Mind Body Connection
Offers opportunity for creativity
In New Jump Swing the participant is encouraged to incorporate a wide variety of rope jumping techniques into their exercise routine. New Jump Swing teaches the individual how to “think on their feet,” literally as well as figuratively.
Provides a basic foundation for sport skills
The techniques emphasized in New Jump Swing can be brought directly into the sports arena. The development of balance, timing and coordination are universal for athletic participation and achievement.
Enhances self-esteem and creates a positive body image
The ability to perform a technique that one could not perform when they first started jumping always brings a smile of accomplishment from people that I’ve worked with. Rope jumping will help you burn body fat as well as develop a balanced physique. It is one of the few exercises that conditions both the upper and lower body as well as the left and right sides of the body equally.
Helps to relieve stress, tension and aids relaxation and sleep
Without a doubt, a good workout with a jump rope will help you to relieve some of your pent up hostilities and emotions.
Improves fine and gross motor coordination
New Jump Swing improves fine and gross motor coordination, more efficiently than any other exercise that I can think of.
Provides a vehicle to teach health values related to
stress control, aerobics, weight control and nutrition
A New Jump Technique?
After breaking my record for delivering the longest sermon in 1978, I became a teacher working with inner city youth at a school referred to as the Alpha School in Brooklyn, N.Y. As the teacher of Personal Biology as well as Physical Fitness, it was my job to develop a program that the students could relate to and participate in regularly. This was really the formative days of New Jump Swing. Knowing that I had achieved one record, my students looked into the Guinness Book to see if there was another record that I might be able to break. They looked in the section on rope jumping and they saw a record for doubles with a crossover. The record was 56 consecutive times. Believing that I could do anything, my students immediately encouraged me to go for it. In my first attempt at this technique I was able to perform 42 doubles with a crossover. Since I was able to get that close without any training, I decided that this record was certainly not out of my reach. I practiced and practiced and practiced. I lifted weights, which was one of the exercise programs that I initiated at the school. I rode a bicycle to and from work everyday for the leg strength as well as cardiovascular conditioning, and I sought out a massage therapist, acupuncturist and herbalist.
About six days before I was scheduled to go for this record, I received a letter from the Guinness office. In this letter they informed me through a stick drawing of what they considered a double with a crossover. Their interpretation required the individual to do both a double under followed immediately by a cross, before landing on the ground. My interpretation when I read the technique double with a crossover was to perform a double under and then perform a crossover. Needless to say I was quite disappointed when I found out that all of my hard work and training would not qualify me for a record. To bring attention to the fine work that the Alpha School was doing for youth who were expelled from the mainstream school system due to substance abuse and truancy, I decided to go on with the record attempt anyway. I chose to do the record at P.S. 183, my old elementary school. I did~ this because in December of 1979, the 1980 edition of the Guinness Book was just released and it contained my sermon record. This I felt was an excellent opportunity for the youth of both schools to know about someone who grew up in their neighborhood and attended the same school that they did who could be a champion in an academic venue as well as an athletic one. My sermon was based upon my thesis that I'd. written in 1977.
On that date, I'd developed a head cold and was only able to do 45 doubles with a crossover (NJS style). A year later, after seeking and receiving sponsorship from the New York State Dept. of Parks and Recreation, I performed 44, 55 and finally 61 consecutive doubles with a crossover (NJS style).
It is my contention that if 56 consecutive times was considered good enough for the Guinness Book to first recognize this technique, then 56 or better was good enough to establish the NJS double with a cross over technique. As I have informed my students, there are well over 100 jump rope techniques that have been listed in various books on the subject. As long as the rope gets under your feet without you getting caught in it, it's a legitimate jump rope technique. In New Jump Swing the first emphasis is on recreation and fitness. At no time should you think that you have to go for any type of record in order to benefit from this program. As I observed how other people were using the Guinness Book as a method of marketing and promoting their skills and programs, I emulated them in my attempts at promoting P.D.N. and New Jump Swing. Certainly, you can be healthy without breaking records and you can benefit from New Jump Swing with no more than 15 minutes per day of jumping! The point that I have been trying to make with these records is that regardless of where started in life, you can go farther, higher and faster, if you believe in yourself and train properly. My records required me to train academically as well as physically.
The development of the mind should not cause the body to lag behind nor should the development of the body cause the individual to neglect their intellectual studies.
This is the message that P.D.N. and New Jump Swing have
Be creative, and set realistic goals for yourself, the sky's the limit!