From Dental Hygienist to Jump Rope Maven—Brandy Brown’s Big Leap! (Ep. 20)

Dizzy Skips (00:43)
Brandy Brown, thank you so much for joining me on the Jump Rope Podcast. I’m so excited to have you here.

Brandy Brown (00:48)
Thank you, I’m so happy to be here.

Dizzy Skips (00:50)
Yeah, this is terrific. So can you tell us where you’re at? Like in the world.

Brandy Brown (00:55)
In the world, I am in Idaho. Up in northern Idaho, about four hours from Canada.

Dizzy Skips (00:58)
You are.

All right, wow. So do you have snow on the ground right now?

Brandy Brown (01:04)
last night we got like two feet. First time, we haven’t had much snow, but two feet in like one night and it’s still snowing, so,

Dizzy Skips (01:07)
my goodness.

Yeah. So do

you have a snowblower or is it manual shoveling?

Brandy Brown (01:16)
No, we have a snow blower. My husband has a four wheeler with a blade on it. We’re set. I mean, this is pretty common. And the power goes out. We were out powered for half the night. This is pretty typical when we these big storms. Nice and cozy.

Dizzy Skips (01:27)
Yeah, yeah,

it is cozy. You have such a cozy house. I love your videos. You’ve got such a nice cabin-y kind of vibe to your house. It’s cool. And you, so you jump indoors a bit, don’t you?

Brandy Brown (01:34)
Yeah.

I do jump indoors. Just right now it’s really cold. But I do, I like indoors, I don’t know. I like being outside, but I kind of got used to being inside and I don’t know, I have a mirror in my living room. I do a mirror, I like to kind of watch what I’m doing and stuff like that. So yeah, I jump indoors.

Dizzy Skips (01:56)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Cool.

I wanted to ask you just a few background questions so people could get to know you. Like, what do you do for work? Or what is your profession?

Brandy Brown (02:07)
So I am actually a dental hygienist. I, well, my biggest profession, or my biggest job, I guess, or the love is I raised five babies. And as a hygienist, yeah, I’m a mama. I’m a mother. That’s my best and my most prized career. But as a hygienist, I cut back one day with every one of my kids. And so I basically stayed home and

Dizzy Skips (02:17)
mama!

Brandy Brown (02:28)
and raised my kids, but my husband’s an optometrist and so I do books for him, go in and fill in for him and spend time with him now at the office. So I’ve kind of got a flexible job which is really nice.

Dizzy Skips (02:37)
Got it.

Yeah, that is nice. So you don’t do the dental hygenist stuff anymore because you kind of hit the limit, right? You got five, so you took one day off for each kid.

Brandy Brown (02:48)
I only ever worked four days a week, so actually after my fourth baby. My last one was a surprise, but I wasn’t working when I had her. I do humanitarian work, we have this free dental day where people come in and I help do that with the kids. I keep my hands in, I can do my family’s teeth and stuff like that, but I don’t do it for career anymore. I just support my husband in his career.

Dizzy Skips (02:56)
Yeah.

cool.

That’s cool. That’s really

cool. And so you have five kids, right? I think on your profile, you have five kids and then a couple grandkids.

Brandy Brown (03:23)
Yes, so I actually worked full time for my husband for a while and about a year ago when I found out I was going be a grandma, I had to retire again because I thought, I want to be free to go see these babies. And you’ll see in my stories and stuff there, I have to travel to them because nobody lives near us. So I am now free again so I can travel babies and travel and see them.

Dizzy Skips (03:37)
Yeah.

Okay.

That’s nice.

I saw one of yours where it looked like you were in a sunny spot and you were jumping and you had a little grandchild who was kind of toddling around as you’re jumping to music. It looked like there were musicians there playing some sort of…

Brandy Brown (03:56)
Yep, okay.

So that was probably, for as long as I’ve been jumping, that has been, like, the highlight of my jumping career. I, you know, I see you all the time, like, get into the music, and I’m unlike you. I don’t usually listen to music. I’m kind of technical, and I kind of think it through, and I’ve been trying really hard to get to that point. And we were on a vacation with my whole family on a cruise, and we were sitting at this beach, and this band was playing, you know, and it was in Haiti, and they were just doing the Slimaroccas. You heard the music.

