Thanks for visiting dunkbonds.com, the dormant Rails app I built to gamify charitable contributions toward personal goals, piloted around my goal to dunk. You'll notice I have made zero effort to update its style, so it still harkens back to its original 2011-era mint.com inspiration, when it was likely already looking pretty dated. Have a click around!
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October 18, 2012

The Sand Never Lies


I've been doing some training on sand as of late.  It presents some interesting pros and cons, and it also clues me in on my form in the quest of developing that perfect penultimate step.

Explosive vs. Elastic 

The "give" requires the application of more force over a slightly longer time.  This helps build explosive starting strength but can come at the expense of developing elastic response.

Lower Impact

Somewhat obviously, sand is much easier with respect to impact.  Since I've experience some troubling lower left leg medial pains that seem correlated to impact, it provides some training effect without aggravation.

Visual

Duh!  You can see your tracks in sand.  When I perform bounding-type drills, I can measure distance across sets.  Good motivation. 

I've also been working on the penultimate step.  I basically run and jump and compare the tracks for distance and foot-strike.  I do it in a way that feels normal, then in a way that feels like I'm perfoming a correct penultimate step.

Surprise!  I had thought my last step was too long, but my instinctual footwork is actually correct.  My penultimate step is indeed longer than the final one, but I'll have to study up some more on what ratio is optional, as well as work on the timing.