Operation Dunk Version 2.0

Operation Dunk Actually Making Progress Again

2010-03-29T23:07:00.000-07:00

With a rejuvenated commitment to health and fitness, Operation Dunk is making strides once again. In addition to cutting out Chinese Food, sodas, donuts, and espresso, I have been making a conscious effort to hit up the gym more frequently and/or play more basketball. Here is a breakdown of this past week's activities and how I am feeling as a result:

Saturday - 4.5 hours of tennis combined with 100 pushups over the course of the day

Sunday - 1.5 hours at Sports Club LA with 25 minutes of biking, lunges, more pushups, bosu/medicine ball lifts, and 20 minutes of shooting. For my shooting sessions now, I like to pull out the rack (10+ basketballs) and shoot 10 of them in a row from the three-point line. My best score for one 10 ball session: 7-out-of-10. Not bad.

Monday - 15 minutes on the bike and 2 hours of basketball followed by 15 minutes of shooting and 10 minutes of stretching.

While my legs are particularly sore (a likely result of the lunges), they still feel strong. I was easily touching the rim during the pickups game and hitting most of my outside shots without getting tired. Most importantly, I felt as though I could run for the entire game without really getting tired. This will be key for our 40-minute game on Wednesday since we only have 5 players. Our team is playing another 3-6 team in our division with the 7th place seed on the line (I know, we suck). It's still fun to write about though...

As Operation Dunk Regresses, Slamfest falls to (3-6)

2010-03-24T23:43:00.000-07:00

I wish I had better news for everyone still following my blog, but I have to be honest. Part of trying to maintain a blog such as this is reporting the good along with the bad. In terms of dunking, there is nothing new to report. I still have not dunked, and my hops have only continued to decrease as other areas of my life become busier and busier.

Unfortunately, our intramural basketball team has also fallen into a bit of a slide, going from a record of 3-3 to 3-6. And it's not just that our team has been losing... we have been getting DOMINATED. Our last three losses have been by at least 20 points, with tonight's loss ending up being something like 133-99. It felt like a Warriors game out there. At this rate, we might just end up with the same record as them...

However, all is not lost. Realizing that my goal is slowly falling further and further out of reach, I have resolved to restart my fitness regime once again. No more diet coke, no more espressos, no more cookies, and definitely more exercise. I have also started doing a daily amount of 60 pushups or more to try and improve my strength for the postseason. At least the top 8 teams in our league make the playoffs. There is still hope for our team and hope for Operation Dunk.

On a side note, Operation Dunk's March Madness champion pick... Kentucky. I know, big leap there...

Slamfest Update (3-3), as well as the latest OD Setback: 9 Stitches From Hops' Elbow

2010-03-03T10:39:00.001-08:00

I know, this is somewhat disgusting. It's nothing compared to how my face looked before the stitches though, so just be happy that I did not post a picture of the actual injury. The worst part about this injury (besides the pending expense) was that our team ended up losing the game after I got hurt. I am not sure whether it was due to me being out of the game or everyone being distracted from my injury, but we lost a game that we should have won.

The game I am referring to is the penultimate game we played against a team that was 3-1 going into the game. We were 2-2. We started out the game in a 3-2 zone and managed to jump out to a 14-0 lead. Hops, J, the Shark, and I were playing the best defense of our lives and the zone was working perfectly. It continued to work throughout the first half as we sustained a 10+ points lead going into the second half. Then, about 4 minutes into the second half, I had the misfortune of running straight into Hops' left elbow. It was a fluke situation, as I was running super low to the ground to try to get into position to rebound and got knocked hard by one of the other team's players right into Hops as he was on his way down from a fadeaway jumper. Right away, I knew that it was a bad collision.

The funny thing is that this exact same injury happened to me during the first two weeks of my first year of law school (about 5 years ago). And the even funnier part is that it happened in exactly the same place on my face, in the exact same way, as a result of the exact same person's same elbow. And that person is Hops, my current roommate. Guess he really has it out for me. At least the first time it happened I was guarding him and not on the same team.

Anyway, we were still up by 10 with around 9 minutes to play in the second half when I went down with an injury. I tried to stick around and watch the rest of the game, but the league's administrator told me I should go to get stitches right away. I later found out that we ended up losing by three as the other team hit a few lucky three-pointers down the stretch. That was the saddest part of all for me. The 9 stitches and trip to the ER was nothing new, but the loss hurt. Our team dropped to 2-3 as a result.

Fortunately, we managed to win last week week against an average team. I put a bandage over my place and played with the stiches, but limited my game to mainly outside shooting and passing. With the win, our team improved to 3-3 going into a little over the 1/3 mark of the season. Our defense is improving, and we are learning to play together. We could very easily be 5-1 if we had played a little better in two of our games, so we are optimistic for the rest of the season. Since the top 8 or so teams make the playoffs, we are hoping to finish in the top 5 and get a decent seed.

As for my dunk training, I have been refocusing on my fitness. This past week I skied on saturday, played basketball on Monday night, and went rock climbing on Tuesday. The skiing and rock climbing were really good for my calf/leg muscles, and I think cross-training is a good way to go to confuse the muscles. I am currently working on my two-step jump, because my friends have told me that this is the easiest way to dunk. In the past, I have always tried to jump off one leg, which I have been informed is not the best way to maximize one's leaping ability.

More updates to come soon as the training increases. Hops and I have also been running liners on select nights at Alice Marble up the street from my house. This has been very helpful for in-game conditioning. I have been staying as far away from his elbow as possible...

Slamfest loses a tight one 81-88 (2-2)

2010-02-15T11:13:00.000-08:00

Last week's game was definitely the most exciting one of the season. Three players were out with either injury, sickness, or flakiness, leaving only 6 of us to battle the other 2-1 team in our division for the right to second place. Hops, J, Shark, Alon "JR" Rotem, and Christian "the Beast" Hague, and I made it out to our 9 pm game on Wednesday night against the Eastern Promises - a team of Russian dudes with a penchant for talking shit.

Our team started out in a man-to-man set that saw too many of the other team's small quick guys burning our taller (yet much slower) team. We started to find our groove mid-way through the first half, but it was too late to get any serious momentum. Hops was a machine down low for us in the first half, scoring on the other team's smaller players with ease.

Operation Dunk did manage to have one cool play right before the half. Down by 9 with 5 seconds to go, the Beast threw a "Peyton-Manning-Style" (PMS) pass to me at the half court. Left with only one man to burn, I had to make a quick decision how best to score. Rather than drive to the hole, I faked a drive, stepped back and nailed a tear drop jump shot as the buzzer expired right in the guy's face. The best part was hearing the guy's teammates chastise him for his "poor defense" on the play... After that play, we went into the second half down by 7.

At halftime, we decided it would be wise for us to switch to a 3-2 zone. This defense puts more players at the top of the key to prevent shooters from bombing threes all day (which seems to be every team to which we have lost). Though it was not immediately effective, it eventually began to work. It also helped that J started doing his thing, dropping three-bombs in people's eyes like it was nobody's business. I also started raining some threes of my own, including a big one with 3 minutes left to put our team down by 2, 72-70. The other team had to take a timeout to discuss why their lead had evaporated so quickly.

Unfortunately, victory was not meant to be ours. The other team's outside shooting got hot again and one of their crappy players managed to get off a late three-point play that caused him to yell something unintelligible in Russian. The last 3 minutes saw a lot of shit-talking from both sides, and it started to get somewhat heated down the stretch. However, I can't lie. This is the kind of basketball I enjoy playing the most. Both teams clearly cared about winning this game, and it came down to the wire. Though we ultimately lost by 7 (there were some garbage points at the end), we played a solid game. Everyone had good games - particularly J - and our defense got better at the end.

One of the main observations from last week's game is that our team plays much better defense in a zone. Though certain players on our team prefer man-to-man defense, that is not our strength. I am going to propose implementing the zone defense from here on out.

As for my own dunking, I am still letting my foot heal from two weeks ago. As a result, I have not actively been working on my jumping ability. Hops and I have been running liners up at Alice Marble, which I plan to intensify this week. I will leave all of you with a google search linking to Dwight Howard's sick alley oop dunk from last night's Allstar game: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=dwigh+howards+sick+dunk+from+the+all+star+game&aq=f&aqi=&oq=

If you haven't seen it, do a favor and check it out. The guy has some serious dunking skills...

Latest Operation Dunk Setback: Slamfest Game #3 (2-1)

2010-02-07T21:38:00.001-08:00

Though Slamfest had a "bye" this past week, we did have a game the prior week. It ended up being our easiest victory of the season, culminating in a 76-50 victory. Normally this would excited me. However, the team we played against only had 4 players, so we played 5 on 4 for most of the game. I kinda hoped we would drop 100 points, but it was not meant to be. We did manage to play a little better as a team, particularly on defense, so the game was definitely a positive step for us. This week's game is against the other 2-1 team in our division in a battle for second place a spot behind the really good team that schlacked us. Game time: 9 pm... WTF?