Dizzy Skips (04:05)
Yeah?

Mmm.

Mm. Mm-hmm.

Brandy Brown (04:26)
And it was so moving and I brought my jump rope and I thought, hmm, I have to jump. Like I felt it. So I went up to them and I said, hey, do you want to see my instrument? And they kind of looked at me and I showed them my jump rope and I go, can I play with you? And so I started jumping and they were watching me and they were cheering me on. But the thing I loved about it is I didn’t care. wasn’t thinking. I just jumped to the music.

Dizzy Skips (04:26)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

hahahahah

and you just kind of flow.

Brandy Brown (04:52)
I just flowed into music and it was later that I bought the Moroccans for my grandbabies because I had to reward them for putting up with me and jumping with them. so then we kind of recreated that little them playing the Moroccans. But that was, I loved it. That’s being lost in the moment. I get lost in the moment other times, but that was just, And yes, and it’s great because you put in the hard work and so you know what to do. Like you have those moves that you can just go to and you don’t have to think about it you can just relax.

Dizzy Skips (05:00)
Hahaha

huh.

Yeah. Isn’t that such a fun state?

Brandy Brown (05:22)
That was completely just relaxed, just a, it was the best. Loved it.

Dizzy Skips (05:27)
Yeah,

yeah, I love that too. It’s like I say all the time, I feel like I channel music, you know? Like I put on the music and I just let it kind of move me. And the problem that I have is when I try to think about it, right? Like when I try to analyze it too much, then I trip up. But if I can just move…

Brandy Brown (05:45)
I love that about you. I love watching you. You can feel it when you’re jumping. What I felt jumping that day, I see in you every time I watch you jump. Because you can see me jump. I’m always concentrating, trying to figure something out. I love that too.

Dizzy Skips (05:53)
yeah?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So when did you start jumping, Brandy?

Brandy Brown (06:03)
So I start, well, the very first time I ever jumped, my kids, when they were little on the playground, I swung a lot of double dutch rope. In fact, I thought I was really involved with the school. And when my kids were little, we actually helped get an assembly of a jump rope team to come here and teach the kids jump rope. And they all got jump ropes. And they stayed at our house. And we got to know them really well. And I honestly don’t even know if I, I know I jumped in the double dutch, but I don’t think I ever picked it. I thought it was for kids. I never.

Dizzy Skips (06:10)
Yeah.

wow! Nice!

Yeah.

Brandy Brown (06:32)
tried to jump rope. I never even thought about it. I was just doing it for my kids. So I started when all my kids were grown and raised and my house was empty. My empty nest is now full of jump ropes.

Dizzy Skips (06:35)
Right.

Mm-hmm.

So do you collect like

I do? Do you have a ridiculous number of jump ropes? Yeah. Do you name them like I do? Are you? Yeah.

Brandy Brown (06:49)
Yes. Yeah. No, but I should. I’m

afraid that I would be mean to them. I probably can’t name them because then I would have to be nicer to my jump ropes.

Dizzy Skips (06:59)
Yeah, I make myself laugh after I name them, you know, like why do you keep

slapping me, Janie? I don’t understand it. Like what did I do to you? Yeah, it’s fun. So, so you don’t normally jump to music.

Brandy Brown (07:08)
I love that you do that. That was fun.

I don’t. I have been lately listening to music more and more. And that’s why I always loved, I don’t, know, the Saturday song group people, mean on Saturday, there’s a group of people that get together and do a Saturday song. And I always loved that because on that day it’s like, just let loose, I listen to music and that’s kind of the first experience that I got with really just jiving to the music. But it seems like I’m only trying to learn something new or, but I’m evolving. I’m getting more into the musical part of stuff.

Dizzy Skips (07:19)
Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Cool. I’m curious, how would you describe your jumping? like, you know, everybody, one of the things I love about the jump rope community is everybody’s got their own style or things that they gravitate toward. And of course, you know, I’m, I do music and footwork or whatever, but how would you describe what you do or what you enjoy?

Brandy Brown (07:45)
Yeah.

That’s an evolving thing as well, depending on what you’re doing. Right now I’m loving footwork. I think I’m spending a lot of time on footwork, which definitely I can see when you’re doing footwork, music is very essential because it helps you with the rhythm and that kind of stuff. The reason why I started is I was actually doing an online program where the lady started jumping rope. It’s strength training. I strength train every morning. That’s how I kind of warm up.

