It's being called the fastest-growing new sport in the country.

But at Dyersburg Intermediate School, it's a fun activity that's enhancing the hand-eye coordination of fifth-graders.

It's called cup stacking, an activity where participants stack 12 cups in three formations aiming for accuracy and the best time against themselves and their competitors.

Mike McCullough first learned of the activity last year during a state P.E. teacher convention when Bob Fox, a founder and president of Speed Stacks Inc., presented it. Intrigued by the potential, McCullough decided he wanted to get a set of cups for DIS. Through the selling of T-shirts during the spring field day, he was able to purchase the cups that also came with a special timer.

For the last few weeks during P.E. classes, fifth-graders have been learning about the activity and developing their skills. On Monday, those who wanted stayed after school for a tournament where the top three finishers were awarded trophies.

"It's a very simple concept," McCullough said. "It's stacking cups but it's very challenging. There's no complexity to it at all but the simplicity of it is challenging."

Cup stacking is an individual and a team sport where participants stack and unstack 12 specially designed cups in predetermined sequences.

For Monday's tournament, DIS students had to stack the cups in sequences of three-six-three, six-six and one-10-one. They were given three chances with the two best times added for the final score. The winners were: first place, Cory Smith; second place Dillon Box; and third place, Trevor Sewell.

While cup stacking originated in the 1980s in California, Fox and the rest of the nation learned of it in 1995 during a segment of "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson." An elementary classroom and P.E. teacher in Colorado, Fox saw the potential of a learning tool. Now, over 3,500 schools are participating in a Speed Stacks cup-stacking program.

Cup stacking helps promote hand-eye coordination, ambidexterity, quickness and concentration -- skills needed to excel in most any sport. When students are cup stacking, they're using both sides of their bodies and brains to develop skills where using both the left and right hands is important, like typing and playing a musical instrument.

McCullough noted he could see a difference in his hand-eye coordination during his own video-game playing.

Cup stacking also develops bilateral proficiency. By increasing bilateral proficiency, a student develops a greater percentage of the right side of the brain, which houses awareness, focus, creativity and rhythm. Sequencing and patterning are also elements of cup stacking, which can help with reading and math skills.

McCullough wanted to first try Speed Stacks with fifth-graders to see how the students did with the activity.

"Most have really enjoyed the challenge," he said as the fifth-graders encouraged each other in the tournament. "It's something new."