Double Dutch, Irish, Double Irish, Chinese Jump Rope, And Other National Names Used As References For Jumping Games

Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post provides information about the use of national names as references for ways of playing jumping games.

This post is divided into two sections. Section A presents selected online quotes about "Double Dutch" and other national name referents for the game or sport in which people jump in the middle of two ropes.

Section B presents selected online quotes about the use of national names to describe the jumping game that is most commonly known in the United States as "Chinese jump rope", but is known as "Elastics" and "Yogi" in some other nations.

A few comments in Section B don't contain any "national name", but provide additional information, opinions, and/or memories about this jumping game.

The Addendum to this post showcases two YouTube videos of what is commonly known in the United States as "Double-Dutch" and three YouTube videos of what is commonly known in the United States as "Chinese jump rope".

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The content of this post is presented for socio-cultural and folkloric purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post. Thanks also to all those who are featured in those videos and thanks to the publishers of those videos on YouTube.
-snip-
DISCLAIMER: This post isn't meant to be a comprehensive compilation of national names for these jumping games. Nor is this post meant to be a comprehensive listing of all the geographical areas that use certain national referents for these games.

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This is part of an ongoing pancocojams series on Double Dutch (jump rope) and jump roping rope in general, particularly as those activities relate to African American females.

Click the tags below to find other posts in this series.

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PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE
In both sections of this posts these excerpts from online hyperlinked sources are given in no particular order and are numbered for referencing purposes only.

Multiple quotes from two Mudcat folk music forum discussion threads are given with dates and in the relative chronological order that they are found in those sources. Other comments from those discussions include geographical locations where certain national referents were/are [?] used.

Section A, Excerpt #1
From https://books.google.com/books?id=Y4rYAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA5&lpg=PA5&dq=double+irish+jump+rope&source=bl&ots=VkZjl2hZph&sig=puhMuBKf4BxchX5XjZid-H6PevA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiO1tG_y8XVAhWDz4MKHefyAfsQ6AEIXjAN#v=onepage&q=double%20irish%20jump%20rope&f=false "Some Jump Rope Rimes From South Philadelphia" by Roger D. Abrahams in Keystone Folklore Quarterly, Volume 8, Spring Issue 1963, edited by Simon Bronner

[page 3]
"The Negro in the neighborhood of South Philadelphia in which I lived and collected from 1958-1960 not only jumped rope extensively, but developed such coordination in doing so that many of their games were considerably more complex than those observable in most places elsewhere....The most common method of [jump rope] play is "single jumping", the rope being turned by two "enders" in a single strand...

This, however, is the least common method of playing in the neighborhood. The 'double dutch' games in which the 'enders' double the ropes and turn the two strands separately and alternately overhand, are much more common. In this game a rhythm is created that is twice as fast but not as insistent as in "singles".

[page 4]
The most common rime used with this game, especially by the younger children (5-8) is the simple counting one:
2,4,6-8, 10
2,4,6-8, 20
2,4,6-8, 30
etc.
(The 6-8 are said much quicker than any other number.)

or
D.I.S.H. choice
(With the "s" and the "h" said much faster than other letters.)

"Double-dutch" and its companion "double-Irish" call for an even more complicated rhythmic effect, paralleled by complications in motor responses....

[...]

[page 5]
"In the game with two “enders”, there are three standard ways of turning the ropes, “single”, double Dutch”, “Irish or “double Irish” (the same as double-dutch only underhanded and much more difficult). The most common types are the counting games...

[...]

[Page 8]
D. I.S. H. Choice
This is a jump that allows you to pick which way you want the rope turned. “D” stand for “Double Dutch”, “I” for “Irish”, “S” for single turn, “H” for “hop”, and “choice” is for any of the previous four.
The one you miss on is the one you must do.

D.I. S. H choice
D.I. S. H choice
D.I. S. H choice
H O P, hop
1, 2, 3"
-snip-
A portion of page five of this chapter is quoted in Section B Excerpt #1 of this post.

