Desi Today Magazine
By Surbhi Gogia
Dribbling and shooting are the most common and conventional basketball skills that you would like to master once you start playing the game. But there is one man from Abbotsford, who is setting and breaking records for his unconventional and yet very impressive basketball skills.
Meet 25-year old Sandeep Singh Kaila who has mastered the art of spinning the basketball on fingers and even on toothbrush for longest periods of time. He has become the invincible champion of spinning a basketball that his name has found its place in Limca and Guinness Books of World Records.
Sandeep hails from Village Badduwal near Moga district in Punjab. He discovered his spinning skills during his volleyball shooting practice in India in 2004. “After the game when I would have enough time to hold the ball in my hand, I would spin the ball on my fingers. Then along with playing volley ball, I started practicing the spinning. In 2015 I watched a video of David Cain of US on Youtube. He spun football on his index finger for 33 seconds. I was very much inspired and encouraged to perform something similar. In 2016 I tried to spin valley ball for 45 seconds,” he said.
Sandeep first aimed for the national records. But since they did not have any category of valley ball spinning, he was offered to perform the feat either with soccer ball or basket ball. “I decided to go with basket ball,” he said. He spun three basketballs on two toothbrushes and one hand for 19 seconds in February, 2017 breaking previous national record of 11 seconds set by Thaneswar Gugai.
Sandeep then applied for the Guinness record. It was in April 2017, when he broke the record for longest duration spinning a basketball on a toothbrush in Dharamkot, Punjab. He spun the basketball on his finger and then transferred it to a toothbrush and finally balancing the toothbrush on his mouth by leaning his head to the side.
Singh managed to keep the ball rotating for an incredible 53 seconds. Singh’s attempt was nearly nine times longer than the previous record of 6.84 seconds. “It was my dream to break a world record,” he said.
After his impressive performance in India, Singh moved to Abbotsford, Canada in August 2017. It was not enough for him just to sit down and celebrate his achievement. He started practising again. And in December 2017, he broke his own record by set one more Guinness record for longest duration spinning a basketball on a toothbrush for 60.50 seconds.
He says there is no other world record that has been broken and then recreated for 10 times except this one. Sandeep says this skill is a gift from God to him which he discovered with time. A proud Punjabi, he wants to do new experiments with his skills around the world and take it to newer levels. He can also spin the basketball blindfolded. He wants to break his own record soon by spinning the basketball for 62 seconds.
