Hi Alisa,

Here is an answer from the ERSO-site (http://www.ERSO.org section [About]
and then [FAQ]) and FISAC-IRSF-site (http://www.FISAC.org section [Info]):

"'Jumping a rope' is practiced for centuries around the whole world. In
ancient China, a game called Hundred Rope Jumping was one of the favorite
sports during the New Year Festival.
The Greek jumped a pole in the early days of the Western civilization.
Several painters in the Golden Ages painted children palying with a rope.
All over the world, kids were using a rope for their play, boxers,
fysiotherapists with their patients and all kind of athletes used the rope
for their play, revalidation, condition or coordination. But somehow, nobody
seemed to be interested or bright enough to develop this activity in to a
real Sport.
At the end of the sixtees nobody ever heard of Rope Skipping. Of course
everybody knew how to jump a rope.

Richard Cendali, who lived in Boulder (Colorado, USA) was no exeption. Being
a footballplayer, his coache summitted him to work on his condition. 'How
should I do this?'. 'Well.... You can choose between running up and down the
stairs of the stadium for an hour or take a rope and jump for 15 minutes.',
he responded. The choise was obvious. Being a footballplayer, jumping a rope
was for girls, he started running up and down the stairs. No problem until
snow came down and made the suface slippery, causing him some serious
problems. '...or take a rope and jump for 15 minutes.', he remebered. So he
did.

But soon the rope had no challenge to him. Just jumping up and down was no
fun at all. So he started doing Criss-Crosses, Side Swings, Double and
Multiple Unders inbetween his sessions. The sessions increased, both in time
and difficulty, and 'fun' was introduced inside the rope.
His number of skills grew and because he also was, and still is, teacher
P.E., Richard thought it was time to introduce 'Rope Skipping' to his
students. They were enthousiastic about the rope and the skills and started
inventing new skills inside the single rope. They took the long rope and the
Double Dutch, creating all kind of new skills, combinations and
possibilities. Rope Skipping was born.

In the early seventies Richard Cendali started spreading Rope Skipping
troughout the whole of USA and later the rest of the world. Everywhere he
came, he brought hundreds and later thousends of ropes. He was given housing
and meals and was offered the possibility of selling his rope after his
workshops to earn back his costs for the trip. The money that was earned
from this was used for spredding the sport. His students became the Rope
Skipping Display Team and travelled together with him over the whole of the
world."

I hope it helps.........

Eric Herber