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Section A, Excerpt #2
From https://books.google.com/books?id=hbLYAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA196&lpg=PA196&dq=ome+Jump+Rope+Rimes+From+South+Philadelphia&source=bl&ots=QUbJvlaP9b&sig=H27ZITELUV_n8blFctvGrBZHDzw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwimzdeZzcfVAhUE8IMKHfR6BAYQ6AEITDAG#v=onepage&q=ome%20Jump%20Rope%20Rimes%20From%20South%20Philadelphia&f=false "An Annotated Collection of Children's Lore: Part III of Oral Tradition Among Children Of Central New York State" by David Winslow in Keystone Folklore Quarterly, Fall Issue 1966

[page 111]
"Jump Rope Rhymes

Some of the jump rope argot used in the United States follows

[...]

[page 152]
"DOUBLE ROPE OR DOUBLES - Two ropes are used, one end of each in each turner's hand. They can be turned either towards or away from each other. Sometimes called DOUBLE DUTCH.

[...]

[page 153]
"The inventiveness of children is illustrated in the recent improvisations on jump-rope games: the games have gone international. Irish takes practice. Jumpers must hop backwards as two ropes are turned counter-clockwise. In French, one rope drops to the sidewalk and the jumper hops three times over the moving second rope. Then she must do the splits, all without touching the ground rope. Jewish jump rope requires that the jumper hold one rope while the other is twisted and turned over her head making the jump rope area smaller and smaller with each turn. Finally, the space is so small that she has to crouch down and jump. Hungarian is done on one foot. The enders loop a long rope around their waists then swing in one direction with the right rope, and the opposite direction with the left. In Chinese the ropes give way to stretchy, tied together rubber bands. Trash cans can serve as enders. The idea is complicated but girls know upon which number to jump with each foot, or both feet, when to carry one rubber band across the line to another, and when to make a diamond pattern with them".
-snip-
This chapter includes a great number of jump rope rhymes and information about and examples of other children's recreational play.

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Section A, Excerpt #3
From https://books.google.com/books?id=lI5ERUmHf3YC&pg=PT5841&lpg=PT5841&dq=double+jewish+jump+rope&source=bl&ots=Ou-9lH1DHz&sig=ovO0Vln79tDX_k1c1y-QfpOlFa4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiwl_nIx8XVAhWI5IMKHfROAtEQ6AEIPjAE#v=onepage&q=double%20jewish%20jump%20rope&f=false "The Encyclopedia of New York City: Second Edition, editors Kenneth T. Jackson, Lisa Keller, Nancy Flood (Yale University Press, Dec 1, 2010) [book review by Amanda Durgan, Steven Zeitlin
..."The largest collection of games and rhymes were amassed in the 1930s and 1940s by Esther and Oscar Hirschman, who wrote under the names Ethel and Oliver Hale, They recorded many versions of such activities as ball games, hopscotch, and jump rope (not only double Dutch but double Irish, double Jewish, French Dutch, and French Fried), in addition to documenting favorite rhymes and pranks. Titled “From Sidewalk, Gutter, and Stoop”, their 1000 page manuscript was acquired by the New York Public Library. About this time, the term pushmobile became popular for a kind of scooter fashioned from a roller skate and an orange crate. By the turn of the twenty-first century street games were seen less frequently in the city owing to television, video games, an a commercialized toy industry, those that have persisted continue to evolve as the urban environment changes."

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Section A, Excerpt #4
From https://books.google.com/books?id=2A93c_JS6sQC&pg=PA298&lpg=PA298&dq=criminal+minded+jump+rope+rhyme&source=bl&ots=Klgdfj6QdY&sig=BjAQUAL7o7Gdy4RIMa7sWKGU0lY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjrlovwv8HVAhVC_IMKHXNkBqUQ6AEIOTAD#v=onepage&q=criminal%20minded%20jump%20rope%20rhyme&f=false “Double Forces Has Got The Beat: Reclaiming Girl’s Music In The Sport of Double- Dutch" by Kyra D. Gaunt in The Girls' History and Culture Reader: The Twentieth Century, edited by Miriam Forman-Brunell and Leslie Paris (University of Illinois Press, January 2011)

[page 283]
"Double-Dutch, Double-Jewish, Double-Black; Children Performing Difference

Despite its presence in the South, double-dutch’s origins seem to be based in the multiethnic streets of New York City. It was also prevalent in several other cities, including Philadelphia, New Haven, Detroit, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., among others.

