I remember when PE meant excerise.

[Shockeye]

Stack 'em up
By JENNY LEE ALLEN

jenny.allen@heraldtribune.com



BRADENTON -- Stash the basketballs, the kick balls and jump ropes. And don't even think about breaking a sweat in the new era of physical education class in some elementary schools.

Twelve plastic cups are all that's needed for the latest craze in some elementary school gym classes.

In sport stacking, kids arrange eight-ounce cups into pyramids and collapse them into nested stacks at lightning speeds. The fastest time wins.

Sound easy? Maybe a little, shall we say, stupid?

"We're the first to admit it sounds pretty goofy and pretty silly," said Bob Fox, a former Colorado gym teacher who helped put the sport into 9,000 schools worldwide including several in Southwest Florida. "It's one of those things you truly have to see ... a track meet for the hands at warp speed."

Fox said he realizes stacking isn't as vigorous as some traditional phys ed classes. That's why, he said, he encourages schools to incorporate running or other physical activity into the cup curriculum before and after the stacking.

A handful of local schools incorporate the cups into gym class. This weekend nearly 200 kids will go head-to-head in the second annual Manatee County Sport Stacking Tournament.

Winners can earn medals, trophies, ribbons and even a state title.

Proponents say stacking and unstacking cups sharpens motor skills, improves hand-eye coordination and turns even the shyest kid into an athlete -- of sorts. It also sparks interest in gym at a time of increased concentration on academics.

But some folks questioned the wisdom behind implementing an activity that burns as many calories as drying the dishes.

An estimated 16 percent of American kids and teens are overweight, according to a recent National Health and Nutrition Examination survey.

"No, it's not as physical as playing basketball or kicking," said Heather Johnson, P.E. teacher at Miller Elementary in Bradenton. But she said it's another way to teach sportsmanship, teamwork and other skills.

Just watch someone like 9-year-old Jonah Hunt of Bradenton and see hands fly so fast it looks like they're on fast forward.

Rat-a-tat. Rat-a-tat. Swoosh.

Jonah is so into it his tongue is sticking out.

Said Austin Fields, a freckle-faced 10-year-old at Miller Elementary, "I'd rather stack cups than run half a mile in P.E."

Added fellow student John Maul, 11: "It's one of the best things I've ever done in school."

At the school, students wiggle in their seats and raise their hands when teachers ask, "Who wants to cup stack?"

The sport debuted there two years ago after Johnson learned of it from a colleague. Since then, it's become so popular the school holds an annual tournament in which every grade participates.

There's even a Cup Club.

Like traditional sports, cup stacking has fans and world records and lingo like "stack off," where the top three stackers of an event compete in the finals.

The sport dates back some 20 years, when kids in after-school programs and community recreation facilities stacked cups to pass the time.

But the idea really took off when Fox brought it to his gym class a decade ago.

"My kids just went nuts over it," said Fox, 47, from his Colorado office.

Fox went on to found Speed Stacks, a company that promotes the sport and sells stuff designed for it.

For instance, the cups are made out of hard plastic, have three holes in the bottom to stop them from sticking together and a matte finish for a better grip. A set retails for $18.95.

Physical therapists, athletic trainers and senior citizens are also buying the cups, Fox said.

This year the sport changed names, from cup stacking to sport stacking. That's partly so people who've never heard of it will know instantly that it's a sport, not a drinking game or one for infants, Fox said.

Whatever you call it, stacking cups has turned 11-year-old Casie Hancock into a minor celebrity.

Kids at Miller Elementary stop the fifth-grader in the lunch line, at recess, when she's walking to the library. They just want to know: "How fast can you go, Casie?"

Casie holds the state record in the 3-6-3 event.

"It's so awesome. It's like nobody is faster than me," said Casie, who practiced an hour Tuesday with her lucky pink cups in her pink room.

"Except one girl. Heather Parker. She was like five milliseconds faster than me" in the school competition.

The girls will face off again at this weekend's tournament. Casie will go to bed an hour and a half early to prepare. She's not taking any chances.

"I'm like, 'I've got to beat her. I've got to reclaim my title as the fastest,'" Casie said.

