History Brief

Now most of you know me well enough to know parts of my past. But for those of you that don't, here is a little look back in time.
Growing up I was on a skipping team for a solid 11 years of my life. I loved every single part of that sport. (yes it IS a sport.) And before you start making assumptions no we did not just bounce around chanting "had a little sportscar in 1978 took it around the cooooooorner and slammed on the breaks. policeman stopped me and put me in jail, all i had was ginger ale, how many bottles did i drink..1...2...3.." ok wait a minute. Just because I know that rhyme does not mean anything...hmm..Im really not supporting my argument to well. But I don't care about that, because once you watch these videos I will have made a believer out of you.

First of all, let me give you a quick breakdown on how a skipping competition goes down:
They are usually 2 days long. First day is generally speed and endurance. In this catagory there is both single and team events. An example of an event is single rope 30 second speed. My best time if i remember correctly was 168 revolutions in 30 seconds. If you don't understand how fast that is, i suggest you try running in one spot for 30 seconds counting only one leg. You may be lucky to break 70. You then take that number and times it by two. (obviously so you can count for both feet.) The same rules apply to team events, except for it is done in double dutch and one person is skipping working their ass off and two people are turning the ropes at lightning speed. An example of another event is called "power" and it is where you do as many double or triple unders as you can until you mess up.

Second day is generally the freestyle day. This is where it really gets creative. As a single skipper your routines are usually close to a minute long, and you must pack as MANY of the hardest tricks you can into this tiny window of opportunity. Points are knocked off for mess ups and added for difficulty, use of space, creativity, time to music, and certain other technicalities (much like figure skating. including the politics.) Same rules apply to team, you are just in the double dutch format with either one single skipper or two skippers in the middle.

Now that you have been briefed i think you are almost ready.

I attended numerous competitions throughout my time on the Rhythm Ropers and closer to the end of my career, placed in the top 3 at provinicial and national levels for the greater part of my performances. (as a single and as part of a team.) It is something that I am proud of and I can brag about it if i want. I gotta lot of blue kickin around in the ribbons and metal bin i have stashed away. I kicked some serious ass. So for all you non believers out there, Ima guna make a believer out of yous. If more people skipped with the intensity and drive that these next videos do, maybe skipping would finally be recognized as a real sport. (even though it already is a real sport, I made that very clear at the beginning. I' just saying maybe now people will ACKNOWLEDGE that.) The only vids I could find on youtube so far are all double dutch freestyle, but its a good start. Anyways, i guess you can watch the videos now. I really miss skipping, can you tell?

Rope skipping