I'm C.J. Champion and I'm a professional dunker.
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I perform in the best dunk contest across the world;
Dunk League, Dunk king, Kings of Air you name it.
Today I've been challenged to explain dunking
and 21 levels of increasing complexity.
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The things that can make a dunk really good,
obviously is the technicality, the way it looks,
the style in the air and then how clean
and how hard you finish the dunk.
Also, how high you jump.
Important to note every dunker jumps completely different
they'll have their own interpretation for this challenge.
Level one, Basic Dunk.
The very first steps to learn how to jump and dunk
you gotta start with footwork.
So, today we're gonna lower the rim down
to eight foot five, this is where most people would start.
I am a left-right, left-handed jumper.
As I approach the rim, my left foot blocks
and my right foot plants and then I jump straight up.
The block foot, it's the foot that comes down first
after your penultimate step.
Penultimate is the step you take
before you go into your jump.
Now that we got the footwork out of the way,
let's move the rim up to 10 feet and get some real dunks.
Level two, Assisted Lob Dunk.
So, this is the easiest way to land your first dunk
on a regulation size room.
All you need to do is have somebody throw the ball
right in front of the rim, and then you just go and get it.
But there's a few things to make this work.
First off, this is really easy because
you're able to get a full run-up approach
and a full arm swing before catching the ball and dunking.
The arm swing matters.
It's really important to be able to get
a higher vertical jump, the arm swing
as you swing your arms back and then propel them forward
the arm swing gives you some momentum.
Your able to just jump higher
versus having a ball on your hand.
The other thing too is absorbing the ball.
As the ball is coming down and your hand is coming up
you have to control the ball.
Your arm isn't gonna be fully straight,
you need to absorb it a little bit, have control,
and then finish the dunk straight down into the rim.
So to complete this dunk, you only need about four inches
over the rim.
If you can grab the rim, you can just about do this dunk.
You don't need to know how to palm a basketball
to be able to dunk.
In this case it's just keeping control
of the ball right here.
Level three, Hand-off Dunk.
Using a hand-off is pretty self-explanatory.
Basically all you do is you have somebody hold the ball out
in front for you and you just go get it.
It's useful because you have a lot less variables
and you can have the ball position in the same place
every single time you go up for a dunk.
Mastering, a hand-off dunk is crucial for being able
to experiment with more trick dunks as we'll get to later.
It also makes trick dunks a lot more consistent.
Level four, Off Dribble Dunk.
Off dribble dunks is mostly
what you see in basketball games.
This dunk is more complex than the assisted lob dunk,
because you need to have control of the basketball.
Being able to go into a full approach
with the basketball while dribbling.
There's a few things that make it difficult.
Obviously you need some coordination.
You need to know how to dribble a basketball
and push it out in front of you
as you're gaining speed and going up for the approach.
You need to jump higher for this one.
The other thing too is your arm swing is cut.
What happens is, as you gather you're gonna pump
the ball straight up and as you're coming up
the other thing you have to focus on is your off-hand.
In my case is my right hand.
You're pushing very hard into your dunk hand
in my case which is the left hand.
So I'm bringing the ball all the way up with two hands,
all the way to the very top and then keeping control of it
and then finishing straight down.
It's not as simple as running up and jumping
as high as you came with the ball,
you have to think about the control and the coordination.
It's all about the off-hand pushing into your dunk hand.
A lot of times people say I can't palm a basketball
so that means I can't dunk it.
That's not the case.
I wasn't able to palm a basketball before doing this dunk,
Having your hand above the ball, just like this,
and having your off-hand, push it into your left
that's all you need.
You don't need to have to palm it.
You're pushing it all the way up
until you're reaching the max height and then you're pushing
the ball straight down.
Level five, Self-Lob Dunk.
This dunk increases complexity because it requires;
precision, timing and control.
You're throwing the ball yourself.