The origin of its name alone highlights its curious association with ethnicity in New York City that does not seem to be limited to African American culture. Many of its associations are defined by stereotypical views of immigrants and their language as “foreign” or “alien”. According to ethnographers Amanda Dargan and Steven Zeitlin, the successive waves of immigrants in New York heightened concerns about ethnicity and American-ness, ant the alienation of new immigrants was often apparent in the form of ridicule of the sounds of “foreign” languages. Children, as well as adults, passed on such prejudices and attitudes about non-English speech and community. “Girls jumped in an American style but called it “double Dutch” or “double Jewish”....Prejudice insinuated itself into the games of the smallest children”.

[page 284]
Racial/ethnic prejudice is at the heart of the matter, whether one is castigating Jewish, Irish, or African-American children. Contrary to the racial insinuations of outsiders, double-dutch play among black girls created an arena where race and gender identity moved from the periphery to the center, sometimes embracing and reinterpreting the very epithets that others used to signify inferiority of their race and sex.

Double-dutch is an unusual name for a girls’ game and is probably impossible to determine where the African American girls or Jewish girls who performed this practice in neighborhoods throughout New York City got the idea of the practice itself. It may stem from colloquial meanings already present in the metropolitan migrant communities.

References to the elliptical use of the adjective “Dutch” in the OED Online (2005) suggest three, arguably, but likely sources 1) double Dutch, a language that one doesn’t understand; “gibberish”, dating back to a translation of Moliere in 1876; 2). “to beat the Dutch” (“to do something extraordinary or startling”), and 3) “that beats the Dutch”, “that beats everything”), all of which could apply to the everyday practice generally attributed to African American culture.

From my reading of the OED Online, the term does not appear to have any direct connection to the adverbial phrase “going Dutch” or to the use of the noun, “the old Dutch” to refer colloquially to “a wife”, though the gendered connotations may be of interest here. It is most likely attributably to the three definitions above, for the game of double-dutch lies beyond the realm of verbal language of explanation. Many observers identify it as something extraordinary in sight that looks impossible to achieve, even magical. It is, I believe, a game that beats all other games girls of any ethnicity play, hands down."...
-snip-
Pancocojams Editor's Note:
I found it interesting that when Kyra D. Gaunt shared theories about the origin of the term "double dutch", she didn't mention the statement that appears to be the "go to" reason for this name by the founders of the American Double Dutch League (formerly the National Double Dutch League) and many others: that "The Dutch settlers brought the game to the Hudson River trading town of New Amsterdam (now New York City). When the English arrived and saw the children playing their game, they called it Double Dutch."...[quoting http://www.nationaldoubledutchleague.com/History.htm, the history webpage that honors David Walker, one of the founders of the sport of Double Dutch.]

I wonder if there was a tradition in the Netherlands (and/or in Germany*) of jumping with two ropes- before this recreational game was known in the United States. (And, if so, did they chant rhymes when they jumped?). Also, did Dutch (and/or German*) immigrants to New York City jump with two ropes and chant rhymes when they did so?
-snip-
*I asked about Germans because of this information:
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Dutch
"The Pennsylvania Dutch (Pennsilfaanisch Deitsch,..) are a cultural group formed by early German-speaking immigrants to Pennsylvania and their descendants. The word "Dutch" does not refer to the Dutch people (Nederlanders) or their descendants, but to German people whose ethnonym in their own language is Deitsch (in dialectal German) or Deutsch (in standard German). Most emigrated to the U.S. from Germany or Switzerland in the 17th and 18th century. Over time, the various dialects spoken by these immigrants fused into a unique dialect of German known as Pennsylvania German or Pennsylvania "Dutch". At one time, more than one-third of Pennsylvania's population spoke this language."...

