Jump Rope Videos

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:

I jumped for 10 years with the Footnotes Jump Rope Team in San Antonio before going to college at Texas A&M. At Texas A&M I met another guy that used to jump and we decided to form our own college team. In the fall of 1996 we started the Texas A&M Jump Rope Team and recruited some of our friends and taught them to jump. Some of our jumpers had never picked up a rope before joining our team. I’m very proud of what those guys learned to do in just a couple of years.

I believe our team was the first college jump rope team. Certainly there were jumpers before me that continued to jump in their college years, but usually with the same teams they jumped with before college. I think ours was the first actual college team. We practiced hard, did a few shows around town, and even managed to make it to nationals a few times.

As I said before, I used to be able to jump. Well, here’s the proof that I could actually get off the ground once upon a time. This is the double dutch routine that we spent the majority of our time working on.

Labels: Double Dutch, Freestyle, Jump Rope, Video

The new Disney movie Jump In may be the most exciting thing to happen in Jump Rope since the U.S. Nationals began airing on ESPN in 1996. The entire Jump Rope community is buzzing with the attention that this movie has brought to our sport. According the The Houston Chronicle, the original airing of Jump In had 8.17 million viewers, which makes it the most watched program in Disney history. As a result, interest in the sport of Jump Rope has skyrocketed in recent months.

Corbin Bleu, the star of Jump In, appeared on Live with Regis and Kelly in early January to promote the movie. The impressive thing is that he learned to do his own jumping for the movie in a relatively short time. He demonstrated some of his new skills for Regis and Kelly.

This is some of the best choreography I’ve ever seen in a double dutch routine. It’s an excellent routine, but I wish they would have landed the basket toss inside the ropes rather than doing it completely outside of the ropes. It would have been very easy for them to do.

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.

One of the things I really love about jump rope is the infinite variety of things that can be done. The opportunity to be creative is literally unlimited in this sport. I’ve been involved with jump rope for over 20 years, and I still see new things all the time. This team from Japan has a series of unique double dutch tricks that are really cool. I really love the spin move that the girl does with her leg raised while the turners stall the ropes. I also like their incorporation of break dance moves.

This was an ad that appeared last year for the XBOX 360. It’s got a great pace and energy about it that I love. I like how they incorporate so many different elements in rapid succession. They start with Chinese Wheel, focus mostly on Double Dutch, and then end with some Traveling. Very cool.