Tricks and talent, with a rope

“Not last night but the night before, 24 robbers came knocking at my door...”

But it wasn’t burglaries happening in the foothills last weekend, but rather a performance by the Palpitating Panthers jump rope team at the Oktoberfest celebration.

The team of 17 young athletes from the greater La Cañada area hopped, skipped and jumped their way around the stage to show the crowd of onlookers that jump rope is more serious a sport than the playground rhymes remembered with the game would suggest.

La Cañada claims one of only three Southern California youth jump rope teams. Initially founded in 1990 as an after-school program through the La Cañada Unified School District, the Palpitating Panthers program became an independent non-profit organization in 2004.

The current team has 17 members who practice and compete year-round in two minor and two major jump rope competitions, including the Amateur Athletic Union’s Junior Olympic Games.

Co-coach Laurie Moses is very familiar with the sport and has seen its popularity increase throughout her 18 years of jumping. She actually starting jumping on the very first Panther team and came back in 2004 to stay involved as a coach.

“Jump rope is really growing as a sport, across the United States and other countries,” said Moses, a teacher with the Los Angeles Unified School District. “It’s popular because it is anything you want it to be. You can’t experiment as much as other sports.”

In addition to the physical exercise that is jumping rope, the new interest in the sport comes from its performance aspect — rope tricks, special jumping techniques and routines performed to music. Typing “jump rope performance” into YouTube yields nearly 50 video clips of teams and individuals from around the world performing amazing tricks and acrobatics with a simple jump rope.

“You can do flips with a rope, try dancing, do karate moves... Anything is possible with jump roping, that’s what makes it so fun,” Moses said. “Plus it’s cheap and doesn’t take a lot of space.”

Team member Emily Fisher, 12, was one of the athletes to perform at Saturday’s show.

“I love the performance,” she said. “My favorite trick is the frog, where you jump in a hand-stand.”

The Panthers also demonstrated a push-up maneuver, where the jumper does a push up and then moves quickly upright while jumping over the rope, and the “Chinese wheel,” which involves two jumpers sharing two ropes to do various jumps and partner tricks.

In competition (the Panthers’ next one isn’t for a few months) the team performs in two areas: individual and team. Both categories have contests in power moves (i.e. how many rotations of the rope can a jumper get in one jump), speed moves (how many jumps per minute) and freestyle — which incorporates all the fancy moves and tricks. Team competition also has a “double dutch” division where two ropes are turned by two people while various others jump in, out, around and through the turning ropes.

Katie Lazo, 17, has been jumping with the Panthers since first grade when she joined because her older sister was involved.

“Jump rope is really unique,” Lazo said. “I like competing, but the community is also really great.

“I have friends from all over the world that I have met through jump rope.”

Coach Moses agrees that the community makes jump rope more than just the performance.

“At competitions, everybody shares their talents. Someone will do a trick and someone will go up and ask, ‘Can you show me how to do that?’ And so everyone teaches each other,” Moses said. “The community is still so small that you develop a very supportive network between the athletes.”

And that’s not just between girls. Many male athletes have found jump rope a rewarding hobby, and their natural athleticism lends itself toward the physical demands of the sport. In fact, Panther Ethan Angold took home a gold medal at the last West Coast Junior Olympic Games.

In between practice and competitions, the Palpitating Panthers have performed at community festivals, for school districts who are looking into healthy alternative programs for kids, and even for half-time shows for the Cal State Long Beach basketball team.

This weekend, the Panthers are hosting a jump rope workshop for all interested persons. The day-long event will include instruction, team-building and a performance by the team.

“There are power moves, beauty moves in jump rope,” Moses said. “And then there’s the family aspect. It really can be whatever you want.”

For more information about the Panthers and competitive jump rope, visit www.ppjrt.com or www.usajrf.org.