[HN Gopher] If you ever stacked cups in gym class, blame my dad
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If you ever stacked cups in gym class, blame my dad
Author : nonoobs
Score : 294 points
Date : 2025-02-14 22:45 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (defector.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (defector.com)
| parsimo2010 wrote:
| This is a pretty entertaining story about a "sport" I was only
| vaguely aware of, because my school did not do sport stacking (or
| maybe I'm too old). But I have seen a few videos of it online,
| and it's pretty neat to find out it was popularized by an
| enthusiastic clown/school teacher who made some risky business
| decisions. I'm glad it worked out and they didn't go bankrupt
| with thousands of cups in their basement.
| sporkydistance wrote:
| I would make fun of this as a PE event, but when I graduated
| high-school (US) we were still wearing parachute pants and
| break dancing to the Fat Boys. So I'll refrain from throwing
| stones. Each generation has their own precious cringe.
| hansvm wrote:
| To be fair, they had demand and were lacking supply at the
| point that they made their first large purchase. It was a bit
| risky, but probably not near as bad as an ordinary startup's
| chance of failure.
| postcert wrote:
| I forget how many PE sessions I had with cup stacking but it's
| definitely ingrained somewhere in my head. If anything I thought
| at the time it was for hand-eye coordination without having a
| ball flying at you and it was surprisingly easy to pick up with
| those competition cups.
|
| Nowadays it makes for a fun free for all drinking game as
| everyone fumbles stuck together red cups.
| tomcam wrote:
| Wonderfully written and a rare exemplar of the rise of a fad from
| its primary source. Usually these things get lost in urban legend
| before anyone has the sense to document them properly.
| AngryData wrote:
| Ive practiced and done all sorts of useless tricks and games, but
| this is one I still do not "get" in any way. What do people find
| satisfying or like about it? I could see doing it for a day to
| get alright at it, but much beyond that I don't really find it
| all that impressive shaving off fractions of a second. It doesn't
| even seem like a great party trick because you need special cups
| with holes in them so they don't stick.
|
| But I guess it does build up atleast some level of hand-eye
| coordination and dexterity. Which is utterly lacking in most of
| today's youth and educational worlds where using actual tools and
| making things by hand is viewed as "dangerous" by many, and only
| a small fraction of kids get into many sports, and all of our
| focus is on more abstract concepts.
| DC-3 wrote:
| I was recommended to do it by my Year 3 (age 7/8) teacher
| because my handwriting was so poor.
| dylan604 wrote:
| > What do people find satisfying or like about it?
|
| I ask myself the same thing about a lot of the various fidgety
| things like the spinners. Or the point of the games that are
| just nothing but how fast can you click like the paperclip
| games.
|
| some people just like different things. even when you ask, they
| just say they like it. dopamine hits maybe? better that than
| dope then I guess
| EdwardDiego wrote:
| Why is cricket a thing, why is dressage a thing, why is
| underwater polo a thing?
|
| Because people enjoyed them so did them.
| defrost wrote:
| The only thing more engrossing than Stick Horse Quadrille
| Dressage is when they don snorkels and do it again
| underwater.
| EdwardDiego wrote:
| Every sport is more competitive with the threat of
| drowning.
|
| Especially fencing.
| lelanthran wrote:
| Honestly, that question could be asked about popular sports too
| ... exactly what thrill is there in beating some other team at
| kicking, bouncing or hitting a ball?
|
| They're all just games of dexterity in the end. No different
| from videogames, come to think of it.
| klik99 wrote:
| I think it's having a comeback, at least it's popular at my kids
| elementary school - a pro came by to show it and all the kids
| wanted a set. Watching the videos of competitions with my kids
| was surprisingly fun
| oaththrowaway wrote:
| I remember we did this in my elementary school (also in
| Colorado), but I never bought a set. Didn't do anything for me
| mmmpetrichor wrote:
| My dad was an amazing P.E. teacher at my school as a kid in the
| late 80s, and we did cup stacking, probably around 1990. I guess
| he probably caught onto it before it got really big. He wasn't a
| conventional P.E. teacher so he loved finding new stuff like
| this. We loved it! Interestingly he also taught all the kids
| chess. In the U.S. I'm not sure how common that was.
