For the past few years, I have been interested in a type of sport that doesn’t include a lot of muscle or a lot of drills and exercises, it involves your brain co-operating with your hands and eyes. It is called sport stacking or speed stacking. I enjoy doing this activity very much. If you want to try it, your school may have a team and you can join it.

Speed stacking is an activity that involves a person stacking 12 special cups in a limited amount of time. The best players are the fastest. There is a catch though, if you get a fast time but you dropped cups or you skipped a part, you need to brush up on your skills. The cups are about the size of small plastic cup. They have holes on the top so they don`t get stuck together and you can go faster. They vary in many different colours and have words on them that say WSSA(World Sport Stacking Association). Speed stacking may not seem like a serious sport, but it became an official sport in 2005.

There are different ways to do speed stacking. One, is the 3-3-3. That means instead of 12 cups you use nine. You put them in three piles of three and stack them up and down. My best time for this is three seconds. Another way is the 3-6-3. This is when you use the 12 cups and put them in 2 piles of three and one pile of 6 and up and down stack it. My best time for this is 4 seconds. The last way is called the cycle. This is much more complicated. There are three parts to it: First, you do the 3-6-3, when you finished, you do the 6-6 which is just stacking six cups twice, then lastly, you do a big stack. You end up in the place you started. My best time for this is 11 seconds without fumbling. All of this seems hard to imagine. It is hard for the cups not to fall and you still have to go fast. If you see someone do it, it may seem like an easy thing to do, but it can be really hard. When you are doing homework it is best to work in silence, but even though speed stacking requires concentration , it is better to work with music on because you have a beat. I got my high score listening to music.

There are many benefits to sport stacking. It definitely improves your hand-eye coordination, which is a good skill to have in the future. Also, it can improve your speed in doing things.

I have been on the speed stacking team on my school for three years. During the competition against other schools, I do an individual one which is the 3-3-3 ,3-6-3, and cycle. Then you have a choice of doing a group called relay which is 4 people doing the 3-6-3. This is what I always do. I got 12th place in grade four, 2nd place in grade 5 (dramatic increase), and 1ST PLACE this year in grade 6!! Another option you have is doing doubles, which is when two people do the cycle pretending they are one person. They both have one hand behind their back and the other working together to do the cycle. I decided to try this last year, and I got 4th place.

The speed stacking competition is very fun! Because I won first place in Relay, my relay team and I might go to the finals.

This sport is something I really enjoy. For more info, go to www.theWSSA.com. You can order speed stacks online or find them at a toy store. Your school may have a team and it would be really fun to join. If your school doesn`t have a team. You can ask your teacher, or principal to start a club. It won`t let you down.

Maxine Mutasingwa.