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Section B, Excerpt #1
From https://books.google.com/books?id=Y4rYAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA5&lpg=PA5&dq=double+irish+jump+rope&source=bl&ots=VkZjl2hZph&sig=puhMuBKf4BxchX5XjZid-H6PevA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiO1tG_y8XVAhWDz4MKHefyAfsQ6AEIXjAN#v=onepage&q=double%20irish%20jump%20rope&f=false "Some Jump Rope Rimes From South Philadelphia" by Roger D. Abrahams in Keystone Folklore Quarterly, Volume 8, Spring Issue 1963, edited by Simon Bronner
[page 5]
"Another sort of game much like jumping rope found its way into the neighborhood [of South Philadelphia] some time in 1959. This was another game of agility played by girls called "Indian Jumping". Thick rubber bands were tied to each other in about an eight or ten foot circle, and two "enders" put their legs inside the circle and pulled it so that there were two parallel lines of bands. The jumper then did a series of foot movements while saying any of the jump-rope rhymes, especially the ones that called for actions. The foot was placed between the parallel strands, and then put out, under the first strand and over the second (this was possible because of the great pliancy of the long row of bands.) This action was alternated until missed, as in jumping-rope.

The two games, jumping-rope and "Indian jumping" require a great deal of agility, and the Negro children in this neighborhood had more than their share of this facility, and took great delight in demonstrating it."...
-snip-
This chapter continues with text for a number of rhymes that Roger Abrahams observed and collected from these children.

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Section B, Excerpt #2
From
http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=35850
Subject: RE: Child's Game: Elastics
1.
Subject: RE: Child's Game: Elastics
From: Joe Offer
Date: 28 Apr 02 - 12:28 AM

"Yes, the Opies have a lot to say about the subject, and I think it's worth quoting in entirety. My wife Christina says she called it "Chinese Jumprope" when she was growing up in Woonsocket, Rhode Island - and she claims to have been very good at it.
-Joe Offer-

ELASTIC SKIPPING

This is not skipping in the usual sense, for there is no turning rope to jump. Instead, the two enders stand with feet apart inside a loop of elastic, which passes round their ankles and is thus stretched into a long oblong frame between them. The role of the enders is completely static, and their place can be taken by dustbins or chairs...

In the summer of 1960 elastic skipping arrived in England as 'an entirely new game', and was for eighteen months, apparently, the exclusive possession of London children. 'This year's craze', said a 10-year-old girl in Fulham, 'is American Skipping. Karen Clark brought American Skipping over from America.'...

However, when a powerful craze comes over from the United States there is not one point of entry but many. American families coming to London undoubtedly brought the game with them; but so did American Air Force families coming to bases in England and Scotland. For instance, when 'Chinese Ropes' was the rage in Dunoon Grammar School in 1962, about fifty of the girls in the school were from the nearby American Air Force base. 'Chinese Ropes' (or 'Rope', or 'Ropies', or 'Skipping'), reflecting the American name 'Chinese Jump Rope', continued to be the term in Scotland (e.g. Jedburgh, 1972; Glasgow and Paisley, 1975).

Elastic skipping spread rapidly in 1963-4. There could scarcely have been a junior school playground in Britain where it was not known. 'French Skipping' was now the most usual name in England and Wales, though Londoners remained faithful to 'American Skipping'. (Any foreign name was felt to be appropriate, however: e.g. 'Dutch Skipping' in Liss, 1964; and 'German Skipping' in Bedford, 1966.) By the mid-197os the predominant name was simply 'Elastics', and the game is still, in the 1990s, known by that name.

Correspondents followed the game's progress with excitement: a teacher in St Helier, Jersey, said: 'Linda, who sent you "American Skipping" in November [1963] tells me she learnt the game in Hampstead "a few years back"; a parish priest in Workington wrote 'Chinese, or French, skipping went round Workington like wild fire this Easter [1964], and I know that it had hit Liverpool and Preston before last Christmas.'...

The game reached other countries too. It arrived in Israel in 1960 ('Gummi', Eifermann (1968), 218-20). In Australia it had certainly arrived by 1962, when Ian Turner saw it in Canberra; 'It was called "American Hoppy",' he said, 'then I saw it no more until 1967 lfl Melbourne, when it was called "Elastics".' Subsequently it was reported in Afghanistan, Austria, the Argentine, Germany, Greece, India, Italy ('Elastici'), Kenya, the Netherlands (1962, when it was called 'the English Twist' or 'the Russian Twist'), Norway ('Hoppe strikk', i.e. 'Jump Elastics'), Turkey, and Yugoslavia-so it would be safe to say it had become worldwide....

