This question has probably been posed a thousand times (and people probably sick of responding to it), but I'll ask anyway (also with not being able to use the search function makes it hard to find already posted answers). I'm after some guides/programs aimed at increasing my vertical jump. I'm about 5'10 and can *just* touch the ring on a 10' hoop. My goal is to be able to dunk by the end of the calender year (which is not unreasonable), but not sure what excercises/routines work and which are the best ones. I play basketball pretty much all year round and have started lifting weights recently. Can anyone recommend either: 1. Weight lifting excercises that work (combined with any plyometric/aerobic excercises as needed); or 2. A FREE guide/program that I can follow. Discipline is not a problem, and I will see something through to the end if it is going to work for me.
I did these exercises when I was in High school off a blue small booklet I ordered from the back of SPORT Magazine. These added about 3" to my reach, 5"-6" to my jump. Consult physician before attempting any strenous exercise. Eat plenty of carbohydrates. 1. calf lifts: lift heel up, hold for 10 seconds, return. Repetitions increasing by 10. Use fingers behind your back to hold on to the wall if necessary. 2. power squat switches: face mirror. take large step forward. keep legs open. lock fingers behind back of the head. squat, then jump, using burst of energy. while in mid air, switch legs and come back down. Reps increase by 10. DO NOT TOUCH knees when switching. 3. power jumps: under the basket, jump and reach as high as you can. when you come back down, try jumping UP again as fast as you can. touch the board as high as possible each time. Repeat until you can't. Try again. Do as many as 10 at least. 4. sprint. gives you the strength to rebound, then return to the other basket, plus builds your lungs. Jog, then run/sprint the straightaway, come back to jogging. Hope these help. EDIT: I am 5'9" now and used to touch the rim, but never anything close to dunking. Now my knees are bad and can't touch the rim anymore.
I would say you could always take dumbells at your side and do calf raises, I heard Air Alert works, might not be free, but might be able to find it on ebay for pretty cheap.
dunking while just messing around is one thing, but dunking during a game is completely different. A regulation basketball is about 9 inches in diameter. You'll need to add that, plus an extra 3-4 inches to get your hand on top of the basketball while dunking, depending on whether you can palm the ball or not. If you can just barely touch the rim now, you'll probably need to add at least 12 inches to your vertical. That's pretty much unheard of for a person that will be 26 in July... ...better work on that jumper...
First of all let me tell you that I am 5'9". Dunking is something that you have to work on. A lot of it is mental for shorter people. If you can touch the rim now, get a tennis ball and try dunking it. Once you can consistently dunk a tennis ball, move up to one of those palm sized rubber basketballs. Spend time concentrating on your calves. Strong calf muscles can get you an extra couple inches in your jump. Also, figure out which is best for you, jumping off one leg or two. After you master dunking the small rubber basketball, move up to a real ball. This whole process could take several months, but if you practice everyday, your legs will become stronger. For me, I was dunking tennis balls in the 8th grade, small rubber basketballs in the 9th, and real basketballs in the 10th. Hope this helps....
Have you tried doing squats with weights? I've heard wind sprints help too. Also how old are you? If you're still in your teens you still have a chance to grow and may naturally get tall enough to dunk.
Back in high school, we had 3 wooden boxes of 3 different hights. Jumping off of 2 feet and no use of the hands we would jump to one, then the next one, then the last one. Doing that for a couple of months (about 10 reps every other day) had my vert go from about 24" to 31". Calf strength isn't all you need. You need to also build strength in your hamstrings and quads.