The one bad thing about last week's game is that I ended up hurting my heel/ankle on a breakaway layup. Even though I was wide open and clearly not going to miss my layup, an oaf on the other team decided to tackle me as I was going up. Sure enough, I made the layup easily and then landed awkwardly on my left leg with all of the oaf's weight on me. A few minutes later, my heel began to hurt and I quickly subbed out of the game. Though the injury has not bothered me too much, it still aches whenever I put weight on it. My solution for this has been to ice the injured area and rest it for a while.

Last weekend my Operation Dunk training consisted of three more days of surfing in Los Angeles. My buddy Nick "Stork" Holt and I went on a surf bender, surfing at County Line, Pytas, and Topanga in L.A. During the Pytas session, I caught a couple of waves that were the longest rides of my life (1 minute plus). By the end of the session, my legs felt like they had gone through an entire day of skiing. Needless to say, good Operation Dunk training.

My basketball training begins again tomorrow with a couple of games of pickup basketball (to test out the foot), followed by some light lifting. Full report on this week's game to follow our 9 pm game on Wednesday.

Slamfest goes down (1-1), but Operation Dunk dunks a rubber ball

2010-01-27T11:03:00.000-08:00

Last week Slamfest suffered its first defeat of the season, a crushing 89-63 loss at the hands of a team called Clayton Bigsby. We were initially able to stay with their team, but they had one guy who singlehandedly destroyed us. No one on our team could guard him and he shot his way to 48 points, over half of his team's total of 89. Though our team played better than the prior week, we added two new players to the team (for a total of 9) and have yet to hit our groove. We are now 1-1 in our division with another game this week. Operation Dunk had a decent game, but I could not seem to get any calls. Despite being hammered all game, I did not get to to shoot a single free throw. I even had one of my shots goaltended. The ref was so surprised that a recreational player could goaltend a shot that he missed the call. Weak!

Last Friday I met with a trainer at SCLA who gave me some more dunk-related lifts to help with my hops. Perhaps his greatest contribution was the introduction of what he calls a "Dynamic Warmup Routine." I told him that my typical warmup for bball games and/or lifting involves 10-15 minutes on the bike with some mild stretching. He told me that this is not the best way to warm up for exercise or lifting. Instead, he showed me a serious of active stretches that are geared towards warming up the muscles in my legs and core. This is apparently the best way to prepare for vigorous activity. The exercises he recommended are as follows:

Hip Crossovers: Lie on back, put both legs in the air with knees bent. Stretch out arms at a 90 degree angle. Lower knees to the left side all the way to the ground while looking to the right with your upper body. Do this for a couple of seconds and then swing your knees to the right side while looking to the left. Repeat for a total of 10-20 reps.
Hamstring Band Stetch: Lie on back and raised one leg in the air. Wrap a stretchy band around raised leg and extend leg for 2 seconds, then rest. Do this 4-5 times while increasing how far back leg is stretched each time and ultimately, stretching leg as straight as possible for 10-15 seconds on the last one. Repeat with other leg.
Bridges: This one was oddly sexual. Lie on back and raise butt in the air with both feet and back on the ground. Repeat for a total of 10-15 reps.
Planks: Also known as "Bos and Toes". Balance your entire body in the air on your elbows and toes for 1 minute. Then, lay on right side and balance on right arm and toes for 30 secs. Follow this up by laying on left side and balancing on left arm and toes for 30 seconds.
Knee Hugs: Walk normally but hug your knee to your chest each time you take a step. Repeat for a total of 10-20 steps.
Track Star: This one was hard. Lunge forward with right leg and straighten left leg all the way back. Bring right elbow slightly below right knee to the left of knee and twist body up to the left. Fully extend left arm all the way up in the air while leaving right elbow near right knee. Return to lunge pose and then fully extend right leg as much as possible. Raise right toes in the air while heel stays on the ground and stretch right leg. Lunge forward with the left leg and repeat with the other side.

After doing all of these stretches for a total of 10-15 minutes, I had alread broken a sweat and my entire body felt loose and ready to run. We then proceeded to lift for 20-30 minutes. The most important lift the trainer taught me during this session was how to do a clean. He broke down the clean into three different lifts for me: (1) Lift bar to chest while doing a mini-jump (more like a hop); (2) Lift bar from chest to shoulders while switching grip on the bar; and (3) pushing bar straight up while extending both legs for support. My legs and back were really sore the next day after doing this lift, but I definitely noticed an increase in my jumping ability last weekend.

On Sunday, Operation Dunk headed to the East Bay for some bball at UC Berkeley for KB's birthday. We had some awesome games and there were a ton of people out. One important event that occurred was my dunking of a rubber ball. For some reason, there was a green slightly deflated ball chilling on the sidelines (see here for visual: http://www.robbinssports.com/sporting-goods-store/images/color-my-class-p-g-sofs.jpg) at the gym. I decided to try and see if I could dunk it. Though it took me a few tries, I finally managed to slam it down a few times with everyone watching. Hops looked proud... Next step: Dunking a volleyball after tonight's game.

Debut of Slamfest (1-0)

2010-01-17T00:39:00.000-08:00

This past week saw lots of Operation Dunk in action, beginning with Slamfest's first game of the season at Sports Club LA on Wednesday night. For those of you not in the know, Slamfest is a team comprised of some of my SF friends who play basketball. Our games are every Wednesday night at SCLA. They are comprised of two 20-minute halves. Games typically last about an hour unless the score is tied. If the score is tied, a 3-minute overtime follows to determine the winner. Each week we play against one of the other 9 teams that are also in the League. Members of the team include Hops, the Shark, Ketul "J" Patel, Tim "the Illini" Ulen, Jyri ("Bruiser"), and Alon "Lame" Rotem (who missed the first game).

Our first game was against a team of short guys, with their tallest player being 6'0". Our average height is 6'2-6'3" - clearly, speed is not our strength. Due to the clear disparity in height between our tema and theirs, I figured the game was in the bag. As Chris Berman says, "That's why they play the game!"

Our team came out of the gates sloppy and never quite got it going. We missed a number of easy looks on the inside and had a plethora of turnovers. Our defense was also slightly off, mainly due to our tall team's inability to keep up with their smaller and quicker guys. That being said, we were up pretty much the entire first half with our biggest lead being 10 points. I had a pretty good half and frequently got to the line. Good thing Hops and I have been practicing our free throws. I shot 6-for-7 on the night and hit some big ones down the stretch.

We finished the first half up by three points with the momentum in our favor. Little did we know that our the game would ultimately come down to the wire. The score was tight throughout the entire second half until the other team took a 2-point lead on us with around 12 seconds to go. We brought the ball down right away and I took it in for a drive. I got fouled hard and barely missed the layup. That left me at the line, down by 2, with 6 seconds left. The kid who fouled me got in my face right before I was about to shoot the free throws and whispered, "You don't want these." I responded, "You're right. I wanted that layup." I then knocked down both free throws to tie the game. After a decent look after the inbound, the other team missed their last shot and regulation ended in a tie.

In overtime, we managed to stay ahead a couple of points until the very end when the other team finally caught up and tied us. We got the ball with 10 seconds left, called a timeout, and ran a play inside to Hops. Hops was fouled and sent to the line with the game tied and 6 seconds left. He made his first free throw to put us up by one and then missed his second one. That is when Operation Dunk went into action. I was on the left block and decided to fake middle but go inside instead. This move paid off big as Hops' shot ricocheted to the right off the back of the rim. I ran under the rim and jumped in front of one of their guys to grab the rebound. After a few seconds of errant dribbling, the other team was forced to foul me and send me to the line. I hit both free throws to put us up by 3 and seal the game. The other team didn't even get off a shot to tie it.

Though it was a ugly, the game culminated in a victory for Slamfest and a 1-0 start to the season. Everyone competed hard and we ultimately were able to put it together just enough. Big games for the Bruiser and myself, which justified all the free throw practices I've had this week. We have a game against a really tough team next week, so it will be a good test for our team.

For Operation Dunk this week, I lifted weights on Thursday at Club One and then played 5 hours straight of basketball on Saturday at Rossi Park (12:30-5:30 pm). My body is hurting, but I have noticed that my hops have increased since returning from Hawaii. Today I dunked one tennis ball, almost got my entire hand above the rim, and then ultimately dunked two tennis balls using both hands. My legs are getting stronger the more that I play and I have been losing weight to put me in the 205-210 pounds range. At this point, I feel like dunking is imminent. I just need to overcome the mental hurdle of that first one...

