Are you ready to fly?

When the bet was made, Ellery claimed that not only could he perform a standard dunk but he could emulate dunks from the former duel NBA Slam Dunk Contest champion, Harold Miner. This mid 90s Polish TV commercial shows Miner in action (first dunk) and asks the question "Are you ready to fly?". Are you ready, Ellery?

But make sure you are ready or you may end up like this guy...

Get a medic!

Filming has started…unfortunately the camera that I acquired uses a discontinued format called MicroMV (thanks Sony) and I’ve been experiencing some technical issues because the format is balls.

I can tell you that Ellery has been hard at work but he has a looooong way to go. The initial attempts have been full of enthusiasm but have definitely lacked technique and well, height. Overall, it has been a positive start but at the moment it looks like the only way he could dunk is if he borrows the idea of the kid below.


After viewing the above footage the wacky minds at Team Japan sent out a challenge to the kid with the jerk mates. So far there has been no response.

You can put a cat in an oven, but that don't make it a biscuit.

For those of you that don’t know him, Ellery is roughly 6ft (183cm) tall, has very limited basketball skills and is very much a white man (borderline transparent, he uses sunscreen at night time). He has however been known to achieve the impossible, for example, against all odds he became the inaugural champion of "The Ultimate Battle For Manliness" running competition in 2008 against a first class field (i.e. it was against me). To snatch victory in this event, Ellery sacrificed a weekend of partying with his mates to break into an athletics ground and run 15km on the Friday night and backed it up with 10km runs on the Saturday & Sunday. This is the type of dedication that he'll need to be successful in this challenge. But will dedication alone be enough for him to achieve the dunk?

The two main elements of the slam dunk are power and technique. Power can be divided into speed and strength and these are the main areas Ellery will have to work on to improve his vertical leap and get above the rim. There are many proven techniques to achieve this, Ellery has done his research but he has never been one to strictly follow traditional methods. Unconventional training methods used by Ellery in the past include wood chopping then running up and down a hill with a wheelbarrow, intervals of sprinting 400m then beating a tyre with a sledge hammer for a minute and carrying heavy dumbbells the length of an underground car park and back. Who knows what techniques he will use for the challenge; will they be enough for him to taste the sky?

One thing is for sure, he truly BELIEVES he will dunk and I'm pretty sure he won't...