NBA dunking legend Vince Carter retired a few short weeks ago and in honor of his career as well as his extraordinary dunking ability, I wanted to share with you how you can develop your athleticism to perform a classic Vince Carter dunk of your own!
The ability to dunk is a skill which means that you can improve at it through practice. By breaking down the factors that allow Vince Carter to be such an incredible dunker, we can figure out what we need to work on!
5 of the main reasons why Vince Carter is an incredible dunker are:
- He can dunk with all 5 plants
- Carter can dunk in traffic and on the fast break as equally as well
- Carter possessed unbelievable creativity and court awareness in the air
- He has incredible hands which he uses to demonstrate his awesome catching ability
- He has never been the highest jumper in the NBA which makes him a more creative and skilled dunker
Let’s break this down further!
Vince Carter Dunk Variability
When it comes to dunking off a running start, these are the 5 most common plants (basic jumping patterns):
Right Leg – Left Leg
Demonstrated by pro basketball player, Gerald Green
Left Leg – Right Leg
Demonstrated by collegiate basketball player, Dan Gross –
Right Leg
Demonstrated by pro basketball player, John Wall
Left Leg
Demonstrated by pro basketball player, James White –
Hop-Step
Demonstrated by pro dunker, Justin Darlington –
In his prime, Vince Carter was proficient in all 5 of these plants.
It seemed that Vince Carter could use any of these plants and get his head close to or above the rim.
This led to him being able to do many different types of dunks in many different types of positions.
This is a must-have skill for any basketball player because it turns dunking into an actual useful tool on a basketball court!
If you can only jump using 1-2 plant styles, it’s going to be difficult to get dunks in games.
Check out this video of Vince Carter’s dunks at age 42.
During this short video, you’ll see at least three different plant styles that he consistently uses to dunk.
NDeveloping jump variability through using plants creates elite dunkers that dunk for a lifetime!
Dunking Takeaway
You can develop the skill of jump variability by practicing different dunking styles.
It’s as simple as finding a gym and committing 15 minutes to an hour with or without a basketball to learn a new jumping plant.
Most people have their natural best dunking plant style, but by practicing other styles you become a well-rounded jumper and increase your chance of throwing down a classic Vince Carter dunk in games!
My 5 best tips to Learning a New Jumping Style/
Become a More Skilled Jumper are below:
- Don’t move as fast as you can
- Tyler Ray of Project Pure Athlete has a great quote about becoming a better jumper, “Slow down so that you can speed up.”
- Slowing down allows a person to develop your technique and reduces the forces placed on their knees
- This tip allows you to practice more often and with a higher quality
- Start close to the basket and work your way outwards
- For one-foot jumpers, you should be starting with a jump that resembles a skip
- For two-foot jumpers, you should be starting with a jump either off vertical or off of one step
- Gradually add more distance to your approach one step at a time to maximize your technique
- Only focus on pushing as hard as possible into the ground when you are honing your skills
- Pushing hard into the ground doesn’t mean that you fly high into the air
- Push into the ground, but relax at the last second, so that you only pop into the air a few inches
- After you know how to push hard into the ground, focus on adding a strong arm swing
- Basic arm swing fundamentals when jumping are that your arms should be behind the body while lowering and rotate to the front of the body as you straighten your legs and rise off the ground
- Perfect the timing and speed of your arm swing to maximize the efficiency of your jump
- Practice good technique only
- This means you need to be filming yourself and critiquing your jumps so that you can jump with excellent technique effortlessly
- This tip alone will add inches to your vertical!
Vince Carter Dunk Variety
Possession of profound dunking variability as demonstrated by his use of several jumping plants allowed Vince Carter to have a great variety of dunks in his arsenal and be capable of dunking in almost every situation possible.
The two most common settings for dunks to happen in basketball games are on the fast break or in half-court sets.
Some dunkers are only able to dunk on a fast-break while other superior dunkers can dunk on fast breaks and in halfcourt settings.
These athletes can dunk in a variety of situations like Vince Carter because they dunk instinctively and quickly.
