I Can’t Sleep - Sport Stacking | Gentle Reading to Help You Sleep

Episode Date: May 23, 2025

Relax with this calm bedtime reading about sport stacking, designed to ease insomnia and bring quiet focus to your evening. In this soothing episode, Benjamin explores the origins, techniques, and competitions of this unique activity, where cups are stacked and unstacked in rhythmic patterns. His gentle narration turns fascinating details into a peaceful story, helping release stress and calm a restless mind. There’s no whispering or hypnosis—just steady, fact-filled storytelling that blends learning with relaxation. Press play, let your thoughts settle, and drift into a restful night’s sleep. Want More? Request a topic: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/request-a-topic Listen ad-free & support the show: https://icantsleep.supportingcast.fm/ Shop sleep-friendly products: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/sponsors Join the discussion on Discord: https://discord.gg/myhGhVUhn7 This content is derived from the Wikipedia article on Sport stacking, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) license. Read the full article: Wikipedia - Sport stacking. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to a Glassbox media podcast. What if I told you that most of the modern day self-help advice you've been hearing could actually make you worse? The key to a better life isn't about feel-good gimmicks that sound catchy. The Mentally Stronger Podcast gives you access to a licensed therapist who shares science-backed tools that will actually change your life. Hi, I'm Amy Morin, psychotherapist, mental strength trainer, and international best-selling author. In each episode, we cover research-back strategies, like how to stop relying on willpower and start creating habits for lasting change. And the five mental strength-building exercises you can do from your couch. I also speak to world-class experts like Dr. Nicole Kane, who shares how to permanently heal anxiety by addressing the root cause.

With over 200 episodes in our catalog, this podcast is for you if you're ready to crush self-doubt, conquer challenges, and become stronger than ever with therapist-approved strategies that can change your life. Listen to Mentally Stronger with therapist Amy Morin, wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the I Can't Sleep Podcast, where I help you learn a little and sleep a lot. I'm your host, Benjamin Boster, and tonight we have a sponsored episode by Shane Sutro about sports stacking. Thanks to Shane for sponsoring the podcast. Sports stacking, also known as cup stacking or speed stacking, is an individual and team sport that involves stacking 9 to 12 specially designed cups in predetermined sequences as quickly as possible. The cups are specially designed with holes to allow for air to pass through.

Participants of sports stacking stack cups in specific sequences by aligning the inside left lateral adjunct of each cub with that of the next. Sequences are usually pyramids of three, six, or ten cups. Players compete against the clock or another player. The governing body is setting the rule is the World Sports Stacking Association, WSSA. Most sports stacking competitions are geared toward children.

While working for the Boys and Girls Club of Oceanside, California in 1981, Wayne Godnet came up with the idea for sports stacking. When the children he was working with were tired of playing traditional sports, He took paper cups and asked them to stack them as fast as possible. The sport was well received, so Goddnett decided to acquire plastic cups to be used by his club. He quickly discovered that his new plastic cups would stick together. So Godnett modified the cups by adding a hole in the bottom of the cups.

He formed his own company, Kangaroo Cupstack, which manufactured and distributed these modified cups in a variety of colors. By the end of the decade, Godinette estimated he had sold approximately 25,000 sets of cups. During the 1980s, Godinette hosted the annual National Cup Stacking Championship in Oceanside. One of the national champions was Matt Adame, a member of Godinette's club. the professional cup stack drill team. In November 1990, Hadame and his teammates were featured on the Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson. After the sport received national attention on the Tonight Show,

Bob Fox, a physical education teacher from Colorado, introduced stacking to his students. Fox's enthusiasm led to the creation of the creation of the annual Colorado State Tournament in 1997. In 1998, Fox, together with Larry Goers, created a line of proprietary sports stacking products, including the patented timing system known as the Stack Mat. Fox started traveling across the country in 2000 to promote Speedstacks full-time. In 2001, Fox founded the World Cup Stacking Association, WCSA, to formalize the sports rules and sanction competitions worldwide.

As the sport began to spread neighboring states, the WCSA hosted the first Rocky Mountain Cup stacking championships, where Fox's daughter, Emily Fox, broke her own world record by completing the cycle in 7.43 seconds. The next year, the first WCSA World Championship took place at the Denver Coliseum and has since been held annually.

The WCSA formally titled the sport sports stacking and changed their name to the world. Sports Stacking Association, WSSA in 2005. The WSSA cited the public recognition that stacking is considered a sport as the reason for the name change. Official sports stacking cubs are specially designed to prevent sticking and to allow the competitor to go faster. The cubs are reinforced with several ribs. on the inside, which separate the cups when they are nestled.