From Children's Games With Things, Iona & Peter Opie, 1997 (Oxford University Press)"
-snip-
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iona_and_Peter_Opie
"Iona Archibald Opie, CBE, FBA (born 13 October 1923)[1] and Peter Mason Opie (25 November 1918 – 5 February 1982) were a married team of folklorists, who applied modern techniques to children's literature, summarized in their studies The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (1951) and The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren (1959). They are also noted anthologists, and assembled large collections of children's literature, toys, and games."...

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2. Subject: RE: BS: Elastics
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 25 Apr 02 - 09:20 PM

"I had never seen it in the states until the immigrants from S.E. Asia came..the girls would collect rubber bands and do it on the playground..they were quite graceful and athletic at it.. mg"

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3.
Subject: RE: BS: Elastics
From: catspaw49
Date: 25 Apr 02 - 09:22 PM

"I know it was in the states long before that because Mark's sisters that I mentioned above played it as "Chinese Jump Rope" in the 50's....and this was a small town in eastern Ohio, not exactly the first place it would have popped up!"

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4.
Subject: RE: Child's Game: Elastics
From: alison
Date: 28 Apr 02 - 09:53 AM

"we used elastic bands and called it "German jumps"

slainte

alison"

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5.
Subject: RE: Child's Game: Elastics
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 13 May 05 - 11:39 PM

"My sister used to play Chinese jump rope with her friends, in Philadelphia, early 60's (she was born in 1956). I always assumed that it was no more "Chinese" than a "Chinese fire drill," but then I recently saw a movie made in China about China in the 30's (can't remember which one) and there were girls playing...Chinese jump rope. Those girls, like my sister, used rubber bands tied together. (Nobody would buy a cloth-covered something from a store when you could make the "rope" yourself, and there were so many other things to spend your fifteen cents on.) I think they cut the rubber bands before they tied them, but I wouldn't swear to that.

Aloha,
Mark"

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6.
Subject: RE: Child's Game: Elastics
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Sep 05 - 09:28 PM

"I'm originally from Northern Ireland and we played this game in the 1960's. We called it german jumping. I can't remember if we used rhymes or not. We used coloured elastic bands and part of the fun was knotting them together to make the elastics."

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7.
Subject: RE: Child's Game: Elastics
From: GUEST,Susan Rains
Date: 11 Nov 07 - 09:34 AM

"Hi played Elastics in South England in the late seventies which we called chinese skipping,"

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8.
Subject: RE: Child's Game: Elastics/ball games etc
From: GUEST,Sue/South Wales

Date: 28 May 08 - 06:55 AM

"Enjoyed reading the rhymes, triggered lots of childhood memories. I remember playing french skipping in the 70's. Later reduced to " 'lastics ". Also remembered that it died out in the playground because of minor injuries and incidents. I feel that a lot of these games have died out because of health & safety issues and compensation claims being taken to a ludicrous degree! These games were important in building confidence, team work, social interaction, sharing etc and promoting physical stamina...all of which are sadly lacking with a lot of youngsters these days."

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9.
Subject: RE: Child's Game: Elastics
From: GUEST,Jane
Date: 03 Sep 08 - 11:24 PM

"I payed Chinese Jump Rope in the late 60's and early 70's in Jamaica, West Indies.
Now my 9 y/o daughter who has only been in her new elementary school one week has started a new trend showing the kids how to play.
I am trying to remember the chants but I think we used MISSISSIPPI and ENGLAND, IRELAND, SCOTLAND FRANCE, INSIDE, OUTSIDE, MONKEY PANTS
ENGLAND, IRELAND, SCOTLAND WALES, INSIDE, OUTSIDE, MONKEY TAILS.
Thanks for the memories!"

