 So, why was I doing left-right if it was bad form? Why was I even doing it? And why didn't I just stick with right-left? This is the mistake I don't want you to make. Doesn't matter if you want to hoop or just be a pro dunker. Really fun exercise. Actually learned this snowboarding. So I get this question so many times. How do I know if I'm right-left, left-right? Steve, why did you switch from left-right to right-left? How did you do it? I'm gonna try to answer all that in today's video so that way you can jump your best off your best plant and run good off, baby. Oh! What is good? Your boy's currently in rehab mode nursing this hamstring but today I'm bringing you a video on how to know which plants you jump best off of and how you can learn from my mistakes and what I've learned switching back and forth and a story time of why I switched. Why I switched from left-right to right-left and back and forth again 17 times. I try to make videos every single week to help you jump higher. So if you're new, subscribe. If not, leave a comment for any questions you have because your questions have been great to help me dive deeper into topics to really help you guys out. Let's get it. So by the end of this video, I hope that you know exactly how to jump best for you and you learn what plant works best for you. All right, so before I get into how to find your plant, how to jump off both plants, I'm gonna tell you a quick story of why I switched and how I switched. So, okay, so the first reason is that I had bad technique off my left-right. I would come like this and so many of my jumps I'd pass my plants and my foot would twist. And after jumping like that for so long it started to hurt my knee and it was about three out of four jumps I couldn't jump correctly. So I'd go for a max approach and it was like bad jump, bad jump, bad jump. And then like the fourth jump I'd have a really good jump. And so it was really tough for me to have one good jump out of every four. And I was like, I want to jump good every time. So I tried to fix that plant and stay balanced. And it was very, very difficult. But my right-left was very natural. So why was I doing left-right if it was bad form? Why was I even doing it? And why didn't I just stick with right-left? Okay, great question, Steve, what? Okay, so right-left was my very first jumps. Those are my very natural jumps before I even knew dunking was a thing. When I was a kid, when I was just trying to touch the rim my very first rim hang was right-left, okay? But left, what happened was as I started training I was doing a lot of one foot jump in the beginning of my journey. My left leg got very strong and I was chasing, this is the mistake I don't want you to make. I was chasing just jumping higher. I didn't care about technique. I didn't care about my foundation. All I wanted to do was jump higher, which is why I started doing left-right. And this is why. Because one day I saw, I think it was Jordan Kilganin back in the day, he was left-right. And that was my first time I've ever thought of jumping a different plant. I didn't even know the difference. In basketball when I played I jumped off one. I probably jumped off both plants but I never really had the awareness that there was a difference. So I tried left-right and I think because, I still don't know, but I think because I was working on my one foot my left leg was so strong and I made beginner gains. I jumped immediately higher left-right than right-left. So for you guys, if you try both plants, my suggestion to you is you may jump higher off one or the other, but perfect your technique. Work on both so you can be balanced with your legs but also so you can be versatile. The goal here is to dunk on games, dunk on people's heads. Most of us want to play games. Most of us want to be the best dunkers we can be. Doesn't matter if you want to hoop or just be a pro dunker. You want to be versatile so you can jump off both plants. Different dunks work for different plants. Game situations, it doesn't need to be said. You want to dunk from every angle. You want to dunk in every situation. Okay, so I tried my left-right. My left leg was a lot stronger. I instantly got like an inch increase. I was hyped. I just started focusing on that. Started forgetting about right-left which ended up leading me to my bad dribble dunk technique because I had no technique off right-left. And I just started jumping as hard as I can, not worrying about my technique. I wasn't doing the drills. I wasn't working on my footwork. I wasn't working on my positioning. So I developed really bad technique and then it started to cause knee pain and I felt like I couldn't make progress because every time I tried to jump hard which is a great way to increase your vertical. If you check out my last video how to jump out, jump with no weights, jumping your hardest is a fantastic way to jump higher but having really bad technique and knee pain and what's it called? And a bad foundation, it was really hard to push off that leg with one out of four jumps being good. So I couldn't make progress. Also, let me know if you want to see a knee pain video. I have a couple but I can make