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Isaiah Rivera, pro dunker, and John Evans discuss anything related to maximizing athletic performance, and in particular, jump training. Strength and conditioning, jumping technique, weight room practices, and general fitness and health tips and advice are shared on this podcast.
Today, we're gonna answer the three things that are most important to know to guess if you're gonna be able to dunk. This is assuming you're a five nine male with a seven eight standing reach. Looked up what the average that might be a little bit long for arms, but let's assume that that's what it is. Bro, there's some there are some Dude,
John:three inches is average, bro. Three three three is long. Three is huge.
Isaiah:We're around too many long arms.
John:Three inches is a lot of snow.
Isaiah:But, yeah, this is assuming you're a five nine person, average height. Will you be able to dunk one day? And how I posed the the question to John is I said, alright. You have to sell everything you own. You have to bet.
Isaiah:You have to bet it on this on the on the answer to this question. And you get an athlete, and you can only choose to know three things. You can't see how high they jump, but you have to choose three metrics. And based on those three metrics, do you think they'd be able to dunk or not? We're gonna go over what the three metrics we talked about are, and it'll I think you'll learn.
Isaiah:You'll learn it from from this podcast. Before we get into it, if you guys want to get coached by me and John, I'm Isaiah. I have a 50.5 inch vertical. John has coached four out of the six people who have officially recorded a 50 inch vertical. And if you wanna use the same training methods we use, go to thbstrength.com.
Isaiah:Link is in the description or in the pinned comment. You can get six free months when you buy the year plan. Having said that, John, what's the first thing you wanna know?
John:How much slower I am than you guys? No. I'm just kidding. Watching me sprint against you guys in Dom's video, I was like, why did he he makes me look so bad. Wait.
John:From today? Yeah. He posted it. I the video did not make me look very star studded because Dom's frequency is crazy compared to mine. Like, next to him at five eight.
Isaiah:Me sprinting next to you, I I felt like you were
John:Well, when I was sprinting next to you, but next to Dom, I looked slow because his ground contact times are so fast, and my positions are so shitty in comparison to his. That's irrelevant. Let's talk about let's talk about the three things that you need to you need to have if you're ever gonna dunk as a five nine male with a seven eight reach. Okay. The first thing to know, what's your percent body fat?
John:How fat are you? Are you under at least I don't like Careful with
Isaiah:what you say here. This is a very triggering question.
John:I know. What was your percent body fat?
Isaiah:Make the people angry. I don't care.
John:Yeah. What was your percent body fat? Eight. Eight point three or something?
Isaiah:Yeah. I think it was mid eights, maybe high eights. Okay.
John:It's called I think it's
Isaiah:Which is crazy because I think I'm lower right now.
John:I know. I think you are too. You definitely are lower now. I think you're probably, like, high sevens now. Yeah.
John:Low eights. You're looking lean. Like, I can tell when you're lean. You're looking lean. Yeah.
John:I can see all eight apps. So, yeah, let's say you probably have to be less than 15% body fat. If you're gonna be five nine with a seven eight reach, I mean, below 15 is, like, a pretty low bar to
Isaiah:Remember the question is people. The question is that. The question is, like, you have a mystery person and you find his metric. So you're telling me
John:Oh, this no. I'm saying, like, maybe he no. No. No. I'm saying, like, he has potential.
Isaiah:I'm saying, like, you have everything. Like, what percent body fat would you feel comfortable betting every single dollar?
John:Low as possible would be the answer.
Isaiah:How low? Like, what's your threshold? Like, they're under that number, you're like, okay. Like, that cross the money check off?
John:I mean, less than 10. Less than 10 for sure.
Isaiah:That's okay for me.
John:Low nines. Like, for, like, you wanna I guess the Yeah.
Isaiah:Like, if
John:you want a safe estimate for a five nine male, he's gotta be he's gotta be single digits for sure. Maybe even lower than nine would be like
Isaiah:Think about this is I mean, we're essentially describing Austin. Yes. Five nine. Austin's reached a seven five, I think. And think about how much he struggled.
Isaiah:Like, he's a freak athlete. Think about how much he struggled to dunk on 10 when he's been even That. 12%
John:Yeah. Body fat. It's way harder. As a one foot jumper too. As a two foot jumper, not as much, but as one foot jumper, for sure.
John:Like, immensely hard for him. Like, no I
Isaiah:would say sub 10. Like, a 100%. So if I wanna, like, okay. This person can probably dunk, sub 10.
John:Yeah. Okay. The next the next metric, if you're a five nine male with a seven eight reach, is gonna be jump technique. I think that jump technique is more telling than almost anything else. I could, Isaiah and I were talking about this before the podcast.