Dizzy Skips (08:07)
Mm-hmm, sure.

Mm-hmm.

Mm.

Mm-hmm.

okay.

Brandy Brown (08:33)
Not every morning, but

most of the time. I like to lift weights. You know, your muscles are organ of longevity, and I want to live a long time. And then jumping rope is really good for your lymphatic system. good for, it’s just good for my bone density. You know, as I’m aging, I want to age well. And I think the jumping rope is just really an integral part of that. And there’s so many studies that say, you know, that the rebounding or the jumping is just good for all that. And so,

Dizzy Skips (08:42)
Mm-hmm.

Right?

Yeah.

Brandy Brown (09:01)
she started jump roping. I, well, and I did CrossFit and I never could figure out double unders and I just had the wire rope at the CrossFit gym. So I did that in years past, but never really got into it. And then when she started doing that, it was May of 2023, she started doing 45 seconds jumping, 15 seconds rest, just three rounds of that at the end. I had kind of, yeah, just, yeah, just swing kicks, just really nothing, just jumping.

Dizzy Skips (09:13)
Mm-hmm.

Okay, just basic bounce kind of jumping.

Brandy Brown (09:30)
And so thought, I’m gonna do that. And so I started doing that and I just wanted to do it 100 jumps. When I first tried it, I couldn’t do 100 jumps. It was so hard. He tripped up, my heart was dying. It was really a huge cardio workout for me. Yeah, and so I started doing that and I really liked that. And I actually bought these little soft beaded ropes from Amazon. I think a lot of people I’ve seen them start to use those. I thought they were great. I think if you’re just learning to jump, I think it’s really great to invest in something like that, at least a bead.

Dizzy Skips (09:32)
Okay.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, right.

Mm-hmm.

Brandy Brown (10:00)
And so I did that for a long time and I then started kind of looking on social media because I had never really been, I have my private account but then I just started looking at Instagram and you of course I found Kathy Jumps and then I found like Laura and I found these people that were doing it and I thought, hmm, I can do this. And I found people my age that were jumping rope and I thought, hmm, I don’t just have to jump, I can make this really fun. So I started doing that and…

Dizzy Skips (10:17)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Brandy Brown (10:26)
Kathy Jumps had just finished a hundred day challenge, so I decided I’m going to do this for a hundred days. And I actually honestly have only missed one day since that day. And I actually woke up like in the middle of the night and went, my gosh, I didn’t jump. And so I ran out into the room and did one jump and I go, can I count that? So I don’t know if I’d missed a day or not.

Dizzy Skips (10:31)
Okay.

Wow.

Yeah.

Right, right. Yeah, it was probably

the same day somewhere, right? Like even if in Idaho, it is past midnight, just go by Hawaii time, right? Yeah, yeah. That’s great. So you and I met through Coach Ghadi. Like we have the same coach. When did you decide to start doing coaching or getting a coach?

Brandy Brown (10:53)
Yeah, exactly.

Exactly, that’s what I thought. Yeah.

Yeah.

So…

So I was just kind of following people on Instagram, right? then I, so I did my own 100 days and then Kathy started doing another 100 day challenge so I joined hers, which I met a lot of people, the online community. That’s when I, in fact, let me answer that in just a sec. So I met Laura and Laura says, Brandy, you should start jumping, you know, and just have an account. Oh, I’m not gonna do that. There’s no way I’m gonna do that. So I kind of, from May to September, mm-mm. And then when Kathy started the 100 jumps, I went, okay, maybe I will. And what got me,

Dizzy Skips (11:16)
Mm-hmm.

Brandy Brown (11:43)
was Laura was giving away a free jump rope and I go, oh, I want to win a free jump rope. And so I did a remix of hers and I entered myself in and c’est la vie, here I am. I mean, it just opened up a whole world of just great stuff for me. so there was a group of ladies that started doing, do you know Nate? Nate, yes.

Dizzy Skips (11:57)
That’s so cool.

KG?

Yeah.