Let’s break down the difference between dunks on the fast break and in the half-court sets, so you can learn how pull them off.
Dunking on the Fast Break
Generally, it’s much easier to complete dunks on a fast-break. This is mainly for two reasons:
- When dunking on a fast-break, an athlete is normally running, which can make it easier to jump higher
- When dunking on a fast-break, there are normally fewer defenders
Check out this fast-break dunk by Vince Carter.
Having the luxury of being able to take his time and count his steps allows him to maximize how high he jumps.
Fewer distractions and the sight of nothing but the basket in front of them allows a dunker to maximize both their jumping and dunking techniques.
This is why the fast break is “showtime” for a skilled dunker!
Dunking Takeaway
Experienced dunkers on the fast breaks often are the players who get a lot of steals or run the court extremely well.
To become a player like this, you need to become extremely aware of what is going on at the court at all times. When the ball switches to your team’s possession, you need to be one of the first ones down the court. This increases your chance of getting an open dunk!
Additionally as people become more experienced, a person develops a feel for where they like to dunk from and this allows them to run up the court and be in the right position to receive a pass for a dunk.
This fast-break dunk by Vince Carter is a great example. VC timed his run perfectly so that he was able to complete an uncontested 360 slam.
Dunking in the Half-Court
Dunking in the half-court can be a hard skill to master.
An athlete must be more confident in their jumping ability to jump highly without a running start in order to dunk in the half-court.
Additionally, there are normally many defenders around the basket which makes the half-court a prime setting for poster dunks as Vince Carter demonstrates below by dunking on Tim Duncan twice: once in college and once as a pro.
On both of these dunks, Vince Carter approaches Tim Duncan, an elite shot-blocker, fearlessly and this allows him to maintain all of his momentum to channel it into a better jump.
Many people become intimidated when they try to dunk over defenders and slow down or stutter their steps. This ruins the momentum that they can bring into their jump and often leads to poor results.
Vince Carter never has had this issue because he approaches every defender in a fearless manner.
A big reason that he can approach him so fearlessly is because of the large variety of ways in which he can dunk as an experienced and instinctive dunker.
Dunking Takeaway
Dunking in the half-court is a completely different animal than dunking on the fast break.
An athlete must be capable of jumping high without much momentum and learn the spots where they can best dunk from.
In my opinion, the three best spots in a half court setting are normally both short corners and the middle of the paint.
The short corners spots (marked by the red circles above) are normally best for beginning and intermediate dunkers, while the middle of the paint spot (marked by the large blue oval) is what I call the “jump spot.”
The short corner spots normally require one or two steps to dunk which makes it fairly uncomplicated. The “jump spot” normally involves multiple steps. Wing players and point guards commonly use this spot to dunk once they drive past their defender.
Elite dunkers like Vince Carter begin most of their poster dunks by jumping from the jump spot. As long as they can get to the “jump spot”, they can take off on anybody.
A great example of this is the Vince Carter dunk on Tim Duncan when they were in college, that I showed previously.
As soon as Carter hit the jump spot, he flew over and past Tim Duncan to hammer down a classic Vince Carter dunk.
Creativity and Court Awareness
Despite Vince Carter’s incredible athleticism and dunking ability, this ability might be the most difficult to practice. Vince Carter was extremely creative and aware of the basketball court at all times. This allowed him to catch lobs from Jason Kidd like this:
This entire play is setup by Vince Carter’s ability to sneak past his defender while cutting.
Court awareness helps elite dunkers turn dunking into a weapon on the court.
Think about it this way: If you can’t get close to the basket, you will never dunk.
Basic basketball skills like cutting help turn great dunkers into great players!
When you can pair court awareness with great dunking creativity, you increase your chances of throwing down a classic Vince Carter dunk!
Dunking Takeaway
There’s no special drill that helps you become creative and aware on the court.
You just have to do it the way all the best dunkers do it: by practicing dunking and playing basketball consistently.
