Sport stacking

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sport stacking (formerly known as cup stacking) is an individual and team activity played using plastic cups. It originated in the early 1980's at a southern California boys and girls' club and received national attention in 1990 on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.

Sport stacking

Sport	Sport Stacking
Founded	1995
Claim to Fame	The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson
Motto	Stack Fast!
No. of competitors	Thousands Worldwide
Country	USA, UK, Germany, Australia
Current champion	Robin Stangenberg (previously Emily Fox)
Official website	http://www.worldsportstackingassociation.org

Participants of sport stacking upstack and downstack cups in pre-determined sequences, competing against the clock or another player. Sequences are usually pyramids of three, six or ten cups. Proponents of the sport say participants learn teamwork, cooperation, ambidexterity, and hand-eye coordination.

Tournaments are governed by the World Sport Stacking Association. In 2004, the WSSA changed the activity's name from cup stacking to sport stacking in an attempt to give it "immediate identification as a competitive sport."

1 The Cups
2 Rules
3 Competition
- 3.1 2006
4 World Records
5 Sources
6 External links

[edit] The Cups

Sport stacking can only be done with specially designed cups, made to prevent sticking to one another. Made of durable plastic, the cups have holes in the bottom to allow air to pass through quickly when stacking the cups together, and are designed with a ledge inside to keep the cups separate when nested, so they can be quickly separated from each other when stacking.

Special training cups called "Super Stacks" are also available. These heavier cups are made of metal and are to be used directly before competitions. The added weight is supposed to make the regular cups feel lighter, allowing the stacker to stack faster in competition.

[edit] Rules

There are three main types of stacks in competition. All stacks can be made from left-to-right or right-to-left (individual preference), but the same direction must be maintained for both "up stacking" (setting the cups into pyramids) and "down stacking" (unstacking the pyramids and returning them to their nested position).

[edit] 3 - 3 - 3

Uses 9 cups. Cups start in three nested stacks of 3. The stacker must create three pyramids of 3 cups each and then down stack the cups back into nested stacks of 3 in the order that they were upstacked.

[edit] 3 - 6 - 3

Uses 12 cups. The stacker must create three pyramids made up of three cups on the left, six cups in the center, and three cups on the right (3-6-3), then down stack the cups in the order that they were upstacked into their original position. Also used as the first transition of the Cycle Stack.

[edit] 6 - 6

Uses 12 cups. The stacker must create pyramids of 6 cups on the left and 6 on the right and then down stack both of them to create one pile of cups. This stack is only used competitively as the second transition in the Cycle Stack.

[edit] 1 - 10 - 1

Uses 12 cups. The stacker begins with a single downstacked pile. He/she must take two cups off the top, turn one upside-down (stacker's choice), then upstack the remaining ten. The stacker must then tap the opposite sides of the single cups and take down the ten stack into a downstacked 3-6-3. This stack is only used competitively as the third transition of the Cycle Stack

[edit] The Cycle Stack

The most complicated stack is called the Cycle Stack. It involves a sequence which includes, in order: a 3-6-3 stack, a 6-6 stack, and a 1-10-1 stack, finishing in a down stacked 3-6-3.

[edit] Competition

Most sport stacking competitions are geared toward children, with divisions by year for ages 12 and under. For older stackers, the divisions are by age groups: 13-14, 15-18, 19-24 (Collegiate), 25-59 (Master), 60+ (Senior). There are also divisions for "Special Stackers" (disabled people).

In team relay, four-person teams compete head-to-head in a best-of-three-race match. In doubles, two stackers stand side-by-side to complete the stack, with one Stacker using only his or her right hand while the other using only his or her left.

[edit] 2006

Cycle Champion: Shane Grinnell, 14 and under, Colorado, time 7.58 sec
3-6-3 Champion: David Wolf, 10, Germany, time 2.75 sec
3-3-3 Champion: David Wolf, 10, Germany, time 2.28 sec
Doubles Cycle: Chase Demelio and Andy Retting, 14 and under, Colorado, 10.11 sec
New Cycle World Record: Robin Stangenberg, Germany 7.41 sec

[edit] World Records

The previous world record for the fastest cycle stack was 7.43 seconds, completed by Emily Fox from Denver, Colorado, whose feat is listed in the Guinness Book of Records. This was hand-timed by judges with stopwatches, as it took place before the self-timing system (the stackmat) was introduced in 2003. On WSSA's website, it recognizes the advantage this allowed stackers of the time, but asserts that records set before 2003 are still recognized until they are broken.

On 25 November 2006, this world record was beaten by German Robin Stangenberg with a time of 7.41 seconds.^[1]

Yannick Zittlau recently set an unofficial International Sport Stacking Federation world record of 7.30 seconds on the German TV show Galileo. This record is not recognized in any record lists, because official records must be set at official tournaments. He also set an official record on the "Husumer Stack Event 2007", it's the actual ISSF world record of 7.35 seconds.

This is a list of WSSA world records in all events.