On a late winter afternoon in New York at some basketball courts by the Great Lawn in Central Park, my hands jammed into my hoodie pockets, I waited for my pal Nathaniel.It was crisp, still cold enough to see the breath puff in front of your face, especially if you were winded. An old Spalding street ball, circa 1988, dug out from my childhood closet, sat on the ground between my feet.
Description:
It's a dream probably most men have: to be able to dunk a basketball into a 10' (regulation- height) hoop. Oh, sure, we can slam it into our kid's plastic mini-hoops, toss Nerf balls into office back-of-the-door rings, or even occasionally stuff a tennis ball over the rim. But putting a real basketball into a real hoop is always the holy grail. Even Barack Obama has this dream:
The book follows his months of preparation, from being measured and evaluated by the Performance Lab of the Hospital for Special Surgery to identify "capabilities" and "deficiencies," to formulating diet and exercise plans to lose 25 pounds, to lowering his body fat to 10%, and finally adding five inches to his vertical jump.
And he is dogged in his commitment to do this. Page after page describe his pursuit of this goal in a variety of ways, including interviews with experts in physical and dietary fields, working out with former athletes, and generally turning over every stone to improve his body. He writes of the exploits of noted jumpers like Dick Fosbury (high jumping Olympic gold medalist), Spud Webb (5"8" NBA dunk champion), Michael Jordan (NBA all-time great dunker), and Brittney Griner (6'8" WNBA player, the first woman to dunk in a college game).
Along the way, he makes several discoveries about himself, training, and the dunk itself. He describes the history of the dunked basketball, the silly NCAA rule banning the dunk from the college game for 10 years, and the creativity and power behind the dunks perfected by Black players. He tries shoes which are banned by the NBA for giving a jumping advantage to their wearers (they didn't work for the author). He eliminated carbs, alcohol, and sweets from his diet, and made his drink of choice "Hell's water" (non-fat milk).
Price is a personable, everyman sort of writer who draws you into his quest with his skilled writing and complete honesty in sharing both his hopes and frustrations. He paints a clear picture of each new endeavor, each new technique that might bring him closer to his goal, and of course each frustration with his own age, body, and gravity.
Mentally Price has no doubts he will succeed, although the improvements are slow in coming. But they do come. But will they be enough to finally, after 365 days of work, to slam dunk a basketball? You'll have to wait until the final pages to read the results of his dunk test - I won't tell).
In 2008, candidate Barack Obama was asked whether he'd rather be the president of Julius Erving, the great dunker of the 1970s and early 1980s, in his prime. "The Doctor," he said like a shot. "I think any kid growing up, if you got a chance to throw down the ball from the free-throw line, that's better than just about anything." [Obama first dunked when he was 16]Asher Price, author of The Year of the Dunk: A Modest Defiance of Gravity, does more than just think about dunking. He pledges to pursue every means possible to get his 33-year-old, 6' 2", 21% body fat body up high enough to actually stuff the basketball on a regulation goal. He gives himself one year to train using any means possible except using "medical-grade material to make myself jump higher."
The book follows his months of preparation, from being measured and evaluated by the Performance Lab of the Hospital for Special Surgery to identify "capabilities" and "deficiencies," to formulating diet and exercise plans to lose 25 pounds, to lowering his body fat to 10%, and finally adding five inches to his vertical jump.
And he is dogged in his commitment to do this. Page after page describe his pursuit of this goal in a variety of ways, including interviews with experts in physical and dietary fields, working out with former athletes, and generally turning over every stone to improve his body. He writes of the exploits of noted jumpers like Dick Fosbury (high jumping Olympic gold medalist), Spud Webb (5"8" NBA dunk champion), Michael Jordan (NBA all-time great dunker), and Brittney Griner (6'8" WNBA player, the first woman to dunk in a college game).
Along the way, he makes several discoveries about himself, training, and the dunk itself. He describes the history of the dunked basketball, the silly NCAA rule banning the dunk from the college game for 10 years, and the creativity and power behind the dunks perfected by Black players. He tries shoes which are banned by the NBA for giving a jumping advantage to their wearers (they didn't work for the author). He eliminated carbs, alcohol, and sweets from his diet, and made his drink of choice "Hell's water" (non-fat milk).
Price is a personable, everyman sort of writer who draws you into his quest with his skilled writing and complete honesty in sharing both his hopes and frustrations. He paints a clear picture of each new endeavor, each new technique that might bring him closer to his goal, and of course each frustration with his own age, body, and gravity.
Mentally Price has no doubts he will succeed, although the improvements are slow in coming. But they do come. But will they be enough to finally, after 365 days of work, to slam dunk a basketball? You'll have to wait until the final pages to read the results of his dunk test - I won't tell).
If this book interests you, be sure to check out:
Jacobs, A.J. Drop Dead Healthy: One Man's Quest for Bodily Perfection
Very serious, very humorous account of the author's attempt to pursue all fitness trends and find out what diets, mental training, and exercise actually make him healthy and fit, and which ones don't. (previously reviewed here)
