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Software developer goes back to school to learn the fine art of the slam dunk

Software developer goes back to school to learn the fine art of the slam dunk

Calgary software developer Paul Thorsteinson is either going to land his first dunk sometime in the next two months or get inked for the first time, but either way, he's raising money for a good cause.

The 41-year-old met up with Paul Karchut of the Calgary Eyeopener to explain the method and motive behind signing up for an Alberta Children's Hospital fundraising challenge.

Admittedly, Thorsteinson is a fan of beer, chocolate, and other stuff that keeps a person anchored close to the ground. So what possessed him to bet his colleagues from work that there was a slam dunk lurking somewhere inside his software developers' main frame?

"I bet a bunch of co-workers to raise some money for Alberta Children's Hospital," Thorsteinson said. He gave himself a year to master the trick, but he's only got two more months until the clock runs out.

"Now if I fail, they wanted some kind of consequence — and in that case, I have to get the Air Jordan Jumpman tattoo right above my butt."

'Just think about being explosive'

Initially, during his Eyeopener hoops showcase, Thorsteinson relied upon the power of positive thinking to propel himself up, but not quite over, the rim of the gym at the home court of the University of Calgary Dinos.

"First, I'll just say a sweet little prayer in my head, and get ready and just think about being explosive," he said.

That effort fell short.

"I got up there and grabbed the rim, but ... I probably need to get the whole wrist over, so that tells me I've got a little ways to go," he said.

When visualization turned out to be a flop, Thorsteinson graciously accepted a dunking tutorial from fifth year Dino Connor Foreman, and Dinos head coach Dan Vanhooren.

The technique of the dunk

"There's a number of technical aspects we need to work on," Foreman instructed. "Off one foot, your knee drive needs to be a little stronger to transfer your forward momentum upward.

"Your need to dorsiflex first, which means your toes are up," he added.

And then you need to be able to plantarflex, to snap your foot through the floor. You're taking lots of small staggery steps. You want to lengthen those steps out as much as you can, and then your first two steps need to be short and quick," he advised.

A second dunking effort left Thorsteinson quite a bit short of his goal.

Still, with two months to go, he hopes to be able to go to school on what he learned at the U of C, in order to avoid getting a tattoo —something he always swore he'd never do.

"If I work my butt off on the ankle stuff until March 18, I'm going to give myself the best chance," he said. "I feel like I can do it."

Coach Vanhooren painted a little more pessimistic picture.

"Unless his ankle play gets better," he said, "then no."

However, younger, taller, more technically fluid Foreman wasn't buying his coach's bummer prognosis.

"I've got faith," Foreman said. "Get those arms driving up. You're just going to flush it in."

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With files from the Calgary Eyeopener