Hi!!
I am 6'2'' and have a standing reach of 8'0''. I can touch the tip of my fingers with the ring (occasionally). I have been working with plyometrics for about 6 months. Do you think I will ever be able to dunk? How long it will take me to accomplish that?? (I am 17)
Regards..
Ali Raza

Ali -

Keep working at it. My son (15) is 6'2" and just started to dunk this year. It looks pretty funky though and he's not 100% consistent. One thing that helped him is dunking different balls before trying a basketball. He can consistently dunk volleyballs, soccer balls, and footballs.

Which plyometric exercises did he do? There are a lot of different programmes on internet which contradict each other; one becomes baffled as to which course to take. Can you kindly guide me which exercises are appropriate for this purpose.

Ali -

Keep in mind that genetics, body type, diet, and athleticism all play a part in a person's vertical jump. I know there are programs out there that guarantee an increase of 10"-20" in your vertical. And we've all seen the videos with the 5'5" guys throwing down the 360°-under-the-leg-reverse-dunk. The reality is, it takes a lot of effort and commitment to increase a vertical, just like any other skill in basketball.

To answer your question, my son looked at a lot of those programs online and decided most of them cost too much money. He was working with a private coach who gave him a set of exercises he could do on his own that were safe. Quite honestly, a lot of them were just simple jumping.exercises. Lunges, standing broad jumps, slalom jumps over cones, skipping rope, power skipping, just to name a few. My son used 2.5 weights in each hand and would do squat jumps. His coach also worked in a basketball when he could, so he didn't get bored.

In between all that, my son constantly was jumping up and slapping the backboard or trying to touch the rim. He also constantly tried to dunk things. He started with a tennis ball and worked his way up. Keep in mind wasn't slam dunking every time, he'd get one out of every three attempts.

He used this site to grab some ideas and just came up with workouts on his own by using the site and his coach:
http://msuathletics.ru/books/bible/vert_jump_bible.pdf

In the end, you'll have to find something that works for you. If you make a commitment to do it on a regular basis, you'll see results.

Hopefully this helps!

Best of luck!

Thanks a lot for your painstaking help...!!!