**
10.
Subject: RE: Child's Game: Elastics
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 21 Nov 08 - 04:46 AM

"We have been trying to introduce traditional rhymes into our playground too - we called this German elastics here in Northern Ireland and we used coloured elastics which were joined together"


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11.
Subject: RE: Child's Game: Elastics"
From: GUEST,Sue
Date: 10 Apr 09 - 09:43 AM

"I played 'American Skippy' or 'elastics' at Osborne Park Primary school in Western Asutralia in 1960s. Also played game with sticks called fly and two balls against a wall. I stumbled across this sie while looking for two ball rhymes to teach my granddaughter. I rmember throwing blls a gainst the wall and singing; One two buckle my shoe and we'd have to touch our shoe before we caught the ball, three four close the door and make the action of closing a door etc."

Thanks for the memories.

**
12.
Subject: RE: Child's Game: Elastics
From: GUEST,Rachel
Date: 01 Oct 10 - 02:49 PM

"Hi all,

This is weird, I was talking to my husband about this game this week, and he had never heard of it (NC where I now live), but I grew up in Nottingham, England, and I remember playing it in the early/mid 80's.

I remember calling it simply 'Chinese', and we used knicker elastic, and our chant was extremely boring, but it completely explained what we did;

'In, Out, In, Out, In, On, In and away!

Thanks for letting me reminisce!"
-snip-
"NC" probably refers to North Carolina, United States.

**
13.
Subject: RE: Child's Game: Elastics
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 09:59 AM

"In Bristol we played 'Elastics' with the rules that Guest described 11 Sep 09 we called it French Skipping. Skipping or jumprope was as popular as anywhere else for girls but if you were invited to play French Skipping you knew that you were 'in' with the popular girls."...

**
14.
Subject: RE: Child's Game: Elastics
From: GUEST,BRidgett
Date: 09 Feb 11 - 04:07 PM

"Played this in the mid-80s in St. Louis Missouri USA. We played to the song: In Out Side Side On In Out ("out" meaning straddling the elastic). We called it Chinese Jumprope and did not have special songs, just the directions. But we had different "levels" like skinnies and eyes-shut and typewriter and diamonds. It seemed like it had been handed down as Gospel Truth when I was in 3rd grade...but many of the levels were probably made up to keep the game going!"

**
15.
From: GUEST,Emma (now in NC, USA)
Date: 20 Aug 11 - 03:31 PM

"I played this as French skipping in Cheshire UK and then in Singapore in the 70's! Have wanted to introduce my daughters to it but could never remember the order of the moves, thanks so much for the info and memories!"

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Section B, Excerpt #3
From http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=35850 Subject: Help with playing 'Chinese Jump Rope'

1.
Subject: RE: BS: Chinese Jump Rope
From: GUEST,cleod
Date: 27 Jun 01 - 07:11 AM

"Hey, I'm Asian and yes, I did play Chinese jumprope (called Chinese garter, since that was what we used instead of rubber bands) in my grade school years... I remember pestering my mom for shoes without buckles so I could get past the tricky bits...
Chinese jumprope - in, out, step on, in out, twist, out, twist, out, diamond, out, diamond, out.

Japanese jumprope - i know we called it japanese, but i have no idea what made it so japanese...all we did was jump over a rope (going progressively higher as the game goes one...the really good players were the ones who could cartwheel over the highest part)

There was another variation called 'triangle', but i can't remember the rules anymore.

Hope this helps! cleod"

**
2.
Subject: RE: Chinese Jump Rope
From: Sonnet
Date: 24 Dec 03 - 09:44 AM

"Thanks for bringing back childhood memories. I loved playing Chinese Skipping! If I remember correctly, the elastic would be raised up the legs of the two people on the ends (or up the buffet legs if no-one was playing out)on completion of a full correct sequence. We also referred to the game as Lastics, probably because we played with knicker elastic rather than rubber bands.

The descriptions so far tally with how we played here in Penistone, South Yorks, in the late 60's.

Jay McS"

**
3.
Subject: RE: Help with playing 'Chinese Jump Rope'
From: Crowhugger
Date: 02 Jun 09 - 01:31 AM

"In Ottawa in the mid 1960s we called it "Yogi" but after reading past posts that is likely a corruption of the word "Yoki" from one of the chants. I don't recall the chants we used, just vaguely the steps if that's what they're called. We made up our own sets of steps as well as doing version everyone knew. Since my mother sewed, that's type of elastic we used, the 1/4" wide kind, as I recall. I begged her for black elastic so it wouldn't look like it came from underwear--what did I know in grade 4? She only ever provided white elastic.

