Jump Rope Videos

Here’s some excellent double dutch freestyle from DDF, a team of world champion jumpers from Belgium. I met team member Maarten Goedemé before when I toured Europe in 1998 and again at the 1999 world championships. He is an excellent jumper and all around nice guy. DDF is actively bringing the Fusion style of Double Dutch to Europe.

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

Today’s jump rope video is of Justin Meier the 2006 Grand National Champion in Male Three Minute Speed. Justin won with a score of 900. That’s only 8 jumps shy of the national record set by Veyom Bahl in 2004. Justin averaged 5 jumps a second over three minutes which is very amazing.

If you are working on speed, pay very close attention to the form that Justin uses while he jumps. He leans slightly forward, his arms are at his waist. He makes small tight circles with his wrists and his feet barely come off the ground.

Nice work Justin!

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.

There is a Double Dutch Contest taking place in Japan on March 25th at CLUB CITTA’ Kawasaki. This promo video reminds me of the Double Dutch Holiday Classic at the Apollo. If you’re in the neighborhood, you should definitely check it out, especially considering teams from Japan have won “Best in Show” at the Apollo 8 of the last 10 years.

The Double Dutch Holiday Classic is held every year at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. Teams compete in speed and compulsory events, but the main attraction is the Fusion event. I’ve only recently discovered the Fusion format online, but I wish I had known about it years ago. Fusion features some of the most innovative Double Dutch Freestyle happening anywhere in the world. Fusion routines can have anywhere from 3-6 team members and are set to music. They combine elements of dance, gymnastics, and jump rope into an electrifying visual display.

Since the format allows up to 6 people, it reminds me of the Double Dutch routines we always saved for the finale of staff shows at workshops and camps. Those were always my favorite routines because that’s where we traditionally had the most innovation. It was in one of those staff show finales where we introduced “The Subway” to the world. Unfortunately we only got to scratch the surface of what was possible because everyone always came from different parts of the country and we never had enough time to practice. Imagine what could be done if you focused on perfecting one of those routines all year long. The result would be a “Fusion” routine.

Here’s a video report on the Double Dutch Holiday Classic from the NY Times:

The Heartbeats are one of the best known jump rope teams in the world. The team was founded in 1992. By the time the U.S. Nationals started in 1996, the team was ready to shine. I seem to remember them doing very well during the years I was at Nationals (’96-’01). They’ve also had a lot of success in the AAU Junior Olympics. According to their website they’ve captured numerous individual and team medals along with the Team Show trophy at both the USA Jump Rope Nationals and the AAU Junior Olympics.

Here is a video of their team show performance that earned them 2nd place at the 2006 Worlds in Toronto, Canada.

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…