How This Guy Became a Pizza Spinning World Champion

Sleight of Hand Pizza owner and chef Justin Wadstein is a 13-time world pizza champion.

Here's how he takes the simple act of tossing dough to the next level with flips, spins, shoulder rolls, and other moves.

[drum music]- I'm Justin Wadstein.I'm a 13 time World Pizza Championand this is how I spin dough.[groovy music]- [Narrator] Wadsteinis one of the world'smost dexterous pizza dough tossers.He can twirl it.He can flip it.He can roll it across his shoulders.In his hands, doughbecomes a magical mediumof pizza expression.- Yeah, it just becomes a fluid movement,almost like part of you.It is like a dance partner'cause you're moving around the doughand it's moving around you.- [Narrator] Wadstein'smastery of the pizza dough spinhas cinched him numerousWorld Pizza Championships.Yes, there are pizza competitions,but there's a catch.- If you were to want to getinvolved with the competitions,for one, you have to work at a pizzeria.So it kind of makes it special for peoplethat actually do it for a living.Me, personally, I don't just spin pizzas.I run a pizza place.The only real requirementis you work in a pizza shopand you put in a lot of practice.- [Narrator] Wadstein's practicehas definitely paid off.- I've won seven individual acrobatics,two team acrobatics.I've won something calledPizza Triathlon three timesand I've won World'sFastest Pizza Spinner once.- [Narrator] Wadsteinspecializes in what's known aspizza acrobatics.- Someone asked me whatacrobatic pizza spinning isbecause unless you've seen it,it's super hard to explain.They just kinda look at youuntil you show them or explain to them.Normally, if people don't know what it is,at first, they don't think it's that coolor it doesn't sound that cooland then when you start doing it,it kinda blows people away.And that's basically asynchronized dough routine,where you're incorporating tricks.Normally, you have sometype of theme to your show.Think of almost like a gymnasticsroutine with pizza dough.The rules are, well youcan't do fire because of me.[crowd cheering and whistling]- [Narrator] That's not the only guidelinefor judging though.- There's different categories.So synchronization, so ifit's synchronized to the beatand the music, then you'llscore high points there.Originality, creativity.For example, I did a routine in Italy,where I juggled a soccerball and pizza doughat the same time.Dexterity, which meanshow well you're workingwith the dough.So if you're spinning it andit's looking like a footballthe whole time or it'sconstantly got a hole in itor something like that, you'llget scored a little lower.But, if they're staying circularand they're not ripping,you'll score higher.Pizza spinning, the competitions,the acrobatic pizza spinning competition,has been around since the '80s.So a little over 30 years it's been goingand every year, it gets bigger and bigger.- [Narrator] Like any skill,there are fundamentals,and for acrobatic pizza,that's the basic toss.- Becoming a World Pizza Championdoesn't just happen overnight.It's a lot of practice and the first thingyou wanna start with is the basic toss.What I do, is I put myfingertips at the edgeand kinda stretch it like a rubber band.And then you're gonna twistand throw up with one handand catch with the other.Just like this.Right, from there, you canpractice that several timesand you'll get to a point,where you can roll it into thenext toss without stopping.And then the next stepis learning how to spinon your fingertips.So, what makes spinningon your fingertips hardis that you have to balancenot breaking the dough.So dough's a lot differentthan say someone jugglingor something like that becausethe shape of dough changes.You have to be able to feelwhere it's gonna break throughand your fingers, youstart to learn that feelingand spin almost around that spot.You have to balance it.It's not quite your fingertips,'cause it'll break through,it's almost like the side of your hand.- [Narrator] Then, there'sthe critical transition trickcalled the whip.- And what that is, isbasically going hand to hand.And so you're kind of, yourhand goes up and around,you catch, throw it back, just like that.So when you get fast with that,that's the way you can kind of transitionand switch directions of thedough quickly and smoothly.This was actually the hardestthing for me to learn,but it's a good thing I didbecause I can so quickly change tricks.What makes it hard ismaking your mind wrap aroundswitching directions constantlyand being able to catch itwhile it's moving really fast.So it took a long timeto perfect doing that.- [Narrator] The whipisn't just a flashy trick.Pro spinners use it tokeep their dough circular.- So the whip will also helpif it starts to become oval.You can whip it backinto a circle, basically.And also, if the centeris getting really thin,then you can at leastdo that and not rip it.- [Narrator] Once you'recomfortable with the toss,the finger spin, and the whip,it's time to move into advanced maneuvers,like over the shoulders.