| itishappy wrote:
| The author's name is Kit Fox. That's adorable, and entirely
| inline with the brief yet poignant impression of his parents from
| this wonderful article!
| kbutler wrote:
| Best to put it surname first: Fox, Kit
| BenjiWiebe wrote:
| The SpeedStacks timer is heavily used in competitive (Rubik's)
| cubing.
| nzealand wrote:
| Without the speedstacks stackmat, (invented by this guys dad
| for sport stacking), I doubt speed cubing would be a thing.
| rwnspace wrote:
| There were other timers before (one was basically a digital
| scale), but the cost and number of units of this timer model
| was certainly a huge boon.
|
| That said, there were some exceedingly smart cookies in the
| early speedcubing scene, and you know, necessity is the
| mother of invention :)
| pjot wrote:
| We did this in elementary school in Seattle. I feel like the
| muscle memory might still be there!
| silisili wrote:
| What a cool, well written article. I'd hardly noticed how long it
| was until I was nearing the end. Although I never played this and
| honestly didn't even know it was a thing, it makes me wish more
| people took time to document histories of things in this fashion.
|
| It sounds like he has awesome parents. I wish I had 1/10th the
| zeal and entrepreneurship his Dad(and seemingly his uncle) had.
|
| The only thing I didn't quite grasp is this excerpt. I feel like
| it's implying something I don't pick up. Is it saying they didn't
| work together? Was sending the sample sets rude?
|
| > He did make a final good-faith effort to partner with the
| sport's originator, Wayne Godinet, offering to purchase $20,000
| worth of product. It was almost a third of the profit earned from
| reselling the Japanese shipment. Godinet sent back two sample
| sets with a bill for the cost of goods and shipping.
| wesleychen wrote:
| He paid Godinet 20,000 dollars but all he received was 2 sets.
| So basically Godinet scammed him instead of becoming a
| manufacturing partner.
| xbmcuser wrote:
| He offered 20k he didn't give 20k.
| majormajor wrote:
| My read of it is that Godinet wasn't interested in scaling up
| and turned down the offered 20k purchase (which would've likely
| been at a nice profit) and instead just sent a couple sample
| sets - with a bit of a "do what you want with it" implication,
| IMO - and a bill just to cover costs instead of asking for
| more.
|
| So then he felt free to go do his own version.
|
| I think this is supported by the next paragraph:
|
| > In a similar vein, Nike was founded in 1964 only after a
| running shoe company called Onitsuka lost interest in
| partnering with a recent Oregon track grad named Phil Knight.
| While his shoe empire was born between the grooves of a waffle
| iron, Bob and Jill's cup empire was sketched on the back of a
| Fresh Fish Co. paper placemat.
|
| There was someone else in the space, but they weren't
| interested in working with the newcomer who ended up being
| bigger.
| silisili wrote:
| Yeah, I came to a similar conclusion, but the wording seems
| weird.
|
| At face value, if someone asks to buy 20k of my product,
| sending samples seems like an obvious next step?
| Symbiote wrote:
| I think they expected the sample to be sent free of charge,
| especially as it's such a low value product.
|
| That it came with a bill implied the producer wasn't
| interested in the business.
| redcobra762 wrote:
| Four paragraphs about the logistics of these cups was too much
| for me...
| marc_abonce wrote:
| > You've probably heard Rachael's voice. Her effusive reaction on
| a stacking YouTube video meant for her small group of friends is
| behind the iconic "YES, OH MY GOSH!" scream, sampled in one of
| EDM's most mainstream hits, "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites," by
| Skrillex.
|
| That video, along with the Skrillex track, is the only reason I
| even knew about cup stacking. Until today I had no idea that it
| was an actual serious sport with international competitions. It's
| always very interesting to see this kinds of subculture
| crossovers.
| snypher wrote:
| I still think about "7 is so close to 6"!