Brandy Brown (12:05)
we started doing his beginning combos and so I was just trying to, we were doing that together and kind of learning all that stuff and I really liked that, I grew a lot there. But I really liked the feedback and so I don’t know how I came across, I don’t know, I just saw somebody doing it, I think Inger, somebody was doing it and so I saw it and I went, huh, I’m gonna try that and then I just love the feedback, I love the little, you’ve been in there, it’s just great, he’s awesome. So, yeah.

Dizzy Skips (12:10)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

So you saw Inga doing like engaging with Coach Ghadi and then you decided to give it a try?

Brandy Brown (12:39)
Yeah, I think she might have even said, hey, you should try this or something like that. And so I kind of looked into it. he had a 14-day free trial is what I did. A lot of us at that same time did that. And for me, it just spoke to me. He had those workouts that you could do. And it was just no-brainer. I just could go do the workout. And so I did that for a long time. I worked through all those workouts. And yeah.

Dizzy Skips (12:43)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. He’s such a supportive

guy too. Like one of the things that tickles me is that Timeless App. You know, he’s got all of these workouts and I will put them on and then start working out to them. And it’s as if you’re in the room with him because he’s constantly talking to you going, all right guys, you did great. You know, guys, guys, I love his is so motivational. He’s like the biggest cheerleader ever. All right guys, great job. You know, of course he can’t see you, but he’s trusting that you’ve done a great job.

Brandy Brown (13:18)
I know!

He is. That is true.

Dizzy Skips (13:28)
Yeah. Yeah. So

how did that change your jumping? Like having a coach or having access to the coach and his app? And how did you engage most with Ghadi?

Brandy Brown (13:38)
Well first I started doing just what you did. I did all those things and then he had a few, he doesn’t do them anymore, when he had the, I met you on those a few times when he would have classes. Yeah, the master classes. So I really liked that because we got to know some people. And now I just love, he’s really good at footwork. And I just love doing the footwork right now. I think it’s really challenging. I’m kind of trying to work on my endurance. I don’t know, I love the way that he does footwork and just

Dizzy Skips (13:48)
The master classes.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Thank

Mm-hmm.

Brandy Brown (14:08)
He’s

so good at like do this piece and then do this piece and then yeah, yeah. So that’s been really good.

Dizzy Skips (14:11)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Brandy Brown (14:15)
she started jumping.

Dizzy Skips (14:16)
And how long did

it take after she started this for you to kind of fall in love with jump rope?

Brandy Brown (14:22)
Well that was like September-ish is when I got introduced into the Instagram world and that’s when I did this remix like, well maybe it was earlier than that, I don’t remember. But I didn’t win the rope by the way. But I was trying to win the rope and they were doing like, I can’t remember, some tricks that were really hard to do and I thought this is really fun. know as you get older a lot of people do those Sudoku puzzles and they do stuff to keep your brain healthy and I’m like, this is like.

Dizzy Skips (14:30)
you

Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Right. Right.

Brandy Brown (14:49)
that on steroids. know, because you’re like thinking and trying to put the puzzles together and trying to figure out what goes where. It’s really tricky and timing is so much. I love the mental stimulation that it gives me. I don’t know. You can either get lost in the music and have it be a place like I’ve experienced that and I’ve also experienced just the work of it. That it just takes you away from anything else you want to know about because you’re just so focused on getting that or you’ll be out to jump for fun.

Dizzy Skips (14:51)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. I love…

Brandy Brown (15:19)
Okay.

Dizzy Skips (15:20)
Oh, I was just gonna say I love that. I mean, to me, it’s like a meditation, right? Where you’re focused so solely on one thing that you lose the worries of finances and work and home life or whatever. And it’s like, I can get lost in this, you know. Yeah.

Brandy Brown (15:36)
Yes, yes.

And you also go out there and you think, I’m just going to practice for like 10 or 15 minutes. I want to learn this one move. And then before you know it, you’re like, my gosh, it’s been an hour and I know my shins aren’t going to like me. I have to stop. And you’re like, one more time. I just got to it one more time.

Dizzy Skips (15:42)
Right.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I do that all the time. Make deals

with myself. Like, I’m just gonna listen to song one more. Okay, just one more time. All right, just one more.

Yeah. So what has been the hardest kind of stuff for you to learn? in your journey, like what has been difficult for you?

