Do any of you remember "Chinese Jump Rope"??? I am going to be relearning about this game, which consumed my life from 3rd to 5th grade, and to hear who played it, who remembers it and what if any variants you remember, so I can teach it to my own clan! It was the game where you had two people with the "rope" around their ankles, and one jumper in between them. It was a jumping game, not a twirling game. the rope was usually a piece of string, but if you were lucky, you might have an honest to goodness elastic Chinese jump rope. (Everything I can find online today is not how we played it....)
Here is what I remember:
In-out-side by side-on-in-out
I do not remember any of the "levels" besides "broomstick" and "wides"
If any of this is making sense to any of you, no matter what you have to contribute,even just memories please write me back!!!
6 comments:
Okay, I already emailed you...
Thought I'd add my thoughts here, though. We played this ALL the time when I was a kid! What you described is just what I remember. I don't really remember too much more -- but
we used two hooked together bungee cords when we didn't have a real Chinese jump rope. I don't think we ever used string. I do know the Chinese jump ropes are still available - we bought a few to teach this to the GS troop recently.
What brought this to mind for you? Interesting reminder of childhood :-)
We played something very similar to this in elementary school only the two people had broomsticks instead of rope. I know there's a name for it but I'm drawing a blank. Anyway two people moved the broomsticks together and apart in a coordinated way and the jumpers had to synchronize their steps accordingly, usually doing a pre-determined routine. Kind of like double dutch and also done to the accompaniment of jumprope-type rhymes.
We sometimes would use the CJR for jumping, but we did lots of neat things with it on our hands.
I probably can't describe what we did with any detail, but I still remember how to string it onto my hands, then we would pinch the X's that it made, circle it into or out of the middle of the rope & then that person would have it on their hands, so you'd take turns until it was unsolvable (or we messed it up!)
Hey, I remember doing that thing with your hands. What fun! This is taking me back to middle school. Oh wait, let's not go there. :)
When I was growing up in Ukraine, we played Chinese jump-rope all the time (though we didn't call it that). We used regular old elastics, like you use for sewing. I guess here in the states, you'd get them at a fabric or craft store, but there they were always just around because everyone altered or sewed their own clothes so much.
Here's what I remember about the game:
There was a series of moves, from simple to quite complex, that you had to work all the way through without making a mistake. The only one I still remember is something we called "bow" (as in how you'd tie a ribbon). We started out at ankle level and once you could complete all the moves at that level, the elastic was moved up a couple of inches, say to quarter-calf level. Then it would move up to mid-calf level, knee level, etc. I knew girls who could complete all the moves at hip level.
This was one of my favorite games and I was sad to see that it wasn't played much in the U.S. when I moved here at age 9.
The hand thing that Katie is referring to sounds like cat's cradle or some variation on it.
Same as Ukraine, in Hungary (no big surprise I guess since I grew up about an hour from the Ukrainian border LOL) Exactly as Alexandra described, with levels and all. We also just used regular elastic for sewing. You nagged your mom till she gave you a few meters, and you had instant friends in the schoolyard!!! What a treasure, just humble elastic. This is making me quite nostalgic for a gadget-and-screen-free childhood...
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