Champ builds skills for US contest

BY MICHELLE LOTTER

With hands moving at break-neck speed, 13-year-old Jayden Garnett is fast making a name for himself.

The year 9 Northcote College student is New Zealand’s Sport Stacking Champion for 2009, qualifying him to compete internationally in Colorado with the NZ Black Stacks next year.

Stacking is an activity of speed, where a set of cups are quickly stacked up in various sequences and taken down again.

Watching Jayden practice is like watching a castle being built and taken down again in fast-forward.

He has been perfecting his technique for an hour a day for about a year.

"It depends if I’m happy, some days I feel like doing it for hours and hours," he says.

"I like beating my own time and just having fun with it."

Jayden was one of about 100 competitors at nationals in Palmerston North recently, and he will be up against about 2000 at the international competition.

His best time to do the "cycle" sequence was 7.59 seconds at the champs and his personal best is 6.93 seconds.

He won the national competition by having the best overall time and for winning sequences individually and with a team.

The activity is relatively new in New Zealand but is big in the United States where the equipment is ordered from.

A regular cup set costs $32.95.

The cups are made of a material that allows them to glide over each other easily without being too slippery.

They have holes in them to let air through the top for less resistance, Jayden says.

A special mat that stops the cups slipping costs $19.95, and a timer that attaches to it costs $37.50, he says.

His father Ian Garnett is pleased at Jayden’s success but admits it’s a bit tricky to pick up himself.

Black Stacks team manager Richard Lloyd says at least 250 New Zealand schools have stacking equipment and incorporate the activity into physical education classes or lunch times.

"I think one of the attractions is it doesn’t involve television or the remote you can do it anywhere on a table. Schools comment on the kids’ ability to focus after some stacking," he says.

Parents have also noticed improved reading and sporting ability in their children because it works on hand-eye co-ordination.

- © Fairfax NZ News