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Follow James Acraman's journey to becoming a Guinness World Records title holder for building a 171 cup pyramid in record time.
Follow James Acraman's journey to becoming a Guinness World Records holder for building a 171 cup pyramid in record time.
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0:00
There we go
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My name is James Ackerman. I am from Stevenage and I hold the Guinness World Records title for the fastest time to
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build a 171-cup pyramid
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My current record is standing at 59.10 seconds. Here is a basic stack to get you started
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This stack is called the 3-3-3 stack. So the main key to the sports stacking skill is to use both of your hands at the same time
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So let me show you. So you use both hands with the both cups
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Put one down, put one on top. Next stack. Both hands. Put one down, put one on top
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And lastly, both hands. Put one down, put one on top. Now to down stack, go back to where you started from
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And again, use both hands for the first stack. Both hands for the second stack
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And both hands for the last stack. When you get up to speed, it will look something like this
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With the UK, it is fairly competitive. But I'd say America and Asian countries are the most competitive countries for sports stacking
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Especially they have the most toughest competitors where they practice every day and it's like
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an eat-sleep-stack-repeat sort of pattern they have. Once we have mastered the 3-3-3 stack, we will go on to the 3-6-3 stack
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We use both hands for the first three cups. Now on to the 6-6-6 stack
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It gets a little bit harder because there is an extra three added on to the middle three
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So you take three cups in one hand and two cups in the other hand
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Then you alternate your hands by dropping one cup on each side, two on the second level
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and one on top. And then we use both hands for the last three
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And then to down stack, again go back to where you started from. Use both hands for the first lot
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And now on the 6-6-6 stack, you place one of your hands on the top cup and the other
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hand on the second layer and then you slide outwards and down and put them on the middle
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cup and then down stack the last three. Once you have mastered this, it will look something like this
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There we go. When I first got into cup stacking, my friends and family thought I was a little bit bonkers
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When I started improving my sport stacking with the amount of competitions I've been
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into, that's when they started to accept me more and really appreciate what I have
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found in my skills. I have competed in tournaments for over seven years and I have won at least 50 medals in total
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28 world championship medals and around 30 medals in UK tournaments. And now that you are able to do the 3-3-3 and the 3-6-3, let's take a look at the cycle
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The cycle stack starts off with the 3-6-3. Once you have finished the last three stacks, you take the last three to the first three
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pick up two cups in each hand, build the six stack, three cups in one hand, two in the
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other, build the six stack. Down stack the 6-6 into one big pile and then put one upside down, one upright, take five
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cups in one hand, four cups in the other hand and then build a pyramid of four, three, two
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and one. Now to down stack the cycle stack, take the upside down cups, slide it down to the four
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the upright cups slide it down to the three, take one from the four, slide it down to the
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two and the final five to the one. Once you're at my level, you'll be able to do this
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There we go. Now that you have mastered the 3-3-3, the 3-6-3 and the cycle stack, all you have to
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do is to keep practicing and one day you too will become a Guinness World Records title holder
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To be a Guinness World Records title holder, it just feels like a dream come true, a dream
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that I never want to awaken from. I would love to carry on breaking more Guinness World Records titles
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Okay, so I can confirm that was a finishing time of 28.0
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And hopefully once the sport becomes an Olympic sport, I'll be more than happy to take part
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in it
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#International Sports Competitions
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