So, you're standing maybe around three point line
you throw the ball pretty high way above the rim
you let it bounce on the ground once
and that's when you run up, catch it
and then finish the dunk.
So what makes this difficult is the precision of the lob.
If you're not a very high jumper
it has to be pretty close to the rim
that way you can get close and finish the dunk.
You need control of the ball into your hand
if you're doing this with one hand,
you have to absorb it a little bit, have good control,
so that way you can bring it up to finish the dunk.
Timing wise, your steps need to bring you to the ball
as it hits its peak.
When you throw the lob, you're not approaching immediately.
You might have to wait a half a second to a second
before you start your approach.
That way when you jump, you're gonna be reaching the ball
at it's peak after the bounce.
Level Six Backboard Dunk.
We're increasing complexity here by throwing the basketball
off of the backboard, it coming back to you,
catching it and then finishing the dunk.
There's a few things that make this dunk
a little bit more difficult than a self-lob
the accuracy of throwing it off the backboard
you have to get it just right.
As you're approaching and throwing the ball off
of the backboard there's a lot of things that can go wrong.
It can prevent you from having the perfect catch.
As you're throwing it off the backboard
your approach is already compromised.
Your approach might be a little bit shorter.
You might stutter.
A lot of times you'll see a stutter
as they throw it off the backboard,
you have to focus on throwing it a good pass.
and as you're doing that sometimes
you might add an extra hop into your step
so, it's not gonna be a very fluid motion.
And when you have that halt
or if you ever have a stutter in your approach
you won't jump as high.
The other thing is the catch.
So, the ball is gonna be coming at you a lot faster,
a lot speedier getting control of the ball
it's a little bit different in this case.
You have to absorb a lot more, which means
your arm might come back further away from the rim
a little bit more.
Once you have control
then you have to bring it back up straight to the rim.
Level seven, Two-Hand Tomahawk.
with this dunk, we're gonna get into some more trick dunks.
So, a tip that most people might not think about
when attempting this dunk, after your jump
you're gonna pump the ball straight up
as if you're just gonna do a two-hand dunk
but as soon as you come straight up
then that's when you bring the ball.
It's not a one full swinging motion basically
like going into a standard two hand dunk first
but then you're bringing it back into a two-hand tomahawk
and then finish it on.
There is an unspoken threshold of what a tomahawk is.
When I say threshold it's how far back you bring the ball.
Most of us dunkers will say there is an invisible line
we just want the ball to come back here basically.
If the ball doesn't come near that far back,
that's a baby tomahawk.
It's not a real tomahawk.
Level eight, Windmill Dunk.
We're increasing complexity here because
there's a lot more travel that the ball needs to do
to complete this dunk.
What happens is, after you pump up,
you're gonna swing the ball in a swinging motion
all the way down and all the way back up
just like a windmill.
The key thing that you need to focus on here
is your off-hand.
My right hand as I pump up, it's gonna be pushing very hard
into my left hand all the way through the motion
and I'm not stopping the push just at the very bottom
of the motion.
I'm bringing it back up with two hands
and then I'm letting go at the top
and then finishing with my left hand.
Level Nine, 360 Dunk.
We're increasing complexity with this dunk
because you're not actually always looking at the rim.
So, twisting in the air can actually be disorienting,
especially for me as a more hip dominant jumper
who needs more speed into the dunk.
The more speed you get into a 360,
the more things that can go off.
For example, I might be tilted in the air like that,
and that makes finishing the dunk a bit harder.
When I cover distance on a 360,
there's a small window to hit this dunk
because you're passing the rim
so you have to spin, find the rim and finish
versus somebody who's more knee dominant.
They're able to come a bit slower.
They're able to jump more straight up and down
without covering too much distance
and that makes their window to finish a dunk a lot larger.
Level 10, Push-off Windmill.
A lot of the times in dunk competitions,
you will see somebody being set up as a prop for a dunk.
