If you participate or have experienced the joy of Double Dutch now or in the past 50++ years, let us hear from you.
Tell us about your Double Dutch Experience.
To get started here's some childhood memories from our coaches:
As a child, double dutch had a special meaning in my life. I can remember how me and the girls of Peabody Court Projects in St. Louis, Mo., thought that we were the badest jumpers around and would challenge anyone who stepped into our court. I don't remember jumping with a rope but, a white wired clothes line that would hurt, if you missed and it hit you. Friendships were made, broken and mended over Double Dutch. We jumped early in the morning and late in the evening until the street lights came on. We all wanted to out jump the other and be good at turning and jumping...one foot, two foot, hot peppers, turning around, touch the ground, jumping until your side hurt, running in and out, counting, singing, rhyming, laughing and just having good ole FUN!
--Coach Nandi (Atlanta)
As a child, double dutch had a special meaning in my life. I can remember being at school lunch time waiting for the whistle to blow to go outside and jump double dutch. We had teams and would compete against one another. We would challenge in speed, free style, and most of all timing. It was a very fun activity that we looked forward to playing on a daily basics. I remember playing double dutch in my neighborhood with one of my cousins and tying the rope to a gate because we didn't have another person to play with. We were always excited to jump double dutch and show off our free style tricks that we created.
-- Coach Keya, (Atlanta)
As a child, double dutch had a special meaning in my life." I can remember the long summer days where my friends and I grabbed our blue, pink, or white clothes lines to jump. We'd choose the rope, teams, and a person to serve as the "official" counter. The competition than began to determine the longest jumper -- singles and doubles. Our most prized possession where tricks involving criss-crossing, pop-ups, turnarounds, blind jump, etc. We'd jump until we could barely breathe. Soon after, we'd get some treats from the ice-cream man circling the neighborhood, and get right back out to the ropes! The best part of all was that the ropes brought everyone together -- girls from other apartment buildings/complexes, cousins visiting from further north and south. No matter who you were or where you came from, the ropes gave unspoken permission to join the game. For me, the ropes played a significant role in forming kindred spirits that seemed to last forever.
--Coach Tonya (Atlanta)
Growing up in the inner city of Philadelphia and being excited about the end of the school year so I could join all of my friends ‘on the block’ each morning to begin our day of ‘play’ . Like clockwork, we would gather outside to talk and catch up about what we will do in the summer time, who’s going to overnight camp, who’s going off to visit grandma or distant cousins, , who’s going to vacation bible school. No matter what our plans were, we always made time to pull out the ‘rope’ which was moms clothes line, and started jumping in the street. The street was our playground full of roller skating, bicycling, and basketball playing, tops and King Ball. Double dutch jumping was our favorite pastime, it was fun, intense and ‘serious business’. We jumped’ hard’ with the one goal in mind....to do well. For us this meant not getting hit across the face with that rope, or not stopping too short because that meant that you couldn’t ‘jump’. The superstars were those who could do ‘moves’ in the rope like singing and counting while cris crossing feet and jumping really fast as the turners tried to whip that rope ‘round and ‘round with a clap, clap, clap, clap sound as fast as they could. The jumper would jump in perfect alignment, her eyes fixed on the jumpers hands as her feet tapped the hot concrete sidewalk or the soft melting tar streets in perfect rhythm, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap tap, her back was bent and her arms were in running position as if she was a track star. Everyone was silent, she jumped until the turners couldn’t turn any more from exhaustion, she was a hero in the rope, that girl could j-u-m-p!!!
--Coach Nkeka (Atlanta)
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