New goal! 40 inch vert!

Just in case anyone still reads this blog...I thought I'd provide a quick update:

A little over a year ago (when I was much younger -- age 44), I was jumping the highest I've ever jumped in my life at any age. And as you probably know by now, I was able to compete in my first dunk contest. It was a lifelong dream and it came true. It was freaking awesome! If you don't know this story, watch the documentary!

However, since then I've had not been able to get back to that level. I've had some injuries which didn't help things but probably the biggest factor is a lack of motivation. Once I had achieved the dream of competing in the dunk contest, my motivation took a serious nose dive. I started skipping workouts instead of skipping dessert! :)

So...I needed a new goal and here it is!!! I want a 40 inch (running) vert! I estimate on my very best jumping days leading up to the dunk contest and on the day of the dunk contest that I was jumping around 37". So it will take getting back to my peak and then some to reach this new goal. Is it possible? Let's find out!!!

I'm making a new series of videos called "40 over 40" (40 inch vert over 40 years old) and invite you to follow along as I continue battling Father Time and the laws of gravity!

Here's the Intro Video


Thanks for your support! If you actually read this, please post a comment so I know whether or not to spend any more time on this blog thing. I feel like no one reads blogs anymore...

Peace,
Andy

My Documentary is now live - Check it out!

I'm not posting here much anymore (please follow me on IG @overthehilldunker) but I wanted to let you know the documentary following my dream to be in my first dunk contest at age 44 is now on YouTube.

Check it out!

Overthehilldunker Documentary

Last year when I decided to go after this somewhat crazy dream of being in a dunk contest at my age (43 at the time), I thought this journey has the potential of being a documentary. And, I've always wanted to make a documentary! So why not try and fulfill two dreams at the same time! :)

During the last 6 months, I've been filming interviews, training, dunk sessions, and more for the documentary and I just finished up a short teaser and would like to share it with you.

If you would like to see this documentary, please help me get the word out by commenting, sharing, and liking the video. Thanks! 

My Two Hand Dunk - Hard Work Pays Off

Follow me on Instagram @overthehilldunker!

If you've been following my blog for a while, you know I've been chasing the two hand dunk for almost 5 years! 5 years! That is a really REALLY long time and so I felt it was worth a second blog post dedicated to this dunk which has eluded me for so long!

Anyone who has worked and worked and worked for something and finally got it...knows that achieving a big goal and dream is one of the best feelings in the world! It almost seemed like it happened in slow motion. The feeling I had when it went down was unbelievable!

Below is a longer video of the long awaited for 2 hand dunk. I had to use the song called "Welcome Chris" from one of the best scenes in one of the best movies of all time - Pursuit of Happyness when Chris Gardner (Will Smith) gets the job and realizes his dream.

I've visualized this moment while listening to this song over and over again. While this dunk is nothing compared to a lot of dunkers out there, for me at 44 years YOUNG to achieve this goal is a dream come true.

So blessed. So stoked. Can't wait to do it again and with some power!

Go Get Your Dreams!

Follow me on Instagram @overthehilldunker

Dreams Come True - I DUNKED TWO HANDS!!!

If you ever wanted something really really really bad and you worked and worked and worked and finally got it, you know exactly how I felt today when I landed a 2 handed dunk.Song is from one of the best scenes in one of the best movies of all time -- Pursuit of Happyness. Pursuing your goals with obsession and reaching them is happyness! So blessed. So stoked. Can't wait to do it again and with some power! Go get your dreams! #bouncekit #fitconutah #pursuitofhappyness #pursuitofdunkyness #dreamscometrue #latebloomer

A video posted by Andy Nicholson (@overthehilldunker) on Feb 27, 2016 at 4:42pm PST

My third group dunk session!

I had my third group dunk session with my new friends and amazing dunkers -- Clint and Dallon! These guys killed this session!

There actually was a sign up in the gym we were at that said "No dunking"! which we all thought was hilarious. I would wager the person who made that rule can't dunk! ha ha! But, nobody came in and told us to stop and we were there dunking for at least 3 hours (or I should say Clint and Dallon were dunking for 3 hours and I was there! :)

Unfortunately, I must have taken the rule -- "no dunking " a little to serious as I only landed 2 weak dunks during this entire session. I had a really hard time getting warmed up fully. My left knee has also really been bothering me the last 3-4 weeks and that also kept me from jumping at 100%. Hopefully its just tendonitis or a strain and nothing more serious. Oh well - I still had a blast.


Age is a just a number! Go get your dreams!


Follow me on Instagram @overthehilldunker

My second group dunk session!

Second group dunk session of my life and first of 2016! Had so much fun dunking with Clint and Dallon again!

Unfortunately, my phone only got about the first half of this dunk session. Clint and Dallon's best dunks came after my phone stopped recording.