The exterior is slightly textured to allow better grip. The insides are very smooth and slide past each other easily. The tops of the cups have one to four holes to allow ventilation so the cups do not stick. One special line of cups has cups without tops to further decrease air resistance. Stack mat timers are used for official tournament timing, as well as casual play timing, or practice timing. Special weighted training cups called superstags are made from metal, and are most commonly used directly before competing. The added weight is intended to make the regular cups feel lighter.

Jembo Stacks are a bigger version of the original Speed Stacks cups. They are used more commonly in PE classes rather than at home. There are three sequences stacked in official sport stacking events that are defined by the rulebook handed out by the WSSA. 333 uses 9 cups This sequence consists of 3 sets of 3 cups each The 3 sets must be stacked going from left to right Or right to left

And then down stacked into their original positions In the same order as the upstack 3-6-3 uses 12 cubs. This sequence is similar to the 333, except as 6 stack replaces the 3 stack in the middle. Each pile of cups is stacked up from left to right or right to left, and the down stack occurs in the same order.

Cycle uses 12 cups. This sequence involves, a 363, which is then downstacked, and then going into a 6-6-6 stack, which is downstacked again, and finally stacked into a 1-10-1, and all downstacked back into how it started. Proponents of the sport say participants learn cooperation, ambidexterity, and hand-eye coordination. A university study by Brian Uderman, currently at the University of Wisconsin-Lacross, confirms that stacking improves hand-eye coordination and reaction time by up to 30 percent, published in the scientific journal Perceptual and Motor Skills in 2004.

An EEG study by Melanie A. Hart at Texas Tech University, University support the claim that cup stacking does use both sides of the brain. During the left-hand condition, activity in the right hemisphere was larger than the left, while for the right-hand stack, the left hemisphere was greater than the right. Their scientific poster on that topic got awarded by the AA-H-P-E-R-D. On the other hand, Hart couldn't get the same results as Utterman when studying improvement on reaction time. Researchers at the State University of New York studied the effects on the reaction time and confirmed Utterman, resident Hart, stating that the results agreed with the claims made by speed stacks

in which practicing cup stacking can improve reaction time. They also state, even one hour of cup stacking practice can improve reaction time in young adults. Speed stacking was also seen as helping people improve in other sports because it helps to improve hand-eye coordination. The Department of Kinesiology at Townsend University studied the influence of participation in a six-week bi-manual coordination program on grade five students' reading achievement,

with sports stacking being the bimmanuel activity. In a pilot study, a significant increase was found for the experimental group on comprehension skills, suggesting that sports stacking may improve students' reading comprehension skills, skills. In 2007, cup stacking was tested in a study at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, investigating learning as a pair and the advantages of practicing together, concluding that observation was of greater importance than conversation and learning from a partner. These results are not restricted to cup stacking alone, but reflect the scientific acceptance.

of the sport. Most sport stacking competitions are geared toward children. There are also divisions for special stackers, disabled competitors. The WSSA has set the following protocol for the settings of world records. One, must use WSSA-approved sports stacking cups. Two, must use a stack mat and tournament display. 3. Must be videotaped for review and verification purposes. 4. Must use two judges, one designated head judge, to judge each try.

After each try, the two judges confer. The head judge will then designate was a color-coded card the outcome of that try. Green, clean run, yellow, try and question, immediate video review, and red, scratch. 5. A finals judge may not be a family member or the sports stacking instructor of the stacker. The competitions divided into 14 different age divisions, ranging from 6 and under to seniors, 65 and up. State, national, and world records are recorded on the WSSA website. The global record for most people's sports stacking at multiple locations,

recognized by the WSSA, stands at 746,698 students, representing 2,242 schools and organizations. This was accomplished from November 14th through the 16th, 2023, during the 2023 edition of the annual stack-up event held by the WSSA. That concludes the article on speed stacking. So let's learn about speed-cubing. Speed-cubing or speed-solving is a competitive mind sport centered around the rapid solving of various combination puzzles. The most prominent puzzle in this category is the 3x3 by 3 by 3 puzzle,

commonly known as the Rubik's Cube. Participants in this sport are called speedcubers, or simply cubers, who focus specifically on solving these puzzles at high speeds to get low clock times. The essential aspects of solving these puzzles typically involves executing a series of pre-defined algorithms in a particular sequence with idetic prediction and finger tricks. Competitive speed-cubing is predominantly overseen by the WorldCube Association WCA,

