My slam dunk mentor Shot Blender once said: "Finger rolling is more fun than dunking." I wasn't sure then or now if he was serious or just trying one of his Jedi mind tricks to throw me off. Never the less I liked the concept. I mean I really liked the concept. So much so that I took it and made it my own style, and it was such a unique style that I think it would be hard for anyone else to imitate. The impossible but oh so cool play that I use to day dream about that inspired my finger roll style, think of it as like a shot in the shooting game 'h-o-r-s-e', was to finger roll / dunk the ball at the same time. The shot would be like a dunk done by a player that was so high in the air that they could backwards flick the ball through the hoop with their finger tips below the rim inside the hoop at the release of the ball and the palms up. Of course this is a more or less impossible shot for anyone except the likes of someone like Dr. J, but one of my patented moves came close. On the play I would finger roll the ball coming from the right side and at the front of the rim with a kind of reverse spin on the ball that made it look like the rim was sucking the ball straight through the hoop. On occasion I also liked to act like I was going to thrust the ball through the hoop and then stop and freeze in the air while holding the ball over the rim, and then drop it through the net. I question now if my "style" was actually just showboating. My style was my way of expressing myself through movement and through playing the game. To me it was art. To me it was like something that I was trying to make beautiful. But make no mistake about it, my finger roll was a weapon on the court. It was one of my main weapons. One factor in why I was able to develop the unique style of shooting a lay up was because of the fact that I was a streetballer. Most of or maybe all of the high school coaches I ever met would never have allowed me to use or practice finger rolling on their teams. I have so many stories of former college teammates, and or opponents in pick up games at the U of Iowa Field House or from the rec center, who told stories about not being allowed to finger roll in high school. In pick up games on occasion some opponents acted like my finger rolls were illegal or a joke or something. In those instances I felt inspired and compelled to leave the finger roll haters in awe after a dominating jaw dropping performance in those games. When I played for the Iowa City Central Junior High Little Hawks seventh grade basketball team our coach Don Munson taught us to shoot a layup using the same form as a set or jump shot but off of one foot instead of two. In seventh grade I used a running hook shot for my layup over would be defenders. In my life I ended up breaking all the rules, including the 7th grade coach's lessons about the proper way of shooting a lay up. I did everything my own way. Even now it's not like I'm gloating (o.k., maybe a little), its more like I'm an outside observer just looking back at my career and reminiscing, but not quite. I try hard to be honest in my assessment of my skills and abilities (or at least of my former skills and abilities). As for my seemingly rebellious like attitude I still don't know if it was a good or bad thing as far as how my life turned out or what levels of success I achieved. On the court my rebellious finger roll was crucial to my game and to my identity as a baller. To set up my favorite finger roll coming down from the right side of the court there is a trick I used to use. Actually I kind of long forgot about it and only remembered it upon writing this while thinking back. The trick was usually employed to set myself up for the finger roll that I liked to use at the front of the rim, but could also be used in other situations. I stopped using this deceptive technique sometime when I got older and when the competition became wiser. My trick was to stare at the corner of the backboard as I was dribbling toward the basket and position my body as if the hoop was located at the point where I was staring (and then hopefully the defender will follow suite) . The defensive player is usually taught to stay between their man and the basket (it's instinctive for all ball players to do this for the most part) so if successful in my ploy I would lure the defender way out of position and leave him trying to guard the space at the side of the backboard which allowed me all the extra space I needed to get to the front of the rim. This maneuver left many an opposing player wondering what in the hell just happened to them. Most experienced players know where they are on the court without looking or thinking about it. The lane and the three point line etc... are subconsciously absorbed cues to proper spacing. Of course playing outdoors where there is seldom painted out of bounds lines or any other lines made my little trick even more effective. I'm pretty sure I gave up using this strategy by the time I was in my college ball playing years, but I kind of wish I would have tried it more. The problem became that if the trick didn't work it left me with the only option of stopping and backing out, if I could, or passing it back out. The dilemma of deciding whether or not to try and use the trick on any given play brings up one whole new and most crucial aspect of playing basketball and using a preconceived move against a defender. When I was in high school and still honing my skills and perfecting my craft as a ball player I found that in games I would often times decide what move I was going to try and use as I drove to the basket. This is opposed to how I played in later years where I would just react to the situation and allow my instincts to decide and make the move for me. This concept of just reacting is coached and practiced in all team sports. It doesn't mean that a player should go off and free lance and do whatever, discipline is still required, but a player needs to react to the opposition and to the defense which isn't going to do the same thing or be in the same place time and time again. An athlete practices moves and skills so that in game situations those moves and skills feel natural. Thinking about things takes more time than just reacting, and a player that thinks to much becomes robotic like and often looks disjointed and choppy in their movements. During some college games the contradiction between my instincts and me thinking about what to do (or what coach wanted me to do) caused me to get happy feet. Nothing else feels like the feeling of having happy feet. The conscious mind and the instinctive subconscious mind are in complete opposition to each other during those moments.
