Jump Rope Videos

Another interview with Saltare behind the scenes of ABDC…

Look out everyone! Jump Rope is in the spotlight on the national stage thanks to a group of USA Jump Rope All Stars. A crew called Saltare has made it on season 5 of America’s Best Dance Crew on MTV. If you follow jump rope, you already know their names… Chaz Robinson, Tyler Perez, Lee Reisig, Billy Jackson, Lisa Brown, & Brittany Fortier. What an amazing collection of talent!

I just watched the east regionals in which Saltare debuted on national TV. Saltare absolutely killed it! They nailed their routine without a flaw, got the entire audience on their feet, and left the judges in awe. The judges were unanimous in their praise of the crew’s talent. When it was time to select which crews would advance, Saltare was the first crew to be chosen to advance to the next round.

Follow Saltare on their website saltarecrew.com and on Facebook.

Here is an in interview with the crew backstage during the taping of the season 5 regional.

Good luck Saltare! The entire Jump Rope community is behind you. We hope you go all the way!

It’s official… the video of the Kings Firecrackers has gone viral. CNN has picked up the story and spoke with coach Lynn Kelley and team member Alyssa Young about the team and the hard work that goes into their performances. Their video is getting millions of hits and is making its way to the email inboxes of many more potential viewers as we speak.

I’m very impressed at the top notch way the team is representing themselves and the sport. Nice job Firecrackers!! Keep up the great work!

USA Jump Rope has just announced that Fox Sports is going to air the 2008 US National Jump Rope Championships.

Here are the scheduled air dates:

• FSN Arizona 7/28/08 4 p.m. Pacific & 8/18/08 3 p.m. Pacific
• FSN Detroit 7/28/08 4 p.m. Eastern & 8/18/08 3 p.m. Eastern
• FSN Detroit 8/22/08 2 p.m. Eastern
• FSN Florida 7/28/08 4 p.m. Eastern & 8/18/08 3 p.m. Eastern
• FSN Midwest 7/28/08 3 p.m. Central & 8/18/08 3 p.m. Central
• MSG Plus 7/28/08 4 p.m. Eastern
• FSN North 7/28/08 4 p.m. Central & 8/18/08 3 p.m. Central
• FSN Wisconsin 7/28/08 4 p.m. Central & 8/18/08 3 p.m. Central
• FSN Northwest 7/28/08 3:30 p.m. Pacific & 8/18/08 3 p.m. Pacific
• FSN Ohio 7/28/08 4 p.m. Eastern & 8/18/08 3 p.m. Eastern
• FSN Pittsburgh 7/28/08 4 p.m. Eastern &8/18/08 3 p.m. Eastern
• FSN Rocky Mountain 7/28/08 1 p.m. Mountain & 8/18/08 3 p.m. Mountain & 8/18/08 1 p.m. Mountain (non Broncos)
• FSN South 7/28/08 4 p.m. Eastern & & 8/18/08 3 p.m. Eastern
• FSN Southwest 7/28/08 4 p.m. Central & 8/18/08 3 p.m. Central
• FSN Houston 7/28/08 4 p.m. Central
• FSN West 7/28/08 12 p.m. Pacific & 8/18/08 3 p.m. Pacific
• Comcast New England 7/28/08 4 p.m. Eastern
• Comcast Philadelphia 7/31/08 3 p.m. Eastern & 8/21/08 3:30 p.m. Eastern & 8/24/08 3 p.m. Eastern
• Comcast Mid Atlantic 8/18/08 3 p.m. Eastern
• Comcast Chicago 8/07/08 9 p.m. Central

While you wait for the official airing, here is a sneak preview of one of the routines you are sure to see. This is 2008 Grand National Champion Shane Winsor doing his award winning single rope freestyle.

