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(Chesterville) - It's fun, it's fast, and it's good for you - and you don't need a pair of Nike Michael Jordan's to join in.

Sport stacking is a fitness craze that's gaining converts across North America - including students at North Dundas District High School.

The Chesterville-area school became the latest in the Upper Canada District School Board to incorporate sport stacking into its gym program. Phys-ed teacher Deanna Corbett-White has also created a club at the school, and is forming a demonstration team to preach the gospel of sports stacking in hopes that other schools across the Capital Region will catch the fever.

"I just love it," says Corbett-White about the sport. "It's something so new, so different and so accessible to all kids that they love it - they get hooked."

Sport stacking is an exciting individual and team sport where participants stack and unstack specially designed plastic cups in pre-determined sequences. Individually stackers race against the clock to reach their best times. Stackers can also compete in relay teams in head-to-head competition.

The sport can also be modified to incorporate a more strenuous workout as part of a regular gym program. For instance, the game can incorporate wind sprints, encouraging students in relay teams to run up to a table bearing the stacking cups, complete a sequence, and then run back to tag another player and continue the relay. Players can build muscular strength by incorporating push-ups between stacking sequences.

"You can give them quite a workout depending on what you do," explains Corbett-White. "You can incorporate crunches, jumping jacks, or sit-ups into stacking. There's a lot of huffing and puffing going on because kids get really competitive."

The sport, invented in the 1980s, has now grown to the point that it is practiced in 13 countries worldwide. Players even have their own association, the World Sport Stacking Association, which draws over 1,000 stackers to a world championship in Denver, Colorado each spring.

The sport is drawing new participants because it's not only fun, there are proven physical and intellectual benefits to competing, said Corbett-White.

First and foremost the sport is accessible. It can be played by almost anyone, almost anywhere.

"It doesn't matter whether you're an athlete or an academic - anyone can participate - and you don't need any special shoes. All you really need is a pair of hands."

A teacher can hold stacking games in their classroom by encouraging students to stack on their desktops, or create a different game incorporating relay races across the length of a gym.

"I like it for the competition and it's really helped my hand-eye co-ordination," said grade 10 student Christina Lillico. "It's also a lot of fun and as you get better at it you gain a real sense of accomplishment."

In the past three months her time for performing an intricate set of moves known as a "cycle" has dropped from 20 seconds to 11.

Studies have also shown Sport Stacking increases bilateral proficiency - or a student's ability to perform equally well with the left side and right side of their bodies. This aids in cognitive learning.

Research has also shown that Sport Stacking improves reading skills, said Corbett-White. Many kids these days spend too much time with their eyes glued to a television set - with not only their bodies but their eye muscles remaining sedentary.

"Stacking gives the eye muscles a little bit of a workout," she said. "It gets the eye muscles working. A lot of the stacking movements run left to right encouraging the eyes to move in the same way as if reading words across a page."

Sport stacking is also used as a training aid for other sports. Since it improves hand-eye co-ordination, hockey camps are now using the sport to enhance the reflexes of goaltenders, says Corbett-White. Emily Fox, of the University of Minnesota Women's Basketball Team, is a world record holder in sport stacking. The point guard uses sport stacking to improve her reflexes and dribbling skills.

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