How Do Fairway Elementary Students 'Stack Up'?

Fairway Elementary School students in participated in the 6th annual World Sport Stacking Association (WSSA) Stack Up event on Thursday. The event involved all grade levels at the school.

Working together to stack cups, Fairway enthusiasts participated in this event along with tens of thousands of students from schools in all 50 U.S. states and 28 countries worldwide. At the time of publishing this article, a total of 380,341 student stackers had been verified for this year's record-breaking Guinness World Records Day, which was termed the “World’s Largest Sport Stacking Event.”

Jeff Powell, physical education teacher said this event is a wonderful way for students to practice speed and coordination. "The students had a blast working together to help WSSA break its record of the most participants in a single sport stacking day," he said.

“Not only does this event promote hand-eye coordination, fitness, teamwork, speed and lots of fun, but it allows students to try something new," said Powell. "Cup stacking is easy to learn, but challenging to master, and our students had fun attempting this task while breaking a sweat.”

The number of stackers to beat was 316,736, and the collective group sailed past that on Friday afternoon, according to WSSA sources.

Powell said Fairway students do speed stacking in physical education every year, and have for the past 10 to 12 years. "This was our first time being part of the Guinness Book of World Records."

He said students were excited weeks before the official event, as they did a countdown to the day. "We did a few days of learning the different sequences, the Cycle, 3-6-3, and 3-3-3-3."

Students participated in head-to-head challenges on the stage, using a variety of speed stack cups, including plastic, metal, and minis — either standing or on balance boards — using timing mats, he said. 

On the gym floor, Powell said students did relays using different types of locomotor skills, such as skipping, bear walk, crab walk and slide step.

By Patch's count, there were 69 schools from Missouri participating in this year's effort.

Sport stacking has been called a “track meet for your hands at warp speed.” It is an exciting exercise through which students up stack and down stack 12 especially designed cups called Speed Stacks in predetermined sequences as fast as they can, sometimes combining the challenge with other activities.