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Speed Stacking - THEY ALL FALL DOWN!

June 1, 2006 at 11:36 am · Filed under Children's Ministry, Devotional, Leadership, Sport Stacking, Sports

This week I got a fun opportunity to visit an elementary school in a nearby town to teach Sport Stacking to a class of fourth graders. A man in our church volunteers every week in this classroom and brought me in as a special guest. (If you are a student from the class reading this: THANKS for being so fun, it was a fun time for me too! Check out www.toyboxtales.com too, the other site I told you about!)

Here are some pictures, and a COOL VIDEO at the end!

Pastor Karl teaching the Way of the Cups…The eager padawan learners…

Practise makes perfect…

Downstack before moving on…. left to right… no fumbles….

Use both hands…. don’t worry about being fast… learn it right, and you will be fast!

Cup Master Karl expounding on the Secrets of the Cups…

Oh, the great feeling of a good smooth up stack!

A few were already for competition! But remember, your greatest opponent is only yourself! You can always go one hundredth of a second faster!

After the instruction, practise and some competing… I got to my message. When I started making a long row of cups along the table, the room fell silent, and then filled with murmors… ‘He’s going to make a GIANT STACK!’

As I build, I ask the kids to tell me what determines how HIGH the stack can go? The usual answer is ‘how many cups I have.’ Which is the wrong answer. Even if I had a thousand cups (which I probably do!) the height of the stack is determined by the width of the bottom row.

Why is that important? Because in life, CHILDHOOD is when you are building the foundation of your life. I tell the kids that every lesson they learn, every positive character trait they build into their life while they are young, will determine how high and strong and great their life can become. It is very hard to add to your foundation later. I help them figure out that adding just ONE cup will add MANY MORE to the tower, in the tower above, one cup added 30 more! A second cup added only on 30 more, but actually 31, because another cup could be added over the two added rows up… so the more they learn and the more good and right habits they form WHILE THEY ARE young will have life-long good consequences!

Pretty cool stack, huh? Then I point to ONE cup in the bottom center, and say it represents that ONE lesson they didn’t want to learn, that ONE time they decide to disobey, that ONE wrong thing they decide to do, whether it is something illegal, or dangerous or wrong - and ask what would happen to this giant tower if I removed only that ONE cup…..

WATCH THE VIDEO to find out! (QuickTime 9MB) You’ll see the devestating power of one bad decision, or one wrong act, or one important truth of lesson that you ignore or don’t listen to when you are young. Kids need to know they have a choice - no matter what their background or situation - they have a choice on how they want their life to be…. big and strong and impressive like the tower… or… broken and destroyed by one bad mistake.

I end by showing the one cup that brought down the whole tower… and ask them to think about what could be that ‘one cup’ in their life… and encouage them to choose wisely. Listen to their parents, teachers, pastors and others in their life who know and love them!

For more information on how I use Sport Stacking in my ministry, visit: VCBkids Speed Stacking Site or www.SpeedStacks.com or the World Sport Stacking Association.

10 Comments

  Dad Yount wrote @ June 2nd, 2006 at 8:45 am

Dear Karl: That was so kool. Reading at four am with PJ. Who took the pictures? They were great and the lesson was great too. Send this to everyone. Dad and Mom

  Larry Goers wrote @ June 2nd, 2006 at 3:59 pm

I really like the “base of the pyramid determines the height” analogy to the kids lives.
Larry Goers from Speed Stacks

  Anonymous wrote @ June 3rd, 2006 at 8:17 pm

Dear Karl I loved this!!!!! Maybe I’ll do this next year with my class if I get better at cup stacking!!!! I love you!!! Give Luke a kiss. Lovbe, Aunt Linda xoxoxo

  Anonymous wrote @ June 3rd, 2006 at 8:18 pm

I meant… Love, Aunt Linda xoxo

  Larry Shallenberger wrote @ June 5th, 2006 at 4:36 am

Nice work. Love your creativity.

Larry Shallenberger

  Kiki Eldridge wrote @ June 26th, 2006 at 9:35 am

After reading the July issue of Reader’s Digest this morning, I borrowed from their Word Power to write our family’s “word of the day”– “prudence” -wise or cautious;good judgement. Your stack presentation will make the perfect after-dinner follow-up! Thank you.

  Mr. Frank wrote @ July 25th, 2006 at 10:31 pm

Thanks for the illustration, Pastor Karl.

I took a group of youth on a short-term missions and we used sport stacking as our main outreach. One of the youth retaught your lesson and it proved to be a climax for our lesson series.

Mr. Frank

  Anonymous wrote @ August 16th, 2006 at 9:37 pm

Wow. I love this. First, I love the cup-stacking activity itself. (I think my record for the cycle stack is maybe 11 or 12 seconds) But the way you use this activity to teach…priceless. The act of cup-stacking already teaches people to use both sides of their brain and body, and to strive to do the best you can, to be patient, and to never give up. You add even more to these valuble lessons. I love the idea of the one cup on the bottom. It finaly shows how yes, one big false move can really put you in a mess, and it takes some time to rebuild. Powerful lesson. Great job.

  Anonymous wrote @ August 26th, 2006 at 10:16 pm

Wow. I love this. First, I love the cup-stacking activity itself. (I think my record for the cycle stack is maybe 11 or 12 seconds) But the way you use this activity to teach…priceless. The act of cup-stacking already teaches people to use both sides of their brain and body, and to strive to do the best you can, to be patient, and to never give up. You add even more to these valuble lessons. I love the idea of the one cup on the bottom. It finaly shows how yes, one big false move can really put you in a mess, and it takes some time to rebuild. Powerful lesson. Great job.

  Kidologist.com » Towering Speed Stacks! wrote @ July 18th, 2007 at 9:36 am

[...] isn’t the first time I’ve blogged about a giant stack of Speed Stacks falling down, but sometimes it is the simple things in life that bring the greatest [...]

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