Brandy Brown (16:10)
Every journey is very different for your physical, just the way that you are. And I came out, this is a story that think most people and advice I would give to any new person that I got a thousand times and didn’t listen to is just, you got to start out slow. You just have to, because I didn’t and I ended up with this Achilles tendonopathy. I had to like, so I started rope flowing for two months in the middle of that challenge I was doing. still,

Dizzy Skips (16:22)
Yeah.

Brandy Brown (16:38)
did a rope every day, I just couldn’t jump. And so I still like to keep it kind of low impact if I can. Like everybody’s doing all these double unders and until my form gets better, a double under just really quickly just, I have an ankle that I have to be really careful with. And definitely warming up. If I don’t warm up and I think, I’m just gonna go do this jump and I just hop in there and start jumping, I pay a price for that every time.

Dizzy Skips (16:41)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Me too, totally. What does your warm up look like?

Brandy Brown (17:08)
Well, usually I have already, I do a strength training and so I’m warmed up. I warm up a lot for that, just like running stretches. And I actually just like, you saw like this Timeless Jump rope app where everything’s, I like watching it on TV and I just do what the trainer tells me. So I warm up with them and then we lift weights and then we cool down and then I’m like, okay, now I’m ready to jump.

Dizzy Skips (17:18)
Okay.

Brandy Brown (17:34)
No.

Dizzy Skips (17:35)
That’s cool.

is the strength training all weights?

Brandy Brown (17:39)
It pretty much is. Sydney Cummings is a person on Instagram. A lot of people know who she is. I’ve used her a lot. Carolyn Gravon, there’s just a lot of them that do that. But it’s pretty much all. I do have a barbell in here that I start using. I don’t know if you’ve seen many of mine. In the summertime, we have a place, a gym outside. We built a basketball gym for my kids when they were little.

Dizzy Skips (17:45)
Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

nice.

Brandy Brown (18:05)
Now

that they’re all gone, we don’t heat it in the winter, so I don’t go out there because it’s freezing cold. But in the summertime, I have access to that. And so we have all the things we need out there, like cables and all this stuff. But I hibernate in the winter, so I just change it up. It’s good to change it up. I want to ask you, what are you doing calisthenic-wise? Because I’m really interested in that. I know you’re doing calisthenics, but what do you do?

Dizzy Skips (18:09)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Cool. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it is.

Um, so I have just an interval timer app on my iPhone and, um, I set it up so that I do seven rounds of 45 seconds with a 15 second rest. And so I’ll do that and then I’ll do the whole thing twice. So the first seven rounds and I mix up the exercises a little bit, but, um, they focus on. I focus on the spine stretches at first. So I do like seated yoga stuff where I kind of, you know, rotate.

spine that way or stretch back and forth to kind of get I want to keep my spine limber and part of that is like talking about what you said you know you want to age gracefully and there are a few folks that I see around Red Wing who go out for walks who are you know probably in their 80s 90s I know one guy is over 100 and they are bent over like this I mean like they cannot look up and I don’t want to be like that and

Brandy Brown (19:20)
Yeah, I see a lot of people like that.

Dizzy Skips (19:26)
That was actually one of the first things that I noticed as a benefit of jumping rope is I would watch these videos of me and you know, my rope jumping was kind of crap. I had so much to learn, but I realized, my God, my posture is straight up now. You know, like my posture is so much better when I’m jumping rope. And so it’s helped build up my back muscles and my core and stuff. But yeah, anyway, to go back to answering your question about calisthenics, I do some spine stuff. do, I,

Brandy Brown (19:34)
It does.

Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (19:55)
some like standing splits where I, you know, put my legs wider apart and then bend at the waist and try and keep my back straight and which is a really good stretch. And then when I’m bent over, then I’ll start moving my trunk from side to side. And so you can feel the stretch move from like the back of one leg to another. And I do push ups and then I do planking kind of stuff. There’s one thing I do that I’m sure these things have

way more elegant names, but I think of it as sort of like a back plank where I put my hands together like a triangle and then I sit on them, sort of, and then I try to balance myself on my hands. So I’m lying down on my back with these under my butt and then try to like lift my legs and lift my torso and do this, you know, so it’s for the core. So I do that, push-ups, sit-ups, basic stuff like that.

you know, for the most part. Sometimes I can’t, because I don’t ever shut off the music, I get distracted, you know, sometimes a good thumper comes on and I’m supposed to be doing push-ups and instead I’m shuffling, but I forgive myself that. That’s part of the reason that I do two rounds is so that I can make sure that I’m doing the actual calisthenics and also making time for my off with dance, but yeah.