2010: A New Year for Operation Dunk

2010-01-11T23:00:00.000-08:00

I can already tell that 2010 is going to be a solid year for Operation Dunk. After a ridiculous NYE in SF, I spent the first week of the new year in Maui, HI with my family. In addition to getting amazing weather, the waves there couldn't have been more perfect (just look at the picture above!). On the days when there was not any surf, my two cousins and I played basketball for hours at the hotel's basketball court. Though my hops were not as great as a month ago, they are still there. And they only got better over the course of the week as I surfed more and more.

On Sunday, Hops and I played a couple games of 1-on-1 at the Alice Marble Courts to get ready for our first league game this Wednesday. Yes, I am now a proud member of Sports Club LA and have assembled a team consisting of a number of ex-law-school buddies to play every week. I am hoping this league will incentivize me to keep up with Operation Dunk and make it happen. I also plan on doing a better job of regularly keeping up with my blog posts.

Today, I met with a fitness trainer at lunchtime as part of my two free "meetings with a trainer" that come with a new membership purchase. I informed him of my goal and asked him to show me some lifts/a program that would help me to achieve my goal. We are scheduled to meet sometime next week so he can show me some good lifts. I then returned to SCLA around 6:15 to get the tail end of the pickup hoops games. Mondays are going to be my regular balling day for the week. There were good games all the way until 8 pm and tons of people.

After all was said and done, I decided to test my hops to see if all that surfing helped at all. On my very first try, I almost threw it down. In fact, this might be the closest I have ever gotten to dunking - maybe the rim is low? Two subsequent tries yielded the same results. I left feeling very optimistic that I will be able to achieve my goal sometime during the season. Who knows - I may even be able to dunk in a game!

A later weighing of myself on the scale also surprised me. My weight is still in the 207-208 range. It seems all that conscientious eating has paid off! A little more stretching, more basketball, and a few more weekends without drinking could pay huge dividends for Operation Dunk in the upcoming weeks. New post to follow on Wednesday after Slamfest's first league game.

Been a while...

2009-12-14T15:00:00.000-08:00

Even though it's been a while since my latest post, I cannot say that Operation Dunk has been slacking. Thanksgiving break and the week after required me to rehone my tennis skills for the National Father-Son Hardcourt Championships held in La Jolla at the LJ Beach and Tennis Club on December 4-6. As a result, my dunk-related training was put on hold in favor of picking up my tennis racquet once again. Fortunately, the results were solid.

My dad and I managed to win a couple of rounds at the tournament, beating a very good team in three sets before ultimately falling to a team that won the consolation backdraw. All in all, it was a great weekend with some good father-son bonding and lots of tennis. Staying right on the beach in La Jolla wasn't bad either.

This past week saw the introduction of two new elements into my Operation Dunk training: (1) Running, and (2) Sunday mud football. Obviously, the former activity is likely to benefit me much more than the latter (which could instantly end my training). Last week I ran twice at lunch for a distance of 3-5 miles each time. My legs hurt pretty bad after my first run, but were not as sore after the second one. The best part I have found about running is the "Runner's High" that I experience for the rest of the day. Here is an entertaining article about this concept, which compares it to the "feeling of an orgasm": http://www.lehigh.edu/~dmd1/sarah.html

As for our Sunday two-hand touch football games, my hope is that all the quick cuts and long dashes will help to increase my endurance, as well as my leg strength. Based on the fact that I can hardly walk today after our 2.5 hour session at Crissy Field yesterday, I would say that my legs benefitted from this workout.

On a further note, I am proud to announce the return of a weekly organized basketball game to my life. In light of my pending membership at Sports Club LA, I decided to put together a team to compete in their Winter/Spring League. Thus far, we have nine people on the team, including 3-4 guys over 6'2". I will do my best to report weekly game updates, including my progress on dunking with each game. My hope is that this League will further incentivize me to keep up with my goal of dunking into 2010.

Thanksgiving Recap

2009-11-30T22:51:00.000-08:00

The Thanksgiving holiday was productive for Operation Dunk, though it had its fair share of minor setbacks (including gorging myself on both Thanksgiving and the day before with delicious food). There were no dunk or jump-related activities all weekend. However, I did manage to pull four straight doubles days of morning tennis combined with afternoon surf sessions.

My dad and I are playing in the National Father-Son Hardcourt Championships next weekend in La Jolla, so it was essential that I worked on my tennis game this weekend. That, combined with seeing family + friends + the amazing surf, effectively prevented me from having enough free time for an Operation Dunk workout. And yet... it was totally worth it. All of these workouts also helped me to offset all of the food that went into my body. Nothing destroys a fitness plan like Thanksgiving with the family...

Today, I purchased both a "massage" foam roller and running shoes. I plan on incorporating running into my weekly workouts by going 1-2 times per week either during lunch or after work. The reality is that I am a compulsive shopper and couldn't stop myself from purchasing a pair of size 14 New Balance running shoes at Sports Basement (finding shoes in my size is rare). Hopefully, this will work out to Operation Dunk's advantage. The rest of this week will entail more tennis training for the tournament this weekend, so Operation Dunk is effectively on hold until the tournament has finished.

Jump Workout with Sky

2009-11-25T09:37:00.001-08:00

On Tuesday night, Operation Dunk headed back to Moscone for a night of basketball. Due to the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, there were not a lot of people there. Fortunately, there were at least enough players to allow for a number of 4-on-4 games. The funny thing about tonight is that I was the clear minority out on the court. At one point, it was me and 7 black guys playing for about an hour straight. I managed to get on a good team once again, and we won each game by 6 points or more. It wasn't even fair, but still fun nonetheless. The highlight of the action for me was getting thrown an alleyoop pass by one of my teammates as I streaked towards the hoop. I grabbed the pass in the air and laid it up for an easy bucket, slapping the backboard on my way down. That got quite a few hoots and hollers from my teammates.

After the games, I gave myself three running jumps to see if I could dunk. On my first try, I got about as close as possible without it being a dunk. In fact, I would say it was close to the Dwight Howard dunk from the allstar game two years ago (where he was wearing a cape), but without it being an actual dunk. The next two were similarly close, and I had less trouble gripping the ball than ever before.

Today, I woke up at 6 a.m. to head to Club One for a jumping workout with Sky. This was especially impressive, given the fact that I watched the Blind Side last night and went to bed around 12:30 a.m. Sleep is for the weak. For our workout, we started by jumping rope and then did a number of jumping exercises as follows:

Alternating one leg box jumps (2 x 15)
Two-legged box jumps while carrying a medicine ball (2 x 10)
Jump squats (2 x 10) followed by wall jumps (2 x 10)
Side hopes over a foam brick (2 x 8)
Side to side shuffles with resistance (2 x 8)
Quick feet for 30 seconds (2 x)
Situps (2 x 40)
Medicine ball lifts while balancing on a bosu ball (2 x 15)
Stretching for 15 minutes, following by 10 minutes on the foam roller

I felt great after this workout, and weighed myself at 207 lbs. This is the lowest weight I have been in the last 1-2 years. Slowly but surely I am making my way down to 200 lbs. All of the surfing and tennis this weekend in Santa Cruz should help. God has blessed me with an 8-10 foot swell in the water, so there should be lots of surfing to counteract all the food that I will be eating on Thanksgiving. Happy holidays!!

Operation Dunk heads into Thanksgiving...

2009-11-24T16:03:00.000-08:00

As it has been a little while since I have posted an update, I will briefly summarize Operation Dunk's exercise since the last post:

Last Tuesday: Played basketball at Sports Club LA pursuant to another 5-day pass. The games were better this time around, and I managed to play in three 5-on-5 games. The guy I was guarding was massively ripped, yet acted like a little baby on the court. He consistently went for turn-around jump shots - which I soon realized he could not ever make - yet called a foul on me every time that he shot. Finally, I just stopped guarding him at all and let him take shots. This didn't work either, as he still called me for fouls. By around the fifth time this happened, I looked at someone on the other team for some recognition of this blatant display of wussiness. The other guy nodded and said, "He's probably doing this to you because you are the new guy and he doesn't know you." Turns out he was lying... the guy called fouls on whoever was guarding him every game. He also got in a fight with the person guarding him in the next game (I refused to guard him). A very poor showing for someone with so much muscle. He probably takes steroids. I ended the workout with some stretching and then rolled out my muscles on the foam roller.

Thursday: Played basketball at Moscone and won five straight games. My shot and post moves were on for this session, and good fortune smiled upon me in the form of decent teammates. I had a few steals where I slapped the backboard with two hands after making layups. That is pretty much the coolest jumping related move that I can do these days. I tried to dunk a basketball a couple of times between games and got very close, but no cigar.

