Dunk Camp 2024
Getting my first dunk
Training
This week we will dispense with the pleasantries and jump into my training update. If you haven’t seen the IG account of The Dunk Camp, then you may not know that AFTER 1 1/2 YEARS OF DEDICATED TRAINING I GOT MY FIRST DUNK! I am beyond excited about it, and the fact that it happened at dunk camp is that much sweeter. Check it out below:
The last week was a whirlwind of excitement at dunk camp. I want to take the time to walk through my dunk camp experience, and discuss why I chose to sign up and participate. Let’s jump in (pun intended once again)!
Day 1
6:00 AM: Wake Up
6:30 AM: 15 minute walk and isometrics to see how my patellar tendinitis was feeling. I was feeling much improved from previous weeks and was feeling cautiously optimistic about getting my first dunk.
7:30 AM: In the car headed up to dunk camp!
8:00 AM: Checked in at camp, and got my standing reach measured, coming in at 91.5” (7’ 7.5”). That measurement was a little higher than measured previously (7’ 5.25”). (Some campers remeasured their reach later- I did NOT but hindsight is 20/20.)
9:00 AM: Introductions began, and the coaches for the week came out one by one: Austin Bourque, CJ Champion, Isaiah Rivera, John Evans, Daniel Back, Jonathan Clark, Jordan Southerland (AKA One Foot Good), Dominic Gonzales, and Dallon Findlay.
9:30 AM: An overview of how vertical jump testing would take place.
10:15 AM: I begin my warm up for vertical jump testing.
10:30 - 45 AM: Testing begins! My standing vertical jump measures in at 27.5”. My max approach vertical jump measures in at 35.5” and I am able to touch 10’ 6”. After hearing where I touched, John Evans tells me “Let’s go and get a dunk”. I made probably 5-10 attempts at a first dunk, but decided to stop. My left knee is getting to a 4-5/10 in pain after going hard for my first dunk.
11:15 AM: Class with Jasper Bibbs, former athletic trainer in the NBA and current owner of SportsFit Health and Performance Institute. He shared his amazing story of how he slept in his car for a month in order to intern with the Toronto Raptors and fulfill his dream of working in the NBA.
12:00 PM - 2:00 PM: Cafe Zupas for lunch! I had their Power Bowl to start the week- it was amazingly good- go get one if you are in Salt Lake! Isaiah Rivera attempted to break the world record for max vertical jump, but couldn’t quite hit 51”.
2:15 - 3:30 PM: First dunk session of the week. I was gassed from testing earlier, but I tried to do some of the low-level dunks to earn some of the “dunk level bands” they give out at camp. I was able to complete the dunks for the white band, and the light green band. You can see the overview of the dunk levels below:
3:30 PM: Cool down session with Daniel Back
Day 2
6:30 AM: Wake up
7:00 AM: 15-minute walk, isometrics, 4x6 slow back squats at 115 lbs.
8:30 AM: Drive to dunk camp.
9:00 AM: Jump technique breakdown by Isaiah Rivera, CJ Champion, and John Evans. We broke down footage of campers testing their verticals from the previous day and talked about how we could improve our jump technique to reach higher.
9:45 AM: Class with Daniel Back discussing “Dunk Life Lessons” my biggest takeaway was to “Train Like a Track Athlete”. For me that means I am going to start incorporating some of the sprinting I was previously skipping because of my shin splints.
11:00 AM: Jump technique practice, ball handling warm up, and dunk session practice. I was trying to take things really light here.
12:00 PM: Relaxed with a Mediterranean Bowl from Cafe Zupas.
1:00 PM: Class with Andy Nicholson (dunk camp founder) and Steven Celi. For me, my takeaways from this session were to get a DEXA scan to start monitoring my body fat % and assess my protein needs, and to GIVE MYSELF THE CHANCE FOR 7 HOURS OF SLEEP EVERY NIGHT. Sleep is easily one of the biggest challenges for me because I am always wanting to do too much.
2:15 PM : Jump technique and dunk practice round 2. I hit the recovery button and tried out the Rapid Reboot system they had on hand.
3:30 PM: Meditation and recovery with Jordan Kilganon. I ended up falling asleep during the meditation haha.
