Move over video games and iPads, the Kendama craze is taking over

Do you think you might have what it takes to be a professional Kendama player? Are you in Moncton? This could be your week to show off your stuff.

Three of the top Kendama players in the world are touring Moncton schools this week, and they may be on the look out for the next professional up-and-comer.

“If you get good enough then you get noticed by companies like mine, then we decide to fly those people, give them free stuff to go represent our company around the world” said Matt Jorgenson, owner of Minneapolis based company, Sweet Kendamas.

Much like a yo-yo, the Kendama is a wooden toy with a ball attached to a string that you can do tricks with. The ancient toy was developed in Japan and has recently been gaining popularity.

“It’s still a very low key underground thing — I would say less than one per cent of the world knows what a Kendama is,” said Max Norcross.

Norcross is a U.S. professional Kendama player who’s been ranked among the top 20 players in the world.

Today, he showed off his advanced tricks at Riverview East School, where grade three student Hazen Rossiter, a Kendama player himself, was in awe.

“I don’t have to sit on the couch all day and play video games all day, I can learn my Kendama and I can learn more tricks too,” Rossiter said.

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The game is so popular at Riverview East that students have created a Kendama club. It’s also the only toy the students are allowed to bring to school.

“You learn one trick and then there is another trick you can learn, and then another trick and a harder trick, and you just keep going and I think that is why kids don’t stop and they get addicted,” Jorgenson said.

“Base cup, spike, little cup, frying pan, big cup, juggler, lunar, air plane, ten flip,” are among some of the fun tricks Rossiter says he’s already mastered.

“They just have to keep playing and maybe one day they will be me, and go to the world championships — you never know cause I was that kid that just started playing and now I am travelling the world,” Norcross said.