Parents have embraced the sport, too, saying it's engaging and relatively inexpensive.

"I think it's cool to see kids excited by anything besides what's on the radio or what's on TV," said Mom Molly Meetze, who has dabbled with her daughter's cups on the kitchen table.

"Mommies are slow," said her 8-year-old daughter, Melissa.

"That's true. That's very true," added buddy Clancy Vaughan.

Ok kids, take 3 laps, stack the cups, then cool down with 1 more lap.

[WayAbvPar]

Said Austin Fields, a freckle-faced 10-year-old at Miller Elementary, "I'd rather stack cups than run half a mile in P.E."

And then I like to go home and play Nintendo while eating cake.

[Paelos]

This is helping America's kids get thinner. Yeah for mediocrity!

[Trippy]

Speed Stacking for teh win!

There's more of this stuff at www.speedstacks.com. I still think speed Rubik Cubing is more impressive.

[Rodent]

Stack 'em up[/url}Proponents say stacking and unstacking cups sharpens motor skills, improves hand-eye coordination and turns even the shyest kid into an athlete -- of sorts. It also sparks interest in gym at a time of increased concentration on academics.

Holy shit, by that logic kids may be playing cumputer games in school soon ( and not like we did, for fun, but for grades ).

I just hope being able to beat Super Mario without the warp "cheat" will net my future kid an A.

[Big Gulp]

Said Austin Fields, a freckle-faced 10-year-old at Miller Elementary, "I'd rather stack cups than run half a mile in P.E."

And then I like to go home and play Nintendo while eating cake.

A half mile.  That's two laps on most tracks you fat little fuck!  Shit, for most people that's when your heartrate only begins to get up there.

We are breeding a generation of kids who grew up with nothing dangerous in their lives.  All the playgrounds are little cushioned candy lands, we're not making them do anything physical at school, and they're sure as hell not doing anything physical at home.  Now breeding soft, fat, little pansy kids wouldn't be quite so bad if we were producing intellectual ubermensch, but nope, education is so piss poor that these kids are just as stupid as they are fat and useless.

Parents these days suck.  No way in hell would my old man have let me get to that kind of sorry state.

[eldaec]

I liked this bit...

"No, it's not as physical as playing basketball or kicking" said Heather Johnson, P.E. teacher at Miller Elementary in Bradenton. But she said it's another way to teach sportsmanship, teamwork and other skills.

'Kicking' is a sport now?

[schild]

Personally, I want to challenge these kids to a race. Which is faster? Their fastest cup stacker, or the bullet leaving my chamber and exiting their principal and PE Teacher's Skull.

[Big Gulp]

Personally, I want to challenge these kids to a race. Which is faster? Their fastest cup stacker, or the bullet leaving my chamber and exiting their principal and PE Teacher's Skull.

Anyone else notice that the kid in the picture already has a double chin, too?  The last thing that kid should be doing is stacking cups, he should be getting nailed by dodgeballs as is the role of all fat kids.

Man, I should open up a fat camp.  Who knew I harbored so much hostility over something like this?  And granted, I understand that it's misplaced hostility, because these kids parents really should have their asses beat.  Look, I was one of those kids that loved staying inside and reading.  Hell, I had a Commodore 64 in my room, why'd I need to go outside?  But you know what?  My parents (probably for their own sanity) would chase me the hell out of the house.  My friend's parents did the same thing.  That leads to actually having to find fun things to do outside, like playing war out in the woods.  Grabbing big sticks and sword fighting each other, building ramps to jump your bikes on (and this was the early 80's.  We didn't know what in the hell a bicycle helmet looked like), playing king of the raft out on the lake, and playing smeer the queer.

I somehow doubt that any of this stuff is too common anymore when you've got a fucking XBox at home, your parents are probably divorced, and you're a latchkey kid.  Much easier to let video games and TV babysit your fat kids and hook 'em on drugs for their "learning disorder".

[Strazos]

The fat kid also has that stupid yellow hairdye job that makes them looks like a yellow skunk or something.

Die in a pool of toxic hairdye, loser.

[HaemishM]

Wow... that's just... I'm fucking speechless.