Day 3
6:30 AM: Wake up
7:30 AM: 15-minute walk, isometrics
8:00 AM: Drive to dunk camp
8:30 AM: Arrive early to camp. Talk with CJ Champion and Jonathan Clark a little bit. I am really glad I got there early this day, it gave me a chance to plan, focus, and connect before getting the day going.
9:00 AM: Dunk technique video breakdown with Jordan Kilganon. This was a really valuable session for me. They talked about the importance of aiming at the direct front of the rim as the best place to hit dunks. Jordan also emphasized the benefit of “rim stuff” misses as opposed to “back rim” misses. I “rim stuff” miss can more easily translate to a make later but a “back rim” will never go in.
9:45 AM: Finishing practice, lob practice, ball handling technique for dunking, and an overview of the world dunk association scoring system for dunk contests were all covered.
11:00 AM: Class with Isaiah Rivera and John Evans discussing how Isaiah has trained over the past 6 years to attempt to set the world record of a 51” vertical jump. The most interesting tidbit to me is that Isaiah no longer practices dunk technique. His entire focus is on jumping higher. That shows a lot of trust in all of the practice he did growing up. I was extremely impressed by that.
12:00 PM: Lunch time! A Nourish Bowl was on the menu for me today!
1:00 PM: Q&A session with pro dunkers and trainers. This was a really fun time. We got to hear about their takes on the Aaron Gordon vs. Zach Lavine 2016 dunk contest, some of their craziest “I never thought dunking would take me here” moments, and their advice on what events to take starting out your dunking career.
2:15 PM: Contests!
Contest 1: Ball handling.
The ball handling contest was based on a drill to prep for the hide and seek dunk. That dunk is as follows:
I really felt I had a shot at winning this contest. The drill is to pass the ball behind your back and catch it in front of you with your opposite hand. Without stopping you then make the same transfer around your back to your other hand. You then repeat over and over again. If you drop the ball or get stuck during the transfer you are out.
After a few people got eliminated the remaining participants got blindfolds and continued. I did really well with the blindfold on as I thought I would but dropped the ball with only a few other campers remaining. It was a missed opportunity but really fun.
Contest 2: Lob Practice
This contest consisted of throwing a pass into the air, and trying to get it to bounce to the right height into a hoop that was hung in front of the rim. I felt like I had a chance here too but just missed out on throwing my lob correctly.
Contest 3: Palm Wrestling
This is an interesting contest. Essentially two people try to palm a ball at the same time, on the agreed signal they both try to pull the ball out of the other competitor’s hand. Whoever is able to remove the ball from the other competitor’s hand wins.
I did not expect to do well here, and also didn’t completely understand the game at first. I bowed out in the first round.
3:30 PM: Conclusion of Day 3
Day 4
6:30 AM: Wake up.
7:00 AM: 15-minute walk and isometrics.
7:30 AM: Drive to dunk camp.
8:00 AM: Warm up for 8-foot dunk contest. I signed up to participate in the 8-foot hoop contest. I figured if I was at dunk camp I may as well participate in a dunk contest.
8:30 AM: Begin the 8-foot dunk contest. I had three dunks I did. My first two I executed on my first attempt, and my third took two attempts to put down.
Dunk 1: I did an in-air hand transfer from my left hand to my right hand and threw down a powerful slam with the “honey dip” finish (hanging from the rim with my elbow). This dunk easily got the best crowd reaction of all of my dunks.
Dunk 2: 360 dunk. I wanted to add a tomahawk finish, but it ended up being a pretty standard 360.
Dunk 3: Windmill off of a self bounce. This is a classic dunk but my inexperience meant I needed to really practice to get the height of my self-bounce right. I would have liked more extension on the windmill but it was still a good dunk.
As I expected, I bowed out after round 1 of the 8-foot contest. Other participants were throwing down windmill 360s, scorpions, and all other kinds of crazy technical dunks. I think my first dunk scored well but I was doomed after that.
9:00 AM: First dunk time! I knew after the 8-foot contest ended it was my chance to try for my first dunk. I had been resting up since Monday, and decided to go get it. Several other campers including Ambrose Amin and Paul Gold of Poland had gotten their first dunks shortly before me.