Jump Rope is the perfect sport to help combat childhood obesity. It is cheap, portable, and easy to do. Kids of all ages can pick up a rope and get started with the basics in minutes. Jumping rope is a lot of fun and most importantly it is a great exercise. For those reasons, more and more people are using the sport as a tool to help fight childhood obesity. Here is a great example. The Jump Kids Jump Movement™ is a statewide effort in Indiana led by Clarian Health, to encourage kids of all ages and abilities to get more active by jumping rope. The launch event took place in Indianapolis on May 2nd 2008. The Indy Air Bears even performed at the event. For more information visit www.jumpkidsjump.org.

Here’s a news story by Voice of America on the Kangaroo Kids. The story includes interviews with coach Jim McCleary and USA Jump Rope All Star Scott Simpson. Good luck in South Africa guys!!

CBS Evening News visited Harlem to report on the Double Dutch Holiday Classic. It’s great that Jump Rope is getting some exposure at the national level, but unfortunately their coverage is a little misleading.

CBS reports that the event “amounts to Rope Skipping’s World Championships.” Real jumpers know that Worlds will be held in Cape Town, South Africa in July 2008. The US trials for selecting Team USA will be held in Mason, Ohio in late January. The Double Dutch Holiday Classic is certainly a high profile event, but it is definitely not the world championships of rope skipping.

CBS also reports that Japanese teams “took first, second, and third.” That’s accurate, but only for one event. The Advanced Fusion event is what they are referring to. And yes, Japanese teams took the top three spots with the Bouncing Bulldogs coming in fourth. However that doesn’t give a complete picture of the results. The Bulldogs actually dominated the competition. They won 8 out of 10 events and actually won the Novice Fusion event. Very impressive.

That being said, it’s great to see the popularity of our sport continue to grow. Here’s the report from CBS:

The Bouncing Bulldogs appeared on the CBS Evening News this week. The Bulldogs will compete this Sunday (Dec. 2nd) in the Double Dutch Holiday Classic at the world famous Apollo Theater in NYC. The stars of the documentary Doubletime will go up against some of the toughest double dutch teams from around the world. The highlight of the competition is the Fusion event that we’ve seen explode in popularity over the last few years. The Bulldogs’ primary goal is to take the title back from the Japanese teams that have dominated the event 9 out of the last 11 years. Regardless of who wins, it will be an amazing show and an awesome display of talent.

Good luck jumpers!

Earlier this year I was interviewed for an article on Jump Rope that appeared in NC State Magazine. The article is excellent and focuses on several NC State students that are among the most elite jumpers in the sport. It’s an amazing group of jumpers: Kristen Bailey, Suzanne Cash, Joe Edney, Anna Holdaway, Ted Lehman, Timothy Martin, Tyler Perez and Lauren Perdue. If Jump Rope were a college sport, NC State would be extremely tough to beat. It might be a toss up between NC State and Boise State (Kelsy Moe, Shane Winsor, Lee Reisig, Calli Wold) but it’s safe to say both schools are loaded with talent. At any rate, go check out the article, it does a great job of capturing the excitement of jump rope and talking about how it is ready to bust wide open into the mainstream. It’s great to see the sport treated with the respect it deserves. They also have an accompanying web feature on Jump Rope with some exclusive videos. There is even a page dedicated to JRV.

The 2007 USA Jump Rope National Championship results have been posted to the USA Jump Rope website.
2007 National Jump Rope Championship Results

If I read the results correctly, it looks like Tori Boggs went home with a lot of new hardware to put on display. She won the Female Triple Unders, Female Single Rope Speed, Female Three Minute Speed, and Female Single Rope Freestyle events. That basically amounts to a sweep of the individual single rope events which is absolutely amazing! She is clearly one of the top athletes our sport has ever seen.

Here is some video from a team that made it “on Stage” at Nationals. This is an all male team from Hot Dog USA performing their Double Dutch Pairs Freestyle on stage during the Grand National Championship. This is a great routine with some very innovative tricks. The Double Leap Frog that they start the routine with is a really cool trick. This routine was good enough to earn them 2nd place, which is an amazing accomplishment in today’s hyper-competitive field.