About

What is the Can He Dunk Challenge?

Last season’s groundbreaking online reality show, the Can He Dunk? Project, was a huge success. We are confident this year will be even better!

We selected 9 high school basketball players who could not dunk a basketball to participate in a rigorous 10 week training program. We documented their progress by filming 2 weekly dunk attempts. There will only be one question at the end of the 10 weeks… Can He Dunk? Meet the Participants

Player Selection

On Saturday, March 12, 2011 we held an exclusive try-out for 20 area players. The try-out consisted of the following:

• Height / weight / standing reach measurements
• Vertical jump test
• 2 dunk attempts
• Interview questions

Inspiration and Purpose

The purpose of this project is to show the world the realistic results you can achieve from proper training.We aim to prove how fraudulent those folks are that claim they can help you get a 50” vertical or improve your vertical jump by 12 inches in 6 weeks (click here to read about these Vertical Jump Con Artists). We make no promise that any of the participants will be able to dunk. We are merely showing real players attaining real results.

Guidelines for the Challenge

• All players are in high school and could not dunk a basketball at the beginning of this program.
• All players will participate in 2 supervised workouts per week (optional 3rd workout).
• All players will get 2 dunk attempts per week.
• Players may choose to jump off one foot or two. Whichever take-off they choose they will continue that approach for all practice and filmed dunk attempts.
• Players are asked not to participate in any additional strength & conditioning workouts.
• Players are encouraged to work on their basketball fundamentals and play AAU.
• Each week the players attempted 6 practice dunks with a smaller ball (tennis ball, souvenir ball, and Jr. ballTennis, souvenir, junior, and regulation balls). Once they could dunk a certain size ball, they moved up the next biggest ball.
• As an integral part of the program, we intentionally chose to have the players perform their dunks on a basket that was 1” too high. The basket measures 10 feet 1 inches from the floor to the top edge of the rimRim Height: 10 feet 1 inches from the floor. All 10 weeks worth of dunk attempts will be filmed on this basket for consistency.
• Components that make the Can He Dunk program unique:
  
  
  1. Assigned corrective exercises based on individual weaknesses
  2. Exercises were chosen based on being a 1 foot jumper or a 2 foot jumper
  3. Practice dunks performed with smaller balls
  4. Watched film of dunk attempts (to reinforce success and to learn from mistakes)
  5. Program consisted of only two weekly workouts (with optional 3rd day)
     
     

Workouts

• Each player will participate in a supervised workout twice a week (either Monday / Wednesday or Tuesday / Thursday) for the full 10 weeks. There is an optional workout held on Saturdays.
• All players will follow the same overall workout template. The only difference is the exercises for the one foot jumpers are different than the exercises for the 2 foot jumpers. The exercises for the one foot jumpers are primarily iso-lateral (worked one leg at a time) and the exercises for the two foot jumpers are primarily bi-lateral (worked both legs together).
• Players are asked to perform a handful of specific stretches/exercises to do on their own before each workout based on their individual weaknesses.

Workout Template:

Activity	Description
Pre-workout (15 minutes)	Specific / individual exercises and stretches
Warm-up (10 minutes)	Series of low level jumps, full body movements, and dynamic flexibility exercises
Practice Dunks (10 minutes)	6 practice attempts with assigned ball (tennis ball, souvenir ball, or Jr. ball)
Plyometrics (12 minutes)	Series of explosive movements for the lower body
Lower Body (15 minutes)	Series of strength movements for the lower body
Upper Body / Core (12 minutes)	Series of strength movements for the upper body and core