunk a basketball.
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