In episode one of Dunk Talk, I (Dylan Haugen) covered how I got my first dunk as a five foot eight, thirteen year old. In this episode, I picked up right where I left off and walked through everything that happened between that first dunk and hitting my first eastbay, one of the hardest trick dunks out there, at fifteen years old standing five foot ten.
After the First Dunk: Knee Injury and a Surprising Comeback
After getting my first dunk in September 2021, I managed to get three more between October and December. They were all basically the same thing, someone throwing me a lob and me tipping it in. Nothing too special, but I was experimenting with lifting, jumping on low rims and high rims, and playing a ton of basketball. All of that volume led to an overuse injury in my knee. The doctors said it had something to do with my MCL, PCL, and meniscus area, and I was on crutches from roughly January through February. What was funny is that the very first session back, the first day off crutches, I went straight to the gym and hit a two-hander self-lob dunk and hung on the rim. Not exactly the smart rehab approach, but I was too excited to wait. That month of rest honestly might have been the best thing for me because when I came back I was doing self-lob dunks, one-handers, and two-handers with way more ease than before.
Leveling Up to Trick Dunks and Dunk Camp 2022
Around April, things started to shift. I hit a 360 on ten feet, a self-bounce, an off-the-backboard dunk, and an off-dribble dunk. That was when I felt like I was actually becoming a real dunker instead of just someone who could get the ball above the rim. In June, I went to my first Utah Dunk Camp and got to meet all the pros: Jordan Kilganon, Isaiah Rivera, and a bunch of other guys I had been watching online. I was one of the youngest people there. I hit some one-handers and two-handers during the camp, nothing earth-shattering, but on the final day there was an eight-foot dunk contest and I took second place. Being around all those dunkers made me realize something important. When you are at home, you feel like you might be the best. But when you get in a room with everyone from across the country, you quickly see where you actually stand. That humbling experience drove me to come back the next year and really show something.
Weight Room Foundation and In-Season Struggles
After Dunk Camp 2022, I got serious about lifting. I found a personal trainer situation at a local gym and learned proper Olympic lifts and built a real foundation in the weight room. That ended up being extremely beneficial. Then in November, I had one of those breakthrough weeks that changes everything. At a fall ball tournament, during warm-ups, I almost dunked off the dribble on what felt like a fifty percent jump. By the end of warm-ups I was throwing down 360s off the dribble. During the game itself, I got two in-game dunks, one off the dribble and one off a lob. Those were my first in-game dunks ever. Two days later, I went to the gym and hit my first windmill. That was a massive milestone because it was my first real trick dunk on ten feet.
Then basketball season arrived and crushed my explosiveness. There is so much running and cardio during the season, and no matter what anyone says, that kind of volume does not build explosiveness. My central nervous system was destroyed, and while I could still dunk, I was nowhere near windmill territory. I basically did not dunk outside of warm-ups from December through February.
Dunk Camp 2023: Winning the Contest and Getting Close to the Eastbay
Coming into Dunk Camp 2023, I was not feeling confident because of the basketball season beating me up. I was also dealing with quad tendinopathy in my left knee that I did not really know how to manage at the time. During the vertical testing, I still managed to hit 37.5 inches, which was an inch increase from the previous year, and I touched eleven feet. On the first day of camp, I was doing windmills on ten feet and they felt great. Then I randomly started getting close to a between-the-legs dunk, which was my main goal. On Thursday they ran the official nine-foot dunk contest and I won it. Going from losing on eight feet the year before to winning on nine feet was incredibly meaningful, especially because I took it with an inverted scorpion dunk, basically dunking upside down, on my first try. There were a ton of talented dunkers there like Leo, Al, and Alex, so I was pretty shocked to win.
The Session That Changed Everything: October 21, 2023
After Dunk Camp I kept working, traveled to Boston in August to dunk with a guy named Artem, and had a great session where I hit a windmill and got close to between the legs again. In September, Hunter Castona came to stay at my house for a couple days and we rented out the National Sports Center. That session was probably my best ever at that point. I back-rimmed three or four between-the-legs attempts, and Hunter back-rimmed an underboth. We were both hyped even though we missed our big dunks.
Then came October 21, 2023. Hunter came back to Minnesota, we rented the NSC again, and brought Gideon and Ben along. I started warming up and hit a 360 windmill. Literally the next jump after that, Hunter killed his first underboth, his best dunk ever. He had back-rimmed it in September and made it in October. That adrenaline rush hit me hard. I knew if Hunter was unlocking dunks at that level, I needed to step up. I started going for the eastbay. I back-rimmed a few insane ones, and then everything came together. The lob was perfect, the transfer was perfect, and I punched it through. My first eastbay, at fifteen years old, five foot ten. I went home and edited the video in a single day because I was so hyped. The rest of that session was unreal too: I hit my first double-up windmill and a reverse windmill, and probably a few other new dunks. Everyone went crazy that day.
Where Things Stand Now
Since that October session, I have hit six or seven more eastbays and even a double-up eastbay. It is getting a lot more consistent. My goal heading into the next Dunk Camp is to kill an eastbay there and hopefully unlock some new dunks like a 360 between the legs. The journey from my first dunk to my first eastbay took about two years, and the biggest lesson I learned through all of it is that progress is rarely linear. Some weeks you feel unstoppable, and other stretches, especially during basketball season, you feel like you have gone backwards. But the work always shows up eventually.