Humble Beginnings (Blog #1)

“Yo Paco, touch the net!”

The year was 2018. It was a boiling summer in SCC, a local secondary school located in the small town of Tuen Mun, Hong Kong. Having just finished my primary school education, I stood before the basketball hoop at the court. I was tall for my age, sure, but extremely scrawny and weak for my frame. Yet, I wanted to do it. Something in my guts told me to jump up as high as I humanly could, and slap the net with all my might.

As I rubbed my hands, readied my feet, a small crowd of students began to gather around me. The adrenaline rushed through my veins, and I was ready. I squatted down, swung my arms violently, and I jumped. I barely scraped through the bottom of the net, and landed on the floor with a resounding “thud”.

“Eh, it was alright.”

As my classmates slowly walked away from the court, I stood there with a smile. I did it. I’ve touched the net. Despite the feat being somewhat unassuming, even for a lower-form student, I was overwhelmed with joy. The rush of dopaminewas so intense that I couldn’t stop myself from jumping again, and again. By the time the recess bell had rung, my quads were trembling with fatigue.


Little did I know, I had just discovered my passion. It was jumping. More specifically, the art of dunking.

Throughout the course of my school life, I have dabbled with a variety of sports: basketball, football, ping pong—you name it. However, only the singular action of max effort jumping has piqued my interest, be it the volleyball spike or a powerful layup in basketball. I’ve never realised that I was joining the sports purely for the explosive aspect of it, and that was before I joined THP.

To give you more context, THP is short for Translating Human Performance. Run by John Evans, he coaches the objectively highest dunker in the world, Isaiah Rivera. Together, they helped coach me to become a better athlete. Whether that be putting up bigger numbers in the weight room, or getting more explosive on the track, they’ve provided me with comprehensive training and advice to help me improve my performance on vertical jumping.

so close!
For context, when I was training by myself, I suffered from chronic patellar tendonitis, commonly referred to as jumper's knee. I was slightly overweight, and I was weak. However, in the span of 5 months, I’ve lost a staggering 12 kg of body fat, along with gaining considerable speed and strength. Most importantly, I gained 4 inches of vertical, putting me at a 32 inch (80cm) vertical jump at the moment, while fixing my knee as well. (I am writing this in march, so my power outputs may be even greater now)

As I got deeper into the rabbit hole, I discovered more about the dunking community, and have developed an interest in knowing more about the athletes from all over the world, most notably, DomDunks, Donavan Hawkins, Chendenxing, and also Mac McClung (he's definitely a fan favourite) 

Although the dunk community is still in it's infancy at the moment, I love that the dunkers themselves are so tightly knitted and supportive of each other, whereas for basketball its more of a competitive sport in my opinion having tried both of them.

Having seen everyone cheer each other in Dunk Camp (shoutout Andy Nicholson) is such a surreal moment given that the fact the pro dunkers were hyped up about the beginners throwing down their first dunk (myself included). With around 80 days until Dunk Camp 2025, I can't wait to meet everyone I admired online and hopefully hit my first dunk with my fellow campers watching me!

Back in Hong Kong, I've also made some connections with some local dunkers.

(Shoutout Kaho https://www.instagram.com/bryant_dunkho?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw== 

and Bosco https://www.instagram.com/boz.c0?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==)

They've introduced me to a pro dunker (DunkerLee on ig, aka 半個烏布雷) We met each other for the first time in Kai Yip, and he was super nice and helped me with my jumping technique despite being way more advanced in dunking than me. 

I know the photo is blurry,
but c'mon, I was starstruck!
As Lee started to warm up, a group of teenagers began to gather around him, and we saw people with professional cameras walking up to film us. Being my first time seeing a legit 3x3 dunk contest winner, I was obviously star-struck by his swagger and the way he expresses himself through his expressions and movements. After a few minutes of jumping, Lee went into turbo mode and hit an inverter, 360 windmill and an UNDER BOTH in front of my eyes. 

Holy shit, THAT was awesome.

After that and some three on three games with Bosco and Kaho, we had dinner together with Lee (Bosco had to go home unfortunately). Lee was obvious shocked by the culture differences as he set foot in a "cha chan teng" (local Cantonese cafe-style restaurant), especially with ordering food, but with Kaho's expert translation skills, we managed to order our meals, while i settled for an energy bar at a nearby 7-11. Through my broken Mandarin, I managed to ask him about his career as a dunker.

"It was tough training, but the results is definitely worth it." Lee said between bites of chow mein, "Training at Chen's (Chendenxing) facility is definitely a blessing, but there were definitely hardships during training." 

I can definitely relate as an athlete. As Isaiah Rivera said, in order to be truly great at something, not only in the sporting industry, 

you have to be abnormal amongst the norm.

My first steps in being a dunker has been nothing but tough work, but I have no regrets in my decisions so far. Hopefully ya'll can catch up in the next blog!

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