Hand extreme sports challenger cracks puzzles with blazing speed

Xia Yan, 28, a hand extreme sports challenger in Xi'an, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi province, holds eight Guinness World Records, including solving a Rubik's cube within 20 seconds and cracking Klotski, a sliding block puzzle, in less than 10 seconds.

"Practicing hundreds of times made my playing skilled," said Xia, who began to practice with a Rubik's cube, a 3D combination puzzle also called the magic cube, when he was 16 years old.

He spent six years going from a rookie to a professional player solving the multicolored, cube-shaped puzzle. His speed at cracking a Rubik's cube also improved from several minutes to one minute, and then from one minute to 40 seconds.

"The meaning of breaking the record is happiness," he said. "In fact, there is no secret to success to achieve such a speed solving puzzles. The main thing is to train more and practice hard. I practice about four to five hours per day, often until late at night."

Check out the video to see how Xia solves those puzzles in mere seconds.

Video by Sun Zhenghao