The full footage of the dunk can be seen here:
10:00 AM: The 9’ dunk contest finals got underway. The eventual champion was a kid from the “Team” I had been on throughout the week, Webster Guan, a PhD student out of MIT.
11:00 AM: 10’ dunk contest begins. It was an epic showdown and the finals came down to Hyrum Fechser of Utah and Finn of Ontario, Canada. Finn ended up pulling out the win and will be heading to a FIBA dunk contest in Edmonton, Canada!
12:00 PM: Korean Kick bowl from Cafe Zupas to finish out the week!
1:00 PM: Awards and closing ceremony. I received a “Level Up” band for hitting my first dunk, and the white, yellow, and light green bands for achieving those dunk levels during the week.
7:00 PM: Dunk show! The pros put on an awesome show. It was fun to see them use the vert trainer that premiered at dunk camp to see who could touch the highest point and see some incredible dunks. Isaiah had a clean eastbay dubble up, Kilganon went through two hoops on a windmill, Southerland jumped over a group of kids and ended things off with a “high jump dunk”.
You can see Jordan doing the high jump dunk at camp here:
Week Review
I could not have been more happy with my week at Dunk Camp. The experience was absolutely amazing and the sponsors did an incredible job of bringing the camp to another level. Big kudos to Cafe Zupas for the amazing lunches, G2G Bars for providing legitimately the best protein bars I have ever tasted, Lifetime Sports for giving every camper a great outdoor basketball and providing the adjustable hoops that make low-rim dunking possible at camp, Rapid Reboot for giving us the chance to refresh after going all out, and of course The Dunk Camp for the experience and giving us the opportunity to test our verticals on their new Vert Trainer.
I would legitimately give the experience a 10/10. Five stars. Two big thumbs up. Whatever rating system you want to use, it was worth every last penny.
That being said, some of you may still be thinking, “Cameron, you are 33-years-old and you just spent over $1000 to go spend a week with a bunch of 14 to 20-something-year-olds just to jump? You could have done that for free at the local YMCA.”
I would reply, “Touché.”
I would also reply, “I spent the whole past year making sure I could afford the money and the time away from work, but it was worth every penny to reach my dream of dunking basketball.”
In general, I would say I am a disciplined and motivated person. I may not have needed to go to dunk camp to dunk. However, I knew that by investing my time and money in the goal, it would make the payoff even sweeter for me. I also knew that I would push myself even more understanding that I would be joining up with a community of jumpers/dunkers trying to do the same thing as me. If there is one thing that I have learned in my life it is that even individual accomplishments are really achieved by a community.
With that being said, I want to personally thank all of the following people that have helped me to be able to say today that I have dunked a basketball:
God, Lauren Lambert (my amazing wife), Austen Lambert (the best two-year-old in the world), Elzada Lambert (the most beautiful 8-month-old I know), Denae Lambert, Loren Lambert, Connor Lambert, Landon Lambert, Noelle Barrus, Elzada Simmons, John Evans, Isaiah Rivera, Austin Bourque, Jordan Kilganon, Jonathan Clark, Kadour Ziani, Andy Nicholson, Jared Wadsworth of Uintah Spinal Health, the team at Bushnell Physical Therapy, Travis Chambers, Sage Maddux, Bryan Fowler, Luke Hsiao and many more that I will go on thanking as time goes on!
I am really indebted to everyone I have named and many other family members and friends. My dunk was nothing revolutionary, but it was revolutionary for my life. Thank you all!
Happy jumping everyone!
Great Recap Cameron! And great to meet you. The 1st dunk was great to see! My 2nd year at Dunk Camp and I can't fully explain why I go to most people. Best I can do is say it's similar to how some people want to run the a Marathon, Spartan race, or whatever the goal. It's an event that pushes you to prepare your body for something you otherwise probably wouldn't do. Yes, it cost $$, and time off work, but so do those other things. In the end dunk camp helped me be motivated to dunk last year, and now that I'm dunking more consistently, it pushes me to level up each year when my age suggests I should be getting worse over time. Also just a fun week for me.