Jumping for fitness and fun

Straddles, twisters, double under, egg beater and mad dog.

Name any one of these terms to a group of about 30 local children, and they know what you're talking about. The terms describe tricks the group can perform using a jump rope.

Eleven-year-old Iliana Arevalo of Cape Girardeau has mastered most of the basic jump rope skills. Now she's trying to figure out how to do a push-up on the ground as two people swing two jump ropes around her.

"There's a lot of neat tricks you can do with a jump rope," she said.

Arevalo is part of a group of homeschooled children who meet once a week to master the sport, or art, of jumping rope.

Morgan Arthur demonstrated the crab walk in Double Dutch.

Almost five years ago, the children's parents took them to a local gym for exercise and fellowship. After several months of playing the same games, like basketball and soccer, the children became bored with the same routine. One day a parent handed the children jump ropes, and they were hooked.

"It was like a sport they were never introduced to before," said Andrea Dodge of Jackson, who homeschools her three children, Sarah, 15, Aaron, 13, and Levi, 6.

The parents ordered books and videos about jumping rope from USA Jump Rope, a national organization that promotes the sport.

"We didn't know what we were doing at first," said Iliana's mother, DeAnna Arevalo. "We were having to teach ourselves what certain jumps were."

The group of homeschooled children meet from 1 to 3 p.m. every Tuesday at Cape Bible Chapel's activity center for jump rope practice. The children are divided into two groups: The beginners are called the Club, and the more experienced jumpers are called the Team.

Levi Dodge jumped Double Dutch as instructor Mary Ray turned the ropes behind him.

Members of the Team want to demonstrate their skills to people throughout the area. They have performed jump rope shows at area high school basketball game halftime's and last year's annual Christmas Parade of Lights in Cape Girardeau. Last week they jumped at the Jump Rope for Heart, a fund-raiser for the American Heart Association.

Most of the children say jumping rope is more physically demanding than any other sport they've ever done.

Aaron Dodge, 13, has been jumping for almost five years. "It's a good physical activity, and it looks really cool," he said. "Jumping rope is more physically demanding than soccer because in soccer, you're not using your arms."

Mary Ray of Cape Girardeau leads the group of jumpers through their warm-up each week at Cape Bible Chapel's activity center. Ray, along with Arevalo and Dodge, coordinates the children's practices and performances.

"The kids seem to pick up the skills pretty easily. I'm still trying to learn," said Ray, whose 9-year-old daughter, Noelle, participates with the group.

The parents of the homeschooled children said their main goal of the jump rope group was to promote physical fitness, but they hope to teach their children even more.

"Our ultimate goal is to glorify God through exercise," Arevalo said.

Before each jump rope practice the children say a prayer together. And their team T-shirts promote an important message from the Bible: "Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men." (Colossians 3:23)

"It's a lot of fun, but it makes you really tired," Noelle Ray said about jumping rope. "I like to do it because it's something you can learn and become really good at."

jfreeze@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 246