26 Basic Tricks

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Back when I started jumping rope, one of the main things needed to qualify for the team was to complete the 26 basic tricks without a mistake. I can remember having this list on my wall. It was a constant goal for me to “check it off” the list. We actually had to perform each skill in front of a coach 10 times in a row without a mistake before they would sign off that we could do it. Why these 26 Skills? When you’re first getting started in jump rope, you want to have a variety of skills that challenge you in different ways.Read More →

How to Size a Jump Rope

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Learning how to size a jump rope is a fundamental skill you need right from the beginning. There is a bit of nuance based on the type of rope that you are using, but our general guideline is a great place to start with all ropes. The (Almost) Universal (Quick and Easy) Way to Size a Jump Rope A proper jump rope length is determined by standing on the middle of the rope with both feet. When you pull the handles up, the ends should reach the bottom of your arm pits. Back in my teenage days, when I would perform with a group ofRead More →

juneau jumpers jump rope practice team

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Over 30 years I began my jump rope career as part of the Juneau Jumpers in Juneau, AK. I’m currently spending Christmas and New Years up in Alaska and last week I had the opportunity to teach the current Juneau Jumpers team. Not just teach, I was asked to also give some history of the team. I will never forget the reason I decided to start jumping rope. My PE teacher, Coach Berry, decided to bring a jump rope team from Colorado up to Juneau and put on some shows at all the schools. I remember watching that show and deciding that I wanted toRead More →

2017 solar eclipse glow rope

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Over the past few weeks I’ve been doing very little activity. Why? I had back surgery at the end of July. We decided to take the down time to do some cool stuff and we ended up in Oregon for the solar eclipse! Over the years I’ve been doing a lot of photography. It started out as a guilt trip (you know where you feel like you have to take a picture because you are going someplace cool), but turned into another business that I do. It may have turned out differently if cell phones had been in the picture when I started, but IRead More →

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Almost every year I see an article pop up on one of the news sites stating how the Victoria’s Secret models get in shape. I’m always curious if jump rope is involved in any of their workouts (and mentioned in the article). My assumption is that most of the models do some form of jump rope in their workouts from time to time. This year one of the Victoria’s Secret models by the name of Stella Maxwell made the following quote when talking about her workouts: “I really like jump rope and headstands I love jump rope because it’s a challenge to time yourself toRead More →

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A new study just came out that shows how exercise can help you shed fat (and prevent it from forming) by way of a hormone that is released when you exercise. You can check out the article I read over at science daily. To sum up what they found, a hormone called irisin is released when you exercise (I am going to use jump rope since that is always my focus), and what happens is that when it is released, it boosts “the activity of genes and a protein that are crucial to turning white fat cells into brown cells, the researchers found. It alsoRead More →

Jump Rope for Cardiovascular Health

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The journal Circulation released a statement which found that most children in the U.S. between the ages of 2-19 years old do not meet the American Heart Association’s classification of ideal childhood cardiovascular health. You can read a detailed analysis of how they determine their findings and procedures at the following link. Healthy eating, not smoking, etc. are all important factors in their determination, but I like to focus on the exercise component. I have worked for decades in conjunction with Jump Rope for Heart, which is one of the exercise initiatives of the American Heart Association. In fact, my schedule in January and FebruaryRead More →

Jump Rope Cross

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It’s fitness season! What? Is there actually a season for that? Gauging how full the gym becomes for the next 2-3 weeks, it must be. In case you have a fitness goal of learning how to jump rope, I want to help you learn how to do a jump rope cross (or criss-cross, cross-over, whatever you want to call it). Why the jump rope cross? After the basic bounce, this would be in the running for the most widely seen jump rope skill. Check out the video below for our 60 second version of how to do it. For the video impaired, you can checkRead More →

Jump Rope Videos Shoot

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Every muscle in my body hurts! I can’t stand up or sit down without my quads screaming at me. I’m excited about the pain…why? Because I just finished shooting some new jump rope videos on single rope! I got to stare into some very bright lights for 3 days. We have over 250 gigabytes of raw jump rope footage I was able to rent my all time favorite studio in Tulsa, OK (Little Mountain Productions if you are in the are and are in need of one to rent). I’ve used their facility multiple times over the years, most notably when I shot Frozen. TheirRead More →

Jump Rope in Egypt in front of the Sphinx

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Every time you travel somewhere new, you usually have some sort of idea on what it will be like. Egypt was quite an experience on so many levels. The one that really stood out to me was what the state of jump rope in Egypt was like and how they got there. If you would like to read about the trip itself, jump over to my performance site for a run through on what we did. I want to focus on jump rope in Egypt. I was first contacted about putting on a series of jump rope shows outside of Cairo for a festival. TheyRead More →