- And the way you're gonna do thatis you're gonna turn sideways,put your head forward,and you kinda do this, catch it over here.Another cool trick is called the sky highand that's when you throw it upand roll it down your shoulder.That one's a really cool one.I do that a lot.Also, rolling acrossyour chest is a good one.There's something called the wheel,which is just like that.I learned this with actually a plate'cause it forces yourhand to switch directions,which is, you have to doit to make the trick work.- [Narrator] Wadstein canspin just about anything flat,a plate, a cutting board,even a folding chair,but he says that dough is thehardest thing he's ever spun.- Dough's harder because it can rip.For example, if you spin abook, it's not gonna rip,so it's the same consistency.Where this will change,it'll get thin in some spots,and thick in some other spots,and it will rip if youdon't spin it correctly.It's mainly the middle finger spinning,but it's all four of these fingersare kind of working together.So you're spreading the, dispersing the,instead of one pointbecause your fingers aregonna go through the dough.- [Narrator] But the doughWadstein spins in competitionis way different than thedough he serves his customers.- A huge part of what I do is making doughand if it's not good, youcan't pull off a lot of tricks.Yeah, you need ice water, salt, flour,and no yeast because you don'twant it to rise whatsoever.The salt helps keep ittogether, it strengthens.The more salt in the dough,the harder it's gonna be.You can dry it out.You get to a point whereyou can kinda feel it.If it feels like it needs more water,I'll put a little more.If it feels like it needs more flour,I'll put a little bit more.You get to learn what itfeels like, basically.- [Narrator] You definitelydon't want to eat it.- If you ate this dough,it wouldn't make you sick,but it would taste terrible.It would just taste like pure salt.- [Narrator] A singlepiece of dough might lastjust a few seconds whileWadstein is spinning.He's one of the fastest twirlersand the tension in thedough is high enoughto render it useless after a few tricks.That's thanks to some basic physics.Teachers often use pizza dough spinningas a way to explain theconcept of angular momentum,showing how a chef's handsexert torque on the doughand cause it to spin.When spinning, centripetal forceproduces tension in thedough and stretches it out.That's fine for them, says Wadstein.- You don't actually need toknow the physics to do it.- [Narrator] No, Wadstein knows that doughis never as simple as a math equation.It's a moving, ever changing mass,always threatening to pullapart and ruin the show.- Your hands are constantlyreshaping the doughand feeling the thickerpart that'll allow youto spin one dough longer.I've done it so long thatI can literally feel itif it's starting to not become a circleand your hands will reshapeit and then you spin it,and then you reshape it.The whole time you're doing it,you're constantly trying tokeep the shape of a circle,which is really hard to dowhen you're spinning that fastand sending it in so manydifferent directions.- [Narrator] Wadsteinhas been spinning thingssince he was a kid.- For me, it was like, Iwas kinda ADD a little bit,so in class I would spin binders.And I just enjoyedworking in the pizza shopwhen I was a kid.So, my grandparents openeda pizza place when I was 13.We didn't really work thetable for a long time,but I originally learnedhow to spin a towelwhile doing dishes.Worked my way up to the line.I moved to Santa Cruzand worked for my aunt,who runs a place,and she had this dinnerand a show concept.The whole restaurant stops,all the servers do a dance,and then they have pizza spinners.I was it before, but theystill have some spinnersthat do shows.- [Narrator] In 2005, heentered his first competitionin Las Vegas.He walked away the top spinner in the U.S.and ranked fourth in the world.And his skills caught the eyeof veteran World PizzaChampion, Tony Gemignani,who invited Wadstein to joinhis World Pizza Champion spinning team.They still spin together.- And he's been a huge, huge mentor to me.- [Narrator] Gemignaniand his other team memberswere there, cheeringWadstein on as he spun fireat the World Championships in 2009.- I was the first one to do fire.I did it at a competition in Italy.And actually when I first did it,it was just a big wooden board,a towel from the hotel nailed to it,with some gasoline and we lit it on fire.The pizza spinning does look really cool,especially when you light it on fire.I mean, it's just, when you first see it,it's pretty amazing.[upbeat music]Yeah, so you can't do it anymoreand I'm pretty sure it's because of that.No one knew I was gonna do it.- [Narrator] Wadsteinmay not be able to usehis fire flourish incompetition any longer,but he still does it in demonstrations.And even after two decades of spinning,he's still pushing himself and the doughto do even more extreme things.- So the reason I keep getting itis because I keep getting better.Even still, 20 years later,I'm still learning new tricksand I'm still stepping it upand I still love doing it.