Friday: Watched Warriors dominate the Blazers by over 15 points. Still amazed by the fact that Monte Ellis is my height and yet can jump three times as high as me. Damn you genetics.

Saturday: The sun was shining early, so I headed up to Alice Marble around 10 a.m. for some quick pickup games. There were not a lot of people there, but we managed to get in quite a few games of 2-on-2, then 3-on-3, and finally, 4-on-4. While I started strong, my legs quickly died and I played poorly towards the end. My hops also slowly decreased as the games wore on, and I was lucky to get my hand above the rim on my last jumps. It still felt good to get in some exercise before heading off to the Big Game down in Stanford.

And that has really been it since my last post. Operation Dunk has not seen the gym in a little while, so I am planning on waking up early tomorrow to go to Club One for a "jump intensive" workout with Faris "Sky" Hadir. He is an ex-professional volleyball player from France who works with me. I am hoping that he can provide me with some good jumping tips that will take my hops to the next level.

Tonight will entail another session of pickup basketball at Moscone Center with Hops. I am also pleased to announce that I have been forming a team to play in a league at Sports Club LA starting in January. Hopefully, I will be dunking by that time...

Stretching on the foam roller

2009-11-17T09:40:00.000-08:00

Yesterday involved a brief workout for Operation Dunk at Club One. The brevity of the workout resulted from a combination of still being really sore from this weekend's dunk session and a lack of time. The goal of my workout was to improve my upper body + core strength in some fashion and stretch the shit out of my legs (not even sure what the means). Crossfit Mason had mentioned that there was a good workout on Crossfit yesterday, so I followed their protocol with a slight modification as follows:

Warmup: 15 minutes of elliptical with 3 sets of arm raises using 5 pound weights.
Pushups: 100 total using as little time as possible. This was harder than it sounds. For my first set, I did 35 no problem. Second set, I could only manage 25. Then, I finished with two more sets of 20 and 10.
Situps: 100 total for time. I did 50 my first set, 30 my second set, and 20 on my third set.
Pullups: I did 8 and then quit. My arms were dead at this point from the pushups and I want to play basketball on Tuesday, so I decided to cut my losses.
Stretching: After doing my normal routine for 15 minutes, I busted out the foam roller and used it on my quads, hamstrings, lower back, side quads, butt, and calves. Not only is this device great for stretching out my muscles, it is one hell of a core workout (or maybe I am just doing it wrong?).

My goal for this last stretch before Christmas is to focus on four things: legs (i.e. jumping), core, diet, and stretching. Last night I weighed myself on the scale at 211 pounds. I believe that if I can get down to the 200-204 range, I will be able to dunk. Today's workout will entail another trip to Sports Club LA for some basketball, jumping, and more stretching.

Weekend Dunk Session in Half Moon Bay

2009-11-15T21:36:00.000-08:00

I am proud to say that I spent over an hour dunking a basketball this weekend... More on that later, but first, a brief update on the latest Operation Dunk happenings. My two-week hiatus from alcohol came to a screeching halt this past week earlier than expected. Though I would normally feel ashamed by this, it was totally worth it to celebrate the 49ers victory on Thursday night. Despite this minor deviation, my last two weeks have been relatively free from alcohol and I have stuck to my diet plan fairly well. I did not get in much dunk-related training this week, but finished strong this weekend.

This past weekend Operation Dunk made its way down to Half Moon Bay to play in a tennis tournament at the Ritz Carlton put on by the head pro there. The purpose of the tournament was to play with my dad to warm up for the National Father-Son Hardcourts in La Jolla scheduled for the first weekend in December. We had a tough weekend, losing two nail-biting three setters, but got in some really good practice and endurance training.

After my dad and I finished our second match on Sunday, it was time to get back to Operation Dunk. Fortunately, the weather was amazing. I enlisted the local knowledge of my cousin, Dominic "the Franchise" Spinardi, to figure out where the nearest basketball court was in HMB and we drove there with the anticipation of a quick shoot-around. Once we arrived at the El Granada High School courts, however, it became apparent that both of us were ready for some serious balling.

There were four hoops available for shooting, two of which were 9 feet tall. After getting in some brief warm up shots on the 10 foot hoop, we began Slamfest 2009 on the 9 foot hoops. The Franchise and I pulled off some pretty sick dunks over the course of the next two hours. From two-handed Shaq dunks to alley oops to off-the-backboard one handed slams, it was everything I imagined it would be and more. After nearly a month and a half of improving my hops to try and dunk, it felt awesome to finally slam it down. Even if it wasn't on the 10" hoop, it was still worth every second of it. I was also able to grab rim with ease on the 10", showing that my hops have clearly improved.

One important decision I made this weekend is a deadline for dunking. Every year at Christmas, my family and I get together in Piedmont at my uncle's house (which was featured in the Pursuit of Happyness with Will Smith). One of our traditions is to play a basketball game in the middle of the day at a nearby park. It's always quite an event, especially since my cousin Kyle plays basketball for Piedmont High and has been dunking since last year at Christmas. This year my goal is to be able to slam it down for our family game. That gives me a little over a month to make enough progress to make this happen. Based on the progress I have made so far, I believe it's possible to achieve this goal.

This week will entail more working out at Sports Club LA. I managed to procure another 5-day pass from there that I will be activating starting next Monday. My goal is to get in at least two basketball related workouts there this week, and to check out some of their classes. More information on this to follow.

Sobriety

2009-11-08T22:09:00.000-08:00

Well, I can report that there were absolutely no setbacks this weekend for Operation Dunk. The two-week alcohol hiatus has been going extremely well. In addition to not drinking, I participated in several solid athletic activities that lasted from Thursday all the way through until Sunday. Coupled with an above average diet (not excellent though), I am down to 210 pounds with increased muscle everywhere. I am also pretty sure that after a bit of rest I will be capable of dunking a volleyball. Once I purchase one, I am going to bring it to Moscone with me whenever I play.

Speaking of Moscone, that gym has become my home away from home. It's pretty tough to pass up two hours of actual basketball if my body is capable of handling it. I played there Thursday and Friday night without losing a single game. I have even recruited a couple of regular teammates to ensure total domination. Saturday morning saw me and my roommate, i.e. Hops, playing basketball at 10 a.m. at the Alice Marble courts near Larkin and Hyde. We ran three straight games, winning each of them fairly easily, and then practiced jumping for a while. He was impressed with my progress and gave me some tips for gripping the basketball, a necessity for any established dunker.

The rest of my weekend required me to quickly relearn to play tennis in time for the final round of local playoffs for my 9.5 team based out of Seascape Sports Club. After a brief hitting session on Saturday with my partner and a little bit of Father-Son tennis on Sunday, our 9.5 match began at 1 p.m. at Seascrape.

A quick primer on tennis rankings:

The USTA uses NTRP ratings or more commonly NTRPs to rate the players based on skill level. The NTRPs range from the beginner 2.5 with .5 increments all the way up to 7.0 or world-class players. The NTRPs are used in the leagues for equal levels and tournaments. The most common NTRPs are 3.5 and 4.0. At the end of a calendar year, the USTA reveals online what rating everybody in the program is. All of the matches played in the spring season are taken into account of what ranking you are.

If you want more information on what this means, look it up on Wikipedia. It's a strange system, but hell, the game of tennis is pretty strange by itself, so that's no surprise. I am technically a USTA-rated 5.0 player. This allows me to play with another 4.5 player to make a combined rating of 9.5, the maximum. I love this league because it allows me to play tennis with all of the "older guys" with whom I grew up playing tennis.

On Sunday, our team played against Fremont Hills for the sectional championships. Naturally, the partner with whom I play is a guy who played professional basketball (in addition to tennis) and used to be able to dunk with ease. Once I told him about my quest, he was more interested in telling me how to improve my jumping ability than playing tennis. Obviously, this was fine with me.

Despite our numerous "dunk related conversations" in the middle of the match, we won 7-5, 7-5 against a tough team at #1. The rest of our team also won and we ultimately swept them 3-0 to advance to the National Championships at Gold River, Sacramento, in February. Phew! Now I can take off another couple of months from tennis to work on dunking again. Well, that is not technically true. My dad and I are playing in the National Father-Son Championships in La Jolla the first weekend of December as well.

Overall, I feel amazing after this weekend. One thing my alcohol hiatus has taught me is that excessive drinking results in negative after-effects in my mood. By drinking less or not at all, I find that I am generally more upbeat, energetic, and happy. This may seem like common sense to most people, but it's all part of the education that is Operation Dunk. Looking forward to another week of full sobriety, several runs at Moscone, a meeting with the trainer, and more...