If you see that ball being placed on their head
or on their neck, that's gonna be a push-off dunk.
So, this is a big controversy in the dunk world right now
when you see a dunk like this, you might think
wow, that looks amazing.
Most of the time in contests this gets really high scores,
but it's called push-off windmill because
what you're doing, you're pushing off of their head.
You're pushing the ball straight down into your head,
getting a bit of a boost, kinda like leapfrog.
This gonna add maybe four inches to your vert.
People get away with it because if you're a high jumper,
it's almost invisible.
It's not very easy to see.
There is one thing that does make this kind of difficult is
you're actually jumping over somebody
that could be a mental block in itself.
This isn't just a physical dunk,
it is a mental dunk.
It does require a good amount of confidence.
The good thing about push-off dunks is
it does open the door for very highly technical dunks
later on that we'll get into.
Now that we understand push-off dunks,
we can increase complexity by doing a backwards dunk.
Level 11, Double Up X.
With the double up X what's happening here
you're gonna get hands on the ball pretty quickly
and then you're gonna be pushing straight down,
giving you that extra boost and without looking at the rim,
you just gonna finish two hands backwards.
Now that we've learned the reverse dunk,
we're gonna increase the complexity
by basically doing the same dunk but without a push-off.
Level 12, Reverse Pump.
It may look easier, but I'll tell you, it's really not.
Coming off the dribble you're gonna be coming at the rim
at an angle and then basically as you jump,
your back is almost gonna be facing the rim.
You're gonna pump the ball straight up
and you wanna bring the ball with straight arms,
straight back down and again there's another threshold
that you wanna pass.
You wanna get the ball down between your legs
as you're bringing your legs up.
And then you have to bring the ball straight back again
and finish the dunk.
You're moving the ball against your momentum
so it does require a good amount of physicality.
This is a pretty stylish dunk.
The higher you jump and the longer you hold that pose
the cooler it looks.
Level 13, Two-Hand Reverse Windmill.
We're increasing complexity here by combining two dunks
that we've already done.
We have the reverse pump and the windmill.
This is one of those dunks
that requires good amount of physicality.
On takeoff, I like to have my right shoulder facing the rim
so, as I'm jumping my whole body is rotated
maybe 45 to 90 degrees away from the rims.
and I pump straight up after the pump
it's a swinging motion like a windmill,
but you're doing this with two hands.
And as you're doing that you're rotating your body
a little bit more so your back is facing the rim
and you're bringing the ball straight back up
with two hands finishing backwards.
Having to twist your body in mid air with this dunk
does require a good amount of effort
and it does use up every muscle in your body.
Level 14, East Bay,
also known as the between the legs dunk.
This is a pretty big milestone dunk.
I think any hooper, basketball player,
they wanna be able to do this dunk.
So, to learn the two foot east bay,
it's almost like the ball path is the same ball path
as a windmill but what you need to do in my case
is I have to lift up my block foot, which is my left leg
so I'm in the air and I bring the ball down with one hand,
lift up my left leg and the ball has to go between
or underneath my hamstring over into my left hand
and then finish the dunk with my left hand.
The few things that make this dunk difficult
is the transfer and also being able to jump high enough.
You do need a good amount of vert
to be able to learn this dunk, what you have to do
again with that right hand your offhand
you're pumping up with the ball into your right hand
and then you're pushing as hard as you can
through and underneath your hamstring
and once it's all the way through we have to locate the rim
and finish up the rim.
Another thing to focus on is hand placement
as you come up with the ball,
my right-hand being my off-hand as I pump the ball,
my hand is gonna be almost on top of the ball
that way I can start the swinging motion really quick.
Versus if you pump the ball like this,
then you'll have to rotate your hand over the ball
and then start swinging through.
Level 15, Behind The Back Dunk.
The complexity increases here because of the transfer
is very difficult for a lot of people.
This is a pretty technical dunk.
