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

Calgary software developer Paul Thorsteinsonis either going to land his firstdunk sometime in the next two monthsor get inked for the first time, buteither way, he's raising money for a good cause.

The 41-year-old met up with Paul Karchutof the Calgary Eyeopenerto explain the method and motivebehind signing up for an Alberta Children's Hospitalfundraising 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 workthatthere was a slam dunk lurking somewhere inside his software developers' main frame?

"I bet a bunch of co-workers to raise some moneyfor AlbertaChildren's Hospital," Thorsteinsonsaid. 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, Thorsteinsonrelied upon the power of positive thinking to propel himself up, but not quite over, the rim of the gym atthe home court ofthe 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 andgrabbed 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.

Whenvisualization turned out to be a flop, Thorsteinsongraciously accepted a dunking tutorial from fifth year Dino Connor Foreman, and Dinoshead 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 yourfoot throughthe floor. You're taking lots of small staggery steps. You want to lengthen those steps out as much as you can, and then your firsttwostepsneed to be short and quick," he advised.

A second dunking effort left Thorsteinsonquite 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," hesaid."I feel like Ican 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 toflush it in."

Visitwww.childrenshospital.ab.cato donate toThorsteinson'sfundraising challenge.

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With files from the Calgary Eyeopener