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Indeed, Amare's  standing reach is 9'0,5'', so 10' for him looks like 9' for us ~8' reachers. Toddday's reserve argument is still valid of course. Amare's draft measurements are 32'' SVJ / 35,5'' RVJ. He can touch 11' with 24'' of leap, which is only 75% of his SVJ. If his numbers were lower, he would have a harder time dunking ( no shit Sherlock! ).
Forget Amare and anyone else, focus on yourself. You have a 8'3'' reach, you need 21'' to touch rim, you can palm the ball easily so you need 28-30'' to dunk. Get to 38-40'' of vert, have 10'' of reserve between barely dunking and max vert, enjoy in-game dunk-fest!

Game time dunking, raptor..

My favoured approach is R of the rim with a R-L plant while dunking with the L hand. I do the same thing from the L side too but not as comfortably. Would a L-R plant from the L side be more ideal? And I guess with the R hand would even be better. But I can't hold the ball as well with my R hand. Guess i could stand to work on my grip regardless.

As Vag and Raptor pointed out... you will never be Amare because your just too short (although you can still be a formidable in game dunker - Charles Barkley sure was).  But to be the best in game dunker you can you essentially want to have all the plants and practice dunking off both legs.  It's also a good general workout and will allow you to have jump sessions where you get in a lot more dunks without putting much more stress on your body.  Of course some of your dunks probably won't even be dunks but you could drill things like: standing dunks, drop step dunks, 1 leg right, 1 leg left, two step LR, RL, etc, etc. 

As far as plants go....   Perhap's I've never been truly into dunking enough.... but I personally have never really been able to learn to plant the opposite way.  I didn't put a ton of time into it but I messed around with it once and found it pretty awkward.  However... If you want to be the ultimate 2-footed dunker I would argue that yes you really need to develop a LR plant from the L side ( or a RL plant from the R side ).   An alternating plant ( LR from L, RL from R )  really does open your hips up to dunk and it opens your opposite shoulder to the defender (so if have to dunk on someone you can).

I think the best developed resource from bilateral jump footwork is actually volleyball... Not basketball.   In volleyball a left handed hitter is taught to jump with with a LR plant and a right handed with a RL plant.   Jumping the opposite way (as you and I do) is referred to as "goofy footed" and avoided most of the time because the contortion causes shoulder injuries and it's a slower approach relative to the set.    Of course in advanced volleyball there are *some* uses to goofy footed hitters because they can jump reverse essentially and mess up timing, but as a standard it's the less desirable plant.  As to whether athletes should switch from goofy to regular is a little unclear...  Most coaches will try to switch a young volleyball player to regular plant, some believe you have to leave it alone.   Honestly, I am not sure whether it would be easier for me to learn to dunk with my left hand or switch my plant... I actually think it might be easier for me to just dunk lefty with my current plant, then again I have stubborn coordination and I have been jumping this way ( and starting in blocks LR AND on the line as a receiver LR ) for about 20 years now so it's a pretty ingrained pattern... you might be able to change it and if possible you should become proficient at the other plant. 

I'm sure it's been posted before... but perhaps the best bilateral jumper of all time, the 6' cuban volleyball player... And of course he uses a RL plant for a right handed spike.

Btw does anyone do windmills, what is good technique for it? Not for me, i'm asking for a friend who has 10% bodyfat..

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Lol, asking for a friend huh .   From the dunk videos posted you are not incapable of windmills.  I quite good at missing windmills and the answer to the question really depends if it's off a lob or a dribble.  As bad as our plant for where it puts our shoulders it can be useful for more advanced dunks.  Despite only having about 2'' inches of two-handed dunk reserve (ie on my best day I estimate I could maybe do two handed dunk on 10'2'') I have been able to pull off really easy turn around drop step dunks ( back toward hoop, turn body toward right, bring left around for powerful plant, then tap with right as I power-dribble and rise up with right hand ) because my plant actually helps me with the turn.  Additionally, I have landed a few fake 360's be approaching turned and finishing the last 150 degrees of the spin in the air to dunk.   I forget the mechanics but I was at one time working on a strange windmill windup that helped me straighten up from my plant.    Essentially the goofy plant the both you and I use requires you to contort your body in the air to get your hips open and dunking shoulder back if you take off for maximum height.... This contortion can be used to do a semi-360 or some cool wrinkle on a dunk that will make people think dunking is a lot easier for you than it is...  It will take a lot of practice.....

BTW, speaking of the challenges of in game dunking.... Part of the problem is you are just too short...  The threshold for in game dunking seems to around 6'6'' for where you can ALWAYS dunk.  Consider Dwayne Wade (who btw can plant both ways)...  Similar standing reach as you, doesn't have huge hands, has some nagging knee pain (like you do when you squat), and has fatigued legs from the nba season....    He blew a layup the other day because his steps were off and it simply isn't that easy to dunk on command... so your in good company: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5P4BSUK72A
 

I looked on google images for an appropriate up arrow gif but i can't find one to do justice. Might defer to LBSS to look into big bag of cool graphics and kindly post one in gratitude for the awesome posts above!