John:If I saw someone's jump technique all the way not the jump, but I just saw them approach, saw the plant, let's say it's a let's say it's a two foot jumper, and I saw the block foot and then through extension, arm swing, whatever else, I can pretty well tell if they're gonna be able to dunk based on that. It's it's a rhythm thing. It's a violence during the penultimate step. Steven Sully is actually a great perfect perfect illustration for this. If you're talking about someone who maxed out almost, like, I'd say, like, 85% of his potential.
John:Steven had more in the tank, but he had a lot of injuries. He technically was as good as you could possibly get. Like, he given his anatomy that's what I'm saying. Given his hip anatomy, dude, his technique was frigging incredible. Like and he never thought about it, dude.
John:He just launched the ball and ran as fast as he could. Like Yeah. He never thought about the language, but all the his step, he just would say, footwork. Footwork. That's what he'd always say, but he never worried about it.
John:No. I think I think you can just tell based on that. If you look like Steven Sully approaching, can have basketball. Like, that's, like, how I view it.
Isaiah:Yeah. I have something to say about Steven and then about me. I'll talk about me. Like, Steven me. Back back to me.
Isaiah:Back me.
John:Back to Back to me.
Isaiah:Back to me.
John:We backstory to that story, Steven Sully one time was sitting in the car with Isaiah and I. We were going to the mountains, he was quizzing me about his physiology and training. He didn't understand peeking at the time. This is, like, before training science was in the dunk community. And he was like, well, why can't I just, like, retain this vertical and be at this certain level?
John:And then I went on a soliloquy, and then he just interrupted me. Goes, okay. Okay. Back to me. Back to me.
John:Back to me. But back to me. And it was, like, the most selfish, like, ADHD rant. It was so funny, Isaiah, and I just started dying.
Isaiah:So I think it's actually cool having this this question as context and then looking at my dunk session this last Friday. I've been sending John videos of my approach, how different it looks, and that's something, like, you can guess. You could probably we could both probably do this, but I bet you could take my approach, not look at the jump, and then guess what I'm gonna test on the jump. Mhmm. Just because the positions are so so like, and the perfect way he just described it was like violence, you're low, You're fast.
Isaiah:And then what I was gonna say about Steven is Steven was actually a big inspiration for me with all that stuff. In terms of dunking hard and then the aggression on the approach Did he talk about that to you? It wasn't that we talked about it. It was just being around it. Because it looks crazy in person.
Isaiah:When you're seeing him, like like, I've seen Steven on, like, good jumping days. Yeah. And, like, you gotta understand, Steven's a five ten, like at the time, was like a buff, like five ten buff white dude when I first met him. He was like probably weighing like one eighty and like jacked, big upper body. And then he's just sprinting fast as hell and then just punching women like the hardest I've seen people dunk.
Isaiah:Like, this is like, you know, like Donovan's power? It was like that, but like, you know, like five ten.
John:A tiny pack a pound Yeah. Pack a punch human. And he
Isaiah:was like and it was very like it stuck out to me. It was very impressionable at the time because I wasn't as good. Like, there were dunks he was doing that were better when we first met. For example, like a lob like a lob windmill. I could not punch a lob windmill how he could punch a lob a lob windmill or, like, a one hander, like, a cock back one hander.
Isaiah:So it was very in my young six 17 year old impression Formative years. Like, just the aggression. Speed speed and aggression. Like and it's it's obvious too. When I see people jump, like, that's one of the first things that stick out to me.
Isaiah:Like, someone that's good, that's maxing out their capabilities,
John:like On their approach. Yeah.
Isaiah:Like, think about alright. Even if you look at someone elite, like who's it good at? Dak would be a good example. He's a freak. Probably the freakiest athlete I've ever seen, but what makes it freakier is that there's more in there because I don't get the violence feeling on the approach from him.
Isaiah:You know what I mean?
John:It's like walks up and hits 50. It's insane.
Isaiah:Yeah. Yeah. Now imagine if you gave him, like, the approach of someone that's maxed out everything, like, I don't what the hell would be like, I don't know. I don't know what he would jump.
John:But record again.
Isaiah:Yeah. But if you're five nine with a 70 standing reach, we wanna see that violence, aggression, rhythm.
John:See violence and rhythm in big shapes. I wanna see a lower if I see if I see you jog into it and go long, there ain't no way. I could be like, immediately, like, no. Yeah. No.
John:Like, I don't care. There's no way. You you're gonna maybe be able to grab the room.
Isaiah:You'd have to be an outlier in other metrics.
John:Yeah. But if you're gonna just give me that, I could, yeah, I could tell you.
Isaiah:You wouldn't bet. You wouldn't bet your life savings.
John:No. I wouldn't bet my life savings to get dunked. If I saw the jump technique and it looked like doo doo, I'd be like, and he's over 12% body fat. And his RSI, which is the last one, was your RSI. This is kind of a cheat code because at first I said counter room and jump and I say, said, no.
