Most parents have to limit their children’s TV watching or video game playing.
Not Mindy Seminario of Colorado Springs.
Instead, she has to limit the amount of time her 4-year-old son, Miles, spends . . . stacking cups?
Miles broke three world records for his age group — 4 and younger — in competitive cup stacking Sunday at the Denver Coliseum. Each record is for a different formation of cup stacks.
Six months ago, the cup-stacking phenom didn’t even know what the activity was.
“It’s kind of silly. He saw a kid stack cups on Yo Gabba Gabba! in November,” Seminario said. “Now, he’s obsessed.”
Yo Gabba Gabba! is a children’s show on the Nick Jr. cable channel with a segment featuring real people doing “Cool Tricks,” which is where Miles saw the stacking.
Miles spends an average of two to three hours a day practicing. The weekend’s world championship was his first competition.
Siblings 6-year-old Maxx and 2-year-old Mason haven’t been bitten by the stacking bug.
“Maxx has tried it, but he’s not as fast as Miles, so he gets frustrated,” Seminario said. “And Mason doesn’t quite get it yet.”
Even Mom has tried her hand at the skill but doesn’t come close to the speed of Miles, she said.
Miles’ parents hesitated to enter him out of concern about the pressure of the event.
“He insisted,” Seminario said. “And it seems he does even better under pressure.”
Nearly 1,100 competed in the World Championship this weekend, said Matt Reed, executive director for the World Sport Stacking Association. Competitors represented 34 states and eight countries.
Jenel Stelton-Holtmeier: 303-954-1661 or jsteltonholtmeier @denverpost.com
Drink all your juice before you play
Sport stacking involves the stacking — and unstacking — of 12 specially designed cups into specific configurations as fast as possible.
Competition centers around three patterns:
• 3-3-3: three towers of three cups each
• 3-6-3: a tower of three, a tower of six and a tower of three
• Cycle: a 3-6-3 pattern, into a 6-6 pattern, followed by a 1-10-1 pattern, ending in an unstack of 3-6-3
Learn it
For equipment and video tutorials, see the Speed Stacks website:
Compete
Website for the World Sports Stacking Association:
