SPORT STACKING WITH SPEED STACKS

WHAT IS SPORT STACKING?
Sport stacking is a track meet for your hands at warp speed! It ‘s an exciting individual and team sport where participants stack and unstack 12 specially designed, high-tech cups (Speed Stacks) in predetermined pyramids with amazing dexterity. Stackers race against the clock for individual times and race head-to-head in team relays.

WE BELIEVE THAT SPORT STACKING:

• Helps develop motor skills, patterning, sequencing, focus and concentration
• Promotes hand-eye coordination and ambidexterity, which are important skills in virtually all sports
• Gives students the opportunity to use both sides of their body and brain to
  improve bilateral proficiency
• Encourages students to set goals through establishing personal records

BODY/BRAIN CONNECTION
The following is reprinted with permission from author Jean Blaydes Madigan, a Neuro-kinesiologist from Murphy, Texas and a leading expert in the body/brain connection to learning.

“What makes us move, makes us think. New learning follows established motor patterns first before it is stored in the cortex. Therefore, if we teach our students to move better, the better thinkers they will become. The brain seeks patterns. Locomotor movements are built on patterns. Information that is arranged in patterns is more easily processed, retained and retrieved. Cross lateralization/crossing the midline; when one crosses the midline, the brain begins to make new connections and the right and left hemispheres begin to work together. This communication process organizes the brain for better concentration and problem solving. Crossing the midline integrates brain hemispheres to enable the brain to organize itself. When students perform crosslateral activities, blood flow is increased in all parts of the brain, making it more alert and energized for stronger, more cohesive learning.”

THE INFLUENCE OF SPORT STACKING ON HAND-EYE COORDINATION AND REACTION TIME OF SECOND GRADE STUDENTS
By Brian E. Udermann, University of Wisconsin-Lacrosse; Steven R. Murray, Mesa State College; John M. Mayer, US Spine and Sport Foundation, La Jolia, CA; and Kenneth Sagendorf, Syracuse University.

This study was published in 2004 in “Perceptual and Motor Skills” and “Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport.” This study states that after five weeks of sport stacking, “hand-eye coordination in both the dominant hand and non-dominant hand was increased from between 26.93% and 37.82% respectively.” The study also states that after five weeks of sport stacking, reaction time was increased between 33.1%
and 25.94% for the dominant and non-dominant hands, respectively.

TESTIMONIAL

“I have 15 special needs students ranging from learning disabilities to multiple disabilities. My hope was to get them at least to do a few of the beginner sport stacking skills such as the 3 stack and possibly the 3-3-3. After six months of 15 minutes per day, 10 of my students are doing the complete cycle stack!”

If you would like to order Speed Stacks please use our order form.

You may visit their website at www.speedstacks.com for more information.