Brandy Brown (21:02)
You

Hahaha

Yeah. That’s

awesome.

Dizzy Skips (21:21)
Yeah,

so, you know, Ghadi has told me that I should get some like kettlebells or, you know, basic dumbbells or stuff like that. And I just haven’t done it yet. But I, so all of my stuff is basically body weight.

Brandy Brown (21:35)
Yeah, well I think push-ups, pull-ups and all that stuff. But I do, as you get older, I don’t, we won’t ask how old we are, as you get older, I definitely think that, I do believe that our muscles are like the organ of longevity. We’ll stand straighter, we can lift, we can play with our kids, can, mean muscle mass is pretty important as we age and it’s harder to get. So the earlier you start, the easier it is to maintain. And jumping rope, I used to always thought I quit doing leg workouts because I thought, well I’m jumping rope.

Dizzy Skips (21:54)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Brandy Brown (22:02)
And that’s not true. come and need to do some strength training to keep all that in balance, know, calf raises and to keep those, especially if I want to do double lenders and stuff like that. But I don’t know. You know, I love it that people can do it and maybe I will someday. But there’s so many other areas that I can go and, you know, you just kind of go where your body and your health takes you and, you know, you get hurt, you do releases or you do rope flow. There’s never an end to like where you can, you never have to stop because there’s always something to do.

Dizzy Skips (22:06)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Thank

Yeah, and whatever floats your boat, yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, and it’s so cool to see people take their own paths. there’s one guy that I follow, probably know him, his name is Rully. I think his handle is S-E Kipping or S-E. It’s like skipping, but there’s an E between the S and the K. And I think he’s in, I want say he’s in Spain or something like that, but this guy, like double under city, like he just, and he jumps so high and he’s whipping that thing around and.

Brandy Brown (22:37)
Yah!

What if I do?

Yeah

Dizzy Skips (23:00)
I just think it’s really cool. I don’t think that that’s going to be my style of jump rope, but I really appreciate that this guy can whip it like that.

Brandy Brown (23:07)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Dizzy Skips (23:08)
I’m the same way

with like lot of those leg wrap stuff like the toad and the elephant and I don’t know. I’m not great with those. Yeah. Yeah.

Brandy Brown (23:17)
I’ve tried them.

It’s fun to try, but it’s fun to watch.

Dizzy Skips (23:23)
Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. So, I saw in your feed you’ve done a few collaboration things, haven’t you? I think you have one that, maybe it’s not a collaboration, maybe it’s a remix with Lisa and Dreschen.

Brandy Brown (23:42)
I’ve done a few remixes. They’re hard to do. The whole navigating of trying to… I just… I haven’t posted yet, but I just did one with Laura. No, my biggest… Well, this is totally…

Dizzy Skips (23:45)
Yeah.

Okay.

When you say

Laura, you’re talking about Yeah.

Brandy Brown (23:54)
Yes, yeah,

was the one that first introduced me into this whole Instagram world and she was, Brandy, just do it. And I’m like, I don’t know if I can. And I didn’t win her heart, but yeah, she was very lovely. So I just did a remix of hers and the very first one I ever did was hers.

Dizzy Skips (24:02)
She’s lovely.

Can I ask you, how did that work? You watch what she’s doing and then you just kind of learn it slowly and then go back and actually record yourself doing it.

Brandy Brown (24:20)
Yeah, there is a little hack to that. didn’t know. A lot of people will just like really, you’d probably really good at it because you got that rhythm down. So if you’re on rhythm and everybody’s on rhythm, then it would just be like everybody’s syncing together. But you can also, if you do a remix, you push remix, and then you can actually set a timer. You have to take the little icon of the camera, and you click on that. And then on the top, there’s this little like, looks like a clock. And you can click that and set a 10 second timer.

Dizzy Skips (24:41)
Mm-hmm.

