Much of the general world population likely does not know that jumping rope is a competitive sport. But anyone who has lived, spent time in or even driven through the town of Brewster, Mass. can't help but learn.
Affectionately known as "Skippy" by her friends and family, sophomore Sarah Douglass has competitively jumped rope since fourth grade, is a certified judge of jump roping competitions and is currently a member of the reigning World Champion Double Dutch team.
"After we won Worlds, the town had this little celebration thing," Douglass said of her small town on the Cape.
Though her team had successfully nixed the proposed idea of a ticker-tape parade, Brewster residents still made sure there were flags, streamers and congratulatory signs in honor of the win.
Douglass' career jumping rope began in third grade, when her elementary school gym teacher invited a jump rope team from Vermont to visit, in order to demonstrate their talent and to pump up the student body for the American Heart Association's program, "Jump for Heart."
Douglass and a number of the other young students were so impressed by the team's skills and athleticism that they too wanted to become involved in competitive jump roping.
"At the beginning it was really informal," Douglass said. "It was like 100 kids, twice a week in the morning, jumping around and skipping rope. It wasn't until fourth grade that we figured out what we were doing and realized that there was a competitive scene out there, at the state and at the national level."
Nine years later, Douglass became part of a four-member team, the Bayside Skippers, who traveled to Bisbon, Australia. There, they won the Federation Internationale de Saute a la Corde (International Rope Skipping Federation) World Championships in the event of Double Dutch Pairs Freestlye.
To prepare for the prestigious competition, Douglass and her teammates practiced for two to three hours, five days a week, from November to August. In addition, they competed in local, state, regional and national championships on a regular basis.
Douglass said that such practice was necessary to perfect a performance that is so closely judged. Freestyle Double Dutch, Douglass' main event, is a 75 second routine, involving two people moving the ropes and two jumpers.
It is judged on the basis of five criteria: First is the level of difficulty of the routine. Second is the number of tricks done in a row, without "dead jumps."
"You don't get any credit for just jumping in the rope," Douglass explained.
The third criterion is the presentation of the performance. "It's a presentation sport," Douglass said. "You have to make eye contact with the judges. You have to make it look as effortless as possible."
The fourth requirement involves the execution of a range of required technical elements. For example, the routine takes place in a 40 by 40 inch square, every foot of which must be covered by the jump ropers.
In addition, the jumpers must change pace a given number of times and must perform a certain number of established tricks.
The fifth criteria is recognized as mobility, which entails doing tricks both low to the ground and higher up.
"Jumping and going down to a push up is different than doing a round-off, where you are spinning upside-down," Douglass explained.
By her senior year of high school, Douglass had done enough push-ups and round-offs to be part of the winning team at Nationals, a long-term goal for the team as a whole. This event was particularly stressful for Douglass because her teammate, fellow Tufts sophomore Jessica Anderson - who writes for the Tufts Daily - jammed her little finger and was forced to spend the night before the competition in the emergency room.
The doctors instructed Anderson not to compete, but she could not let down her team.
"This was our senior year and probably our last time at Nationals," Douglass said. "So we were going to go ahead and do it. We just said go out there and do whatever you can."
The team's encouraging attitude proved very effective, especially for Douglass.
"I always get really nervous before meets - I usually spend the night before Nationals next to the toilet. But this took the focus away from me," Douglass said of Anderson's injury. "This is a muscle-memory sport. The best way to compete is to stop thinking and let your body do what it has been doing every day."
In focusing on her friend and teammate, Douglass was able to compete stress-free.
"It ended up being our best performance at Nationals," she said.
The team's experience prepared them for the World Championships, which were held the next month.
"Walking into Worlds, we knew that we had placed first in the country, and we knew that the U.S. had a really strong team, so that put us somewhere near the top," Douglass said. "But we didn't really have any expectations. So we were just like, 'Let's go out there and do it.'"
"It was kind of a big shock when we won," she added. "We were like, 'Are you kidding?'"
Since entering college and going their separate ways, the team has not had much time to regroup and compete.
And because the World Championships are a biannual event, Douglass and the team will soon be relinquishing their title as the reigning World Champions.
Although she may not jump rope every day anymore, Douglass has stayed physically active on the Tufts campus.
Upon entering Tufts, she joined the Women's Novice Crew team; this year, she moved up to Varsity.
"Sara is a great athlete," said sophomore crew teammate Caitlin Gallagher. "She always makes good decisions for herself and for the team."
