I practiced for this one on and off for nearly a year.

I previously broke the Guinness World Record for most cucumbers snapped in one minute at 118. I thought pencils might be similar. I usually bundled up 8 or so bamboo chopsticks and pushed on them as if I were going to break them with my thumbs and they’d flex and rebound. I did this for months. Then in one live pencil snapping practice, my thumbs got so fatigued that I realized it was easier to break them using my index fingers with the other 3 fingers as backup.

I then switched to my bamboo flexing / weight-lifting routine to that motion and saw even more success. I never conducted a full-scale practice since the graphite from the pencils goes everywhere and Amazon charges $10 per 144 pencils. I know it’s not a lot of money but I’m cheap sometimes. Frankly, it was picking up all the pencil pieces and graphite that stopped me. After several thousands of repetitions with the bamboo chopsticks, I figured I was ready.

On the day of the attempt, I had the honor of speaking to the Idaho out of school network conference attendees about the power of a growth mindset, the importance of STEM, and how grit leads to success.

I then gave my one shot at breaking pencils arranged around the outside of the stage. The first 30 seconds went better than I could have hoped with 55 snapped (close to the original record of 57 snapped in a full minute set by Tyler Toney of Dude Perfect fame who when on to break 87 in one minute at his best. He claims, perhaps jokingly, that it is one of his most proud moments… but perhaps it was…)

I wasn’t sure before I started if I was going to break 68 pencils or 110. I ended up at 98 which broke the previous record of 90 by almost 10%. I was thrilled. I was ecstatic. I know I can do better, but I also know I’m the best in the world at this today.

Thanks for having me out!