John:That's cheating, bro. You can't do that. And I was like, alright. Fine. RSI.
John:And he's like, really? And I was like, dude, it's still jumping. I was like, oh, it's it's just jumping repetitively. So if I if I looked at RSI, which is flight time, over ground contact time for the measurement, and I saw someone over 3.5 and they're five nine at seven eight, they damn sure better be able to dunk. And under first off, if you're hitting 3.5 and you're under and you're 8%, 9% body fat, do that you immediately you can have the shittiest jump technique and you're probably still gonna die.
Isaiah:Yeah. About what about oh, I guess you explained it. What's what's the test for RSI? And then Just a just want you to give me a metric, a non jumping metric, because I do think
John:it's a little bit cheating. So if you yeah. This is still a little cheap a little cheeky.
Isaiah:Like, you might be able to just know that metric. And tell. Yeah.
John:Oh, your arm size five? You can dunk.
Isaiah:Yeah.
John:Yeah. I would say so so it's basically just do repeat hops. It's flight time, overground contact time. You average three of the the hops, the middle hops, or the three best hops, and then that gives you your RSI. And I I think it's just a really good metric because it's jumping, and it's how fast you storm release energy in jumping.
John:So it's gonna be the test of the thing you're doing. It's just a highly specific test. But if you wanted me to pick something that wasn't jumping, can I can I use sprinting?
Isaiah:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You can.
John:Okay. If you threw me someone if you gave me their 30 meter time oh, that's tough. 30 meter time. It's not even that good of a metric. It can't be jumping, you said.
John:It has to be something else. Yeah. So like standing triple jump, shit like that doesn't count.
Isaiah:Nope.
John:Oh, this is a fun constraint for me. There's a lot of good ones like, you know, I think you could probably do one for sprint times. Like, could probably do one for probably not squatting. I I don't think squatting if I looked at the other ones, maybe I could use squatting if I look at their approach.
Isaiah:Squatting could be good because you can look at their, like how they're shaped. Like, if you had a guy with, like,
John:long legs or She shaped like a bottom.
Isaiah:Like, you know, if they just have a really big booty,
John:like Yeah. They're just kinda round.
Isaiah:But, no, like, if you took someone that's five nine, but they have, like, really high hips and then, like, good mobility and they're strong in a deep squat and then the way they're squatting, like, you might be able to tell. A hand clean might be really good.
John:I would say I was gonna say barbell squat jump. John, no jumps. We said no jumps. We meant no jumps.
Isaiah:What about power? VBT. Something with a VBT.
John:Yeah. I think well, it's still, like, a power clean. I think you could have a crazy power clean and crazy metrics on the VBT and still not dunk. But if I had the other ones like, are we saying exclusively or have the other metrics? Like, they're 9% body fat.
John:They have good jump You
Isaiah:have your other two. Like
John:Like, I have all three. Yeah. If you have good jump technique, you're under 12%. Just you could literally pick anything, and I'll tell you what it would have to be because how good you are. Power clean?
John:Alright. You got a good jump technique. You're under 8% or you're under 9% body fat, so you're probably, like, one seventy five, one sixty five, maybe in that range if you're around there. You probably get a power clean. You wanna dunk for the first time.
Isaiah:I have a number in my head.
John:245, probably 245.
Isaiah:I should've said it the same time. My number in my head was 250.
John:Okay. Yeah. 245 is, like, safe. Like, that's safe. Yeah.
John:I think that would be really safe. I think squat, I think you could be all over the board. Like, if you had Steven Selle esque jump technique, I would pretty much say you can dunk if you're under 12% body fat and that's what your jump technique looks like. Like, I would I would just, like, definitively be like, if I saw your jump technique and didn't have any context on how high you jumped, I'd Yeah. I wouldn't even need your squat.
John:So, like, I would say for four squat for that, let's say I mean, probably at least three at least three to be certain, three fifty, I would say. If you wanna be certain, can dunk deep squat. If can deep squat three fifty at five nine, lunge. Lunge? Like like barbows barbell walking edge, reverse lunge?
John:Yeah.
Isaiah:Reverse lunge. Barbell reverse lunge.
John:Reverse lunge. Knee touch the floor? Yeah. Five nine, dude. Seventy reach, 9% body fat.
John:You weigh one sixty five. You probably gotta do two fifty to two seventy five.
Isaiah:Oh, your numbers we need to start saying at the same time. You're you're saying the exact same numbers in
John:my head. Like, I'd say, like, that'd be Half
Isaiah:squat. Half squat? Yeah. Say it at at same time.
John:Oh, better yet. You can close your eyes, and then I'll put the number on the screen Okay.