When I was a kid in 5th grade, the school actually let us hold a softball tournament because we were playing so much of it at recess that we made our own teams. They let us get out of class one day in the last week of school to play the finals. Because it was exercise AND fun AND competition.

STACKING FUCKING CUPS?!! WTF? Are you preparing them for a life of complete mediocrity, along with a career in the fucking food service industry, you fucking toadies?

YES, KIDS HATE P.E. BUT THEY NEED IT. BE A FUCKING MAN AND MAKE THEM DO IT.

Just don't make them square dance. I actually had a month of having to fucking square dance in P.E. in Eigth Grade, and that shit was just wrong. I never needed to know what a fucking dose doe was.

[Paelos]

Picturing Haemish square-dancing is possibly one of the most hilarious images ever.

PROMENADE THIS, BITCH!

[Prospero]

Don't hate the square dance, hate the fucks who feel compelled to teach it in 7th/8th grade when kids are going through the dreaded "boys/girls are icky" to "hey babe want some of this" transition. I'll never understand why they think that is a good idea. Not only that, but they teach the most lame ass version of square dance imaginable. I rediscovered square dance in college, and I think it is the most interesting and challenging form of set dance I've ever done. The hard part is finding a square that has reasonably young people who bathe.

[Strazos]

At least in High School, I generally liked Gym when they let us do SHIT I LIKED.

Dodgeball and Kickball? Fuck yeah, I was a damn champ. Not because I could kick it across the entire gymnasium or could throw a 50mph bean ball, but because I was a crafty fucker who would either taunt people then block their shots in Dodgeball, or kick the ball and get it trapped out in the hall, the girls' locker room, or up in the  bleachers. I would then fake out the dumbasses routinely for "inside the gym" homeruns.

Fuck toughguys, fuck that noise, and fuck cup stacking.

[Shockeye]

Public School Students In Minn. Can Take Gym Class Online

POSTED: 3:45 am PDT June 23, 2005

MINNEAPOLIS -- Some public school students in Minnesota are taking their physical education courses online.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune said the courses offer a way for busy students to work in both their state-required academic courses and the electives they want to take.

Historically, Minneapolis school district students who take part in two varsity sports could waive PE. But that policy ended this spring, just as the district's online physical education classes started up.

One PE teacher said the point is to start at whatever fitness level the student has and try to improve that. The course begins and ends with face-to-face meetings between student and teacher.

[Paelos]

I made an A in cyber-gym, but I flunked cyber-life.

[schild]

Kids who participate in online PhysEd courses deserver to be hit with dodgeballs each morning when they enter school...irl.

[voodoolily]

I loved PE when I was a kid and a teenager, and had a propensity for dominating all the activities. I got picked first for dodgeball and kickball, kicked ass at four-square, had the high score in the obstacle course and could out-chinbar hang all of the girls and most of the boys. I had the city middle school record for long jump. I could also beat everyone at the rope climb and my team (whichever one I was on) won the games in every sport.  But I've never been able to touch my fucking toes, even when I was on track and the swim team and spent six hours a day working out and stretching.

Now I smoke cigarettes and play video games. 

[Llava]

I liked weight training far more than PE.  Even though I wasn't muscular, I was surprisingly good at a lot of those things (chin-ups and pull-ups especially), but my coordination sucked so I sucked at just about every sport.

[Paelos]

I liked pickup football days during gym. I could catch anything. This lead to my love of goalkeeping in soccer.

[Merusk]

Ah, my School's PE class was great.  You could take part in the local Swim Team over the summer and get credit.  Hmm.. run laps, shower with guys and play dodge ball/ baseball for 9 months or spend lots of time around girls in swimsuits doing a sport I was good at.  Yeah, that was a hard decision.

[Nebu]

Here's my problem: Parents don't lead by example anymore.  It's not the job of schools to raise children.  Sadly, the public schools have become more about daycare than education... I blame NCLB to some degree.

I workout 5-6 days a week, I eat right, I read a lot, and I rarely watch television.  My 11 year old daughter and I ride horses, hike, rock climb, cycle, golf, do art projects and more together.  I don't have to make my daughter do any of this.  She sees me enjoying my life and asks to participate more actively in it.  I also find that in seeing that I value a healthy lifestyle that she has also created similar values.  If parents can learn to lead with positive values while not making their kid look like a total outcast to peers, the kids will follow.  I do my best to live my life as I say that she should live hers.  I try to lead by example.

