Jump Rope Videos

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.

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.

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!