The Origin of the Sport

At the end of the sixties (the 1960's) nobody had ever heard of the sport of Rope Skipping (because it hadn't been developed yet). Everybody of course, knew how to jump a rope. Richard Cendali, who lived in Boulder (Colorado, USA) was no exception. Being a football-player, his coach submitted him to work on his condition. 'How should I do this?'. 'Well.... You can choose between running up and down the stairs of the stadium for an hour or take a rope and jump for 15 minutes.', he responded. The choice was obvious. Being a football-player, jumping a rope was for girls; he started running up and down the stairs. No problem until snow came down and made the surface slippery, causing him some serious problems. '...Or take a rope and jump for 15 minutes.', he remembered. So he did.

But soon the rope had no challenge to him. Just jumping up and down was no fun at all. So he started doing Criss-Crosses, Side Swings, Double and Multiple Unders in-between his sessions. The sessions increased, both in time and difficulty, and 'fun' was introduced inside the rope. His number of tricks grew and because he also was, and still is, teacher P.E., Richard thought it was time to introduce 'Rope Skipping' to his students. They were enthusiastic about the rope and the tricks and started inventing new tricks inside the single rope. They took the long rope and the Double Dutch, creating all kind of new tricks, combinations and possibilities. Rope Skipping was born.

In the early seventies (1970's) Richard Cendali started spreading Rope Skipping throughout the whole of USA and later the rest of the world. Everywhere he went, he brought hundreds and later thousands of ropes. He was given housing and meals and was offered the possibility of selling his rope after his workshops to earn back his costs for the trip. The money that was earned from this was used for spreading the sport. His students became the Rope Skipping Display Team and travelled together with him over the whole of the world.