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From time to time, I think we all suffer from the notion that we can have everything we want, regardless of the contradictions between our desires. When my wife and I got married one of the first things we made a decision on was what our immediate and long-term financial goals would be. As with most young couples, we had the dream of paying off our house, traveling around the world and some other forgotten ideals. Soon after we got hitched, we signed up for an intense school tour where we spent 3 years traveling around the country performing around 375 shows per year. Awesome!Read More →

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Being a Professional Jump Roper has many perks and the one thing that everyone assumes is summed up in the most common question people ask me, ‘You must be able to eat whatever you want, right?’ Sure I can, but it’s not what you think. A few years ago when I started my business, I worked part time as a personal trainer. At the time I was either at the gym training people, jumping rope, unicycling, lifting weights or playing racquetball. I spent about half of my non-sleeping time working out. My body fat dropped into the 4 percent range and to be honest, IRead More →

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Once you have your Double Dutch turning down, it’s time to add a jumper. I do want to stress the importance of working on your turning first, if you can’t turn, nobody can jump. In fact, if you have 2 good turners, almost anyone can jump inside Double Dutch. Not too long ago I performed at a few different special needs schools in the Northeast. When I called up a couple volunteers during the show and said we were going to have them jump Double Dutch, I could see some of the workers grimace thinking there was no way their kids could do it. However,Read More →

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Being able to incorporate different elements and styles is one area that really makes jump rope stand out. Over the years I’ve seen everything from standard ‘boxer style’ skipping to interpretive dance. Some of it looked awesome, some didn’t and some was just plain weird. Whether I liked it or not, none of it was wrong. A jump rope is probably the most eclectic piece of equipment you could ever buy. Most sports just don’t allow the variety and creativity that can be found with a rope. A number of years ago I was involved with one of the first rope related plays that wasRead More →

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I love walking. It’s amazing how much of a workout it can give you and yet so many people miss out on it because they drive everywhere. Imagine the extra calories you could burn if you just took the time to walk somewhere everyday. I’ve seen people drive across the street just to pick up their groceries before driving home to sit and watch TV. Stop being lazy and get out there and walk! I digress, anyway, I was taking a walk one day early in the morning around the neighborhood where my in-laws live. As I was coming up to one of the yards,Read More →

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Some time ago I had a performance in Hayfork, CA. If you’ve never had the opportunity to drive through NorCal, it’s quite an adventure, especially if you get off the interstate and drive along the mountain roads. The roads are quite windy and can become very steep at a moments notice. Most of the drive was spent at about 30 mph as I was pulling a loaded down trailer. One thing I found interesting is that I rarely touch the brake when driving downhill through the mountains, but I found myself stuck behind a guy that practically stood on his brake pedal through every downhillRead More →

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This is a follow up article to ‘5 Steps to Jump Rope Like a Pro‘. The first 5 got you started jumping rope on the right foot, these 5 will take you from being able to do the skills, to looking like a pro while you do them. Variety is the spice of life Or so the saying goes anyway. Work on a variety of skills. You can do footwork, crosses, multiple unders, rope releases, swings, wraps and a plethora of other skills. Don’t just work on only one type of trick, take time to learn a little from each category. To the uninitiated, mostRead More →

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Before I went full time into my Jump Rope career I spent a year working as a personal trainer. In case you don’t know what a personal trainer does I’ll fill you in really quick. Basically a trainer is there to help you with your workout (and give you the motivation to actually workout). If you’ve never been to a gym before you may be unaware of how certain pieces of equipment are supposed to work, a trainer will give you instruction on how these machines operate, proper exercise techniques, frequency of exercises, etc. Generally you hire one to work with you one-on-one to developRead More →

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Today marks the unofficial anniversary (at least in my memory) of the introduction of one product that was going to revolutionize the sports world. Roughly 22 years ago we saw the advent of something that would have you jumping higher, running faster, changing directions quicker and would help you achieve a fitness level that would blow your competition away. This product was aptly called, the Strength Shoe. Just one thing…it was totally unnecessary. How often do we see these wonder products and end up wondering whether they really could live up to the hype they’re built around. I don’t want to rag too harshly onRead More →

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In: Fitness Articles, Single Rope
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Some time ago I came across an article/study titled "Jogging Not As Good As Soccer For Burning Fat". The original link I had to the article has since gone cold, but I’m sure it’s out there in the internet somewhere (in case you want to read the original, I will try to find a proper link if possible). **I found the link** I want to highlight a few of the findings and then extrapolate on them a bit because of the very interesting insights this study offers. First off, this study followed 14 untrained men for 3 months. This group had 2-3 weekly rounds ofRead More →