Brandy Brown (24:48)
And then you also have to click the, there’s a little thing that has like templates and you have to click it so it’s side by side so there’s two of you on there. And you click that little template and then when you click start you got 10 seconds to be ready and have it all queued up and you, you know, like you have to think how many steps did they do and then you can kind of watch as you do it. And then you just do it a bunch of times until you get it. And then if it’s not perfect, it’s not perfect. It’s just fun to do.

Dizzy Skips (24:56)
okay.

Mm-hmm.

That’s cool.

So I learned something there. I’ve never done a remix so far. So you’re actually using the app to power the recording of the remix. You’re not like taking a video of yourself and then doing remix and adding your video in and trying to sync them.

Brandy Brown (25:29)
I did that in the beginning and sometimes I have done that, but I find it easier if I do it in the app because I can watch. But I have to do that 10 seconds, like 10 seconds so you can get by and get ready and then start jumping and be ready to go in when they go in.

Dizzy Skips (25:33)
Okay.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah. So have you nailed

it like in one, one go or do you end up like doing the 10 seconds over and again?

Brandy Brown (25:54)
why sometimes

if you record it, then if you get the timing right, the rhythm right, then if you do it not within the app, then you can sync it together. So yeah, both ways work. So yeah.

Dizzy Skips (25:58)
Mm-hmm.

Sure. Yeah.

Yeah.

So I would like to ask you about your gear. I mean, I know we’re both members of the Timeless community and he has his own ropes as well, but I think you’ve also used Crossropes, right?

Brandy Brown (26:20)
I have, okay, I gotta tell you a story and I’ll try to make it fast. This is my, so I, when I, I told you about my beaded Amazon cheap jump ropes that I got. And I first saw Crossropes and I thought, I really want Crossropes. I really, really wanted them. And I wasn’t really that great at jumping and, you know, I’ve invested in equipment before, but when I told my husband I wanted those ropes and they were like, you know, a lot of money. He’s like, that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. Why would you spend that much money on jump ropes?

Dizzy Skips (26:23)
Doesn’t have to be fast, we got time.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Brandy Brown (26:48)
And so I just kind of pooh-hooed and I thought, whatever, I won’t worry about it. And so every time I’d go somewhere, like we love, around our area, love thrift store shopping. And we were in McCall, Idaho at the Animal Arc. They have like a thrift store for the Animal Arc. And we were in there and I was looking, my mom found these like little cheapo wired jump ropes. And I go, mom, I’m not gonna buy jump ropes like that. There’s no way. And I walk around the corner and I see this white bag.

Dizzy Skips (26:52)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Brandy Brown (27:18)
hanging out of it is like a green and white cable and I went, oh my gosh, think those are Crossropes. And so I pick it up and the bag is kind of beat up and I pull them out and sure enough it was the Crossropes And one end had kind of gotten, it was a little like maybe a dog had chewed on it or something, you I don’t know. It was kind of a little, but it was still great. And I just went, oh my gosh, I wonder how much they’re gonna want for these because they don’t mark anything. So I walked up to the front of the store and the guy says,

Dizzy Skips (27:26)
hahahaha

Yeah?

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Brandy Brown (27:48)
I go, how much do these cost? And he says, what are they? And I go, oh, just a couple beat up old jump ropes. And he goes, what about $1? And I went.

go crazy I was like AHHHH

Dizzy Skips (28:02)
So when you got this, did it come with a set of different ropes? Like Crossropes for, I’ve never used a cross rope, but what I understand is that it’s interchangeable handles that have bearings, right? And so you get ropes of different weights and then you can kind of change them out.

Brandy Brown (28:10)
Hello?

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

Yeah, this one was the quarter pound and half pound that I got. And it had the handles that would go on and off. And I didn’t know if it would be the right size. And so I went and measured them. And it was medium, which is what I would have ordered. Which I find if you ever order Crossropes, don’t order the size that they tell you to because they’re way too long. Especially as you get better and you come down. They’re way too long now. But one thing I did find out is when I started using them, I was like, oh, wow.

Dizzy Skips (28:21)
Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Okay.

Brandy Brown (28:46)
I’m at the stage right now where this makes a huge difference in my ability to progress. so that was the end of the old yucky jump ropes and that was the beginning of me opening this world of like, I gotta try every jump rope.

Dizzy Skips (28:50)
Mm.

Yeah.

