Cups: New program helps develop motor skills
Heath Knotts stood in front of his physical education class at Chesak Elementary School in Huntley and calmly explained the proper way to stack cups.

Or, perhaps more importantly, how not to stack.

"Do you want to use the same hand over and over again?" he asked his 22 third graders.

"No!"

"Am I slamming the cups down?"

"No!"

Then Knotts put on a Backstreet Boys song, and the students began stacking, unstacking and restacking the cups in what has become one of the hottest new trends in physical education classes throughout Illinois.

The cup-stacking idea is fairly simple: Take three cups and stack them in a pyramid style. Then take them down. Follow that by putting up six in a pyramid, being careful to alternate hands. Take those down, put up three more and then take that final stack down.

Sounds easy? It is.

With a little practice, the average person can typically do the three stacks in 10 to 15 seconds, said Bob Fox, a former physical education teacher, founder and president of Speed Stacks of Englewood, Colo.

Already more than 120 schools and parents throughout Illinois have requested the cups from Speed Stacks.

But, try doing that in 2.7 seconds, which is the current world record, Fox said.

"Most people see our video and say this can't be. This has to be on fast forward," Fox said.

According to Fox, Knotts and other area teachers, the exercise really helps children practice motor skills.

"It's awesome for promoting ambidexterity and hand-eye coordination," Fox said. It also helps people become better at everything related to using two hands, from hitting a baseball to playing the saxophone, teachers said.

Older students, along with professional athletes have also begun speed stacks to help improve their motor skills, Fox said.

He initially saw the stacking idea in 1990 on the "Tonight Show." Once he became a physical education teacher in 1995, Fox brought the idea to his physical education classes.

"My kids just absolutely went nuts," Fox said.

That's when he figured speed stacks might catch on at other schools.

So in 1998 he formed Speed Stacks of Englewood, Colo.

"Even though it's been around for 20 years, most people have not heard about it because it hasn't been promoted," Fox said.

The group has attended physical education conventions across the country and last year for the first time brought the product to Illinois, where Knotts saw the idea and decided to bring it to his Huntley Unit District 158 students.

Paul Zientarski, department chairman of the Naperville Central High School's physical education department, said after seeing a presentation on speed stacks, his school has began teaching its freshmen the techniques.

"I think it certainly helps hand-eye coordination," he said. "Those are the kinds of things that help stimulate the brain."

It's not just being used in schools either.

"Occupational and recreational therapists and eye doctors use stacking with kids to help with that motor development," Fox said.

Currently, the University of Northern Iowa and Mesa State College in Grand Junction, Colo. are researching how the stacking affects reaction time and hand-eye coordination.

"We believe it's helping kids academically as well," Fox said. He hopes to recruit a university to eventually help study the link between stacking and cognitive development.

But Cody Goldufsky, 9, is plenty satisfied with what he already knows the exercise is doing for him right now as he practiced stacking and raced fellow students Friday in Knotts' class.

"It makes your hands so you can like, do things quickly," Goldufsky said. "It helps you, and it is very fun."

www.speedstacks.com

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