Jump Rope Videos

This is really cool. USAJR All Star Tim Martin of the Bouncing Bulldogs Jump Rope Team recently performed on-stage with OK Go at SxSW in Austin. Tim was there to promote the new jump rope documentary “Doubletime” that was playing at the SxSW film festival. Unfortunately, Tim doesn’t have the room on stage to really cut loose and show what he is capable of, although he does an excellent job of adapting to the situation.

Here is what Tim can do of if you give him just a little more space to work with:

I’ve been around the sport of Jump Rope for a very long time. I’ve seen A LOT of tricks and I’ve even invented a few. But no matter how long I’ve been jumping, people are always showing me something I’ve never seen before.

One of the coolest things about being invited to judge the all star tryouts this year was the chance to watch the candidates perform at the staff show following the workshop. I saw a lot of new things in that show. I know there were several times when I actually felt my jaw drop. One of those times was when they busted out this trick in Double Dutch.

Here is some more video from the 1999 World Championships in St. Louis. As I said before, I was very fortunate to have some truly amazing teammates. Here is the single rope freestyle routine from Shaun Hamilton and Willie Amos. Both are very gifted athletes. Shaun is now the head coach of the USA Jump Rope All Star Team and Willie played football for Nebraska and is now a professional football player for the Chicago Bears organization in NFL Europe.

Labels: All-Star, Champion, Jump Rope, single rope, USAJR, Video

This is our first viewer submitted Jump Rope Video. This video was taken at the 3rd Annual All-Star Workshop Staff Show. Thanks to Becky Zelewski for sending the video.

Today I’m pleased to bring you our first look at the 2007-2009 USA Jump Rope All Star Team. USA Jump Rope has put together a very exciting video to try to get people pumped about the sport. I think they did an excellent job. Operations Manager John Fletcher deserves a big THANK YOU and a pat on the back for filming, editing, and providing us with this awesome video.

There is a longer version of the video on the USA Jump Rope website that gives a more complete introduction of the individual team members. A link to the extended video can be found at the very bottom of the All-Star Team page.

Enjoy!

In 1999 I had the privilege to jump for Team USA at the World Championships in St. Louis, Missouri. I was lucky to be placed on a team with Shaun Hamilton, Willie Amos, and Cliff Forbes. All three of them were amazing athletes. As you may know Shaun went on to become a board member for USA Jump Rope and is now the head coach of the USAJR All-Star team. Willie was an excellent football player. He played for Nebraska and was signed last year by the Chicago Bears to play in NFL Europe.

To say I was fortunate to have such great teammates would be an understatement. They were very easy to work with and picked up the routines very fast. We all had to learn fast… we had very short notice that we would be jumping together and were only able to hold three practices together before heading to the competition. Considering we lived six hours away from each other, I’m surprised we were able to get even that much practice in. In the end we ended up winning the all-male senior division. It remains one of my proudest accomplishments, but most of the credit belongs to my extremely talented teammates.

The 2007-2009 USA Jump Rope All Star Team Roster has been officially announced. I’ve reprinted it here in case you missed it. It was an absolute honor for me to get the opportunity to judge the tryouts. The future of our sport looks very bright.

Mary Hunter Benton, Bouncing Bulldogs
Tori Boggs, Jump Company USA
Chris Brown, Heartbeats
Lisa Brown, Heartbeats
Kaylee Couvillion, Heart ‘n Soul
Joe Edney, Bouncing Bulldogs
Mike Fry, Heartbeats
Cara Hassler, Hot Dog USA
Anna Holdaway, Bouncing Bulldogs
Billy Jackson, LA Jazzy Jumpers
Rae Krucoff, Bouncing Bulldogs
Jeremy Lindstrom, Pro Form Airborne
Nikki Lyman, Hot Dog USA
Timothy Martin, Bouncing Bulldogs
Jeffery Mauss, Razz-Ma-Tazz
Courtney McBroom, Hot Dog USA
Colleen McCary, Hot Dog USA
Adam Pang, Heart ‘n Soul
Andrew Pang, Heart ‘n Soul
Lee Reisig, Summerwind Skippers
Scott Simpson, Kangaroo Kids
Lindsey Wallace, One Jump Ahead
Nick Woodard, Razz-Ma-Tazz
Erica Zenn, Bouncing Bulldogs

Tori Boggs is one of jump rope’s youngest and brightest stars. Tori is a member of the USA Jump Rope All Star team. She currently holds the U.S. national records for 1-minute single rope speed and 3-minute single rope speed. Her 1-minute speed record is an amazing 359. That’s nearly 6 jumps a second for an entire minute. I think my fastest speed score ever was 284. A mere 4.7 jumps a second. The girl is fast.

Not only is she good at speed, she’s also got a great single rope freestyle routine. See for yourself…

Here’s more video from the 2006 USA Jump Rope All Star team.

I just got back last night from judging the 2007 USA Jump Rope All-Star Team tryouts and my adrenaline is still pumping! The future of this sport is in great hands. Out of 50 candidates, we selected 24 jumpers that will spend the next 2 years being ambassadors for the sport of Jump Rope as they travel around the world performing and teaching. These 24 jumpers were selected by a panel of 12 judges that observed each candidate of the course of the last 3 days.

Each candidate had to go through a very rigorous selection process. On Friday they had to dress up for a 5 minutes taped interview in front of our panel of judges. On Saturday they had to teach an all day workshop while the judges observed and scored them on their teaching ability. On Sunday they had to go through a very difficult day of demonstrating their jumping ability. They were judged in 4 separate events. Each jumper had to learn a very difficult single rope group routine. After that they had to do a single rope freestyle. Then they were randomly assigned to a 3 person team and had to create a double dutch freestyle. Finally they had to demonstrate their mastery of 3-person chinese wheel.

I was very impressed at how far the sport has come in the last few years. These jumpers have taken everything I was doing 10 years ago to an entirely new level. They didn’t just pass me in skill level, they leap frogged me and did a backflip TJ triple before landing.

Here is a taste of what these kids can do. I had the chance to meet some of the jumpers in this video this weekend. This video is of the Bouncing Bulldogs. The Bulldogs are the subject of the new jump rope documentary “Doubletime” by director Stephanie Johnes. They are great kids and amazing athletes. I can’t wait to see what tricks they will come up with next.