♪♪
-Please give a round of applause
to Jump Rope Camp summer 2024.
Ready, set, go. Big run!
-As camp comes to a close,
it's performance day for these elementary kids
to showcase their new talents.
-One, two, ready, go.
-From single rope jumps, to double dutch, and freestyle.
Just one week of camp has turned these kids into little skippers.
-And one, two, ready, go. You're out, bow and wave.
Yeah, by the end of this week they're jumping.
You know, they're not perfect, but they're learning new skills
and there's enough variety in the camp,
because the way that you get better at jumping rope
is through repetition.
Ready, go. I tell the kids all the time,
the more you do it the better you get.
And so we just try to find really creative ways
to make it fun to practice.
Don't take that first stutter jump, run and leap, ready, go.
-It's fitness made fun with a few life lessons
thrown in between the turns.
-When I was teaching I was noticing
that a lot of the kids were giving up really early.
And I had to keep saying things like,
well, mistakes are normal, it's okay.
Go!
Keep trying, it's all about trying
and I realized I was just sounding like a broken record.
And so then I just decided
that instead of saying it to each individual person
that I would really make that part of the curriculum.
So, I would talk about making mistakes,
I would talk about comparing yourself to other people
and that everybody learns at a different pace.
And I would use examples and my own personal stories.
When I did that it changed the program.
Big run.
-The lessons are resonating with students
like nine year old Keva Bannon.
-One, two, ready, go, big jump.
-She always says when you first do it,
if you mess up it means that you're improving because,
if you never mess up then you'll never learn.
-And Rene's own personal story she ties into her coaching,
well those are made for the record books.
-My names Rene Bibaud.
I'm a professional rope jumper,
I've been jumping rope for 44 years.
Performing, competing, coaching, teaching.
I'm five time world jump rope champion,
I started jumping rope
when I was 10 on a jump rope team called the Hot Dogs.
-Yes, you heard that right,
Rene Bibaud is a five time world champion jump roper.
[ Cheers and applause ]
That's Rene on the Hot Dogs team
with her beloved coach Bob Melson.
-And I had really great coach who always knew
how to kind of have the next thing that would get us excited,
another trip, another competition,
he always set us up for success.
We lost him a couple years ago.
And his impact has been huge.
I mean, you ask any of the kids
that worked under coach Bob Melson,
and they say how he impacted their lives.
-She quickly fell in love with the sport of jump roping
after joining the team and hasn't put down the rope since.
-It's a creative outlet,
it's something that you can do at your own individual pace.
It's a full body workout, it's a great alternative to running.
If it's raining outside,
you can jump rope indoors
and still get sort of that cardiovascular conditioning.
And then all the jumping is really great
for bone density and building up that bone density.
So, I mean, it's just like,
for me, I think it's the perfect cardiovascular exercise,
because it hits a lot of your major muscle groups.
-While competing at world championships,
Bibaud began doing color commentary
on jump roping for ESPN. Then a special viewer
who happened to be watching her on TV gave Rene a call
that would transform her life.
-I got a phone call back in like late 1990s,
somebody speaking French to me.
Asking if I wanted to be in the circus.
And it turned out it was Gilles Ste-Crois from Cirque du Soleil.
And I went and saw the show, I fell in love with it.
I ran away and joined the circus.
-She was asked to coach the acrobats on a jump rope number
and also be a featured artist,
performing with Cirque du Soleil.
-I had very little exposure to the arts.
I didn't know what Cirque du Soleil was.
We were more a sport oriented community, right?
Baseball, basketball, football, it was odd enough
that we were doing jump rope as a sport.
Joining the circus and meeting other people who did odd,
interesting, different things
and it was put to music and lighting and costume and makeup,
I mean, it was like coming,
it was the whole nother dimension
that I didn't even know existed. So I fell in love with it.
-Bibaud is now the owner of Ropeworks based in west Seattle.
She's an educator, a motivational speaker
and entertainer with a focus on youth fitness
and specialty performances.
-You got it girls!
-This past summer her advanced students placed
in the American Jump Rope National Championship.
-Alright! See if that helps.
-Now those students help out at her summer camp,
inspiring the younger kids to keep turning the rope.
-Yeah, I want them to come away with life skills.
Out, out, steer.
-But for Bibaud at the root of it all, it's personal,
paying it forward in honor of her coach
who sparked the love for jumping when she was this age.
-I always thought, I want to return the favor,
I don't know what that's going to look like
and I know I'm not doing it nearly as well as he ever did.
But, that's really my inspiration is just trying
to kind of give back.
And it matters to me. Arms up!
Now jump rope camp performance, 2024!
Thanks everybody!
You know, I really care about the kids that I work with.
It was great to have you in camp.
It feels good to do something positive in the world,
that you really love and enjoy to.
Oh good. Thank you.
♪♪