I wasn't jumping super well but I did try a new dunk. First time I've ever attempted a dunk by grabbing the ball out of someone's hand. Felt really weird! I think I can get it soon along with a windmill off the lob. If I'm going to get selected to participate in the FitCon Utah dunk contest in April, I gotta be able to do more than a simple one hander!

Age is a just a number! Go get your dreams! Follow me on Instagram @overthehilldunker

My Best Dunks of 2015 at 43 years old

Today I turned 44! Can't believe I've been on this planet for 44 years! I threw down my first dunk of 2016 today on my birthday and that felt sooooo GOOD!

I will keep this post short so I can go celebrate my birthday and just leave you with a video of my best dunks from 2015.


Follow me on Instagram @overthehilldunker!

My First Group Dunk Session!

If there is anything funner than dunking, please tell me what it is!!! I had my first ever group dunk session with my new friends Clint and Dallon this past Saturday. It was an absolute BLAST!

We dunked for about 3 hours and it absolutely wiped me out! I was exhausted after the first hour but these guys just kept dunking and dunking! It's now 3 days later and my legs are still crazy sore!

I got 2 new dunks during the session:

1) cuff dunk
2) dunk off backboard with someone else throwing it

A couple of Dallon's dunks got me so hyped, I even tried a windmill! LOL! I have a WAYS to go to get that. I almost got a lefty dunk off the glass and I did get a cleaner lefty dunk off the dribble.

I can't wait to dunk with these guys again!

Here's the video:


Later that same day, I went to a dunk contest as part of a top high school tournament. It featured Frank Jackson (Duke commit) and Gavin Baxter (BYU commit) and these guys can fly!

I got some pretty good footage and put together a video. I did a bunch of slow-motion so I could really watch their technique. So much you can learn just from watching someone jump.

Check it out!



HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Dunk Mix at 43 years YOUNG

I recently finished 12 weeks of training using Bounce Kit and decided to put together a mix of some of my dunks during the last couple of months. I know that compared to most dunkers out there, my dunks are not that impressive. I can't believe the things guys are doing now. Jumping over people, going between the legs, jumping over people while going between the legs, behind the back, etc. But, I'm stoked with my progress and just want to keep improving every day.

I'm going to be doing a dunk session soon with a guy who is an unbelievable dunker - Dallon Findlay and can't wait for that. I've never really had the opportunity to dunk with anyone who can jump as high as this guy. I'm excited to see his dunks and learn from him. I'm also hoping he will inspire me to finally throw down a 2 hander!

Thanks for reading. If you haven't already, please follow me on Instagram @overthehilldunker. I am posting on Instagram fairly often as it's so much easier to interact and share information.

Go Get Your Dreams!

Started vert training again - Week 11 (lob and dribble dunk)

Almost finished with this 12 week phase of training!

Week 11 went really well. I finally got a dribble dunk on a rim that has been taunting me for a while.  The last time I dunked on this rim off the dribble was back in September of last year. Felt great to finally get that down. Also got fairly close on some off-the-backboard dunks. I think I will get that this week.

If you saw my last post, I mentioned I started an Instagram account (@overthehilldunker) and hope you will follow me there. I plan to post there more regularly and depending on how things go, I may not post here very much. I guess the big limitation on Instagram is it's not as easy to provide detailed information like you can on a blog. We'll see how it goes.

If you've been following my blog since the early days, you may remember me mentioning a guy I play hoops with who told me I would never dunk. I had not really talked to him about that conversation we had over 4 years ago until this week. After we got done playing, I asked if he remembered the day he was mocking my dunk attempts when I had first started this quest.

He said he didn't remember saying any of those things! We had a great laugh about it. I thanked him for giving me extra motivation by telling me I couldn't do it. It actually did give me extra determination to work towards achieving my goals. There were days I wanted to give up and his words ringing in my ears was just the extra push I needed to keep going.

Another example on not giving up happened this week when I got the dunk off the dribble. I made 3-4 attempts before I got that dunk down. The first few were some of my worst attempts I've had in weeks. I got completely hung on the first attempt. The second attempt I slipped on a sweat spot on the floor and almost fell on my face. The third attempt I tried off the glass and threw it way too hard. At this point everyone is impatiently waiting on me to start the next game while I try all this stuff and so I'm feeling a bit silly at this point. They get really tired of me trying to dunk all the time. But, I had to try one more! I went for it and I got it! So glad I did. Don't give up!

Here's my Week 11 video. Follow me @overthehilldunker. Thanks!

Follow me on Instagram! And...I'm using Bounce Kit!