which officially recognizes 17 distinct speedcubing events These events encompass a range of puzzles, including N by N by N puzzles of size varying from 2 by 2 to 7 by 7, and other puzzle forms, such as the Pyraminks, Megaminks, Scube, Square 1, and Rubik's Clock. Additionally, specialized formats such as 3x3, 4 by 4, and 5 by 5 blindfolded, 3 by 3 one-handed, O.H, 3-3-fewest moves, and 3-3-3-multi-blind are also regulated and hosted in competitions. As of April 2025, the world record for the fastest single solve of a Rubik's cube in a competitive setting stands at 3.05 seconds. This record was achieved by Schwann Yi Gung at the Shenyang Spring 2025 WCA competition event on April 13, 2025. Yehang Wong also set the record for the average time of five solves in the 3x3 by 3 by 3 category with 4.03 seconds at Xi'an Cherry Blossom 2025 on April 5, 2025. Speedcubing is organized by numerous countries that hold international competitions throughout the year.

The widespread popularity of the Rubik's Cube has led to an abundance of online resources, including guides and techniques, aimed at assisting individuals in solving the puzzle. The Rubik's Cube was invented on May 19, 1974, by Hungarian professor of architecture, Erna Rubik, born July 13th, 1944. In 1979, Rubik partnered with Ideal Toy Company to garner widespread international interest in the cube. On June 5, 1982, the first world championship of speedcubing was held in Budapest, Hungary. 19 people competed in the event, and the American Min Thai won, with a single solve time of 22.95 seconds. which was at the time the fastest Rubik's Cube solve ever recorded.

Other attendees include Jessica Friedrich and Lars Petrus, both of whom later contributed to the development of new solving methods and the speed-cubing community. The Rubik's Cube waned in popularity after 1983, as there were no official competitions held, but was the advent of the internet, online websites began to surface to discuss the cube. With these websites facilitating the renewed popularity of the cube, a new generation of speedcubers arose.

Those prominent in the online speed-solving community, such as Ron Van Brucham, Tysot Mow, Chris Hardwick, and Ton Denenbrook eventually wanted to create an organization where cubers from around the world could meet and compete against each other. In 2003, they organized a championship in Toronto, Ontario, followed by another competition in the Netherlands later that same year. This revival of competition sparked a new wave of organized speedcubing events. which included regular national and international competitions.

There were 12 competitions in 2004, 58 more from 2005 to 2006, over 100 in 2008, and over 1,150 in 2018. Since Budapest's 1982 competition, there have been nine further world championships traditionally held every other year. This new wave of speedcubing competitions has been and still is organized by the World Cube Association. Since the rise of speedcubing's popularity, numerous entrepreneurial ventures have been founded,

specializing in making or selling Speedcubes, creating competition, between these brands and Rubik's. Dozens of cube manufacturers, such as GONCube, Mo Yu, YJ, and Chi Yi, have began improving the cube's technology by creating speed cubes to allow for smoother turning and faster solving. This has helped to facilitate the eventual rise

of the Rubik's cube as not just a toy, also a lucrative business. The WorldCube Association is a non-profit organization, which organizes speedcubing competitions and ratifies results. They consist of the WCA board, WCA committee, and the WCA Council. The WCA board is the head or leader of the entire WCA, and is responsible for fulfilling tasks not completed or done by the WCA Committee and WCA Council. The WCA Appeals Committee is responsible for ensuring right and fair decisions in accordance with the WCA regulations. This committee is also responsible for reviewing and resolving appeals regarding the decisions of other WCA staff members.

The WCA Council is a special type of team that serves as an advisory role to the WCA and consists of community members and not WCA staff members. These WCA staff members are part of a Cuban community, which consists of organizers who organize and manage Cuban competitions and delegates who help in managing competitions and help competitors who are unfamiliar with the competition environment, and to decide whether a competitor's solve should be penalized or not. WCA regulations are required to be followed by competitors and can be found on the official WCA website. The standard 3 by 3 by 3 can be solved using several methods. The most commonly used methods for speedkeeping are CFOP, Rue, and ZZ, which are generally considered to achieve the fastest times. The C-FOP method is used by the majority of cubers and employs a layer-by-layer system

with numerous algorithms for solving the final layer. The method starts by creating a cross on any side of the cube, followed by F2L, where four-corner edge pairs are inserted into the cube. cross, followed by OLL, orientation of the last layer, where the top side is solved in one of 57 algorithms, and finally, PLL, permutation of the last layer, where you do one of 21 algorithms to solve the rest of the cube. Rue, the second most popular method, which starts by forming a 3x2 by 1 block on both sides of a cube and solves the middle layer last using fewer algorithms.

