Jump rope pro? Who knew?

If you don't count jacks, at which I truly excelled, but which may be more game than sport, the only sport I was ever any good at was jump rope. As kids, we played it for hours - in the schoolyard, in the street in front of someone's house, wherever there was pavement, a long rope (typically a hank of clothesline), and a few girls. 

All in together girls, mighty fine weather girls...

Apples, peaches, pears and plums, jump out when your birthday comes...

High, low, medium, wavy, walkie, talkie, slowly, peppers...

Blue bells, cockle shells, eevie, ivy over...

Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn around...

Jump rope could involve a lot of girls, or as few as two if you had a post to tie one end of the jump rope to. (You could actually jump rope by yourself, but that just wasn't as much fun.)

I was very good at jump rope, maybe because I got more practice in, as I had to stay in the "jump out when your birthday comes" song until December. And I just loved it. The only part of it I never wanted to end up with was "steady ends," where you had to just turn the rope and didn't get to jump. I can't remember how anyone got stuck with steady ends, unless they called it because they had a sore ankle. Or just didn't want to jump. But for me? I was fine taking my turns turning, but steady ends was a big BOO.

I loved regular jump rope, including the fast-paced peppers. I loved Double Dutch. For a while, Chinese jump rope was the rage, and I loved that, too, although it didn't involve much jumping. 

Not that jump rope is an Olympic sport (not yet, anyway), and I might not have been Olympic caliber jump roper, but I was pretty darned good at it.

What I wasn't aware of is that there is such a thing as professional jump roping, but it appears that there has been such a thing since the 1990's. There's an American Jump Rope Federation, a U.S. National Team, and a national championship being held in Sioux Falls, SD this summer. Who knew?

Well, I sure didn't, and wouldn't have found out if I hadn't come across a piece in The Guardian about David Fisher, a professional jump roping trainer and performer. Fisher even writes kids' books "about a rope-wielding hero." And this past December, he became his very own "rope-wielding hero" when he saved a man and his dog from drowning in an Indiana ice pond. 

Authorities say Fisher sprang into action after his son, Felix, heard a man screaming for help. They realized a neighbor’s dog had gone on to an ice pond while chasing geese, causing him to fall in the water. In turn, an 18-year-old man went after the dog to try to save the animal – but ended up falling in, too.

That’s when Fisher grabbed his jump-rope bag, pulled out his double-Dutch ropes and bravely – if gingerly – stepped on to the ice, he told WRTV.

“I just instinctively went,” Fisher recounted. “I could hear the ice cracking underneath my feet.

“When I finally did arrive, I slung the rope to him, and he grabbed one handle, and bit by bit, we pulled him out of the ice pond,” said Fisher, whose son helped him complete the rescue.

The Fishers then took the neighbor and his dog into their home so they could warm up and wait for first responders to arrive, officials said.

Fisher had the tool to save the day on that occasion because he travels the world as a professional rope jumper, WRTV [Indianapolis] reported. (Source: The Guardian)

Fisher's the Rock 'n Rope Warrior, and he's got the website to prove it. Why he's even performed for Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin!

The only men I've ever seen jumping rope are boxers, but I'll be on the lookout for David Fisher.

Professional jump rope? Who knew?

If only this had been a career option for fifties kids. Maybe I could've been a contender...