Alberta Skipping Association - Alberta's Leaders in Competitive and Recreational Rope Skipping



	About Skipping Competitive rope skipping has been an organized sport in Canada for over 30 years. In that time Canada has morphed into a world leader in the sport. Other top countries are the United States, Belgium, Japan and England. These countries, as well as many others, have formed the International Rope Skipping Federation. Competitive rope skipping combines elements of aerobics, syncronized dance, gymnastics and breakdancing all tied together with a jump rope. Championships are separated into two competitions: 1. Team Competition (teams of 4 or 5 athletes) 2. Master's Competition (individual events) The Team Competition has four single rope events and four Double Dutch events. Each competition has three kinds of events: 1. Speed Events (number of jumps in a given amount of time) 2. Power Events (multiple turns of the rope in a single jump) 3. Freestyle Events (routines judged on difficulty and creativity) Download the Canadian Rope Skipping Federation rulebook here. Interested in starting a club? Here's a How-To Guide: Find a Coach Find a Venue Find Some Athletes Find your Equipment What Equipment is Needed? Promote your New Club! Teaching the Skills Memberships Find a Coach The first step to starting a rope jumping team is to find a dedicated adult to lead the group. This person does not need to know how to rope jump and does not need fitness training in the beginning. Chances are that you'll know more skills than your athletes will at the beginning, so don't worry if you feel lost, scared, or find yourself looking around for advise when all your athletes are looking up at you. Show no fear, and they'll never see your bluff. In the early years of a rope jumping club the athletes will teach one and other. You just need to keep them on track. [top] Find a Venue You will need to find a place to put your athletes during your practices. Ideally you would find a school gymnasium that the administration would allow you to use a public service, but renting space is another option. Elementary schools are usually a good place start because they don't have as many school sports throughout the year as junior or senior high schools do. Alternatively you can explore other large open spaces such as community halls and legion halls. The most important thing to look for when finding a venue for your club is that the floor be a hardwood floor (basketball court). This floor cushions the athletes' jumps reducing knee and ankle problems. [top] Find Some Athletes Athletes can be any age, gender or creed. During the first few years of your club you should start accepting students in third grade or older. It is very time consuming to supervise and teach younger students, because they lack the coordination and focus that is required. Invite younger students to join your club when you're more established. Your athletes will be more experienced and able to help you with the younger ones. Try to appeal to both genders, as boys and girls will usually focus on different types of skills. This will encourage both genders to learn more skills. A good way to encourage boys to get involved is give them different uniforms that are in boy colours. You can also to appeal to them with the benefits of rope jumping in other sports such as football, boxing and wrestling. [top] Find Your Equipment Skip Time can supply you with all of your rope needs, but they aren't the only provider out there. There are several places you can purchase your equipment, most of which are online. Stores rarely, if ever, carry quality jump ropes. Don't be tricked into buying overly extravagant ropes such as weighted ropes, counting ropes or ropes with bearings. While the bells and whistles look great to a kid, the more complex the jump rope is, the more likely it is to break, and give your athletes problems. The best jump ropes for learning single rope skills are the short-handle jump rope (3.5 inch handle) with a medium-weight solid plastic cord and the long-handle jump rope (8 inch handle) with a light-weight solid plastic cord. You can also use beaded ropes which are heavier (which means they hurt more), but are easy to see and are great for maintaining a clean arc as they are turned. [top] What Equipment is Needed? Each of your athletes requires their own jump rope. A jump rope should not be shared because each athlete requires a different length. Sharing ropes will also cause tension at practices and waste time. It's a good idea to purchase a few extras in case a rope goes missing or a child grows out of it. You should also get at least one pair of Double Dutch ropes for every four athletes you have got. 12-foot ropes will be long enough for any team. Beaded ropes are more expensive, but are very easy to teach with. Learning to jump Double Dutch is only possible if your turners can turn the ropes properly. If the ropes are messy the jumper will never succeed, and it will become an exercise in frustration. Once your athlete's get the hang of turning Double Dutch ropes they can move from the beaded ropes to cloth ropes. In the beginning, most of your athletes will only be able to jump one rope at a time. Use one of the Double Dutch ropes as a long rope. At team should also have short beaded ropes for performances, but these can come later, after your club is more established. [top] Promote your New Club! The best way to create interest in your new club is by holding a demo for your school, community or area. Find an already established rope jumping club. If they know that you are interested in starting a new club they'll likely go to great lengths to schedule a demo for you. This demonstration will show your students what is possible with a jump rope, and provides a huge amount enthusiasm for you to capitalize on. If there are no rope jumping clubs in your area, you can still promote your new club. Do an old fashion pep rally. Get some students in the school to have jump-offs. Who can do the most jumps without missing, the most skills, the hardest skills, etc. Get the students to compete against some of their favorite teachers to add another element to the pep rally. Most importantly use energizing music and show tons of enthusiasm. It's infectious and makes kids want to get involved. [top] Teaching the Skills Your athletes will undoubtedly be very excited to get started. In order to keep them interested for more than a few months you'll need to be able to challenge them with new skills. To get them started use the rope jumping club who helped you with your kick-off event. They can come to your club and work with your athletes to teach them the basics. You likely won't have a budget to pay for the workshop, so you can charge your new athletes $5.00 - $10.00 each for a full day. It's well worth the extra spending! If there is no team in your area, there are numerous teaching videos for teaching the basics of rope jumping skills available on the internet. These will show your athletes new skills that they may have never thought of before. You can also contact your local Heart and Stroke Foundation office. When you run the Jump Rope for Heart program you get free ropes (usually 35 short-handled ropes and one set of plastic Double Dutch ropes), and posters of tons of different skills. These will keep your athletes busy for at least the first year. You can also download the Alberta Skipping Coaches Manual for skill ideas and strategies for progressing your athletes appropriately. The best way for your athletes to develop their skills is to meet other athletes from other teams. Most Canadian provinces hold regional and provincial competitions as well as large workshops and camps. When your athletes start developing relationships with other clubs they will learn faster, stay in the sport longer and maximize the social benefits of rope jumping. [top] Memberships Several provinces in Canada have provincial organizations that govern competitions, workshops and camps. Click on the province you live in to find your provincial rope jumping organization: BC/Yukon, Alberta , Ontario , Quebec , Nova Scotia If you live in another province or region in Canada click here to visit the Canadian Rope Skipping Federation. If you live outside of Canada , visit www.irsf.org to find your national jump rope organization. [top] You can learn more about memberships in Alberta and Canada here.