I've noticed a big decline in traffic and comments on my blog over the last 2 years. Now, I'm sure this is because I wasn't posting as often and it was probably getting really boring reading pretty much the same thing over and over again. Andy is old and he still wants to dunk. Blah blah blah! :)

But, I also think it's largely due to the popularity of Instagram! Blogs are so yesterday! Everyone is on Instagram! I've even noticed YouTube is no where near as popular. For example, my favorite dunker - Jordan Kilganon - who is arguably the best dunker in the world only has 5K subscribers on YouTube and hardly ever posts there anymore. On Instagram, he has 200K followers and posts a few times a week.

So...today I created an Instagram account and invite you to follow me there. The blog just doesn't seem to provide much value anymore as there is so little interaction. I've gotten like 3 comments on my blog in the last 3 months! I've only had the Instagram account a few hours and I've already had a ton of comments!

Also, for this 12 week phase of training that I started 10 weeks ago, I am actually doing Jordan Kilganon's jump program called - Bounce Kit. I was going to wait until I had completely finished the program before saying anything to see how my results turned out but changed my mind today when I created the Instagram account.

I've been following Jordan on YouTube for the last 4-5 years and his progress has been nothing short of amazing. When he released his own vertical jump program, I couldn't pass it up.

If you have questions about Bounce Kit vs Jump Manual, post them below or ask me on Instagram.

My instagram name is "overthehilldunker"

Thanks for the support!

Started vert training again - Week 10 (some dunks and misses)

Made it through another week of training and for the most part I'm feeling really good. I have just 2 weeks left now of this 12 week block of training.

I'm really looking forward to having a few days off and doing a dunk session when I'm completely fresh and can go all-out. I've continued to play basketball 3 times per week during this training -- and that's probably not ideal for maximizing training results. But, I just can't stop.

I almost grabbed the rim on my no-step vert test this week. Just 1 more inch and I should be able to do it. That would be an all-time PR at any age for me. I've never done that before even in my younger years.

I've now been on creatine for 2 weeks and can definitely feel a difference in my energy and strength. I've experimented with taking it post workout and taking it and pre and post workout. I've noticed more energy taking it before a workout and so will continue to do that. And what's been really nice is I haven't had the normal weight gain either. I'm still hovering between 170-172 lbs.

That's about it for this week! Here's the video:

Started vert training again - Week 9 (couple of dunks, lots of misses)

I've now completed 9 weeks of training for this phase. Only 3 weeks left!

This week went really well. I felt really good and was jumping well. I missed a TON of dunks off the dribble. I really thought I'd get at least 1 to go down but missed them all. I did get 2 dunks off the lob and those felt really easy.

I definitely noticed a difference in my energy this week. And, I'm sure that is from the creatine. That stuff definitely works! I'm also really happy that I didn't gain any weight this week as I've typically gained 5 lbs the week I start taking creatine. But, so far -- no weight gain. I think the difference this time is I've been drinking a ton of water. Creatine does pull water into the muscles and so you need to drink extra water. I have and that seems to be working.

Here's this week's video. Enjoy!

Started vert training again - Week 8

Another week in the books!

I've now completed 8 weeks of this 12 week phase. I am still 100% on hitting every single workout so far. This week was the first time though that I was not able to complete all the exercises in every single workout. It was on one of my plyo days and I still had a few jumps left to complete. But there was nothing left in the tank.

It wasn't a great jumping week. My body actually doesn't feel that broken down but it has to be after this many weeks and workouts. I'm also still playing basketball three days a week on top of all the workouts. I would probably get better results if I didn't do that and let my body rest more. But, I have to play. It's an addiction!

I mentioned last week that I was going to start taking creatine again and I started yesterday. I am very curious to see how my last few weeks go and am counting on some extra energy from creatine to help me get a few inches in gains!

I'm also adding in my "secret exercise" during 2 of the workouts each week until I complete this phase. Right now,. I'm focusing primarily on getting super explosive and that exercise in my opinion is one of the best on teaching you to get off the ground as quickly as possible.

That's about all for now. Here's this week's video. Enjoy!

Started vert training again - Week 7 (one weak dunk)

This 12 week phase of training is moving by quickly. Already done with 7 weeks!

I had high hopes for this week since I got my first dunks in many months last week. But, I felt a little sluggish and tired this week. In fact, one night I came home from work and fell asleep on my bed at like 6:30 pm!

I'm really happy with how things are progressing so far. We always want things to go faster than they do. But, I am really happy that I'm dunking again and am not even taking creatine at the moment. One thing that has been pretty consistent for me is my highest jumping has always been when I've been taking creatine. I'm sure some more inches are on the way with the added boost of energy and strength (and probably some placebo effect too) that comes from creatine.

However, I was hoping to get down to 165 lbs before starting to take creatine again because I immediately gain about 5 lbs when I"m on it and I don't want to be over 170 lbs. My best jumping has been when I've been around 170. Unfortunately, I'm still hovering between 170-172 and with just a few weeks left in this phase, I may just have to go for it.

Anyways, here's this week's video. Enjoy!