a new age one where I go over what I've done for my journey, how I got from really severe knee pain to completely bullet proof. I'll probably make a video on that because I know it's a really big concept. So stay tuned for that. All right, so now I want to talk about how I switched back because I believe it'll help you really figure out the perfect technique for you. So when I started looking at my technique and how it was so unnatural compared to my right left, my right left was natural every time. I didn't jump as high but every single jump, any angle, my feet were balanced. They were straight. I got a good jump. It was almost 100% of my jumps felt super natural and my takeoff was good, balanced and efficient. So that's what I want you guys to do. See, try both and see which one comes natural and go with that one maybe as your dominant plant but still work on the other one. For me, I have such bad technique. What I do for my left, right is I don't even do a full approach. A lot of times I do my full dunk sessions when I'm healthy, when I'm having a full dunk session, I do most of my jumps right, left for fun and just to work on my vertical but also I just do one step and try to perfect the last two steps. Sometimes I can't even do that. Sometimes I push off so hard just off one step and I'm still hitting the same fault that I hit with my left, right. So what I do is I don't even do the one step. I just have one step here and just do that. So my point is eliminate variables, really work on both plants. You want to have balanced legs. You want to jump from every angle. You want to dunk on people at any time you want. Is one plant better than the other? I think 100% equal. Maybe there's better dunks to do on other plants but when it comes to game situations you want to do both. When it comes to being a pro dunker you want to do both so you can do all dunks. There may be more dunks that are a little easier on one plant but ultimately you want to do what's most natural to you. There's no right way. There's no right hand to left, right. There's no left hand to right, left, whatever it is. Really fun exercise. Actually learned this snowboarding when I was younger. I haven't snowboarded in over 10 years but when I learned snowboarding I might have been wakeboarding. I don't know, I actually do a lot of sports but really cool trick you can do it if you don't have any friends like myself you can do it on your own but have a friend push you backwards, right? And you just fall, whoa, right? And that teaches you which foot should go first in snowboarding and skateboarding, right? So like if you fall forward, whoa, when I was a skateboarder this is the way I went, was it? Yeah, pretty sure. So I'm goofy footed, I'm pretty sure, right? And I'd push with this foot. If you're riding a scooter I'd push with this foot. I want to be this way on a skateboard, on a surfboard cruising, right? So the same thing is true. This might be your dominant foot, right? It's just a new thing. I've never really brought it to basketball but that's the first thing I try to bring up when I help people find their plan. That's just natural, right? So what I mean by that is that this might be your dominant leg, which means for me, I want to cruise this way but I want to jump with this foot first. So I want to push off this foot. Try it, let me know if that works. I'm not sure it's not an exact science. I am a scientist, I am a clinically. But you get the point. It's something to kind of illuminate which is your dominant leg and then you can go from there. So at the end of the day, which one do you choose? Throw that friggin ball up or just go for the rim and attack the rim, see what happens. A lot of people just run for the rim and they just jump and they do this. That's probably your natural dominant technique. But whatever it is, if you have no idea, if you didn't even know, try a few different jumps. Just try not to think about it, just go jump your hardest and see what happens. That's most likely your dominant technique. But again, work on both. No matter which one it is, work on your technique first. You can stick to one to be your dominant, but work on both. You've seen pro-dunkers that are left-right and go right-hand or right-left like myself and go right-hand. Am I a pro-dunker? Technically, I guess, I don't, not really. In conclusion, attack the rim and at the end of the day, you can have a dominant plant that you like dunking more on that feels more natural. But work on both so you can be balanced. Work on both hands. If you can dunk with your right hand and your left hand equally, you can jump off right-left, left-right. You can be the most versatile jumper and dunker you can be. And that is the main goal. Build your foundation, take the time. Don't make my mistake of chasing every fraction of an inch with a bad foundation because you're gonna fall, you're gonna get injured. You're not gonna be able to keep making long-term progress. And at the end of the day, you wanna jump your highest, you wanna dunk the best. So, dunk life, baby. Oh, by the way, check out my dunk life. Really trying to help you make the, bleh, bleh, bleh, bleh, bleh, bleh.