Tomorrow's plan: Watch real NBA players in action as the Warriors take on the Minnesota Timberwolves. Prediction: 102-89, Timberwolves... sorry Warriors, but you suck right now!

First Session with Eroc the Barbarian

2009-11-04T20:17:00.000-08:00

I included this picture only because the story behind it is hilarious. Jordan "the Chronicler" Jaffe was taking pictures of me in the weight room in my costume, and I wanted to get one of me running on the treadmill. At first, I tried to pose as if I was running, but the pictures didn't look natural. Due to my lack of brain cells at the time, I asked the Chronicler, "Wait a minute, how do I look like I am running?" He eloquently responded, "Run." Genius.

Today saw Operation Dunk's first training session with Eroc. Since the only time he ever seems to have available is Wednesday at 7 a.m., I made the effort to wake up and arrive at Club One by 7. It was totally worth it.

When I say that Eroc is a barbarian, I am 100% serious. The guy looks like Chuck Lidell or some other ultimate fighter other than Kimbo Slice (for obvious reasons). He is seriously jacked for someone his age. I asked him if he ever played a sport in college or anything like that, to which he responded that he did martial arts for a while. Figures. At least he got a serious kick out of the fact that I was Johnny Lawrence for Halloween. We became instant friends.

I told Eroc about my current workout plan, my diet, and my goal to dunk. He said that it sounded like I was doing the right things, but felt I should make my workouts slightly more cardio-oriented. Like everyone else, he also thought that I should improve my flexibility and gave me some new suggestions for making this happen. One of the most important devices he mentioned for doing this is the "Roller." The roller is basically a styrofoam log on which you roll various body parts. In addition to helping smooth out your muscles, it's also somewhat of a core workout. Once he showed me some stretches on it at the end of the workout, I was sold. I will soon be purchasing a Roller.

Eroc also said that I should begin my workouts by doing some kind of active stretch. He showed me a sort of runner's lunge to hamstring stretch that got me sweating after about 1 minute. The rest of our workout proceeded as follows:

3 sets of squats w/calf raises at the end to increase explosiveness (increased weight per set) combined with three sets of wall jumps. When I say combined, I mean doing one set of squats immediately followed by a set of 10 wall jumps (i.e. jumping as high as possible and touching the wall)
3 sets of core work involving laying on a workout ball with my elbow on one side and raising my other arm straight up in the air for about 30 seconds (hard)
3 sets of running side to side with a resistance band following by running side to side with no resistance for 20 seconds
3 sets of quick feet for 20 second whereby I would jut one foot out to the side every couple of seconds
Resistance punches - these involved one arm punching forward with a resistance cable while the other arm pulls back with a resistance cable
Stretching with the roller

Though this workout only lasted about an hour, I was drenched in sweat by the end. I am also feeling pretty sore in my legs today. After finishing up with some Roller stretching, I set up another meeting with Eroc for next Wednesday at the same time. Tonight's plan = more basketball at Moscone...

OD Setback #3: Halloween in Washington D.C.

2009-11-02T22:17:00.001-08:00

I wish I could claim that this is what Operation Dunk did this weekend. Alas, this was just a quick stop at the gym on Saturday morning after eating at the Original House of Pancakes - yes, I wore my costume all day, including at breakfast. It was Halloween after all, which is my favorite holiday of the year. The weekend produced so many awesome memories that it was totally worth it to take a few days off Operation Dunk. However, I did not follow my diet and completely failed to get in any exercise other than this choreographed shot. This is why I consider my weekend in D.C. to have been the third setback for Operation Dunk...

Fortunately, I embark on my self-imposed two-week hiatus from alcohol starting today. People have encouraged me to give up caffeine during this period as well, but I don't think I could survive at my job without coffee. Maybe I will be feeling more crazy when the second week begins and will give it a shot. Doubtful.

Tonight was a strange basketball workout, which I attribute to a number of factors. Returning to work after an amazing weekend that involved travelling to the East Coast and back was not easy. In fact, it was damn near impossible. It also didn't help that despite being exhausted last night, I slept poorly and woke up before my alarm went off. I guess that was my body getting back at me for the hell I put it through this weekend. Or maybe I can blame it on daylight savings times - yeah, that's it. Screw you daylight savings time! I want my extra hour of daylight back!

Anyway, by the end of the work day, I was feeling more and more grumpy. I decided to forgo the gym workout and head straight to Moscone for some much-needed basketball. By the time I finally made it to the court, I was feeling a mixture of anger/fatigue/focus. Maybe it's just me, but there are just some days when certain negative feelings manage to create a strange concoction of emotions in me that ultimately culminates in an unexpectedly awesome workout. For some reason, this was destined to be one of those days.

Even though the gym managers decided to shut down the games 10 minutes after I arrived (something about being understaffed...whatever), I convinced the guys playing to take the game outside. We found a nearby court with some lights near the Moscone field and began a 4-on-4 game. As I previously mentioned, I was not feeling in particularly good spirits after work today. This was unfortunate for the guy guarding me, because I played with a ferocity that I have never previously displayed on the basketball court. It didn't matter where I shot from, everything was going in. I posted him up, hit shots outside, drove past him on layups, etc... Finally, they had to switch out the guy guarding me because I was scoring at will.

Right about this time, the lights on the court went out. Mind you, this happened right before we finished our first game to 15. It seems today was just not meant to be my day. However, I was not about to let a lack of light deny me my workout. Even though all of the other players left after the lights went out, I stayed. And I didn't just stay for 20 minutes. I stayed for a full hour and a half. I was determined to jump and shoot until my muscles failed. I even did full-court layup drills just to work on my sprinting and fast breaking ability. By the time I was finished, I was mentally and physically exhausted. The combination of my weekend in D.C., work, a lack of sleep, and daylight savings time did not leave me with much leftover energy once the adrenaline wore off. None of that mattered though, because I felt satisfied with what had transpired. Despite the weekend setback, today ended up being a great day for Operation Dunk...

Day one of alcohol hiatus = great success!

Tennis Ball Dunk... Check

2009-10-29T22:10:00.000-07:00

Operation Dunk decided to play basketball twice this week at the Moscone Center. On Tuesday and Thursday, I made my way down to the free open gym located on Buchanan and Chestnut around 6:30 p.m. to play some pickup ball. The games were solid, though there was a massive crowd of people there. Apparently, they don't care to watch the World Series either....

At the end of the games on Thursday, I noticed that someone had a can of tennis balls there. I grabbed one of them to see whether I could dunk it. I am happy to report that Operation Dunk is starting to come along... I dunked that tennis ball six times before finally stopping. My best jump (minus the tennis ball) was also much higher than my previous best jumps. Ultimately, I touched the rim to a portion on my hand that was a little below the top of my palm. My prediction is that I will be dunking within a month. My roommate Nate "Birdman" Sponsler is not convinced. Guess it's time to prove him wrong.

On Wednesday, I was supposed to meet with Eroc the Trainer. After waking up at the ungodly hour of 6 a.m. to get to the gym at 7, I was not happy to find a message from Eroc saying that he had "tweaked his back" the night before and could not make the session. Clearly, my assessment of him as a barbarian was way off. Fail. He did reschedule for next Wednesday at 7 a.m. again, so I guess I will give him another chance.

Fortunately, I was able to salvage my day by doing the same CrossFit workout I did last week with some cardio mixed in. The results this time were markedly better, with the pullups being slightly easier. I also stretched for a good 20 minutes once I was done.

OD Setback #2: My Birthday

2009-10-25T22:57:00.000-07:00

I'd like to begin by setting the record straight about Operation Dunk. Though I enjoy setting vigorous athletic goals for myself, I also enjoy a good time out with my friends. As Friday night was my 28th birthday, this was obviously as good a reason as any to celebrate. Astonishingly, I learned that 30+ people and a party bus = lack of doing anything athletic for the rest of the weekend. As a result, my birthday constitutes setback #2.

Fortunately, I managed to get in some quick jump training on Friday after work. By the time I finally made it to the park, there was a very limited amount of sunshine. My workout consisted of several jumps to the hoop while holding a basketball. I also did some dribbling exercises and practiced shooting. I grabbed rim with most of my jumps and slapped the backboard with two hands a couple of times on layups. Other than that, this workout session was rather uneventful and short. My legs and body were also stiff from a week of sitting at the desk. Does anyone know of any way to maintain flexibility while sitting at a desk all day? If so, please enlighten me...

My lack of dunk-related activities aside, I did make a very important decision this weekend. I decided that subsequent to my D.C. Halloween trip this weekend to see Matt "Karate Kid" Freeman, I am going to take a two-week hiatus from alcohol. That means no alcohol at all for two weeks. While this may not seem like a long period of time to some, for a young guy working in the City who likes to go out, this seems like a LONG TIME.