One play that happened time and time again while I was playing at UD was when after I would get a steal in practice and head off racing down court there was always one player, the same player every time, the kid from Morton Ill. affectionately known as "Boulder head", would be back on defense waiting in the lane to try and take the charge. He hated to do it but had to because it was a practice with coach watching and yelling etc... On the plays Coach blew his whistle and called a charge on me every time whether it was one or not. Boulder Head would always fall down in the classic charge taking position whether I made contact with him or not, and coaches always reward a player for hustling back on defense and getting in position to try and take the charge (that crap - someone trying to take a charge - never ever happens in streetball or even in pick up games). So many times I found myself racing down the court after a steal with Boulder Head back on defense and thinking about what move I should try and make on him. I feel I can or could beat anybody one on one in most cases, but in practice and with coach calling an offensive foul on me every time that Boulder Head flopped made me question what play I should try to make. On almost every occasion I just took it to the hoop regardless of the outcome. I started just running into and slamming Boulder Head to the ground since I was going to get called for the foul anyway. By the way Boulder Head and I would talk and laugh about our head to head encounters after practices, we both understood the circumstances of the other. We had to try to please and impress the coach if we wanted playing time. This whole tangent has precisely to do with my trick of staring at the side of the backboard, and a big question that floats around in my head is whether or not I ever tried to use the trick against Boulder Head. My guess is that I tried it at least once early on but since it did not work I just abandoned it all together. I am pretty sure I never finger rolled after I dropped Boulder Head off like an old timer waiting at a bus stop as I drove by. He would have fouled me or did foul me before letting that happen.
Another move or a set of moves that presented an option for me to use on a drive involved beating my man baseline and doing one of three things. These set of moves are all used from the right side of the hoop and done using the right hand to shoot while jumping off the stride. The first option is to twist to the left while coming up under the rim and using the right hand and the ball's momentum raise up and dunk the ball or drop it in, or sometimes even just flip it in off the glass. The other options I used which are distinctly my own style and my own inventions is to drive hard from the baseline as I passed under the basket while driving the defense back under the hoop and instead of twisting to the left I would create enough space so as to twist to the right and while cupping the ball (ball held between wrist and hand) and using a windmill motion while bringing the ball up and around in a clockwise motion from the right hip and up next to the chest and over the head and then either unraveling the cupped wrist so as to finger role the ball up and over the hoop on the release as I passed under and then by the rim, or unraveling the cupped wrist and releasing the ball off the glass as I slapped glass while floating under and then away from the basket (a cup slap). I've never seen anyone else do this move. I could generate lots of upward momentum using the cupped ball method, and I could even do an impressive windmill like dunk from the front of the rim using this style. These are some of the tangents and options based on my finger rolling style of play that I developed and they served me oh so well for the 15 years or so that I practiced and used them.
2009 age of 39 dunking workout update: way to busy to focus on specified jumping workouts but I have been biking everywhere, walking and running up mountains, dragging and carrying large logs around, and stretching when I can. As long as my back doesn't go out I would say so far so good. I must be getting stronger in my legs and everywhere else, which is good, even though it is a consequence of the life style choice I have made and the position I am in of moving my goat herds and building fences on and near small mountains. Springtime is a busy time of year for a farmer, and any silly goals of playing basketball or of dunking need to take a back seat to the reality of making a living and surviving.