So this is the first time in a long time, i can't remember the last, maybe when i was learning to swim a few summers ago that i'm genuinely excited about going out and trying something out in anticipating of improving myself. I can def get behind exploring different plants, i just wish someone had suggested it to me sooner. I'm always keen to re-learn and re-do my mechanics. it was only recently i took apart my jumpshot and put it back together again with cleaner technique. I love stuff like this!

Shit, even before i become a DL jumper. I always jumped off my L leg, either side of the rim and after become a squatter and DL jumper, i just carried this over when i took up a RL plant w/ all my jumps. That would have been the ideal time to switch to LR where it's more appropriate but i didn't know better.

So for efficiency if dunking L of rim, I should use L hand and plant LR. If dunking from R of rim, use R hand and plant RL (what i alraedy do except with L hand).  hmmm  interesting.

 

Also, FWIW and from my n=1, it is much easier to change your dunking hand than your plant. It is weird in the beginning but you adapt to it pretty fast ( i am talking weeks, not even months ). At least that is how it worked for me. I am still 100% right handed except from dunking, and LR-L is 100 times better than my previous LR-R. I did play around with plants too but there was no way to get the RL down right, it always feels awkward and has me jumping 2-3 inches lower. To be fair also, at my all time peak my plant was more like a jump stop than a true LR, but still, if last step before that was with L, it wouldn't work again. Agree once again with toddday, play around with all plants, bring them all up.

...or maybe your right hamstring would get bigger and stronger.

fwiw, i used to be a complete mess SL jumping off my left foot. as bad as i was off right, i could not even do a coordinated layup off left. now, some hundreds (not even 1000s) of layups later, i can touch rim off both feet although my peak off right is still probably a bit higher. i have no doubt that my (or entropy's, or anyone's) RL plant would improve with lots of submax work.

To me, entropy's biggest problem is neither of these things discussed here... I have to be honest... he just LACKS LIFE so to speak.

Whenever I see a recording with him... he's walking around very slowly and his jumps look like a 60 year old guy tries to jump. I hope entropy (or anybody else) doesn't hate me for saying this but... that's what I think.

Until he won't try to be more aggressive and FASTER... I just don't see how this will work out. Maybe he'll be OK off a standing vert or something but of a running (walking) jump in his case...

Entropy buddy... you need to put out some life out there man. Seriously. You can't just walk around and jump like someone forces to do it and you hate it, and then expect to have results.

Quote from: ian459 on January 03, 2014, 08:50:37 pm

Cool post t0dday. What's the point of half squats/quarter squats if not for specificity to the movement of jumping? Just the fact that more resistance can be used?

Good question.  Snarky strength coaches would just rephrase the question as "What's the point of half squats/quarter squats" - nothing. 

But the point of half/quarter squats is the same as trap-bar deadlifts... To develop leg muscle and strength.   If an athlete can do full squats easily, has good form, etc then the only possible advantage is to a partial rep is like you said supramaximal loading.  However, a lot of athletes can't full squat much at all or end up relying on their back too much when full squatting.  Half squats and quarter squats might be better for these athletes if they can build leg strength and muscle faster with them.   You can easily add in a hamstring exercise for what half squats dont recruit as far as glutes/hams.  My problem with half squats was moreso that they aren't measurable than than that they are a inferior movement.   They lack measurability because it's hard to know whether you have PRed in the half/quarter squat or just raised your depth an inch.... Pin squats can keep the bar going down to the same height but then it's hard to measure whether you just bent your back a bit more to hit the pin....   I favor a box squat a bit more because measurability is slightly better that way, but basically if you can keep honest form then and prefer half squats can be really useful.

Thanks for the response T0ddday. Also, why not just leg press and hack squats to build strength? Do the stabilizers (which aren't trained by leg press/hack squats) matter that much for the vertical jump?

Thanks for the response T0ddday. Also, why not just leg press and hack squats to build strength? Do the stabilizers (which aren't trained by leg press/hack squats) matter that much for the vertical jump?

What are the stabilizers?  Some special group of muscles I have never heard of?  There are good reasons why squatting is usually a better idea than leg press but training the "stabilizers".   Muscles can act as stabilizers but there are not really muscles which can only be trained as stabilizers...   The prime stabilizers in the back squat are the quads, low back, and glutes/hams...  The stabilizers are the prime movers!   The front squat is going to involve more core stabilization but if anything that's a weakness (limits load on legs) as far as grading the front squat as a leg movement.   Now if you are talking about bang for the buck exercises (ie you can only choose one exercise) then sure choose front squats to press or some crossfit move but if you want to build bigger, stronger legs choose the exercise that lets you best do that...

Despite that the legpress as an exercise has a lot of weaknesses compared to the squat.  First of all it's just simply dangerous... the pelvis rotates away from the back rest when weights get big and you can easily herniate a disk if loads are significant.    Second of all it doesn't build any general mobility.   However, there are types of machine squats and or lifts that reduce stabilization that certainly could be used by athletes.