(upbeat intro music) (top landing) (airplane engine revving) (camera crashing) (upbeat electro music) - This is a sport the Hmong people play back in Laos long time ago.

And then now we bring it to America.

It's a new sport called Tuj Lub.

(top crashes) - [Man 1] Okay!

- Back where we came from, our parents are, you know, like farmers, and we don't have time to gather together like this.

So the only time we play this during new year time.

(top crashes) You harvest, and this is the only time that you have time to spend your time with your family, friends and relatives.

This is what get them together.

(crowd laughs) - You could do it every day after work.

It become a habit for everybody.

So this a lot different from where we coming from.

(crowd cheers) And then you'll play from eight level from 10 feet to 70 feet.

- And all you do is just put the line like this.

Some people, they make it nice look like this but for me I just go crazy with it.

And then when you throw, you just hold like this and just throw it at the same time, and just follow through and the top will go.

The game consists of stages.

So the first stage, it consists of offense and defense.

The defense are the one who spin and the offense is the one who hit.

The offense trying to spin as hard as they can.

And the offense is the one who's trying to knock their top off.

If I'm the offense, and mine doesn't spin as long as a defense, I don't get a point.

In the second stage, it's not the defense, the offense.

And then the third stage, and fourth and fifth, all you do, just, that's why we have this flag.

We cap it like this.

And the last one is the one that has the highest score.

(top crashing) - I basically grew up playing this game and I created great friendships.

It's really like once you get to know it, it's really fun and competitive.

Like the younger Hmong people, there's other sports like volleyball and soccer and football.

They all usually prefer that.

But like, I just want like the new generation to like see how people used to play with each other back in our country.

- It seems like the game is dying out.

But what we're trying to teach these kids, and get them motivated is, to make sure, to keep the traditional alive.

(crowd cheering) - [Man 2] Another one now.

- Back home, it is like you hardly have time to enjoy yourself with all the friends in the community.

You have to have a habit.

Otherwise, you cannot just stay at home after work, because this country, not just us but everybody gotta have habit.

You gotta have something to do after work.

Go out there, have fun, enjoy yourself.

(top crashing) (upbeat electro music) (happy piano music) - Hi, I'm Tracy Newman.

- And I'm Brian Ewig, and we're the producers of "My Wisconsin Backyard."

- You can watch more of our stories and other great local stories.

- Oh, and don't forget other PBS favorites by downloading our PBS app.