Jump Rope Videos

As April comes to a close and regional tournament season is behind us, it seems like a good time to give you an update on how far Jump Rope Videos has come in a very short time. Jump Rope Videos (or JRV as some people are starting to abbreviate it) is almost three months old and is starting to take on a life of its own. JRV is already averaging more than 220 visitors per day, and continues to grow at an accelerating pace. We are getting more and more subscribers every day.

It is also great to see all of the videos that our readers are putting together and submitting to JRV. We’ve seen some truly amazing videos. The greatest thing about this sport is that people are constantly innovating and trying new things. No matter how long you’ve been around Jump Rope, you will always be able to see something you’ve never seen before. Keep those videos coming!

Because of you, JRV has become a great resource for showing people what Jump Rope is all about. Help us continue to spread the word about this amazing sport. Jump Rope will be huge if we get it in front of the right people. There are many ways you can help get the word out.

1. Add a link to Jump Rope Videos on your team website.
2. Email a link to your family, friends, classmates, or coworkers.
3. Bookmark posts on JRV using Digg, Reddit, del.icio.us, or the social bookmarking site of your choice using the very handy
   button that appears after each post.

Here are some of the JRV highlights from April in case you missed them the first time around…

Cool Videos:
Rope Skipping in South Africa: Some awesome single rope freestyle.
USA Jump Rope All Star Team: Grand Central Station. Need I say more?
Jump Rope with OK Go: The “wallpaper” music video for “Do What You Want” that happens to have some jumpers in it.
Japanese Double Dutch Team - Kurui: Those crazy Japanese Double Dutchers wow us again.

A Busy Month for Team DDF and Planet Jump Rope
It was a very busy April for our friends from Belgium. They held the first ever DDCB AND they appeared on a popular Belgian tv talent show.
DDCB - Welcome To The Jungle: Sweet video of the action from the first ever DDCB.
Double Dutch Contest Belgium - Results: Guess what country the winner was from.
Double Dutch on Talent Show in Belgium: DDF looks good on TV.

2006 Nationals on ESPN:
Grand National Champs - Summerwind Skippers - The “Mad Scientist” Lee Reisig and his crew invent some cool new double dutch tricks and bring them to life at Nationals.
Grand National Champ - Adam Pang: Adam’s 2006 single rope freestyle. BTW, did you see Adam’s cameo in the Disney movie “Jump In!”?

Jump Rope Tips:
A new feature at JRV this month was the addition of some tips for those getting started with Jump Rope.
Getting Started With Double Dutch: These tips should help you choose the right double dutch ropes for your team.
The Secret To Jumping Double Dutch - Good Turners: Once you’ve got double dutch ropes, learn how to turn them properly.
How To Do Basic Chinese Wheel: Get those wheels spinning.

Interviews:
USA Jump Rope All Star Nick Woodard: Nick talks about becoming the first person in the world to do “The Money Maker”.
Doubletime Interview - Director Stephanie Johnes and USA Jump Rope All Star Tim Martin sat down with the folks from the movie-blog Spout to talk about their upcoming Jump Rope documentary.

Here is a great video of the action from the DDCB. This is some of the best double dutch we’ve seen yet! The folks from Planet Jump Rope did a great job putting this together. I can’t wait to get my hands on the DVD!

The basic Chinese Wheel is a style of jumping rope that involves two jumpers and two ropes. The two partners stand side by side and exchange the handles in the hands closest to each other. The ropes are then turned on alternating beats. The jumpers share the responsibility of turning both ropes. Each jumper does a “double bounce” while jumping. This means that each jumper jumps twice for every revolution of their rope.

You will want to use ropes that are slightly longer than you would normally use for single rope jumping. While a single rope normally comes up to your arm pits when you stand on it with two feet, a Chinese Wheel rope should come up to your ears. Beaded ropes are usually the rope of choice for Chinese Wheel since they are more visible to the audience.

