I’m just wondering if you guys think that type of a vertical leap is achievable through training. This man is a genetic FREAK. Demetrius Hook Mitchell is 5’9, 200 lbs, and claims to have a 50" vertical. The first few clips are of him in jail after 5-10 years at around 35 years of age.
My question is, if a guy were to train smart and hard, is that type of vertical possible for the average joe? I’m especially confused at his jumping style. He seems to jump off two feet, which would probably signify a huge squat. Opinions, comments?
I think that anyone can get a 30 + inch vertical through training but getting past a 35" vertical is good training plus fantastic genes. Some people have it and others don’t…period.
[quote]jtrinsey wrote:
If that guy has a 50" vert, my name is Santa Claus…[/quote]
lol, i hear you on that one trinsey.
i have that video and have for a while now and he does many impressive dunks even at his current age. the man malnurished his body, probably didnt weight lift/ plyometrics, etc, and can still jump like crazy. with the only videos i have to go on with him being past his prime, those are FAR from a standing 50" vert and far from a running 50 i would think. but impressive none the less. to the OP, keep training hard and smart and time will tell where you end up. good luck.
I don’t think he’s really an exceptional leaper, in terms of just pure vert. There’s tons of videos on youtube of guys getting up higher and every year there are many guys at the combine who’d blow his vert out of the water.
With that said he is a very good dunker, which definitly is a slightly different skill set. He’s got a real ability to pick his feet up in the air which is why he can do some of those dunks. Just looking at head height at the peak of the jumps I’d wager I could get up a significant bit higher (although it helps that I’m 6’4"), but there’s no way I could do that dunk over a car.
Definitly a cool vid mix, especially seeing him doing that at his height/age.
I’ve seen the documentary about him. He’s also built like a brick shit house. There is no way he’s even near a 50" from either a standstill or off the run. He honestly doesn’t look like he’s getting all that high. Long arms and the “know how” to dunking have certainly helped his cause.
[quote]jtrinsey wrote:
If that guy has a 50" vert, my name is Santa Claus…[/quote]
I know Hook personally. We’re both from Oakland. He’s younger than me. So I’ve seen him over the years. Bottom line…this cat is an incredible physical specimen.
He was able to dunk on a 10 ft rim at age 12 or 13 and a height of about 5’2’’ or 5’3’'.
Moreover, this brother has been dissipating himself since childhood with heavy drug use, poor nutrition, lack of rest, etc. I talked with him a couple of times after he was released from prison.
Even now in his 30’s, after all that, he’s physically strong and able to perform all kinds of dunks. Prison clearly enabled him to get sober, healthy, fit and work on his game.
He had big plans after release. But sadly, a few months ago I heard through a friend that he has relapsed.
I’d like to add that out here in Oakland real ballplayers don’t give a damn about inches on a vertical, If you can bop it’s all good. In you can do all kinds of tricks while bopping, all the better. Leave the measuring tape for the for the fans, scouts and scientists.
[quote]rackrecker wrote:
I’d like to add that out here in Oakland real ballplayers don’t give a damn about inches on a vertical, If you can bop it’s all good. In you can do all kinds of tricks while bopping, all the better. Leave the measuring tape for the for the fans, scouts and scientists.
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So… you agree with me? Didn’t say it wasn’t damn impressive. Just said he doesn’t have a 50" vert.
[quote]jtrinsey wrote:
rackrecker wrote:
I’d like to add that out here in Oakland real ballplayers don’t give a damn about inches on a vertical, If you can bop it’s all good. In you can do all kinds of tricks while bopping, all the better. Leave the measuring tape for the for the fans, scouts and scientists.
So… you agree with me? Didn’t say it wasn’t damn impressive. Just said he doesn’t have a 50" vert.
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Yeah, I’d have to agree. I’ve been around the game a long time and seen many great leapers. And although I’m not into the measurement thing, I really don’t think I’ve seen anything over 35-40 inches.
You might want to check out draftexpress.com. Among other things they catalog all the measurements that are taken at predraft camps for the NBA, including vert. I don’t think you find anything close to 50".
[quote]rackrecker wrote:
You might want to check out draftexpress.com. Among other things they catalog all the measurements that are taken at predraft camps for the NBA, including vert. I don’t think you find anything close to 50".
[/quote]
Yeah, I actually looked at the one for this past year. I believe Afflalo was the highest at like 37" or so?
One thing that was interesting to see was that the NFL combine had a lot of higher vert numbers, but the NBA guys are going super high off the run up. They measure vert off the run at the NBA combines and it isn’t uncommon to see an 8" difference between standing vert and running vert.
Guess that’s the demands of the sport though, NFL is more stop-and-start explosive strength while the NBA is more of that reflexive 1-leg jumping. Also if you just look at the builds you can see how it would be true; a NFL player is way heavier on average than an NBA player and way stronger, so most of them are probably 2-leg strength-dominant jumpers while the skinnier NBA guys rely more on plyometric ability and are predominantly 1-foot jumpers, especially the younger guys who haven’t had a lot of time in a strength program.
Michael Jordan is a perfect example of this; he was mainly a 1-leg jumper in college and his early pro years, but as he got stronger and heavier, he started shifting more to a 2-leg style.
[quote]rackrecker wrote:
I really don’t think I’ve seen anything over 35-40 inches.
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That’s another big thing. Most people don’t realize how ridiuclously high a 40" vert is. I can do some nice dunks (2-leg 2-hand from outside the key, fairly weak 360s and windmills), and my standing vert is a legit (measuring 1-handed reach as high as I can) 31" or so. A true, standing 40" vert is extremely rare- olympic level athleticism.