Over time, dunkers develop their repertoire of dunks and become comfortable with different movements in midair. By developing the basic dunking skills such as windmills and 360’s, a young dunker can open themselves up to becoming more creative through experimentation.
But the basic dunking skills need to come first!
Remember, this doesn’t only have to happen on regulation 10 ft rims. There are many great dunkers out there that have developed their basic dunking skills on shorter 8 foot or 9 foot rims first.
Use low rims to develop your dunking skill and creativity and play basketball a few times a week to develop your feel for the game.
Incredible Hands and Catching Ability
The 4th ability of Vince Carter is another one that is hard to copy. Vince Carter has an incredible ability to catch the basketball due in part to his large hands seem to almost attract the ball in midair like a magnet.
Check out the video below to see a horrible pass easily turned into a classic Vince Carter dunk due to his amazing catching ability!
Dunking Takeaway
I have found over time from personal experience that certain ball handling skills make it easier to grip the ball and dunk.
Paul Fabritz of PJF Performance created an amazing video on ball handling drills that he calls “cuff” drills.
The cuff drill is a drill for ball handlers that helps them to feel as if the ball sticks to their hand. It almost mimics carrying the basketball, so while it is not usable in basketball games, it can be great for training.
Cuff drills helps dunkers to develop a feel for the basketball that is second to none.
Check out Paul’s video below where he demonstrates a basic cuff ball handling drill progression!
Pairing these ball handling skills with dunking practice will allow you to develop a better feel for the ball and make more dunks!
Vince Carter Wasn’t the Highest Jumper
Contrary to popular belief, Vince Carter was not the highest jumper the NBA has ever seen.
Take a look at this list of the highest verticals in NBA history.
Vince Carter is 13th on this list!
Keep in mind that this list was made by Bleacher Report almost 10 years ago. Since that time the NBA has been graced with many high-flying athletes such as one of my all-time favorite dunkers, DJ Stephens.
Check out this monster putback dunk!
The element that made Vince Carter incredible was not his ability to jump high, but the way in which he jumped and the flair he displayed in the air.
Style and creativity are what made him incredible dunker and on no other night in his career was that better seen than during the unforgettable 2000 NBA dunk contest.
Dunking Takeaway
The main takeaway from this point is that for dunkers being an incredibly high jumper is a bit overrated.
There’s many people who can’t become pro dunkers and/or thrown down a classic Vince Carter dunk because they are not skilled enough at dunking even though they jump 45+ inches!
Dunking is a skill and if you want to become a skilled dunker, you need to practice a great deal of dunking.
So don’t worry if you can’t jump 45+ inches, dunk, or even touch the rim!
Just keep practicing, find a good vertical jump program, and stay injury-free. This will lead to consistent progression in your vertical jump!
(Check out my article on Finding the Best Jump Training Program for You, if you’re interested in finding a great program.)
Keep practicing and eventually your skills will allow you to pull off dunks that people that can jump even higher than you are unable to do!
Why I Wrote This for You
Growing up, I was a huge Vince Carter fan. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched the 2000 NBA slam dunk contest.
To this day, it still gives me chills!
I’m truly going to miss Vince Carter in the NBA.
As a farewell to him, I wrote this article with the hopes that it can inspire you and other aspiring dunkers to reach and surpass the heights that he reached.
5 of the main reasons why Vince Carter was an incredible dunker are:
- He can dunk proficiently with all 5 plants
- Carter could dunk in traffic and on the fast break as equally as well
- Carter possessed unbelievable creativity and court awareness in the air
- He had incredible hands which gave him awesome catching ability
- He wasn’t the highest jumper and that made him a better dunker
Professional Dunkers like Isaiah Rivera and Jordan Kilganon give me hope that anyone who trains and practices hard enough can develop incredible skills like Vince Carter.
If you want to see the modern-day Vince Carters who jump high, dunk hard, and have amazing style and creativity, I would recommend that you check them out!
Did you find this article helpful? I would to hear/know your thoughts on Vince Carter and his incredible career down below.
What was your favorite Vince Carter dunk?
Peace!
