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This
page reflects an interview with Dr. Steven Ross Murray
Head, Department of Human Performance and Wellness of
Mesa State College
Grand Junction, Colorado conducted by freelance writer, Ann Ring for an article
for American Fitness magazine on sport stacking.
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"Influence
of [Cup] Stacking on Hand-Eye Coordination and Reaction Time of 2nd
Grade Students." |
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Dr.
Steven Ross Murray -
Head, Department of Human Performance and Wellness of
Mesa State College conducted
a study, "Influence of [Cup] Stacking
on Hand-Eye Coordination and Reaction Time of 2nd Grade Students." This
study was conducted three years ago [2002] in Grand Junction, Colorado
at a local elementary school.
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"Overall,
I believe that sport stacking is a wonderful and beneficial activity
for individuals, especially school-aged children, to perform for
rudimentary motor skill development." says
Dr. Steven Murray.
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Dr.
Murray, what
comments can you provide in general about the positive influences
sport stacking has on students' abilities? |
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"I
only can respond to what we examined. Anything outside of that
would be pure speculation and not valid from a scientific perspective. We
found that students generally really enjoy sport stacking. That
is a huge positive from a physical education standpoint. Physiologically,
our students improved their scores in tests that measure reaction time
and eye-hand coordination, respectively. Thus, it leads one to
believe that sport stacking improves these abilities in students. This
is very interesting, as those two factors are extremely important for
developing motor skills, especially in young students." |
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Were
you surprised by your findings? |
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"I
was not surprised that the students improved, but I WAS surprised that the
students had such a marked improvement." |
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Why
or why not? |
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"It
seemed obvious to me that a student participating vigorously and regularly
in cup stacking would improve in the measures we examined. However,
many physical educators are quite suspect of the activity, which is
unfortunate. I think they are purely being biased against
the activity because of some prejudice."
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Do
you believe if you studied older children, say junior high school students,
that you would have the same results? Why or why not? |
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"I
would think so, but I haven't studied it, and it is important to note
that. Nonetheless, I think, depending upon one's starting ability
level, that most individuals, regardless of age, would benefit from
cup stacking. But one must be cautious here. If a person
is highly skilled to begin with, say a varsity basketball player, I
doubt if we would see such marked results. That said, I would
think modestly skilled junior high students would see improvement in their
motor skills after training with sport stacking.
Overall,
I believe that sport stacking is a wonderful and beneficial activity
for individuals, especially school-aged children, to perform for rudimentary
motor skill development. I also believe that sport stacking may
influence students quite positively with respect to affective and cognitive
development, but I have not studied that." |
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