Double Dutch Holiday Classic 2005 – Japan Dominates

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Here’s another jump rope video from the Double Dutch Holiday Classic at the Apollo. These freestyle routines are from a couple of Japanese teams. Kurui won best of show and Kirin took third place. Both teams are amazing. Teams from Japan have dominated the competition for the last several years. In these videos you can see why. They demonstrate excellent control over the ropes, very advanced tricks, great choreography, and great stage presence.

What does the U.S. need to do to catch up? A few years ago some jump rope teams started hiring gymnastics instructors to train their jumpers. It’s not far fetched to believe some teams will hire dance instructors over the next few years to teach some hip-hop inspired moves. With the recent success of the Disney movie “Jump In!” and the good reviews for the new documentary “Doubletime“, this new fusion of styles seems poised to become much more popular.

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Tim Martin Jumps Rope with OK GO

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This is really cool. USAJR All Star Tim Martin of the Bouncing Bulldogs Jump Rope Team recently performed on-stage with OK Go at SxSW in Austin. Tim was there to promote the new jump rope documentary “Doubletime” that was playing at the SxSW film festival. Unfortunately, Tim doesn’t have the room on stage to really cut loose and show what he is capable of, although he does an excellent job of adapting to the situation.

Here is what Tim can do of if you give him just a little more space to work with:

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USA Jump Rope All Star Update

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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.

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