August 3 Update

After almost three weeks on this quest, I had a couple of revelatory moments. 

First, as much as I thought I was in good (enough) physical shape to just fine tune a few things and be dunking by September....that's just not the case.  If I needed a reminder of the value of consistent, continuous training, the CG Games preliminaries provided just the kick in the tenders I needed. 

Where did I get off coming to that event after a two month hiatus from bootcamp training? Oh, and to make matters worse, I had to do all six qualifying events in one 3.5 hour period, rather than spread them over a couple of sessions the way the smart people did it. 

Don't let the happy face in this photo fool you: I was not up to the challenge yesterday, and my ego is now in firmly in check. 

The second revelation is related to the first: my ability to increase my vertical leap enough to dunk will be directly tied to my overall level of fitness AND the specific training that I will have to do to address that particular set of explosive moves. 

For some reason, I thought I could focus on the leg work I've been researching and after about 12 weeks of squats, box jumps and assorted plyo exercises, I would become a leaper. No doubt, those kinds of activities will be critical to the mission, but none of this will matter if I haven't achieved a suitable level of overall athleticism.

More specifically, I'm going to need to get some assistance from experts in the "choreography" of dunking and not just jumping higher. As much as I might like to make this a solitary campaign, it's clear I'm going to need to call in the Special Forces....