Air Male

Far from being an entry in the good book, this is something I've been trying to nail for several years now. I can still remember the first time I managed to do a slam dunk in basketball. It was at my mate Robert's house, I had to run up the wall, it wasn't pretty but I managed it, and felt it. It's tricky putting it into words how beautiful that single moment in time felt. When you love a sport as much I did (and in a lot of ways still do) and see your heroes doing their moves on the telly, it means so much when you can perform if only a fraction of their brilliance yourself.

After getting back into basketball a few years ago and being able to dunk one handed OK-ish I knew what would be my next target, the two handed dunk. Playing on my local court with Kristof, a mate from work, I had no designs on anything more than the usual mucking around, doing shots from the middle of no where and putting up the odd prayer and hoping it went in. It's amazing though the confidence you feel when more of those sorts of shots go in. I think "Why not, let's try again". The thing about dunking is the very real potential of ending up in a heap on the floor. I'm no Harlem Globetrotter, despite my height bonus I've still got to get up there and back down again safely. As usual I started off without the ball. Touch the rim. Hang off the rim without the ball. Practice jumping with the ball. Run and jump with the ball. First attempt, hung onto the net but the ball missed (bugger!). Second attempt, same deal (damn!)... Fifth attempt. GOT IT, the ball went in but no hanging on the rim. Does that count? Sixth attempt. Same! Seventh attempt... like butter on hot sweetcorn, like a sailfish, like MJ and Dr Julius Erving and i'm back at Robert's house with my first dunk and there's no feeling like it. After swinging on the rim I eventually land and I'm stoked. Forgot bog snorkelling or walking over fire nothing will beat that moment this year. 10 minutes later I put the cherry on top with my first windmill dunk, an added bonus I'd been promising myself one day but nothing would beat the main course. On the afternoon of Thursday 8th September I touched the sky before nailing my first ever two handed slam. Poetry. Bring on the Alley Oop, I'm ready...

Rossifer x