The most difficult part of learning Chinese Wheel is unlearning the arm motions that are associated with normal single rope jumping. You must turn the ropes in a sort of “swimming” motion; when one hand is up the other is down. This is completely different from the arm motions that have been drilled into your head ever since you first picked up a jump rope. The common mistake that beginning Chinese Wheel jumpers make is that they try to turn their arms together as if they were jumping single rope. They may start out with their arms alternating up/down, but they slowly drift back to jumping with their arms turning in unison.

A good way to practice the turning motion is to forget about jumping for a little while. You will need 3 people to do this. The person practicing their turning stands in the middle. The other two stand on either side facing the turner and their job is to just hold the ropes, no jumping is required. Let the turner just focus on turning the ropes in the “swimming” motion. It is important that the two side rope holders do not help turn the rope at all. Make the turner in the middle do all the work. Focus on keeping an even beat (click.click.click.click and not click.click…click.click). Once the turner can keep an even beat, then the turner can try jumping in place while still turning the ropes. Nobody is actually jumping any ropes, this is just for the turner in the middle to practice the necessary arm motions. This is much harder than it sounds. The first few times you try it your natural tendency will be to start turning your hands in unison again.

Chinese wheel can also be done with more than 2 people. You can actually make a wheel with as many people as you want, but the most common wheels are done with 2, 3, or 4 people. Before you start adding more people to the mix, you should be very comfortable with the basic 2 person Chinese Wheel. Here is a video that demonstrates what a basic 2 person Chinese Wheel looks like. Notice how the jumpers turn the ropes and how they do a “double bounce” for each turn of their rope.

This video was submitted by Logan of the Daring Dutchers. As you can see, the Daring Dutchers are practicing hard and getting better all the time. Keep up the hard work guys! Thanks for the video Logan!

Fresh Look On Life: Jump Rope Team Just Jumpin’ - This is a nice story from KUTV in Salt Lake City about Just Jumpin’, a team that will be performing with Corbin Bleu (star of Disney’s Jump In!) on July 3rd and 4th.

Double Dutch Forces head to Big Apple - This is an article about Double Dutch Forces, one of the two teams featured in the new jump rope documentary “Doubletime.” Look for Double Dutch Forces on TV this Friday.
From the AikenStandard.com:

“[Double Dutch Forces] will perform on the “Today Show” Friday at the tentative time at 9 a.m., followed by an appearance on “Cold Pizza,” an ESPN2 program that airs from 10 a.m. to noon.

The team members also will see the documentary, “Doubletime,” for the first time Saturday. It’s the first of four showings as part of the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival. The Discovery Channel will also air “Doubletime” later this spring or early summer.”

Jump Ropers Go to Regionals - This is a brief article about the Palpitating Panthers Jump Rope Team competing at regionals.
From La Cañada Valley Sun:

“The Panthers had a successful showing including a first place finish for Ethan Angold in both the one-minute and three-minute speed categories in the male 10-and under age group.”

Fueled by movie, double Dutch makes a comeback - This is an article about the surge in the popularity of Double Dutch we are currently experiencing.

Indy Air Bears take home gold at regionals - An article about the Indy Air Bears competing at Regionals and advancing to Nationals.

Here is a reader submitted video from the Cary YMCA Super Skippers. Special thanks to Maureen Tarquini for sending this in.

Maureen writes:

“The Junior Female (12-14) team from the Super Skippers (Amanda, Lauren, Anna, Amy and Melissa) took the overall gold last summer in Toronto in the Maple Leaf International Rope Skipping competition. They started off with a couple of disappointing performances and were in 5^th place (out of the eight teams) after the morning speed events. But they managed to pull off a silver or gold in all four of the freestyle events and catapulted themselves to the Gold! Almost as exciting as getting to meet Corbin Bleu Team USA swept the age category with two Bulldogs teams capturing the Silver and Bronze, narrowly defeating Team Belgium.”

Way to go Super Skippers!

