21 Levels of Dunking: Easy to Complex

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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