Love for the game: dunking with Kadour Ziani

Kadour Ziani

I am a firm advocate of optimistic delusion. Before you can fly, you have to dream of flying. But at no point had I ever dreamt of soaring up in the air for a slam dunk. I knew of Spud Webb, the 5 foot 5 inch tall NBA player who won the dunk contest, but I supposed the NBA had pro trainers, exercise equipment, and other stuff that allowed him to do that.

A year ago, I read about a 5 foot 11 inches tall, 36 year old man who is one of the highest fliers alive. Kadour Ziani. Now this was a different situation. He isn’t a pro baller. Nor does he have a buffed up physique. He weighs 70kgs. How does he do it?

He says that his inspiration came from observing nature. He also claims to use elastic energy to power his jumps. It’s like a rubber band, more you stretch it, farther it goes. He stretches for 4 hours a day, ‘trains like a dog’ and eats healthy.

Speaking of muscles, one can work on building muscle size by weight lifting, which usually utilizes a specific set of muscle groups. Also one can work on recruiting muscles groups for balanced strength. This way you can increase core strength without compromising by adding size. This can be done through bodyweight training, i.e. training using the weight of one’s own body, by handstands, vertical pushups, chin ups, and this video.

About muscle size, take a look at this picture:

Not much buff. The guy is reed thin.

Try this yourself. Pull your index finger back with one hand, and release it like a slingshot. It’s a pretty fast motion. Can it be because of the muscle size of the fingers? Probably not. So it must be the ligaments that provide the burst. Stretching can improve this burst.

There is no clear cut straightforward formula to dunking. Some home truths are:

- stay lean. Lighter the better.

- work on core strength.

- stretch.

- work on body balance, like in the picture to the right.

Beyond these just follow your instincts.

Here are some excerpts from an interview with Ziani:

Q: What would you say to people who want to jump like you?

A: Anyone can jump like me, I naturally don’t have a lot of talent. Well maybe I have some, but I worked all my life. Dunking has been my way of life. It is my primitive language. If people work as hard as me, they could jump as high and as long as me. But nobody wants to work

Q: What is the secret behind your amazing jumping ability?

A: The definition of talent is someone who uses the time, the natural clock. Everyday, I stretch about 4 hours. People go to the gym and do the hard stuff, lifting weights, but they don’t bother to do the easy stuff, like stretching, and then they go home and destroy all their hard work with the bad food they eat. It is a dedication of a lifetime. Dunking is a way of life. Everywhere I go, I adapt, I am a camilian. I don’t have a gym or a playground, so I work with whatever I have. When I train, I train with death, I am ready to die whenever I dunk. Life is so precious, you have to savor every second. But life is also like a motorcycle, it is dangerous, so I accept that I may die with every dunk. Other people train hard, but no one trains with death like me.

Some quotes by Ziani:

A shortcut is best when not taken.Being apathetic is a choice.Contempt for authority makes one an authority.Death only happens to those who have lived.Expect nothing of others and there can be no disappointments.Forgiveness is the best revenge.Ghosts dwell where the lonely are forgotten.Health is the body’s only means of communication.If you have nothing you can lose nothing.Jumping is less painful when you prepare a proper landing.Know who you are first, then become a better person.Life’s lessons are learned in the school of hard knocks.Most important to success is the ability to say “No.”No record is worth more than being first.Old belongs to those who refuse to stay young.Pray always to live to pray again.Quantity consists of the pennies that add up to the dollars of quality.Reality is a nightmare for the dreamer.Show; not tell.True talent cannot waste time.Understanding is the master of emotion.Victory does not require defeat.We are not attired with truth; rather, we have donned fabrics of illusion.X is the most common signature in the world.You will be nearer happiness when you turn your major blemish into your trademark.Zero is the one value in life that can never be negative.

It seems that sometimes it is good to be a little bit optimistically deluded.

Update:

There is more than one way to the rim. Nate Robinson and T-Dub are two short dunkers who are extremely muscular. You don’t have to be reed thin, nor does muscle mass necessarily come in the way of jumping high. Kadour is an extreme example the other way.