FUN & GAMES
Jump Roping
Games for exercise and fun!
Have you ever watched the Bouncing Bulldogs in action? Based in Chapel Hill-Durham, NC, the Bouncing Bulldogs have performed around the U.S. and in countries around the world. The Bouncing Bulldogs' innovative jumping style includes fancy footwork, flips, and other acrobatic skills with ropes of various lengths. The team has won more than 200 national championship awards in both single and double dutch events, and has 18 world champions. Learn more about the Bouncing Bulldogs, visit www.bouncingbulldogs.org. It's a lot of fun to watch the amazing jump ropers leap through the air! The Bouncing Bulldogs inspire us to grab a jump rope and just start jumping for fun and exercise. You can also have fun jump roping with your friends or your family playing jump roping games. Here are some jump roping game ideas you can try at home or on the playground. Freeze Jump Rope A great way to jump and have fun with friends is to play a game called “Freeze Jump Rope.� For this game, you need some friends, upbeat music and jump ropes. To begin, have everyone who is playing spread out with their jump ropes so they have enough space to jump. One person in the game will need to be the person controlling the music. When everyone is ready, the music controller will play the music and everyone will start to jump. The jumpers can do any tricks or steps as they would like, as long as they keep jumping with their rope. When the music controller is ready, they will stop the music and immediately, the jumpers must freeze. The music controller must watch carefully to see who is the last to freeze. When the music controller picks the last person who froze, that person will now help the music controller with their job. Continue this until there is only one person left and they will be declared the winner! Have fun!
Pirate Ship ARRRGGG MATEY, jump into the fun and play Pirate ship with all your friends! It's important to be active, and that is easier to do when you are playing fun games. Pirate ship is a simple jump rope game consisting of few rules. The first thing you need is a really long rope, so all players can fit comfortably inside. Pick two people to become the turners. Each turner will stand on one side of the long rope while the rest of the players line up alongside the rope. Turners will call, "ready, set, go!" and the players will begin jumping up and down at the same time. They will continue to jump until the rope catches someone's foot. When this happens, the player who missed will "jump ship" by exiting the long rope and call out some kind of pirate lingo. For example, "arrrg" or "ahoy." The game will continue until there is only one pirate left, that player becomes the captain. Feel free to add obstacles for the players by asking them to do tricks while in the rope, jumping on one foot, spinning in a circle, touching the ground, to make it more interesting. Jump roping games contributed by: Ilana Fried, (9-year team member of the Bouncing Bulldogs Jump Roping Team and student at East Chapel Hill High School); Isabel Osborne (9-year team member and student at the Durham School of the Arts); Anna Reeb (9-year team member and student at Carrboro High School); Rebeccah Musson (8year team member and student at East Chapel Hill High School).
JUMP! Another fun jump rope game you can play is "JUMP." This game is similar to the popular basketball game HORSE. JUMP is a fun way to work on different skills and can be played with any number of people. One person starts out and does any skill they want, such as, turning in a circle, squatting down, jumping on one foot, side swings, or any other jump roping skills that person may know. Every other person playing the game attempts to do the skill that the first person did, and whoever does not complete the skill receives a J. The next person in the group does a different skill, and once again everybody attempts to do it, and again whoever does not complete the skill receives a J, if a person already had a J then they continue spelling out JUMP. The players continue going through the group doing different tricks, and spelling out JUMP. The last person to not have JUMP is the winner! Remember to have fun and try to learn new skills from your friends!
The Bouncing Bulldogs have a new uniform! The Bouncing Bulldogs recently debuted their brand new uniform, designed by Alexander Julian. Read about Alexander Julian's designs and his Chapel Hill roots on page 11.
June 2014 www.CHillKids.com/news
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