The travel distance of the basketball
is pretty long here, making it pretty difficult.
To get this dunk done right with the transfer
it's all about hand positioning again.
What happens with this dunk is, as you pump straight up,
you're gonna bring the ball around behind your back,
collect it with your dunk hand
and then bring it back up to the rim and finish the dunk.
Everybody messes up this transfer because
it's difficult trying get it into your dunk hand
and bringing it up to the rim.
So, what you need to do is it's all about hand placement.
As you're transferring, as you're pushing
from your right hand over into your left
once you collect the ball
you want your hand almost underneath the basketball.
That way when you push up into this hand,
you're able to have more control as you bring the ball up.
Versus a lot of people tend to have their hand
way on top of the ball and you don't have enough strength
to bring the ball from your off-hand into your dominant hand
and bring it all the way up.
With this hand placement it is difficult
to bring the ball up against your momentum
as you're coming straight up.
Level 16, Double Up.
The double up dunk invented by T-Dub
is when you go between the legs over somebody.
The T-Dub version, he's not using a push-off
he's having somebody hold the ball straight up.
The version I'm doing here is more consistent
cause I am using a push off
as you see the ball's on his head.
I'm just doing this for more consistency.
As you approach your prop
or the guy that's holding the ball,
you really wanna quickly get your hand on top of the ball,
pushing down and then getting through.
What you have to also consider too,
is you're jumping over somebody, so you wanna clear them.
So, you're thinking about clearing somebody,
putting the ball between your legs,
getting a good control on your dunk hand
and then finishing at the rim.
Level 17, Reverse 360 Windmill.
With this dunk we are increasing complexity because
as we're twisting we're going against the grain.
We're going against your momentum as you're spinning.
With this dunk we are combining a 360
and we are combining a windmill.
You do need the perfect balance of speed on your approach
to get this done.
For me, what I need to do here is actually cut my approach
by about one step that allows me to go
a little bit slower and the slower I go,
the more straight up and down I can be as I do this dunk.
The only thing is it cuts my vertical
so I don't jump as high.
That's what makes this dunk difficult.
Level 18, the Slingshot.
The aim here is to jump and with your off-hand,
swing the ball way across your body into your dunk hand
and hold that position with the ball in one arm
and then you have to come all the way across your body again
with as much force as you can
to bring it toward the rim.
So, with swinging dunks like a windmill
or two-hand reverse windmill dunk,
the ball path provides momentum.
With this dunk specifically you're relying purely on
the physicality of your core shoulders and arms,
bringing the ball straight back and straight forward.
Level 19, the Honey Dip.
With this dunk, I'm gonna be dunking my entire forearm.
In my case, I'm actually jumping over somebody here
and then putting my entire forearm into the rim and hanging.
So, it's important that you hang
if you just put your elbow in and slide out
I don't call that a honey dip dunk.
Of all the dunks that I can do,
I believe this one is the most dangerous.
I feel like you can really hurt yourself.
I've hurt myself in the past.
Level 20, the Scorpion.
So, the scorpion dunk
is one of the most unique dunks out there.
We're increasing complexity here
by using extreme physicality to swing the ball down
and back around up toward the rim finishing blind
with one arm.
The variation that I show here is actually called
the cup scorpion so I'm not jumping over somebody
it's with a cup
you have to sweep the ball down before you bring it back up.
A lot of the times what happens
is people will swing the ball straight up toward the rim
instead of using a sweeping down motion
and that's not a true scorpion.
These days dunkers they're really pushing the limits
on what is and isn't possible.
There's a lot of combinations of these foundational dunks
that I've listed like 360 east bays
and you can get into crazy things like;
the crown, the kamikaze, the hide and seek,
the lost and found.
The possibilities are endless.
There's actually thousands maybe ten thousands of dunks
that are out there all with varying levels of complexity.
We covered a lot of things today
that I hope gives you better understanding
of the complex world of dunking.
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