Double Dutch Jump Rope

Double dutch is a type of rope-skipping that uses two ropes. There are two rope-turners and usually one-rope jumper though for added difficulty, there can be two jumpers or more.

Each rope-turner holds the end of a rope in each hand. The ropes should be the same length but they don't have to be the same color, in fact, having two different colored ropes can help a jumper keep track of which rope is going where.

The left-hand rope is turned clockwise and the right hand rope is turned counter-clockwise in an eggbeater motion. the jumper must clear both ropes as they hit the ground, jumping quickly so that it appears she is running in place.

Jump rope lore has it that the game may have evolved from the twisting motions made by the Dutch ropemakers as they wound ropes from hemp. With hemp around their waists and two strands attached to a wheel, ropemakers walked backward, twisting the length o hemp into rope.

The runners supplying hemp to the spinners had to jump quickly over the ever-twisting ropes as the ropemakers plied their craft, turning the hemp strand over strand. It is easy to imagine how this work might have evolved into a leisure-time game for the ropemakers and their families.

When Dutch settlers arrived in New Amsterdam today's new York City, they brought the double-rope game with them, earning the nickname "double Dutch". The game grew in popularity, especially in urban areas, but sometime after the 1950s it fell out of practice.

Then, in 1973, a New York detective, Ulysses Williams and his partner David A. Walker revived the jumping rope game by turning it into competitive sport for city kids as part of their youth outreach program.

Now double Dutch is not just a sidewalk game but a competitive sport played all over the world.