A kid that comes home to 2 parents sunk in a couch, 60 lbs overweight, and watching tv.  That kid is likely to do the same.  Kids are sponges for feedback.  If they are given adequate direction and opportunity, kids will chose to be more active.  Plop a kid in front of the tv, that's what they'll learn. 

Note: I realize that some people have extenuating circumstances and can't always do the best for their kids.  I'm just saying that kids that are around healthy, mentally balanced parents are more likely to end up that way.  Yeah yeah... genetics plays a role too.

[stray]

Some time ago, I was put into rehab. I spotted my old PE teacher there. She was stumbling around, running into the walls.

I don't know what exactly had happened to her, but I could tell that she was totally nuts. Truly surreal.

[Trippy]

I do my best to live my life as I say that she should live hers.  I try to lead by example.

Hear, hear!

[schild]

A kid that comes home to 2 parents sunk in a couch, 60 lbs overweight, and watching tv.  That kid is likely to do the same.  Kids are sponges for feedback.  If they are given adequate direction and opportunity, kids will chose to be more active.  Plop a kid in front of the tv, that's what they'll learn. 

So, you're saying it's bad that my dad enjoyed Nintendo as much as me? I agree. Though, my personal problems beyond that. I'd much rather be playing real sports right now.

0Note: I realize that some people have extenuating circumstances and can't always do the best for their kids.  I'm just saying that kids that are around healthy, mentally balanced parents are more likely to end up that way.  Yeah yeah... genetics plays a role too.

Genetic plays a role, sure. But that's going a bit into predestiny, particularly in some extreme cases. Lifestyle choices, which you touched on earlier, is the real killer. It's one of the reasons I truly and wholly believe that some people should simply NOT BE ALLOWED TO BREED. Your majority of parents may not share similar interests with children, but my problem isn't that. It's when those parents choose NOT to be interested in what their children like. I mean, damn, is it so hard to feign interest in your offsprings hobbies for the 18 years you may or may not have them for? Ignore your kids, they become social outcasts. Then they do stupid shit. TV and video games don't make criminals/oxygen-wasters. Apathetic moms and dads do.

[HaemishM]

Here's my problem: Parents don't lead by example anymore.  It's not the job of schools to raise children.  Sadly, the public schools have become more about daycare than education... I blame NCLB to some degree.

The problems with public education started WAY before NCLB got passed and underfunded. Foisting off latchkey kids on the public school system and expecting the kids to grow up with any morals besides "the alpha being always wins" is the kind of folly I'm talking about.

The fucked-up economy pretty much dictates that both parents must work, whether they want to or not. The American Dream is built on the idea that we should get everything on credit RIGHT NOW and don't worry about actually paying for it. We want it all and we want to not have to pay for it. We want perfectly well-adjusted kids, but as parents, we want someone else to do it. I'm using a general we as opposed to any specific person here.

I had to take PE up until 9th grade, when it was offered but not required. That also pretty much coincided with no longer having a recess period, which was replaced by a study hall period. As teenagers, we were told there wasn't going to be an hour in the day where we could play games with each other like socceer or softball, there was an hour where we were expected to sit quietly and study. Strangely enough, that prepares a person for 8-hour days stifling in the boredom of cubicle farms.

Parents bear the first responsibility for not showing their kids the correct ways to live. But there are ways the school system's can help. Taking away PE is a bad, bad thing, even though as a kid, I mostly hated PE. But that was probably because I was forced to FUCKING SQUARE DANCE in PE.

[shiznitz]

Here's my problem: Parents don't lead by example anymore.  It's not the job of schools to raise children.  Sadly, the public schools have become more about daycare than education... I blame NCLB to some degree.

How can you blame a program that is not even 5 years old? Are you claiming that NCLB is having a budgetary affect that is leading to PE programs getting cut?

[Nebu]

How can you blame a program that is not even 5 years old? Are you claiming that NCLB is having a budgetary affect that is leading to PE programs getting cut?