One noticeable success from this weekend was monitoring and sticking to the recommended dietary changes. Since receiving advice from the Nutritionist, I have been eating much healthier and avoiding certain foods I know to be unhealthy. For example, at my Italian family reunion party on Sunday, I consumed as little pasta as possible. Considering the deliciousness and abundance of the pasta, this was a serious test of my devotion to Operation Dunk. I guess that certain weekends are just going to require me to minimize the damage as much as possible.

28 years old... still have not dunked... could this be the year?

My Fitness Assessment with the Nutritionist

2009-10-21T20:25:00.001-07:00

Today was the first time in the history of my work experience that I worked out in the middle of the day. Of course, "work out" is a relative term (and doesn't make sense; what the hell does it mean to work out anyway?) for what transpired during my lunchtime experience. The purpose of my meeting with the Nutritionist (she has a name, but I like calling her the "Nutrionist" better) was to complete my first ever Fitness Assessment. The Fitness Assessment basically consisted of four parts:

Blood Pressure
Body-Fat Analysis
Aerobic Exercise
Functional Lifts

(1) First off, we measured my blood pressure. I believe my exact BP was 129 over 77 or something like that. The only thing she said that I understood was that it was within the normal ranges. Win.

(2) Next, she conducted an extensive body-fat analysis of various places on my body, including my chest, triceps, abs, underarm area, and side abs. Overall, my body fat turned out to be something like 16.8%, once again within the healthy range. She measured my weight at 214.5 pounds with my shoes on. Win again.

(3) The third part saw Operation Dunk sitting on a stationary bike while the Nutritionist talked to me about the first week of entries in my Food Journal. Apparently, I have been doing pretty well with my meals with the exception of a few things (i.e. the 10 piece Chicken McNuggets and Caribbean Passion Jamba Juice I had on Saturday in San Diego). Overall though, she said things looked right. As we talked while I was on the bike, the resistance on the bike slowly increased over the course of 10 minutes. The machine measured my "aerobic fitness" at each different stage, which seemed to be based on no logical measurement whatsoever. Anyway, it later turned out I could have been slightly more "aerobic," whatever the hell that means. Confused Fail.

(4) The final test involved a number of what I refer to as "Functional Fitness" Lifts. The first such exercise tested my back flexibility by placing both of my legs on the floor and pushing my feet against two blocks. Then, she asked me to stretch forward to measure my flexibility. Needless to say, BIG fail on flexibility. Next, she told me to do as many push-ups as possible until failure. I managed 39 before I had to stop. Moderate win (especially considering how sore I still felt from my CrossFit workout on Monday). The next exercise involved performing as many sit-ups as possible within a minute. I believe I managed 37 or so. Win again. Finally, I had to perform a wall sit for as long as humanly possible. After about 1 minute, the pain in my legs felt so excruciating that I could barely maintain my position. I gave in around the 90-second mark. Slight win.

And that was all we did. She printed out the results for me, showed me a few lifts she felt could help with my core strength and overall flexibility, and then asked if I wanted to sign up for trainer sessions. Being the "Yes, anything to dunk" Man that I am right now, I readily accepted this invitation. She introduced me to Eric the Barbarian (or just plain "Eroc," his barbarian name), and we set up our first workout for next Wednesday at 7 a.m. He then slammed his hand against his chest and yelled "this... is... Sparta! ... No wait... This... Is... Club One!" Though this didn't really happen, it would have been awesome if it did. Still, his barbarian-like qualities inspired a certain level of fear inside me. I have a feeling my session with Eroc might just kill me.

Above the Rim at Moscone

2009-10-20T22:07:00.000-07:00

Tonight saw Operation Dunk playing ball once again at the Moscone Recreation Center. After work, I headed over to the gym around 6:30 p.m. to see if I could get in a few quick games. Unfortunately, Tuesday night is apparently "let's all go play basketball because nothing cool ever happens on Tuesday" night at Moscone. When I showed up, I found myself FOUR games deep before getting in to play. In all my history of pickup basketball, I have never had to wait four games... EVER

Since the gym at Moscone is small, the 4-on-4 games went quickly. I also happened to jump onto an earlier team who needed an extra player. The games were solid tonight, with a majority of the people knowing what they were doing. My team lost our first game, mainly because our fourth player had just won three in a row and played no defense. He let a fat guy score on him at will. No matter how tired I am, I would never let that happen to me. After we lost him and picked up a new guy, we were unstoppable, winning our next three with ease.

I wore my Operation Dunk t-shirt that I created a couple years ago. It is still the first thing that pops up when you put "Operation Dunk" into Google. Go ahead, try it... or just put this into your browser:http://www.zazzle.com/operation_dunk_tshirt-235603113080981117

People asked me about "Operation Dunk" and laughed when I told them about my goal. Still, by the end of the games, they were giving me support to keep pursuing it. Some even gave me some pointers for improving my hops.

After the games, I took a few running jumps to see how close to dunking I am these days. The results surprised me. My legs felt really strong and I managed to get above the rim with my right hand on the first jump. Subsequent jumps led to the same results. I am pretty sure that if I had a tennis ball with me, I would have been dunking the shit out of it. Maybe even a volleyball.

Tomorrow entails another meeting with Hallie, the Nutrition Expert. The plan is to do a body weight/fat assessment and review my Food Journal. She also told me to dress for a workout - let's do this.

CrossFit

2009-10-19T22:27:00.000-07:00

I have started walking around the house in these. Yes, they are Strength Shoes. I will be engaging in my first workout with these tomorrow. But first, today's activity....

Given Joey "CrossFit" Mason's steadfast insistence that I check out CrossFit.com, I decided to give it a shot today. For all of you who have never heard of CrossFit.com, here is a brief description of its pitch:

CrossFit is the principal strength and conditioning program for many police academies and tactical operations teams, military special operations units, champion martial artists, and hundreds of other elite and professional athletes worldwide. Its program delivers a fitness that is, by design, broad, general, and inclusive. Our specialty is not specializing. Combat, survival, many sports, and life reward this kind of fitness and, on average, punish the specialist.The CrossFit program is designed for universal scalability making it the perfect application for any committed individual regardless of experience. We’ve used our same routines for elderly individuals with heart disease and cage fighters one month out from televised bouts. We scale load and intensity; we don’t change programs.

I don't know about you, but I'm inspired just reading its description... Anyway, this website apparently posts a new workout everyday for its followers to complete. Then, it encourages you to pose your results. Today's workout appealed to me, because it was similar to the circuit workouts that I have been doing. Though the workout involved only pushups, squats, situps, and pullups. I modified it as follows:

Warmup: 500 M row to warm up
Pushups (8 straight sets involving 20 seconds of doing as many as possible followed by 10 seconds of rest... very tough by the end)
Squats (same system as pushups)
Pullups (same... these were impossible. By the 5th rep, I could barely do one per set)
Situps (same... easiest by far)
Calf raises
Tricep pulls
Cardio: Ran 1.2 miles with 1 minute of sprinting and 30 seconds of rest.

This workout actually lasted much shorter than my other workouts, yet my body felt more tired than usual afterwards. My shoulder muscles have also started to shake, which I assume is from muscle exhaustion. Personally, I blame the pullups. No matter how in shape you are, pullups will make you feel like a fatass.

Diet was solid today. Tried to eat more small meals over the course of the day, and I did not consume any soda or chips. I also ordered wheat bread on my sandwich at lunch and excluded the mayo. Feeling pretty good at this point... ready for my Strength Shoes workout tomorrow.

Meeting with a Nutrition Expert...