| dr_dshiv wrote:
| >The infamous "Oh my gosh!" scream in Skrillex's "Scary Monsters
| and Nice Sprites" was sampled from a viral sport stacking video
| from 2008.
|
| The story fits!
| EdwardDiego wrote:
| Love that the Kiwis turned up as the All Stacks (derived from the
| All Blacks).
|
| We've also the Wheel Blacks for wheelchair rugby, the Tall Blacks
| for basketball, and of course, then in cricket it's the Black
| Caps. (A "cap" in cricket is when you get to play international
| cricket).
|
| And of course the infamous time the national badminton team tried
| to call themselves the Black Cocks.
|
| National soccer team is the All Whites.
|
| And womens' sports teams tend to derive from the Silver Ferns
| (national netball team), plus a reference to their code.
|
| So Black Ferns, rugby, White Ferns is not soccer as you'd expect,
| but cricket (the traditional "cricket whites" are only worn in
| test cricket these days), the soccer team is the Football Ferns.
|
| And I'm unsure if there was ever a Fern Cocks badminton team.
| decimalenough wrote:
| There's a chiropractor in Hanmer Springs called "All Backs".
| Their logo is the silver fern flag, only instead of a fern it's
| the outline of a spine.
| DidYaWipe wrote:
| Our gym classes weren't held at a frat-boy bar, so... no worries,
| mate!
| lkuty wrote:
| Saw a video of his sister a while ago:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY6fyRAGH78 Was impressed by the
| speed.
| riedel wrote:
| Followed the YouTube recommendations to really see that this
| seems to be a fairly international sport that continues to push
| the limits: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MUwOWIyRhGo
|
| Speed is crazy.
| userbinator wrote:
| Due to this practice long predating me, and
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43053844 appearing next to
| this item, I misread it as "If you ever stacked gpus in gym
| class". I think that might also make an interesting sport to
| watch.
| pinoy420 wrote:
| Oh wow. I remember this fad. So weird looking at it now - "today
| we are gonna practice... no not exercise... stacking cups"
| hoc wrote:
| Love this american dream story between opportunity and mission as
| well as its great family insights.
|
| Would be great to also have one on that boys & girls club where
| the whole idea was invented and what else they might have come up
| in the 80s.
|
| The "invent a game with cups" at least is a great hint towards
| motivating kids (on a different level than actually competing in
| the resulting game) close to a Sesame Street kind of mindset from
| back then and might deserve a story on its own for "hacking" cups
| into being toys and even a sport in the end.
| nkrisc wrote:
| Uh oh, I'm getting old. I have never heard of this until now. The
| term "sport stacking" is completely new to me. I suppose because
| I started high school in 2003?
| seafoamteal wrote:
| Shit, that's a memory I hadn't recalled for a long time. I'm not
| old enough to have attended their original school tour, but we
| had the cups in my elementary school. It seems stupid, but it's
| actually quite fun. I'd do it today.
| amelius wrote:
| Sports are so much nicer when there is no money involved.
| goodpoint wrote:
| In a gym class? What's the point?
| hermitcrab wrote:
| I did this with my son. It was fun for both of us and we could
| compete on fairly equal terms. And the cups are cheap. I really
| recommend trying it, especially if you and/or your children
| aren't very sports oriented.
| Scubabear68 wrote:
| I am so damaged by our local school districts outrageous outlays
| that reading this all I can think of is how this family traveled
| the country on tax payer money over a pretty stupid non-sport.
|
| Which I recognize is over the top, but in particular the covid
| ESSR funds to schools were invitations to everybody and their
| sister to bilk public schools anyway they could with programs
| like this.
|
| Our regional tiny PreK-4th grade school gifted itself with a $25k
| wall to ceiling video game system along the same lines
| (https://play-lu.com/). These companies even have marketing
| literature on how to use ESSR funds.
|
| For those who want to dive down this ea bit hole a bit for our
| local spend dilemma:
|
| https://www.westamwelltimes.com/post/champagne-dreams-the-lp...
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