After watching the Disney movie “Jump In!” many people are starting to try Double Dutch for the first time and they are looking for help. I’ve heard many people ask “What is the secret to jumping in Double Dutch?” Ask any Jump Rope instructor and they will tell you the same thing. The turners are the key. It doesn’t matter how good of a jumper you are, your turners will make or break your routine. Anyone that can jump more than two inches off of the ground at a fairly consistent beat can jump in Double Dutch, as long as they have good turners.

The question people should be asking is: “What is the secret to turning Double Dutch?” Here are some tips that should help.

1. Keep your hands on the Chalk Board: Pretend you are standing in front of chalk board with a piece of chalk in each hand. Keep your elbows at your side and bend your arms at right angles with the chalk pointing forward. Step forward until the chalk touches the chalk board. With your left hand draw a circle clockwise and with your right hand draw a circle counter clockwise. When your left hand is at the top of the circle, your right hand should be at the bottom of its circle and vice versa. This is important: never let the chalk come off of the chalk board. You should always keep your hands on that plane. If you pull your hand off the chalk board, you will pull the rope tight and cause your jumper to miss. Also make sure you are drawing something that resembles a circle. Sometimes one hand makes a nice pretty circle, and the other one is drawing some sort of Egyptian hieroglyph. That would make it difficult for anyone to jump.
2. Turn at the Speed of the Jumper: A good turner matches the speed of the jumper. If the jumper speeds up, the turner speeds up. If the jumper slows down, the turner slows down. A common mistake beginning turners make is turning way too fast. Encourage your team to start out slow.
3. Keep the beat: The ropes should be turning at an even beat. You can listen to the ropes hitting the ground to find out if you are doing it right. You should hear the clicks at the same interval (click..click..click..click) not at an uneven interval (click.click……..click.click).
4. Follow the jumper: Sometimes a jumper will start moving around. Always try to keep your jumper centered in the ropes. You may need to take steps forward, backward, or sideways to do this. Be prepared to move.
5. Keep your eyes on the body parts touching the ground: Most of the time you should be watching the jumpers feet. Sometimes more advanced jumpers will jump on their hands or even their butts. The point is, you need to be paying attention because when that body part jumps off of the ground that is your chance to get the rope under it. If something stays on the ground too long, you may need to stall the ropes until it gets off the ground.

Those are the very basics of turning Double Dutch. Like anything else, practice, practice, practice. Now, If anybody asks you what the secret to Double Dutch is, your answer should be “good turners.” To further drive this point home, I found two videos of Corbin Bleu jumping.

In this video Corbin has a hard time jumping in a single rope, because his turners are turning way too fast.

In this next video he’s doing some cool moves and it looks pretty easy. Why? Watch his turners to see what a nice job they do turning for him. Good turners make the jumpers look good. [Video of Corbin Jumping on YouTube]

Here is another user submitted video from Hong Kong and further proof that Jump Rope is a global sport. Thanks to Flyer’X coach Wittman Au-Yeung for sending us this cool video.

Wittman Au-Yeung writes:

“Yip Suet Bun performed a 0 mistake Master Freestyle in Hong Kong All Age Rope Skipping Championships 2007. He is in the 15-17 age Male group. He won the gold medal in the freestyle and over all champion with the highest freestyle score among all the age groups in this Championships. We call him “King of Release” as he has special talent in “release” tricks as you will see in the video.”

If you have video that you want to share, send us a link.

Here’s another amazing video of the USA Jump Rope All Star team. This looks like it was taken in 2006 at the world championships. This video has some of the coolest tricks in it, including a three-person double dutch trick called “Gears” and an unbelievable five-person double dutch trick called “Grand Central Station.” It’s so cool to see all of the tricks that have evolved from the original “Subway.”

This was sent in by Maureen Tarquini, a Super Skippers mom and future competitor. One of the dads on the Super Skippers put together this very cool compilation of some video taken at the 2006 region 2 competition. Thanks guys!

Today marks the last day of the 2007 regional tournament season. I’m sure many of you have taken some great video at your regional tournament this year. Please be sure to submit videos of your jump rope competition to JRV so we can share them with the world.