Did You See This?

Around the Whirl

Mindblowing spinning-top trick shots.

This video will make you rethink one of your simplest childhood toys: the top. Hasn’t every kid had one at one point or another? They’ve been around so long, and they’re such a basic thing, it’s hard to imagine any way to reinvent them. But a group of men in Taoyuan, Taiwan, have taught these very old things some new tricks—or at least ones we’ve never even imagined, much less seen. Forget the simple, wobbly spin that ends Inception; these are real showstoppers.

Kuma Films captured a demonstration by these middle-age and older gents—who are apparently known as the “Spintop Snipers”—and it’s an incredible display of still-spinning tops landing with astounding precision on all sorts of platforms. Plates, hand, and even a head—no surface is safe from the Snipers’ tightrope-spinning marksmanship.

You wonder if it’s trickery, but the big smiles and high-fives suggest that it’s the real deal. It’s all skill.