Chinese jump rope

Chinese jump rope being played.
Moves or positions
Coiled elastic rope

Chinese jump rope (Chinese: 跳皮筋; pinyin: tiàopíjīn), also known as Chinese ropes, jumpsies,[1] elastics (British English: Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain),[1] rek (South Africa), yoki (Canada),[1] Super Cali (Newfoundland), French skipping,[2] American ropes/Chinese ropes (in Scotland),[3][4] (in German) gummitwist,[1] "jeu de l elastique" in France and Chinese garter in the Philippines is a children's[5] game resembling hopscotch and jump rope.[6] Various moves (creation of positions or figures) are combined to create patterns which are often accompanied by chants.

Chinese jump rope combines the skills of hopscotch with some of the patterns from the hand-and-string game cat's cradle. The game began in 7th-century China. In the 1960s, children in the Western hemisphere adapted the game. German-speaking children call Chinese jump rope gummitwist and British children call it elastics. The game is typically played in a group of at least 3 players with a rope approximately 16 feet (5 m) in length tied into a circle. Traditional Chinese jump ropes are strings of rubber bands tied together, but today many varieties of commercial rope exist. Two players face each other standing 9 feet (3 m) apart, and position the rope around their ankles so that it is taut. The third player stands between the two sides of the rope and tries to perform a designated series of moves without making an error or pausing.[7]

The game is typically played by three or more players using a string of rubber bands that has been tied into a circle, usually at least six feet long ("approximately 2 feet in diameter"[8]), or an elastic rope. Two of the participants (the holders) face each other several feet apart, and position the string around their ankles so that it is taut. The third player (the jumper) stands between the two sides of the rope and must accomplish a series of increasingly difficult moves without making an error. The position of the string is raised as the jumper moves through the levels,[7] from ankle to waist height and higher.[9] "They are great for stretching. Often a child gets so intrigued with the shapes the rope can make that [the child] stretches much harder than [the child] would have otherwise."[8]

  1. ^ a b c d Block, John and Block, Tina (2013). It's a Hop, Skip, and Jump for Fitness and for Fun!, p.27. WestBow Press. ISBN 9781449799861.
  2. ^ "Playground games in England". Woodlands Junior School. Archived from the original on 10 November 2012. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Hawthorne was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Ritchie, James T.R. (1965). Golden City: Scottish Children's Street Games & Songs, p.121. Edinburgh and London: Oliver & Boyd. [1]
  5. ^ Gaussot, Ludovic. "Le jeu de l'enfant et la construction sociale de la réalité", Le Carnet PSY, 2/2001 (n° 62), p. 22-29. Accessed 4 December 2017.
  6. ^ "Summer School: How To Make a Jumpsie Rope" Archived 27 October 2020 at the Wayback Machine, Canadian Family; for the term "Chinese ropes," see Iona Archibald Opie, Peter Opie, Children's Games with Things, Oxford University Press, 1997, p. 199.
  7. ^ a b Horowitz, Gayle L. (2009). International Games: Building Skills Through Multicultural Play, p.68. Human Kinetics. ISBN 9780736073943.
  8. ^ a b Kogan, Sheila (2003). Step by Step: A Complete Movement Education Curriculum, p.133. Human Kinetics. ISBN 9780736044097.
  9. ^ ""Playground Games and Activities", Toronto District School Board, September 2000, p. 38ff" (PDF). Archived from the original on 2 June 2014. Retrieved 1 June 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)