About Gil Thomas, The Dunkmaster
Gil Thomas (right) with Tony Horton
Gil Thomas grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, but trains athletes in the Los Angeles Area in Southern California and will be expanding to the Miami Metro area. He is called the “Dunkmaster” and the name of his training program is called DunkDreams.
He first started training for his vertical jump when he was 15 years old. Like many young athletes in the late 70’s, he wanted to fly after witnessing high flyers like Dr. J, David Thompson, and Darrell Griffith. He first dunked a basketball in high school after combined training with the kangaroo pro jumper, isokinetics squat training machines, and plyometrics jump training, at the age of only 15. Gil continued to train and by the time he graduated high school, his vertical jump increased to 52” with a 3 step run. Gil’s standing vertical jump was at only 18” when he first started training at age 15.
Back in the late 70’s and early 80’s, not many people knew how to increase their vertical jump dramatically. Gil often went to University of Louisville’s library to study books on physical education; he stumbled on research papers that explained how plyometrics when combined with resistance can enhance the training effect of plyometrics exponentially. Gil’s original goal was to play basketball, but by the time he graduated high school he switched to high jumping instead.
At the University of Louisville, he trained under the legendary strength coach Doug Seminick. Gil had an offer to work at Case Western Reserve University in 1987, where he trained the high jumpers and the basketball players to increase their vertical jump. By the early 90’s, Gil was in Los Angeles and competed in track and field with the Los Angeles Patriot Track Team. Gil worked with various different health clubs as a personal trainer in the early 90’s. He also worked with the Daniel Murphy High School basketball team.
After that he got certified in training with the legendary Marv Marinovich sports performance trainer. Gil introduced the isokinetic jumper machine to Marv and collaborated with Marv to incorporate it with his training program and the supercat. Since the mid 90’s, Marv has produced tremendous results using this method of training. In the mid 90’s, Gil worked with Jump USA as a consultant for the jump soles and the hyper gravity weight belt. Gil helped develop training programs for both of these products.
From 2004, he worked at Los Angeles Trade Tech College as the speed and jump coach, and under his watchful eye, the athletes improved substantially in their quickness and vertical jump. In 2005, with a feature in the Outside Magazine article and the Los Angeles Times article in 2006, Gil has exploded and has been all over the media, and is now recognized as the leading vertical jump expert in the world. Gil has been featured in the Dunkumentary Movie, teaching the average joe, standing at 5’8’’ Caucasian male, on how to slam dunk a basketball. He also has recently been featured in the new "Making of P90X2". Tony Horton brought him in as the plyometrics expert.
He first started training for his vertical jump when he was 15 years old. Like many young athletes in the late 70’s, he wanted to fly after witnessing high flyers like Dr. J, David Thompson, and Darrell Griffith. He first dunked a basketball in high school after combined training with the kangaroo pro jumper, isokinetics squat training machines, and plyometrics jump training, at the age of only 15. Gil continued to train and by the time he graduated high school, his vertical jump increased to 52” with a 3 step run. Gil’s standing vertical jump was at only 18” when he first started training at age 15.
Back in the late 70’s and early 80’s, not many people knew how to increase their vertical jump dramatically. Gil often went to University of Louisville’s library to study books on physical education; he stumbled on research papers that explained how plyometrics when combined with resistance can enhance the training effect of plyometrics exponentially. Gil’s original goal was to play basketball, but by the time he graduated high school he switched to high jumping instead.
At the University of Louisville, he trained under the legendary strength coach Doug Seminick. Gil had an offer to work at Case Western Reserve University in 1987, where he trained the high jumpers and the basketball players to increase their vertical jump. By the early 90’s, Gil was in Los Angeles and competed in track and field with the Los Angeles Patriot Track Team. Gil worked with various different health clubs as a personal trainer in the early 90’s. He also worked with the Daniel Murphy High School basketball team.
After that he got certified in training with the legendary Marv Marinovich sports performance trainer. Gil introduced the isokinetic jumper machine to Marv and collaborated with Marv to incorporate it with his training program and the supercat. Since the mid 90’s, Marv has produced tremendous results using this method of training. In the mid 90’s, Gil worked with Jump USA as a consultant for the jump soles and the hyper gravity weight belt. Gil helped develop training programs for both of these products.
From 2004, he worked at Los Angeles Trade Tech College as the speed and jump coach, and under his watchful eye, the athletes improved substantially in their quickness and vertical jump. In 2005, with a feature in the Outside Magazine article and the Los Angeles Times article in 2006, Gil has exploded and has been all over the media, and is now recognized as the leading vertical jump expert in the world. Gil has been featured in the Dunkumentary Movie, teaching the average joe, standing at 5’8’’ Caucasian male, on how to slam dunk a basketball. He also has recently been featured in the new "Making of P90X2". Tony Horton brought him in as the plyometrics expert.