2009-10-18T21:57:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday (yes, I am behind on my updates) I met with a Nutrition Expert at Club One. What can I say? I love free advice, especially when it comes to health. She and I met for an hour and discussed various topics, including my goal (i.e. dunking), my diet (she asked me to keep a Food Journal, which is now in progress), and what it will take for me to get there. Here is a summary of her advice:

It's better to eat lots of small meals over the course of a day and snack every 2-3 hours. This will prevent me from getting really hungry and eating too large of a lunch. Consuming a large meal after not eating for a while makes your blood sugar spike and causes you to feel sleepy.
Diet soda (she claims it makes your bones lose calcium), fruit juice, chips, and excessive carbohydrates (she said pasta is just useless calories) must be decreased.
Good breakfast idea = hardboiled egg and oatmeal. She really likes the idea of eating hardboiled eggs as snacks (we didn't discuss the yolk).
2-7 alcoholic drinks a week. The alcoholic drink with the lowest calories she recommended is a vodka-tonic.
Increase protein consumption (she thinks I should go on the Atkins Diet).
Go with whole wheat products whenever possible.
Coffee is OK, as long as you stay away from the fufu drinks (i.e. mochas).
No chipotle... fuck

I knew that last one was coming, but it didn't soften the blow any less when she said it. Oh well... sometimes you just gotta make some sacrifices in life to get what you want. She then provided me with a couple of handouts re shopping ideas, meal ideas, and her recommendations when going out for food. She concluded our session by giving me a Food Journal, telling me to write down everything I eat for one week, and then meet with her again next week. For our next meeting, she is going to perform a body-mass composition analysis, or something like that. She also said that she would try to set me up with a trainer who would tell me exactly what I need to do to improve me hops. She also mentioned he would "destroy me" during our workouts. All for free... shamoan

It has now almost been a week and I have been documenting my meals daily in the Food Journal. Aside from a destructive Saturday day and night in San Diego, I have been pretty good about following her advice. Though I have been eating better, I have been slacking on the exercise front. I played tennis for three hours on Saturday at UCSD for Alumni Day, which was pretty much my exercise for the weekend. Getting back to it tomorrow though... my strength shoes will soon be making an appearance

Balling at the Moscone Recreation Center

2009-10-15T13:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Operation Dunk played its first basketball in a couple of weeks. The venue of choice: the Moscone Recreation Center, located at the intersection of Chestnut and Buchanan Street. For any looking for decent after-work pickup games from 5-8:30 on Monday-Thursday in the Marina, this is the play to go. Though the gym is somewhat small, it consistently has 4-on-4 games with average-good players. After donning my basketball shoes and walking the half a mile to Moscone, I was ready for battle.

When I first arrived, half of the court was taken up by little kids being coached in half-court drills. Fortunately, the other half had around 5 guys looking like they were warming up for a game. After a brief warmup myself and the random disappearance of a couple people, we managed to start a 2-on-2 game. The two shortest guys of the four were friends and decided they wanted to play on a team together in a game to 7. Within 5 minutes, my teammate and I won 7-1. We ended up extending the game to 12 points in order to prolong the game. Still, it was over in less than 10 minutes. I resorted to post moves to maximize my height advantage over the other team. Cruel, but effective.

After this game, the kids cleared out and more players showed up. There were some good players there and we managed to get in a couple of 4-on-4 games with people waiting on the bench. My teams went a combined 4-1 with my only loss coming in the last game when I was too tired to run the floor. My legs felt strong for all of the games except the last and I was definitely jumping higher than usual. Between games I jumped in order to see how close to the rim I could get. Though I grabbed the rim each time, it wasn't pretty. The highest jump resulted in the knuckles on my right hand touching the rim.

There was one player there who was around 6'3", slightly overweight, but looked like he could jump pretty high. He was also African American. Since he and I were guarding each other during the games, I felt that I had developed a slight repoire with him during the games. After our second game, I asked him if he could dunk. He responded by throwing it down with one hand on the first try. I asked him his age and whether or not he trained at all to improve his hops. He replied that he was 18 and has never done anything at all other than play basketball. Even when I probed him further about it, he claimed that he has never done any sort of training a day in his life. Needless to say, I was extremely jealous. It just goes to show that some people are born with it, while others have to work for it. Unfortunately for me, I clearly fall into the latter category. And with time not on my side (I turn 28 next week), achieving my goal is not going to be easy...

SoundZero

2009-10-13T21:58:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, Operation Dunk was in Los Angeles to watch the band Soundzero perform at the Dakota Lounge in Santa Monica. Aside from the music, there was a lot of dancing and utter craziness. My friend Nate "The Wildcard" Gorin also busted one of the best 1-minute dance montages I have ever seen (check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbgf5bYhz18). And the best part about this weekend is that unlike last weekend, I managed to get in a workout and succeeded in not decimating my body completely.

Gym of the week: LA Fitness - On Saturday, I went to LA Fitness with a free guest pass that was courtesy of my good friend's girlfriend. This free gym visit was no much easier than my others. Right off the bat I let him know that he had no chance at getting me to join. I told him I was just there for the weekend and needed to get to the gym at least once to help my goal of dunking. Oddly, that seemed to satisfy him and he issued me a guest pass. He even encouraged my pursuit of the goal. This just goes to show that it's the little things that keep me going with this whole dunking thing...

For my workout, I started with some cycling and then did ten minutes on the rowing machine. The rowing machine is a great way to get warmed up for a workout. It requires you to use your entire body, and also kinda gives you the feeling that you are rowing on a lake... not

Anyway, I did my typical workout of mixing some arms with a lot of legs and abs then followed it up with some stretching. There were a lot of UCLA college students patrolling around at this gym trying to look tough. What the hell is a Bruin anyway? Just kidding guys, you know I got love for you. Some of my best friends are from there.

Aside from a productive weekend of dancing, one workout, lots of walking, and only minor decimation, I watched two new music videos on the Virgin America flight. "Chilling" by Wale featuring Lady GaGa and "Make Her Say" by Kid Cudi featuring Kanye West & Common are amazing music videos and two of the catchiest songs I have ever heard. Kid Cudi impresses me more by the day.

Monday I took the day off to rest, but Tuesday I was back at it. After rowing to warm up, I did three circuits as follows:

3 sets of the following exercises in sequence: pushups, pullups, and then tricep pull-downs
3 sets of the following: 15 box jumps, 10 jump-squats, and 30 calf raises
2 sets of the following: 20 resistance situps and 10 hanging leg raises
Ran a mile and watched the World Series of Poker, feeling jealous that they get to play poker all day while I practice law. No, really. That would be amazing...

I finally am starting to feel the results. My legs feel really strong, especially when doing jumping exercises and I am starting to lose some weight. Tomorrow I am going to take to the basketball courts to see how much progress I have made. First jumping video soon to follow...

Equinox

2009-10-08T23:42:00.000-07:00

Today saw Operation Dunk travelling to a new gym in the City: Equinox. Thanks to Urban Daddy's Perks section, I was able to land myself a free one-week pass to go check out Equinox. Fortunately, Equinox is located extremely close to my work at Pine and Sansome, so it was a short walk after work.

From the moment I walked in, something about the gym just did not feel right. The layout is like a giant fishbowl with mirrors in random places, blaring music over the loudspeakers, trainers roaming EVERYWHERE, and tons of people. After a quick tour, I got ready to work out.

Since my upper body was still sore from Monday and Tuesday, I decided today was going to be abs and legs day. My activities consisted of the following:

* Running: 2.5 miles on the coolest treadmills I have ever seen. They are apparently the "latest and greatest" machines with a spot where you can plug in your iphone and it brings up your itunes on a touch screen.
* Weights: Weighted calf raises, Boxer situps (3 sets of 20+), Leg presses, Basketball Figure Eights (though they had a basketball, there was no court... sad) through my legs, Basketball behind the backs, Bows & Toes, and Hanging Leg Raises
* Biking: 10 minutes on one of their "spin cycles"

* Stretching: 15 minutes

Though the workout was long and tough, it was interrupted by numerous trainers. One thing Equinox prides itself on is its high amount of trainers roaming the floors. There are black-shirted trainers (private sessions) and blue-shirted trainers (available to the public). At one point I decided to grab a weighted two-handled medicine ball to try and do situps on the ground. Not really knowing what I was doing, I asked a nearby black-shirted trainer for a tip on whether I was doing the exercise right. He looked at me like I was crazy and pointed (without saying a word) to a nearby blue-shirted trainer.

Fortunately, I was beginning to under the protocol. Unfortunately, into my life appeared Shera the trainer. After showing me how to do the medicine ball situp, she launched into a trainer monologue. Next thing I know it's 10 minutes later and I have not done a single additional exercise. Somehow, I am still listening to Shera explain to me everything she knows about weight-lifting and fitness:

"What you really need is yoga. Equinox has a great program called 'Stiff Guy Yoga.' That would be great for you. And I know you'd love our 'Look Good In Tight Jeans' Class."

At this point I drew the line and told Shera, "Thanks for your help. I'd really like to get back to my workout now." Whew, she finally left. I walked into another room to do more situps and 5 minutes later Shera appeared again. "You need to breathe out more when you lift your legs. And straighten your back more. I really think you'd like yoga..."

The rest of my workout continued in this manner, and it forced me to stay much later than normal. I guess this is the allure of Equinox to some, but not for me. I will be enjoying my one-week visit to check our their infamous spin classes and then not coming back. So far Sports Club LA is the best facility I have visited.

On a side note, I downloaded an amazing iphone application called iFitness. It has a list of tons of different exercises with displays of people performing them. You can also document your BMI (Body Mass Index) and your daily workouts. For $1.99, it's a steal... Yes, I have sold out

Still Going...

