Rope skipping is competed at EC and WC level. There aren’t many competitions in the sport in Finland yet, but Finns have already participated in the European Championships. The sport is also suitable for fitness enthusiasts.
Rope skipping is a popular sport in the world. In Finland, it is still in the development stage, but there are more and more enthusiastic enthusiasts all the time.
– Jumping rope is suitable for everyone regardless of age and fitness level, from children to the elderly. You don’t only have to jump with the rope, but you can do all kinds of other tricks with it, says someone who has been rope skipping for a few years Helena Lindberg.
In addition to trick jumping, one sport is speed step, which can be done alone or with a partner. It measures how fast you can jump.
Another form of competition is freestyle, where you can do different tricks alone, in pairs or in a group.
– In general, rope skipping consists of single rope and team skipping. Single is jumping on your own rope, so that you are in control. Team jumping is jumping on a long rope with which you can do many tricks, explains the German coach Nicolai Lorkewho works in the sport’s European umbrella organization, ERSO (European Rope Skipping Organization).
Lorke was invited to come to Finland to train enthusiastic coaches in order to get more enthusiasts for the sport in the country.
– This form of sport is growing and we are trying to organize it so that it becomes more of a sport. We are trying to activate the sport in many countries, says Lorke, who is also a successful rope skipping athlete.
Lorke has been practicing the sport for 17 years and has won many EC and WC medals in the German team.
There are no competitions in Finland yet
According to Lorke’s estimate, the sport has around 50,000 enthusiasts worldwide. Jumping rope is also competed at EC and WC level.
– Belgium, China and Australia are the hardest countries of the sport in the world. This year, the European rope skipping championships will be held in Bratislava, Slovakia, and about fifteen countries will participate, Lorke estimates.
In Finland, rope skipping is still in its infancy, but club activities already exist.
– We founded a club called Rope Skipping Helsinki because we want to bring this sport to Finland. We have such a group of 20 people and we have been training together for a few years, says a participant in the European Championships Eva Norros.
Rope skipping has previously been organized as a demonstration sport at the events of the Finnish Gymnastics Federation.
– I saw rope skipping for the first time at Gymnaestrada in Helsinki in 2015. Then I got excited and went to a rope skipping camp in Sweden, describes Norros, who has a background in gymnastics, and says that if you want tougher competitions, the closest ones can be found in Sweden.
– In Finland we don’t really have competitions, but in Europe the level is tough and the best European jumpers also do well in the World Championships, Norros knows.
Rope skipping is popular on social media
When watching jumpers practice and their tricks, the question comes to mind: how long does it take to learn tricks?
– If you have some kind of sports background, you can get started pretty quickly. but the most difficult tricks have to be practiced several times a week to start learning them, Norros knows.
– This is an easy sport to learn, as long as you start with basic jumps and then move on to easy tricks, encourages coach and trainer Lorke.
Norros wants to educate people about the sport and is eager to learn more about the sport.
– I would like help on what kind of classes would be good and how to plan the training season, as well as tips on how to get others excited about training.
You can start the sport even before school age. However, many active jumpers in the Rope Skipping Helsinki club are much older.
– In a few years you can get to the level where you can participate in the Games, Norros thinks.
There are spectacular trick videos on Some, which especially get young people excited.
– Rope skipping has its own social media community, and there are many people on Instagram, for example, who film instructional videos for others. Some practice tricks for their own pleasure, some compete.
Jumping rope is suitable for fitness enthusiasts and athletes of various sports
Jumping rope is a familiar exercise for boxers, among others. Other sports have also used rope jumping as an exercise. A New Zealand endurance running coach who once visited Finland in the 1970s Arthur Lydiard urged athletes to jump rope, as it is an effective exercise.
– As a fitness sport, it’s really great and you can raise your heart rate to quite high intensity during hard workouts, says the rope skipping sport organizer Olli Toivola, who also trains for endurance running.
When you think about the body, it develops lower body strength and flexibility. If we go to physiology, then the improvement of blood circulation and metabolic recovery in the legs. It has countless benefits.
The basic jumping of the sport is quite simple. Jumping rope also has many restorative elements and is well suited for athletes as a restorative exercise.
– The recovery of the legs is greatly enhanced and one big thing is that the innervation of the legs improves with the help of jumping rope.
Toivola wants to share the sport’s many benefits in sports circles.
– I am going to work really hard to spread this sport in Finland. It is suitable for fitness enthusiasts, athletes of various sports and, above all, children and young people.
Fitness jumping is effective and even a small amount of jumping helps, for example, in weight loss.
– If you jump two or three times a week for a quarter or half an hour, it has a huge benefit for the body as a whole, Toivola knows.