Isaiah:And then
John:you can say whatever you're gonna say. Okay. Half squat wait. Wait. I have barbell half squat?
Isaiah:Yeah. Barbell half squat.
John:Barbell half squat. The 59. So you're Austin Burke. So lean you're skinny Austin Burke.
Isaiah:Yeah. Half squat,
John:not a quarter squat.
Isaiah:I have my number.
John:A half wait. Are we saying below parallel or above parallel?
Isaiah:It's like, like, right above like, your knees at, like Like, your the top of your knee is just lower than the top of your hip crease. I would say, like, at top
John:of your knee at the hip crease?
Isaiah:Yeah. The
John:top plane of the knee is in line with the hip crease.
Isaiah:See it again.
John:Oh, yeah. Right there. Oh, that's way above the top plane of the knee.
Isaiah:Right there. Boom.
John:That's way above the top plane of the knee. Okay. I have my number.
Isaiah:Alright. Prob. Do you want me to see mine or
John:anything on the screen? I'll do it on my on my screen. So for you guys looking okay. Are you ready? What's yours?
John:445. That's what I said. What?
Isaiah:What?
John:I've created a monster.
Isaiah:Bro, the numbers, I kid you not. The other ones were the exact same, like, in my head.
John:You go 445. I I literally went then you said I was like,
Isaiah:that is amazing. That is amazing.
John:Wow. We are supercomputers. I've created a clone.
Isaiah:Yep. Yeah. Look. And it's just you see across our answers. That is actually hilarious.
Isaiah:Remember the athlete in the group calls with the power points?
John:At least with the group call and the oh, the one that the one the one yeah. Yeah. That was bad. I was like, just we can't.
Isaiah:We have a story, but we we are we're not gonna talk about it. It's funny, though. If you know us in person, ask us about it.
John:Yeah. It was it's a pretty funny story. We there's a lot of times Isaiah and I have, like, the other day we're at a car meet and we're just we're sitting there, and Isaiah would look at the car, and I'd be like, damn. That car has really wide tires. I kinda like that.
John:And Isaiah goes, you know what I love about cars? I love cars with wide rear tires. And I'm like, dude, I was just thinking that. And then there was like a a what was the other one? There was, like, a a few times that oh, yeah.
John:Then we're going through this lot. Right? And I look over and I see this, like, nice m four. I'm like, damn. There's probably, like, a lot of nice cars in this lot.
John:We should probably walk through this grass lot. And Isaiah goes, you know what? There's probably a lot of nice cars in this lot we should probably see.
Isaiah:We were leaving in the Durango, and I had the intrusive thought. We're in a drag, and I'm, like, moving my car out of the Durango, and
John:then I just had
Isaiah:an intrusive thought, I said it out loud.
John:No. No. You didn't say it. You just said, no. You said, you know what intrusive thought I have right now?
John:And I was like, to hit every single car in front of you? And you go, yes.
Isaiah:And I
John:was like, you have the same intrusive thought.
Isaiah:It was literally like like freaking thousand power Mustang, Lambo over here, McLaren, boom. And I'm just like, press the gas.
John:Have the intrusive thought to just nuke all of these. Just immediately just wreck into them and see what happens. Like and I was like, what would happen if I did that? Like, it was just this immediate intrusive thought. And then there was, like, an exhaust one that happened, and it was like I can't remember what it was.
John:Both of us were just like, yeah. That's that's nice. I like that exhaust nut or something.
Isaiah:It might
John:have been the CO the ZR one. There was a z r one there, and we were like, I don't know. What's that sound like? Is that is that a bike, or is that a McLaren?
Isaiah:I was like
John:I was like, oh, I think it's I think it's it sounds like exactly like the McLaren. Was like, yeah. Twin turbo.
Isaiah:Twin turbo v eight. V
John:eight. Yeah. He's like, also twin turbo v eight. And I was like, anyways, flat playing. A lot of time together.
John:What's funny too is my girlfriend was over and we were watching the Super Bowl and Isaiah was acting like an idiot, like dancing in front of the the couch. No.
Isaiah:I was I was dribbling the basketball.
John:I was dribbling the basketball doing HESIs. And Stephanie goes, you guys are the same person. Like, actually the same person. You're the same idiots in different bodies. And I was like, yeah.
John:We are. She was like after she left, she was like, you know, sometimes I just feel like you ignore me. I'm like, only when Isaiah's around. Right? Because you feel like you just get neglected.
John:I'm like, don't worry. You're not alone. It feels the same way.
Isaiah:So if you wanna get coached by two idiots, sign up thgstraight.com.
John:Well, we have us yet. We do have fun. We have a good time. But, yeah, thanks for watching, guys. I hope you enjoyed it.
John:We'll see you guys next time. Bye bye. Ciao.