2009-10-07T13:19:00.000-07:00

Tuesday night was a similar routine to Monday night: Great sports game on TV combined with a solid lift at Club One. When I first arrived, I vowed to stay on the elliptical as long as the Twins-Tigers game continued into extra innings. I made this decision at the top of the 10th inning, not realizing how slowly innings pass in baseball, especially playoff baseball. Needless to say, by the middle of the 12th I decided I had spent enough time on that machine and left to hit the weights.

Fortunately, Club One also has a TV in the weight room, so I was able to watch the end of the game. What a squander by the Tigers this year. Thank God I'm an A's fan and don't have to worry about things like the playoffs anymore...In addition to the 20+ minutes of cardio on the elliptical "hill plus" program, my routine consisted of the following:

Weights: Biceps (free bar, dumbbells, and pull-ups), squats (low weight, jumping at the end of each lift), box jumps (highest setting), and 100 calf raises
Cardio: Ran one mile total in 8 minutes, alternating between 1:15 seconds of hard sprinting and 45 seconds jogging.
Stretching for 15 minutes.

Immediately after leaving the gym, I returned to my office and made a protein shake. After each workout, I try to consume some protein, either via Muscle Milk or just straight up Whey Protein. I have heard that it's a good way to build muscle and increase recovery time. Hopefully, it's true.

As for my earlier meeting with the "nutritionist," it was relatively uneventful. It turns out that she runs a "weight-watchers support group" each week, which she said would not be a good fit for me. Hopefully that was a compliement. She did, however, offer a free consultation next Wednesday regarding my nutrition and fitness in relation to my goal to dunk. The word "free" persuaded me more than anything and I agreed to meet with her next week. I must admit it's slightly difficult to accept nutritional advice from someone that is in worse shape than me, but I'm still interested to hear what she has to say. I am guessing that my weekly lunches at chipotle will be something she will advise me to cut out... Sigh

First minor setback...

2009-10-05T21:28:00.000-07:00

Let's just say Operation Dunk has seen better days than last weekend... Starting with Oktoberfest on Friday night, followed by Lovefest on Saturday, and the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in GG Park on Sunday, there was not much time to get in any dunk-related activities. There was, however, a great amount of time to sleep in and watch Fresh Prince of Bel Air reruns. While it may have been one hell of a weekend, the fact remains that I did not make further progress towards dunking. Tragically, I consider this Operation Dunk's first setback.

The one saving grace is the total amount of walking I did this weekend. One of the great things about the City that helps with my goal of dunking (aside from the never-ending 60-degree vertical hills) is the fact that everywhere I need to go is within walking distance. Combined with a bus pass, I can travel anywhere in the City within a half hour. I have also stopped taking cabs home from the bars at night. Instead, I elect to run... Forest-Gump style. If you happen to see a tall blond guy running past you at 1 am in the morning - yes, that's me.

Anyway, I got back on track today. After a productive day at work, I hit up the Club One in my building for a long workout. Prior to the workout, I consumed half a Cliff Bar (those things are amazing) for some quick energy. My workout consisted of the following:

Treadmill time to warm up: 1.5 mile run.
Weights: chest, triceps, calves (doing at least 100 calf raises a day per Nate's suggestion - yes, he can dunk), situps (also doing these every day)
15-minute "sprints" on the elliptical (1:15 sprint w/45-seconds of rest)
20 minutes of stretching

Fortunately, I watched Monday Night Football on the various TVs there. Fucking awesome game. Even though I hate Brett Favre after what he did to the 49ers last week, I respected his performance tonight. And secretly, I wanted him to beat the Packers. Say what you will about the man, he sure is making the NFL interesting this year. Gotta love the storyline...

Tomorrow's plan: Meet with a "weight manager" (yes, it's free) to see what she has to offer. I am predicting that she will be a hippy who eats nothing but barley and oats. That's ok - I love hippies...

Oktoberfest

2009-10-02T14:32:00.001-07:00

I must confess that Operation Dunk took a much-needed break on Thursday. Despite my highly ambitious plans to run on the treadmill and stretch for a half hour yesterday, Thursday night happy hour at the Exploratorium managed to take priority. And yes, it was worth it.

For all those who are curious, from 6-10 p.m. on the first Thursday of every month, the Exploratorium opens its doors to adults who want to drink and feel young again. That means you get one night of not having to worry about hordes of ruthless little children cutting in line and ruining your aderall-like concentration on the plethora of educational science experiments. So yes, it was a departure from my rigorous dunking schedule, but the rest was also necessary.

Tonight, my plan is to run 2 miles on the treadmill, followed by a mile's worth of sprinting w/30 second rest periods. This will be followed by some situps and good 20 minutes of stretching to try to alleviate some of the pain my body is feeling. Afterwards, I will head out to Oktoberfest and likely undo all of the exercise-related work that I managed to do this week. Such is life...

On a side note, I just signed up for a free one-week session at Equinox gym in San Francisco to begin next. Yes, I have become a gym-hopper. Please let me know if you are friends with anyone who works out there who would be interested in lifting with me next week.

Soreness...

2009-09-30T22:40:00.000-07:00

It is now day three of my quest to dunk. I have spent the last three days working out at the Sports Club LA (SCLA) as part of a 3-day trial. I ultimately have decided to get a membership there, but defer it until January of 2010. This will allow me to finish up my current tenure at the Club One located in the Citigroup building at 1 Sansome Street in which I work. It also means that any basketball I play will have to be done so in a free gym or outdoors somewhere. Given that my short-term goal is to improve my leaping ability by lifting weights, Club One should be sufficient for this to happen.

Anyways, on Tuesday, I lifted weights with Clark "the Shark" Lammers at SCLA. In order to warm up, I decided to arrive early and play a little pick-up basketball with some of the locals. Thinking that arriving on the early side (i.e. 5:40ish) would help me to find better games, I headed to the court. I managed to get in a game of 3-on-3 with some guys who were playing there. The only hard part was convincing the 6th guy to play, even though he had only played one previous game. Fortunately, the other team decided that this was the guy who was going to guard me. Big mistake.

Our team won two games straight easily and I blew past the guy guarding me at will. I made sure to touch the backboard every time I made an uncontested layoff and even managed to get two hands on there one time. At this point, Clark showed up and we went to lift weights. Though I lifted mainly upper body, I did manage to get in some calf raises and squats. At the end of the workout, I did 20 minutes of cardio on the bike and stretched for 15 minutes.

Stretching has been key for me. One of my genetic flaws is my inflexibility (sorry parents, but it's true). I have never been able to touch my toes naturally. The only way I manage to make this happen is through constant stretching. I plan to make this a key component of my jump training, and may even end up going to yoga once a week (except it's so boring).

Today, I met up with the Shark once again at SCLA and we went to an hour-long spin class (free with a monthly membership). Since my upper body was so sore that I had trouble sitting up in bed this morning, I decided that working out my legs couldn't hurt. The spin instructor began by lamenting to the class that her landlord had just shut off the power and Internet at her house. She then proceeded to apologize for not having any good stories for us. I knew that we were in store for brutality. Sure enough, the class was brutal and the instructor kept urging us to turn it up a gear every time. She also made sure to play plenty of angry bitch music (i.e. Pink) to "pump us up." By the end of the class, however, I felt great. After making sure to stretch for 10 minutes and checking out the league basketball games going on there (they happen on Weds), I called it a night.

After three days straight of intense exercise, my legs are feeling great. I plan on doing a little more cardio tomorrow and stretching for a good 20 minutes. Next week I will begin my actual jump workouts. If anyone has suggestions on good stretches, please let me know...

Rebirth of Operation Dunk

2009-09-29T10:47:00.000-07:00

It is now almost October 2009 and I still have not dunked... I have lots of perfectly acceptable excuses why this has not happened (the main one being my general lack of hops), but none that should keep me from achieving my goal. With the conclusion of my tennis season last weekend (our Open team played in the National Championships in Vegas, going 3-1 but failing to advance out of our flight due to a technicality), the time has come to give this dunking thing another try.

Yesterday, I began a 3-day free trial at the Sports Club LA in San Francisco. The Club has a basketball court and all the facilities I could possibly need to get into optimal dunking shape. I concluded my workout with a brief jumping session on the basketball court. On my final three jumps I managed to grab rim pretty easily with my right hand, with my highest jump enabling me to hit the rim with the mid-way point of my fingers. Not a bad start. The issue still remains whether I will actually purchase a membership at this Club, but I think it may be a good investment for my dunking needs.

If anyone has any tips on improving my hops, please feel free to divulge such information immediately. Once I come up with a solid training program, I will make sure to post this program on my blogsite.