This went on for a few years. That was until my sophomore year of high school. By 10th grade, I weighed 230lbs and could dunk a volleyball. My close friend, Tim Hahn and I even went as far as making a slam dunk video with our volleyball. We would spend hours running back and forth, throwing down alley-oops and bending the front part of the rim. What was the difference? How did I go from a 5’9 160lb kid who couldn’t jump to a 6’1 230lb kid who could slam down a volleyball in just a matter of years? What changed?

You are at the high school combine, you notice they are testing vertical jump, standing broad jump and the forty-yard dash. These are all tests built around complete explosiveness. You have decent high-end speed but it takes you twenty minutes to get up to speed. Knowing what the tests are, you are slightly embarrassed, you feel ill-prepared and in reality, you don’t want anyone to know that your vertical jump is only 26 inches.

Remember the heavy kid in middle school? The dude running down the basketball court as fast as possible just to jump as high as they possibly could to try and swipe the bottom of the basketball net. That was me. Over and over and over again. I would sprint full speed, plant my left leg and then try to change direction vertically off one leg, reaching as high as possible but missing the bottom of the net. I’d do it again. And again. And again. Undoubtedly, rolling my ankle or leading to some knee pain because my weak ass legs couldn’t handle 160lb, 6th grade Dane trying to touch the net.