I blame a lot of contributing factors for the steady decline in the quality of K-12 education in this country.  NCLB is just another program along the way that has contributed to the softening of public school educational criteria. I just singled this one out because it and poor parenting piss me off the most.  I'll grant that NCLB isn't responsible for these changes, it's just a symptom of a larger problem.  I'm sure that poor teacher salaries and the administrative status quo do far more to degrade education than NCLB. 

As for other comments: Excuses.  I raised a daughter while in medical school.  I did it largely by myself.  I worked a minimum of 14h a day and I still made my daughter a priority.   Granted there are some people with ridiculous (I mean crazy, not funny) and extenuating circumstances but these people are far and away the minority.  If parents felt that their children were important, they would treat the raising of them with higher regard.  For me, my child is the single most important investment I have to offer the world.  I treat the responsibility as such.

[Shockeye]

For me, my child is the single most important investment I have to offer the world.  I treat the responsibility as such.

Hopefully that means you don't let your daughter near DAoC.

[Roac]

For me, my child is the single most important investment I have to offer the world.

I wonder.  Not about you or your commitment, but about everyone else's.  I know there are parents who don't care (or give any appearance of caring) about their children.  If I had to guess, I would say that the majority of parents feel (honestly feel, not just when the camera is on them) the same as you; but I suspect few are as well suited to being parents.  That is, I think there is a difference between given children lots of attention, and giving children the *right type* of attention.  If that's the case, there's no one teaching parents on how to be parents, except their parents.  What's a parent to do, when they have the right or mostly right attitude, and feel they're doing right themselves (it worked for them, afterall)?

[Nebu]

For me, my child is the single most important investment I have to offer the world.  I treat the responsibility as such.

Hopefully that means you don't let your daughter near DAoC.

LOL!  Fortunately for me she hates computer games.  I only play while she sleeps or when she's with her mom.

Friends don't let friends treadmill.

[Mr_PeaCH]

Some time ago, I was put into rehab. I spotted my old PE teacher there. She was stumbling around, running into the walls.

I don't know what exactly had happened to her, but I could tell that she was totally nuts. Truly surreal.

Baked bean teeth?  Shopping cart with a long-overdue Henry Miller library book?  Affinity for giving you wedgies?

CANTSTANDYA!!!

[angry.bob]

The contrast between the world we live in as evividenced by that story and the world that the 70 year old Kenyan who killed leapard in his potato patch by pulling out it's tongue amuses me to no end. I eagery await the future in which I, as a 70 year old man, beat the living fuck out of a smart alecky teen simply because I still walk to the different rooms of my house rather than being conveyed by some Harkonenesque hoover belt. Beat him till his bitch ass is crippled for life. Woosah, come on age 70!

[Arnold]

The contrast between the world we live in as evividenced by that story and the world that the 70 year old Kenyan who killed leapard in his potato patch by pulling out it's tongue amuses me to no end. I eagery await the future in which I, as a 70 year old man, beat the living fuck out of a smart alecky teen simply because I still walk to the different rooms of my house rather than being conveyed by some Harkonenesque hoover belt. Beat him till his bitch ass is crippled for life. Woosah, come on age 70!

Isn't someone who needs a "Harkonesque hoover belt" to get from room to room already crippled for life?

[voodoolily]

For me, my child is the single most important investment I have to offer the world.

I wonder.  Not about you or your commitment, but about everyone else's.  I know there are parents who don't care (or give any appearance of caring) about their children.  If I had to guess, I would say that the majority of parents feel (honestly feel, not just when the camera is on them) the same as you; but I suspect few are as well suited to being parents.  That is, I think there is a difference between given children lots of attention, and giving children the *right type* of attention.  If that's the case, there's no one teaching parents on how to be parents, except their parents.  What's a parent to do, when they have the right or mostly right attitude, and feel they're doing right themselves (it worked for them, afterall)?

I think one of the big problems is that parents often equate being a good parent to caving every time their kid wants something. "Giving attention" becomes "going to McDonald's". A lot of parents try to compensate for their perceived absenteeism by just taking their kids shopping instead of just doing stuff with them (especially parents who aren't still with their partners).