Eastern Iowa Man Sets Guinness World Record for Clapping [WATCH]
As an elementary school student, he became interested in speed clapping after seeing a YouTube video of the man who was the fastest in the world. Years later, he now holds the honor.
About two decades ago, Kent French was the record holder for clapping. On March 26, 2003, he set a Guinness World Record with 721 claps in one minute. As he points out in the video below, that's an incredible 12 claps per second.
That's really fast, right? Turns out, not so much. Several others have surpassed Ken French's record in the last 19 years. In 2015, Nashville native Eli Bishop was able to do it 1020 times with a new technique known as wrist clapping. You can see Bishop set the record below.
In addition to clapping, Bishop plays the violin and mandolin and has played with everyone from Wynton Marsalis to Lee Ann Womack, Maddie & Tae, and in the house band at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville.
I made note of Bishop because it's his technique that is used by the new Guinness World Records holder.
On March 12, 2022, 20-year-old Dalton Meyer of Davenport, Iowa went to Geneseo, Illinois for an official attempt at the record. It was a success. Meyer broke the old record by 37 claps with an amazing 1,140 in 60 seconds. That's 19 claps per second, proving that the hand is definitely quicker than the eye. Just watch:
Guinness World Records examined the video (and no doubt put it in super slow-mo) to determine the number of claps that Meyer had done within the time window. On October 31, he got the good news that he was the new record holder.
Clapping that fast seems impossible when you watch, but it wasn't difficult for Meyer. He told the Quad-City Times, "It came naturally to me, it was like I didn't even have to practice. Really, I just for some reason knew how to do it."
Meyer spoke to a Quad Cities television station about his new record on Friday:
Congratulations, Dalton, on those blindingly-fast hands and the new record.