This summer I released my first iPhone game, Jump Fuzzy Jump, with the help of a friend and programmer. Selling only for .99 cents Jump Fuzzy Jump started strong. For a small indie company and unknown brand the game sold well the first month and earned a 5 star rating with 15 reviews. After the first month reality came crashing down. Sales flat lined, with my programmer busy with his own projects, and me without enough money to hire another programmer that was all she wrote... or so I thought.
Around the end of the first month Jump Fuzzy Jump was for sale, I was being contacted by people in a community I had no idea existed, the competitive jump rope community!
That is right, jump rope is a sport, and a competitive one at that. There are many different ways one can competitively jump. You could speed jump, (see how many times you can successfully jump your rope in a specific time limit.) jump singles (one person, one rope), double dutch ( 2 ropes held by 2 other people), Freestyle (combine gymnastics with jump rope to perform different tricks), or participate in a new way that has been taking the world by storm which is mixing dance with jump rope. Whichever way these athletes decide to participate in their sport, it always is visually stunning. Then why is the sport not enjoying more main stream attention?
Well the popularity of the sport isn't for a lack of teams. There are a lot of different Jump Rope teams around the world. Each team has a fun and unique name, like WeJumpRope, HotDogUSA, and the Green Belt S.I.T.Y. Stars. The sports lack of popularity isn't for a lack of tournaments either. Every year each country has different leagues that a different number of tournaments that the teams participate in leading up to one tournament held nationally. The problem is similar to the one we are facing in our economic and political system today: one of establishment. The people who run the events and the leagues are either comfortable with the size of the sport as it is, and/ or they don't fully know how best to use todays technology to promote the sport properly. This has caused the sport to become a hobby sport where most athletes are young, not continuing past high school.
However, there are some unique cases, and Brandon Harrison, is one such case. Starting jumping at the age of 5, Brandon was inspired by, and learned from, his mother. Brandon's mother was a world champion jumper, who now coaches the team Brandon jumps for, the Greenbelt S.I.T.Y. stars. Now at the age of 21, Brandon is a world champion jumper like his mother. He holds 12 trophies and the record for being one of the top 3 jumpers in the United States.
How am I this knowledgeable about the sport? Well it is all due to the passion and motivation displayed by Brandon Harrison. Brandon was one of the first jumpers to reach out to me this summer. His passion for his sport motivated me to watch a bunch of jump rope competition videos, as well as ask him and other jumpers any and all questions I had. After learning what I could and seeing how the sport could and should grow, Brandon and I talked realizing we shared the same vision for the sport. We want to grow the sport into one that had more main stream appeal, while providing jumpers the ability to make money wether they are actively competing or not. Finally Brandon and I see the sport reaching the olympic level.
It is with the help of Brandon that I am proud to release Jump Rope Jam. The website is a platform for the sport of jump rope and it's athletes. Along with the website we have also released the first jump rope podcast, which is already available for download in iTunes. As the website grows we hope to have more jumpers join us to post more content about their sport and themselves.
Please check it out for yourselves! Suggestions and any help offered will be greatly appreciated