Ground reaction forces during a basketball dunk

Abstract

Basketball is one of the most popular
sports worldwide. The basketball dunk
uses a very powerful jumping motion to
forcefully push a basketball through a goal
positioned at a height of 10 feet (3.05m). In
the modern game of basketball, the dunk is
very popular due to its very high field goal
percentage. Due to lack of research on this
event, the purpose of this study was to
examine the kinetic variables of peak force,
peak power, rate of force development,
impulse and time during the concentric
phase of the five most commonly used
variations of a basketball dunk: one-leg left
(1LL), one-leg right (1LR), two-leg left-right
(2LLR), two-leg right-left (2LRL) and two leg
stationary (2LS). Ten healthy recreationally
active men (X±SD, age=22.4±2.5,
weight=89±6.3kg, height=192.8±4.9cm,
vertical jump=73.7±12.4cm) who were
capable of dunking a basketball
volunteered to participate in this research
study. Kinetic variables measured in this
study were obtained from a force plate and
data acquisition system sampling at
1000Hz. Based on our data we conclude
that the basketball dunk is a very powerful
activity that requires high levels of strength
and power. Our data suggest that the most
time consuming dunk approach was a 2LS
(0.820±0.116sec) while the fastest dunk
approach was 1LL (0.311±0.039sec), which
can serve as a guideline for which dunk
should be utilized at certain times during
an on-court game performance. The
highest peak power output was observed
for 2LS (6261.9±1104.1W) which also had
the lowest rate of force development
(5851.3±3069.5N/sec) and impulse
(408.2±41.1N/sec). The highest peak forces
were observed for 2LLR (3158.4±376.3N)
and 2LRL (3206.8±518.2N) dunk
approaches. Knowing the specific
biomechanical characteristics of a motion
can help target optimal training for each
individual and lead to enhanced basketball
performance, specifically the basketball
dunk in this case. In conclusion, this study
serves as a foundation and guideline for
further research by presenting the previously unexplored kinetic and
kinematic variables of a basketball dunk.