ZZ uses a unique step called edge orientation to improve the ergonomics of turning by removing the amount of rotations during a solve. Other notable methods include Petrus, which has been popular at times in the past. However, it is now considered. suboptimal to C-FOP and Rue, and was abandoned due to its unfavorable finger tricks. Solving larger cubes, such as 4x4 by 4 by 4 and 5 by 5 by 5, is most often done by reducing them to 3 by 3 by 3 in solving them like so, while 2x2 by 2 by 2 can be solved with the same or similar methods as 3 by 3 by 3. However, specialized 2 by 2 by 2 methods are quicker and are regarded as superior to 3 by 3 by 3 methods.

These methods include Ortega, CLL, and the EG method, which can allow users to plan the entire solution during inspection. The CFOP, abbreviation for Cross, F-2-L-O-L-L-L-P-L-P-L-L-Messid, also known as the Friedrich method, after one of its inventors, Jessica Friedrich, who finished second in the 2003 Rubik's Cube World Championships, is the most commonly used method in speedcubing today. Its origins are credited to David Singmaster, who was one of the first to publish a layer-by-layer method of solving in 1980. Engrus Razu Schulz, who built upon this and developed a more efficient system for the first two layers, F2L. Jessica Friedrich then finished developing the method and published it online in 1997, an event that was very very much. very influential in the revival of competitive speedcubing.

The first step of the method is to solve a cross of edge pieces on the first layer. The remainder of the first layer and all of the second layer are then solved together in what is referred to as corner edge pairs or slots. Finally, the last layer is solved in two steps. First, all of the pieces in the layer are oriented to form a solid color, but without the individual pieces always being in their correct places on the cube. This step is referred to as orientation and is usually performed with a single set of algorithms, known as OLLL, orientation of the last layer. Then, all of those pieces are permuted to their correct spots.

This is also usually performed as a single set of PLL permutation of the last layer algorithms. OLL and PLL use 57 and 21 algorithms respectively. The CFOP method can be used as a less advanced method by dividing the steps into more steps. reducing the number of algorithms that need to be learned, but sacrificing time. It is usually known as the beginner method or layer by layer LBL. Most people start learning CFOP with 4 LLL, 4 Look Last Layer, which is the less advanced, slower, an algorithm reducing from 78,000, from 78 algorithms to 16 way to learn CFOP.

The four steps are divided into edge orientation, corner orientation, corner permutation, and edge permutation, which can be called E-O-C-O-C-P and E-P. Later on, full O-L-L, which has 57 algorithms, and full PLL, which has 21 algorithms, can be learned. An average C-FOP user that solves with full LL and PLL, along with an efficient cross, which takes eight moves at maximum,

and efficient F2L, which takes almost 30 moves, consists of 55 to 60 moves, which means that it has a higher move count than Rue and ZZ. However, finger tricks and algorithms are more researched with CFOP than any other method, which explains why the majority of the fastest speedcubers use CFOP as their main speed-cubing method. The CFOP method is the most widely used speed-solving method. It is a more efficient version of the layer-by-layer method. It is very popular due to the vast amount of resources that teach and improve upon the CFOP method.

Many top speedcubers, including two-time world champion Felix Zemdegs, and world record holder Max Park, learn additional sets of algorithms for the last slot and layer. such as corners of last layer C-O-L, which orients and permutes the corners when the edges are oriented, or winter variation, also known as Volk Last Slot or VLS, which finishes OLL while inserting the last pair, and Z-B-L-L, which combines the solving processes of O-L-L-L-C-N-Rourner, and PLL in only one algorithm, provided the last layer edges are oriented.

P-Slotting is a technique that allows advanced C-Fob solvers to be more creative with efficient solutions. It is an alternative method to F2L, where instead of creating and inserting pairs with matching colors, the bottom layer is intentionally misaligned to allow different pieces to be paired together. This provides more freedom while pairing pieces during F2L. Pseudo-slotting is similar to another technique called keyhole in which the bottom layer is misaligned to allow a piece to be inserted independently of its solved counterpart. It is widely believed that Timon Kolesinski, who holds the European record for a 3x3 by 3 by 3 single, with 3.66 seconds, is the best speedcuber who uses pseudoslotting. After solving many times, it becomes muscle memory, and most speedcubers just have to look, and then they instantly know what to do, and the rest is done by muscle memory.

muscle memory.