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For the past few months sport stacking, a race to see how fast pupils can manipulate the plastic cups, has been a teacher-and parent-sanctioned obsession for the fourth-graders in Bloomfield's Demarest School. Yesterday's weekly relay gave them a chance to show off their skill.

"When they first told me about it I said if you are going to spend $250 on cups, buy me some books. Now I love everything about it," said Karen Magliacano as she watched her pupils crawl, run and slide across the gym floor.

The school is one of a growing number around the world using sport -- or cup -- stacking to improve hand-eye coordination, concentration and logic.

Everyone from preschoolers to college field hockey players are stacking and unstacking the plastic cups in preset patterns -- three stacks of three, two stacks of six -- racing against themselves, the clock and each other.

In New Jersey, recreation programs in Hillsdale, camps in Mount Laurel and dozens of schools are teaching kids the ins and outs of the "sport" which educators say helps kids develop both sides of the brain.

Though it has been around for decades, Bob Fox, a former physical education teacher and one-time professional juggler, helped popularize it as a teaching tool.

Sixteen years ago he saw a man demonstrate cup stacking on "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson, and decided to teach it to his Highlands, Colo., elementary school pupils.

"My kids went nuts over it and when I stopped teaching it in class, I decided to offer an after-school program for those who wanted to continue," Fox said. "I figured 25 to 50 kids would be interested. Over 200 signed up."

He created Speedstacks, Inc. in 1998 and began producing the plastic cups, a sturdier version of store-bought plastic drinking cups. He later created a governing agency, the World Speed Stacking Association, changed the name from cup stacking to sport stacking, and started holding championships. His daughter, Emily Fox, set the world record for the three-six-three stacking event in 2002 with a time of 7.43 seconds.

Though cup stacking isn't used as a therapeutic tool at Children's Specialized Hospital in Toms River, after reviewing the basics of the activity, Dr. Bradford Ross said the sequences and repetition could help kids with attention difficulties.

"The child would need to slow down and think ahead," said Ross, coordinator of neuropsychology at the hospital.

Jamilah Ferguson, one of Demarest's star stackers, said the game has helped her writing skills.

"My writing is better and faster when we do writing samples," said the 9-year-old, who has taken to teaching her younger brothers and sisters.

While some question Fox's designation of the activity as a sport, he said the concentration, rhythm and speed needed to excel, as well as variations that incorporate running, cycling and push-ups, make stacking quite athletic.

"It's a track meet for your hands at warp speed," he said.

Sharyn Weikel agrees. She has been teaching it to her pupils at South Bound Brook School in Somerset County for five years.

"Our special education students are good at this, and they couldn't believe with their learning problems they could master the sequences, the memory, recall," she said.

And while there are definite physical benefits, in classrooms like Magliacano's, it's the new stretch, a way for educators to give kids a break during a learning-packed day.

"I find especially during this time of year, around the state test, this is a fun diversion, but in a good way," she said. "Testing is about time, focusing, keeping on task, and this incorporates all of that."

Maria Palacios came to Demarest to watch her daughter, Shyanne, compete in yesterday's stacking relay. She was initially skeptical about it being taught in the classroom, but she's changed her mind.

"Her homework is getting done faster, and I don't know if that is so she can go back to stacking, but it's gotten more accurate, so I am happy," she said.

www.speedstacks.com

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