Piotr ZawiślakPiotr Zawiślak

Author: Piotr Zawiślak

  • My Week at The Dunk Camp Was One of the Best Weeks of My Life

    My Week at The Dunk Camp Was One of the Best Weeks of My Life

    Hi, I am Piotr Zawiślak. I am a professional dunker from Poland, I am 18 years old, and I am one of only 13 people in the world to earn The Dunk Camp Black Band, which is the highest rank in dunking. This is the first post on my new site, and I wanted it to be about something that meant a lot to me: my week at The Dunk Camp in Utah.

    For a long time I have watched dunk content coming out of the United States. The contests, the camps, the community. Getting the chance to fly over and be part of The Dunk Camp in person was something I had wanted for a while. I am from Poland and I compete all over Europe and the world, so being in a room full of American dunkers I had only seen online was special.

    One of the Best Weeks of My Life

    I will be honest, the week went better than I could have hoped. I got to dunk with so many talented people, including Nathan “Hoopin Nate” Kenney and the rest of the crew. Jordan was hyping me up, the room was going crazy after my dunks, and I felt the respect from people whose work I have admired for years. That is not something I take for granted. It was one of the best experiences I have ever had, and I am very grateful for the opportunity to dunk with all of them.

    My style is different from a lot of the American dunkers. That is part of what makes it fun. We all arrive at the same rim from different directions, and when you put us in one gym, everyone pushes each other higher.

    Meeting Dylan Haugen

    One of the people I was most happy to finally meet was Dylan Haugen. Dylan is 18 like me, our birthdays are only two days apart, and he is one of the best young dunkers in America. We had talked online, but meeting in person was different. He competes in American contests and in DunkMan, Shaq’s league, and I am out here in Europe doing contests around the world. Two different paths, same sport, same age.

    What he said about why he likes connecting with dunkers from other places stuck with me.

    “So super cool to always connect with people, who’s just different, man. The life, the things you do are super cool.”

    Dylan Haugen

    I feel the same way about him. You can read Dylan’s side of our meeting on his site, and we also sat down for a Dunk Talk conversation about linking up. It was awesome to finally meet him, and I am glad the whole thing is on video.

    What Is Next

    This site is where I will share my dunks, my contests, and my story going forward, from Poland to the rest of the world. Dylan and his team helped me get it started, and they explained the idea behind it in their breakdown of building my presence from one interview. If you are a dunk fan who has not come across my dunks yet, there is a bit on why that is in this Dunker Spotlight feature. Watch the clip above, and thank you for being here for the first one.

  • Bringing Polish Hops to America

    Here is the road ahead. I am based in Poland, but the center of gravity for dunking right now is in the United States: the biggest contests, the biggest camps, and the biggest audiences. My plan is to close that distance.

    The plan

    LA, Dallas, Vegas, Miami. I want to bring my dunking to the stages and contests where the sport is growing the fastest, and show that world-class hops are not tied to any one country. Poland has produced an elite dunker, and I want to prove it on the biggest floors in the world.

    Why it matters

    Every time a dunker from outside the United States competes at the top level, the sport gets a little bigger and a little more global. That is the kind of dunking I want to be part of. This is the beginning of that journey, from Poland to America and beyond.

    Follow along

    The best way to follow the road ahead is on my social channels, where I post my newest dunks and everything leading up to the next contest.

  • How I Earned the Black Band: One of 13 in the World

    There is a list, kept by The Dunk Camp, of every dunker in the world who has earned the Black Band. It has 13 names on it. Mine is one of them, and I am the only one from Poland.

    If you do not follow dunking closely, that might not land yet. So let me explain what it actually means, because it is the single most important thing to understand about me as an athlete.

    Dunking has a black belt. It is called the Black Band.

    In martial arts, a black belt tells you someone has reached the highest level of the craft. Dunking has the same thing, and it is the Black Band. It is not handed out for one highlight or one viral clip. It is earned through consistency at the very top of the sport: the height, the control, and the difficulty of the dunks, done again and again.

    What it takes

    At 6′1″, I am not the tallest dunker in the world. What I have built is a vertical and a body of dunks that most people never land in their lives: 360s off both legs, behind the back, between the legs, and combinations of all of them. Reaching the Black Band meant proving I could do the hardest dunks in the sport, not once, but on demand.

    One of 13, and the only Pole

    Being one of only 13 people on earth to reach this level is something I do not take for granted. Dunking is a young, global sport, and I am proud to represent Poland at the very top of it. My goal now is simple: keep pushing what is possible off the floor, and bring more eyes to the sport from my side of the world.