Jump Rope Videos

One of the goals of JRV is to show people how popular Jump Rope is becoming. The International Rope Skipping Federation (IRSF) reports on their website that there are teams in at least 31 countries and more people are getting started in the sport all the time. Here at JRV we’ve already seen some great videos of jumpers from Belgium, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, and the United States. Continuing with that global theme, here is a video by a very talented double dutch team from France.

Here’s another commercial with some Double Dutch in it. Japanese team Run-D-Crew appears in this video along with some very prominent sports stars. How would you like to say you were in the same commercial with NBA Superstar Lebron James and Golf pro Michelle Wie? You’ve got to admit that is pretty cool. It just goes to show you that a lot of opportunities are opening up for the top jumpers in our sport. Keep practicing!

Here is a clothing commercial that features some sweet double dutch moves. The team is Run-D-Crew from Japan. The commercial is for a line of clothes called from Japanese clothing manufacturer UNIQLO.

The Grand Central Station may just be the hardest double dutch trick ever invented. Here is a video of it submitted by USA Jump Rope All Star Jeff Mauss. The Grand Central Station is the last trick in this sequence. You’ll know it when you see it. It is an amazing trick.

The jumpers are Jeff Mauss, Nick Woodard, Lee Reisig, Mike Fry, and Billy Jackson. The turners are Shane Winsor and Lisa Brown. Great trick guys!

This is a cool street performance in Amsterdam. If you’ve never done a street performance, you should give it a try. They are a ton of fun. It’s great to be that close to your audience and be able to interact with them and see their reactions up close. These guys rip through several styles of jumping including single rope, partner jumping with one rope, chinese wheel, and double dutch. They do a nice job playing to the growing crowd of people passing by. Fun stuff!

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!

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!

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’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.”