Interview of mchap77 (Mark Chaplin),15188 RPM.

-Hi Mark! First can you introduce yourself?

Hello, my name is Mark Chaplin, I am 25 and live in Ohio (USA).

-How did you discover Powerballs, why do you like it, since when do you have one?

I discovered the powerball over 3 years ago when a friend that I went to college with got one and brought it to a study session. I immediately was addicted and purchased one the very next day. The following weeks were filled with small competitions between me and my friends. I was also very intrigued by the world competition and my first ever submission was in the 12000’s which put me at 95 out of 100 or close to that. I think I used the powerball for about 6 or 7 months and the highest I got at the time was 13547. I moved shortly after that and the ball was packed in a box (for 2 years) and I completely forgot about it. Then back in July of 2005 I found the box that it was in and started using it again, and was able to get in the 13000’s quickly. This got me interested again, so I checked the world scoreboard and was shocked that Akis was in the 15k’s. At first my drive was to win a month to get those free powerballs (which I did September 05), then I wanted to get to 15k (which I did in October 05), and now I want to keep upping my score and try to get to 16k.

-Now tell us about your training habits? how much in a day?

I train almost everyday for at least 30 minutes, sometimes for over an hour. My record breaking sessions have all been at least an hour long.

-Do you have some special techniques?

I would call my technique special because I don’t see anyone else with as much movement as I have. Things that have helped me be in top form are to be warmed up before attempting high scores. I make sure my hands and the ball are very clean, so that I can get a vise like grip. I have also seen that sometimes adjusting my grip just a little bit can get me a little higher score.

-How do you feel being so good ranked (#2), will you still improve your score?

I am very happy to be ranked so high, I would have never guessed I would be, when I started using the powerball again back in July 05. Every time that I didn’t think I would get any higher, I would. Sometimes the jumps would be only a few RPM and sometimes they would be 100’s of RPM. I just kept improving. I definitely plan on improving my score even more, I still use the ball daily and push myself all the time

-What do you think about the new metal powerball? And the next bluetooth counter?

The metal powerball will be great. I can’t wait to try one. The torque of the heavy rotor should help increase scores with the normal powerball and the high speed rotor. I hope that there is a new scoreboard added and that the metal powerball won’t be competing with the normal powerball. That bluetooth counter is pretty nice, I saw it in action in the videos of Akis when he went to London. It will also be very handy for recording endurance runs.

-What kind of future do you think Powerballs will have in the next years?

Hopefully full competitions, with 6 and 7 figure contracts, sponsors, and women throwing themselves at you. But in truth I imagine as the community gets more organized, that worldwide competitions with good prizes could become reality.

Okay that's all, thank you for the time you took to answer my questions and your readers thank you for your advice.

Interview of Mark Chaplin by Frédéric REMY (October 31st 2005).

Return to Interviews