The Rigors of the Rope

There's a saying, and a movie, that allude to white men's inability to jump. The saying includes nothing about kids between ages seven and fourteen, and rightly so.

Last week, the Wilton Library hosted a showing of the documentary film Jump!, a well-made look into the burgeoning popularity of jump roping as a national sport and subculture. But what helped the film really hit home was what preceded it.

The Moon Jumpers, a jump roping team from Newtown, Conn., showed how the sport is catching on with kids at a young age in Wilton's own backyard, delighting a whooping and applause-filled crowd with a variety of spins, rhythm and snappy moves.

As the story goes, Pamela Patterson and her daughter Kristina were living in Rhode Island about five years ago when Kristina started looking for a new activity.

"She had tried ice skating, soccer and baseball," Patterson said, "but nothing really grabbed her."

The two had something of an epiphany while bouncing through channels on tv and coming upon a jump roping competition on ESPN. Patterson suggested to her daughter that they look for a jump roping club in the area for her to join, something Kristina was amenable to as she had just had some serious success in the jump roping unit in her gym class (by Patterson's account, she "could jump about ten times without tripping, so she was excited").

They found such a club, the Lincoln Lions, which Kristina joined, despite its being a 40 minute drive away and technically functioning as part of a different elementary school. But those facts didn't dissuade either of them and Kristina got hooked.

Fast forward a year and the two moved to Newtown, where Patterson decided to found her own jump roping team. She admittedly had no experience as a coach, but "had learned a lot from the Lincoln Lions and...thought the classes were really successful," and with the support of her town's Parks and Recreation department, she had over 40 kids in the two classes she taught during that first quarter.

Those classes have segued into an official jump rope team, the Moon Jumpers, that consists of around ten kids who go to competitions and perform around the area, plus anyone else that joins the group each quarter just to try it out as a Parks and Recreation class. There are both boys and girls on the team, all between the ages of 7 and 14, and they practice twice a week for one hour in the evenings, "with a few extra practices right before a performance or competition," Patterson said.

The team is predominantly focused on having fun, staying fit and helping the kids "develop teamwork and creativity skills," Patterson said. But that doesn't mean there aren't some serious goals in mind.

Moon Jumper Doug Raigosa, for instance, represented his team at the National Jump Roping Championships in Texas last year in the one minute speed jumping category.

"He was the first Moon Jumper to go to Nationals so we were really proud," Patterson said.

Aside from Nationals, the team competes and performs at a variety of other events and gatherings, including "fun" competitions in Massachussets and New Hampshire, an all-day workshop hosted by the Forbes Flyers Jump Rope Team in Torrington, Conn., and the USA Jump Rope Regional Tournament, which Patterson said will be held in New Hampshire in April this year.

The Moon Jumpers proved precisely what the film that followed attempted to show: that jump roping, far from a gym class afterthought, is becoming (if it hasn't already) a serious national sport with an avid following. Patterson's group was impressive as evident in the accompanying video, especially considering their young ages. The team members that performed were Brianna DelGiudice, Daisy Zheng, Doug Raigosa, Julie Raigosa, Thomas Gavel, Rebecca Gavel and Kristina Patterson, all between 9 and 14 years old.

And perhaps the best thing about jump rope, especially for anyone interested in becoming a part of it? It's the athletes that inspire and challenge each other most.

"I think jump rope is one of the most perfect sports," Patterson said. "The kids think up their own individual routines, and they work together to come up with pairs and Double Dutch routines...the kids grow in their leadership abilities. The older, more experienced jumpers teach the newer team members. This is important because I'm not able to do most of the tricks these kids can do!"

For those who would like more information, Patterson recommended www.usajumprope.com and http://jumpropevideos.com/ as good resources.