Non-jumping skills division are
skills where no jump is generally
required to complete the skill. Coincidentally there
are also 7 skill categories in this division with a similar degree of
variety. Skill depicting each division are shown below. As
time allows, I will show diagrams and perhaps animations to help teach
many of these Non-jumping skills to help enhance your "jumping"
experience.
Whirls is a skill category
where the single rope is turned about the
body, but not under the feet. Deb and I are demonstrating
a "Front-back Figure-8 Whirl" together in the thumbnail to the left.
Many more complicated whirls are also possible.
Wraps are self explanatory:
skills where the rope wraps around some
part of the body. Deb is doing an
"Extend Waist Wrap" here. You can also hold on to both ends of the
rope and wrap the forearm, leg, waist and other areas.
Step-throughs are
skills where one leg passes through the
rope at a time. Here I'm
demonstrating an "Open Step-through." Various martial arts or dance
kicks can also be incorporated into this category of skills - see
the Step-through Skills
page.
Catches are skills where the rope is caught or
regrasped in some way during its execution.
There are several subcategories with Catches
as described further on the Catch
Skills page.
I'm executing a "Side Toss" to the left.
Other Catch skills include letting go
of one end and then retrieving it in some way, catch the middle of
the rope with a foot, etc.
Bolas are
skills where the rope is held in the middle
while the end(s) are turned. The
term "bolas" is a contraction of the term "boleadoras," the
Argentinian equivalent of the American Cowboys lasso. I
learned these skills from a Gaucho act at the show I work at during
my college years. Because swing rope ends poses a danger if they
have heavy handles, we don't include these in exercise classes.
Acrobatics are
skills where the person incorporates an acrobatic or gymnastics
skill without jumping through the rope.
This time exposure photo shows Deb doing a
"One-handed Walkover." Another example in this category
would be a Cartwheel - (about the only acrobatic skill that I can
do).
Miscellaneous skills do not fit into any of the other
categories. "The Foot Strike" shown
to the left is one example. No matter what scheme you develop, there
always seems to be a few that just don't fit the other categories.
If you haven't already done so, check out the
many Jumping skills as well.
