360 Dunk: Basketball technique, drills and fixes

In a 360 dunk you turn a full circle in the air and then throw the ball down through the rim. It is often done as a variation of a tomahawk or windmill. The spin itself isn't the hard part to get right; the landing is. Research on mid-air rotation shows that turning in flight changes how your knees take the landing, so this lesson spends as much time on coming down as on going up.

Set up

Build this one last. You should already dunk comfortably off the same takeoff without a spin, and your plain landings should be soft and controlled. Add the spin only when you can keep that landing quality.

Plain dunk first, spin second.

Use a controlled approach, not a sprint. Going too fast and out of control is one of the most common finishing mistakes, and a spin makes it worse.

Fast enough to jump, slow enough to control.

Gather with two hands, grip firmly and keep the ball close. After the gather you get two steps (NBA and FIBA). Rushing them is how a travel happens.

Ball locked in, steps counted.

Take off the way you already dunk. Off one foot: outside foot, then inside foot, jump off the inside foot and drive the other knee up. Off two feet: one step, then a two-foot jump stop. No source says which takeoff is better for a 360, so use the one you control best.

Same takeoff as your plain dunk.

Dunk

Turn your whole body as one piece: hips, shoulders and head together. Don't leave your legs behind and twist only your upper body. In a lab study, twisting the trunk in the air loaded one knee the most on landing.

One unit, one turn.

Keep both hands on the ball and keep it close to your body while you turn, so the spin doesn't fling it loose.

Ball tucked through the turn.

Come all the way around so you face the rim again, then throw the ball down through it with one or two hands.

Square up, then throw it down.

Let go of the rim. In the NBA, hanging on the ring is a technical foul (and a fine) unless you're avoiding an injury. Under FIBA, a quick grab right after a dunk is allowed, but letting the ring hold your weight is a technical. Other leagues have their own rules, so check yours.

Quick grab at most, then let go.

Land

Finish the turn before your feet touch down. Bring your trunk back to neutral and point both feet the same way. Researchers studying mid-air rotation recommend exactly this: get the trunk back to neutral before landing.

Done spinning before the floor.

Start bending your knees and hips while you're still in the air, then land softly with your knees over your toes. In studies, rotating in the air cut knee bend at contact and raised landing force, and less-skilled athletes landed rotations with more knee cave-in. Bending early is the fix those researchers suggest.

Soft knees, soft hips, quiet feet.

Land on both feet. Single-leg landings show higher forces and less knee and hip bend than two-foot landings. Landing is also the most common way basketball players hurt an ankle.

Two feet, every time.

For part of the turn your back is to the floor you're landing on. Make that moment predictable: same approach, same takeoff spot, and a clear space with nobody under the rim. In one lab study, landing without vision was stiffer only when people didn't know the drop height. Treat this as a good habit, not a proven fix; the research on vision and landing is mixed.

Same spot, clear floor.

If you can't finish the turn in the air, stop spinning and just land. Don't finish the rotation on the floor. ACL injuries in basketball have been estimated to happen within about 17 to 50 milliseconds of foot contact, which is too fast to correct anything once you're down.

Bail out early, land square.

Feel it

A good 360 feels like a normal dunk takeoff, one smooth turn with your whole body moving together, and then you're square to the rim with the ball still in your hands. The turn is finished before you see the floor again. Your knees and hips are already bending on the way down, and you land quietly on two feet, facing one way, not still twisting.

Fix-its

You land still turning, or one leg takes the landing Finish the turn earlier and bring your trunk back to neutral before contact, feet pointing the same way. If you're short on the turn, stop spinning and land square. Go back to a smaller turn in the drills until this is clean.
You land stiff-legged or your knees cave in Start bending your knees and hips in the air, then land softly with your knees over your toes. Cut the spin out until your landings are soft again.
You twist your shoulders but your hips lag Turn hips, shoulders and head together as one unit. A late upper-body twist is the pattern that loaded one knee the most in a rotation study.
You come in too fast or travel Slow your approach. Gather with two hands, count your two steps, and use the same takeoff as your plain dunk.
You lose the ball or hang on the rim Keep the ball close in both hands through the turn. After the dunk, let go of the rim unless you need it to avoid an injury.

Drill

Soft landings with no spin: jump and land on two feet, knees and hips bending, knees over toes. Do landing work at least 2 to 3 times a week, as part of your warm-up.
Turn jumps with no ball or rim: a quarter turn, then a half turn, then a full turn, landing square and soft each time. Move to a bigger turn only when the landing stays clean.
Full 360 jumps holding the ball, still with no rim, from your normal approach and takeoff spot.
Plain dunks from the same approach, so you know your takeoff and landing spot.
Low-volume 360 dunk attempts in a clear space, fresh, early in the session. Stop as soon as your landings get stiff, twisted or one-legged.

Sources

Last checked 2026-10-31.