Program: Alexander Pearce;
Competitive Sport Stacking
Club member Aaron Pearce, son Alexander, spoke to us about competitive sport staking this week and Alexander gave us a demonstration on speed-stacking cups. Alexander is 9 years old and in the third grade at Ray Miller. He became interested in cup stacking last year when he was introduced to it at school. He has become quite good at it in under a year’s time. Aaron said that Alexander will spend hours watching youtube videos and tutorials, and practicing his techniques at home.
Competitive sport stacking became popular in the US 1980s and 90s, and is known around the world today. The official, professional, organization that regulates competitive sport stacking is the World Sport Stacking Association (WSSA). Benefits of participating in sport stacking include improved hand-eye coordination, right/left brain activation and bilateral coordination, exercise, and focus/concentration/dexterity.
The cups come in a variety of sizes, from shot glass (mini) size, to solo cup size, to large sand pale (jumbo) size. Alexander demonstrated his skills with both the mini and regular size cups, and it was very impressive how quickly he could stack and unstack the cups.
There are many different patterns a stacker has to execute in competition. The world record for one of the most popular formations is 4.813 seconds. Alexander’s fastest time for that same formation so far is 7.6. He showed us that he can even stack them blindfolded! What a great program – thanks to the Pearce’s for sharing Alexander’s incredible talent with us.
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