What a trip down memory lane!"

**
4.
Subject: RE: Chinese Jump Rope
From: GUEST,Patricia
Date: 03 May 07 - 01:21 PM

I remember playing the 'rubber band rope jumping" game! But the rhyme we used was different from all I have read here! We had no idea what we were saying but it went like this:

Yoki and the Kaiser, Yoki addy ay, Tamba, so-ba, Sa-du, sa-day. :Yoki in the Kaiser, Yoki allee-ah, Kick him in the so-po, Sa-du, sa-day!

I read in the book :Sally Go Round the Sun: by Edith Fowke, that this was a Korean children's game and the children of missionaries brought it back to Canada in 1939. Original words: Riojun, Kayo, Yaku navide atc.

This song was taught to commemorate victory of the Russian-Japanese war of 1905 and written by a Japanese poet (after this war the Japanese occupied Korea).

**
5.
Subject: RE: Help with playing 'Chinese Jump Rope'
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Jun 09 - 10:04 PM

"I got the Klutz book of Chinese jump rope - Klutz usually having some good stuff to work with - and they boast that they have "all the traditional games". Closer inspection of the book itself reveals that they have games traditional to two schools in San Francisco instead - coming from NYC, not one of those games is one I know to play Chinese Jump Rope with!

But if you can't remember a single thing you did with Chinese Jump Rope you won't likely mind that :)

What we did most of the time, btw, is go in, out (that's a straddle, not jumping out), in, on, in, out (out means out here), over (jump and catch the closer end of the jump rope over your feet as you do so), out (jump and release the jump rope entirely).

But then we moved from Brooklyn to Staten Island. You wouldn't think such a little move would make such a big difference, it's the same city even (and everybody here, all the grown-ups, are not only from Brooklyn but often from the same neighborhood we were!), but here the kids did regular jump rope instead of Chinese Jump Rope."

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ADDENDUM: SHOWCASE VIDEOS
Example #1: Jumpin' For Gold in Double Dutch 2009 Holiday Classic - New York Post



New York Post Published on Dec 19, 2009

Teams from all over the world compete in the 18th Annual Double Dutch Holiday Classic at the Apollo in Harlem. http://video.nypost.com

**
Example #2: doubledutch flash freestyle by ebene



jojodoubledutch, Published on Mar 24, 2011

presentation de l'epreuve "freestyle" en double dutch sur un plateau sportif au centre georges pompidou à paris "chatlet " avec le presentateur franco-américain de la NBA : georges eddy
-snip-
Google translate from French to English: "Presentation of the "freestyle" event in duplicate dutch on a sporting platform in the center george pompidou in paris "chatlet" with the Franco-American presenter of the NBA: georges eddy"
-snip-
I don't know when the rules for Double Dutch sports competitions changed regarding male participation and I don't know what those rules are now. However, there was a time when Double Dutch competitions were only for females, and then the rules were changed to allow for only one male in each competing Double Dutch team.

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Example #3: Chinese Jump Rope



Loni Gee Published on Sep 16, 2010

4 girls from Guangzhou Middle School have fun just before the school song starts.

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Example #4: Classical Chinese Jump Rope Tutorial (fun game outdoor or indoor)



Glander Chen, Published on Jul 3, 2012

Beijing styles in 1970's.

Included basic styles "The Six Step","The Seven Step", double rope freestyle and single rope freestyle variation 1,2,3.

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Example #5: Elastics / French Skipping / Chinese / Yorkshire 1980s / playground games / keep fit



Published on Jun 14, 2013, (HD) Trying to remember our old playground games to teach to my kids. Plenty of different versions of this but these are them moves we did in Yorkshire, early 1980s. Can't remember all of them but if you went wrong you swapped with one of the kids standing in the elastic. If you completed all the moves you then moved to 'kneesies' then 'hipsies' etc.

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