PacoDunks Blog 4: Breakthroughs

 Why hello! Yes, if you are reading this passage, there is a high chance that you are new to my account and blog. Recently, something happened: I blew the F*CK up on Instagram from this stupid Ashton Hall parody, and my phone kept buzzing every minute. It felt surreal. It also felt amazing. I never knew that something I could do could reach such a large audience, and from my hometown, Hong Kong, that's exciting, brother. 


So, if you aren't catching up with my progress, here's a rundown of what happened this past week: I've had a podcast with the one and only Michael Kennelly (super humble guy), and then I posted a meme of me pretending to be Ashton hall, I added some elements related to dunking and added my personal twist to it, BOOM, it went viral. It was an overnight phenomenon, and I didn't expect the video to turn out so well. I thought only my good dunker friends would see it, but instead, I received a lot of overall positive reception from Hong Kong. 


This is one of the significant turning points in my social media "career," if this is even a career in the first place. Having received over 60k views on that single view and shooting my following count to 800+ from >100 in a few days has been extraordinary. I'm really grateful to have received this recognition, and I'll try my best to release quality content for all of you new here (as well as those who are OGs as well)


Back to dunking, I've been jumping higher than ever and even hung on a 9'11 rim, something I would have never gotten a few months back. It was a sunny day, and I was fresh off playing a 2v2 game against some strangers. It was a pretty chill game, and that game gave me the adrenaline boost needed to get that extra inch of vert you would have never gotten if you just went solo. I had a smooth approach, though a slightly short penultimate that I need to work on next session, and went up and hung on the rim. It felt amazing. I was at the top of the world then, and the oooos and aahs from the crowd gave me some confidence.


Training-wise, damn man, I've been hitting breakthroughs and PRs left and right; it felt great. For the upper body, I hit a PR of the upper body of 135 lbs incline bench and an 80 lbs 2 rep heavy pull up. This is enormous progress compared to when I first started this journey–I could barely hit 12 bodyweight pull-ups cuz I was so overweight back then. Sprinting-wise, I went to a THP group meeting, and John gave me a detailed analysis of improving my form. It was a grind fixing my start, especially with your putting so much force onto the ground. However, sprinting felt like second nature to me once I got the hang of it. Despite running on concrete, my ground contact times have shortened exponentially, and my legs move so quickly compared to when I was overweight, man. It was night and day, and the progress I made, despite the circumstances that I had to train in the middle of the night that day, was unreal.


I also made a lot of connections in the dunk community through the dunking community, especially my homeboy Lev, Kamal, and Riley (shoutout to the OGs as well if you're reading this). They've been amazing friends, and I really want them to come by to visit Hong Kong one day; it would be a fantastic experience. As I delve deeper into the dunk community, it's safe to say that this group of people has been so welcoming of my presence ever since I started Instagram–heck, even my coaches know that I've been putting in the work in terms of content creation, which made me super happy.


Speaking of coaches, I have a group meeting soon, so I'm sorry to end this blog here. I hope you have a nice day, whatever time zone you're living in right now, and I'll see you next week!

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