USA Jump Rope All Star Update

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.

1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (3 votes, average: 3.33 out of 5)
Loading...
2 replies

Trackbacks & Pingbacks

  1. […] Here’s the latest promotional video for the Japanese Double Dutch Team Kurui. They won the double dutch holiday classic at the Apollo in 2005. The Bouncing Bulldogs from USAJR placed 2nd in that same competition with their amazing double dutch routine. […]

  2. […] reprinted it here in case you missed it. It was an absolute honor for me to get the opportunity to judge the tryouts. The future of our sport looks very […]

Leave a Reply

Want to join the discussion?
Feel free to contribute!

Leave a Reply