Right. So why did they

work better for you? Was it just more feedback or like what was what about them helped you progress more?

Brandy Brown (29:07)
I just, maybe the weight of it, maybe the weight of the rope, and it just spun really well. It was just different. It was noticeably really different. Maybe the way hit the ground. don’t really use them much anymore. But at that time, that was my first big buy. That opened my world.

Dizzy Skips (29:10)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, your big $1 by Yeah Yeah, I think that

having good ropes is it’s kind of like one of those things I just don’t think you should skimp on because almost everyone that I’ve talked to has taken that same path including me like I went to Amazon and all right Well, I’ll get that rope and I’ll get this one and I’ll spend a total of 20 bucks and I’ll come out with three ropes and and they were okay, but they were

Brandy Brown (29:53)
Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (29:55)
Like I could use them, but they fell apart relatively quickly because I beat the heck out of them on pavement, you know. But once I started getting pro ropes, like, my God, yeah, this makes so much difference.

Brandy Brown (30:09)
Yeah,

it does. But I also feel like, even now, every once in a while, in in February I’m going be teaching a class of kids to jump rope, because people ask me, And so I will order those ropes to give away to them. So I still feel like if you’re just learning, it’s a great way to go. Because how many people, honestly Dizzy, does it become a passion for? There’s probably a lot of jump ropes that just sit in closets. And so until you beat that,

Dizzy Skips (30:17)
Nice!

Sure.

Brandy Brown (30:37)
crappy jump rope up and you know that you love it, I think it’s okay to have a crappy jump. I think you kind of, you know, so. I, every one of my jump ropes are worth every penny I spent because I use them. I mean, it depends on what I’m doing. It’s like, I’m doing this. And have you ever been jumping and you’re like, like I started using the PVC, the Timeless, Timeless PVC and man, I can just do anything I want with that. And then I try to do the same thing now with a beaded and I’m tripping up all over the place. I’m like,

Dizzy Skips (30:39)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Brandy Brown (31:06)
Or if I’m trying to do like, good.

Dizzy Skips (31:06)
I was going to ask, do you size them exactly the same or how do you size these?

Brandy Brown (31:11)
Well, I just got a couple of new ropes right now and I have them all laid out and I have them different sizes. You have to figure it. When you get a new rope, you have to figure it out. And it just depends on what I’m doing. I’m trying to do these crosses for this week for our Saturday song. And I ended up having to, I went to my heavier beaded ropes and my longer one.

Dizzy Skips (31:21)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Brandy Brown (31:33)
So

I honestly really, it’s like, it depends on what I’m doing. It’s a tool. Like every jump rope is meant for something different. I mean, I see why you name them. Because every, I need this one today. Or, I want this one today. Or, this one has long handles. Or, this one matches my outfit. Or, you know.

Dizzy Skips (31:36)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, I’m really matchy. Yeah. Yeah.

I was joking that it’s actually not a joke, but I’ve become a lot more aware since I’ve been videoing myself of the color of the jump rope that I’m using or how well that it shows up on video because a lot of my early videos where I was jumping at night, you know, on a stage in downtown Red Wing where the light was really poor, I’d break out a PVC rope and be whipping it around and it just looked like I was waving my hands out.

couldn’t see the rope, know, I’m just bouncing around. Yeah, but now I like the high contrast, you know, like I’ll jump with white or orange or something.

Brandy Brown (32:17)
Yeah! Here we go! Yeah!

And it’s fun to change. It’s kind of like changing your outfit, mean, your jump rope is more important than your outfit, actually, because it’s what, you know, it gets all the show. It’s fun.

Dizzy Skips (32:33)
Yeah.

Yeah,

as you pointed out when we first connected here, am in Florida right now and traveled from Minnesota to Florida and my gosh, figuring out which ropes to take, I felt like I had OCD, know, like I’m going, I have a ridiculous number of ropes, right? Like a compulsive number of ropes. And so I’m lining them up and yeah, I need this one and this one. And I had to, I did the same thing with clothes. I had to like stop and then take some out.

Brandy Brown (32:53)
I do too.

Dizzy Skips (33:05)
Do you really need this many? But I did not carry on my ropes because Peta, who I interviewed early on, said she was pissed. I know she’s so great. She said, I’m pissed off because they wanted to take my ropes and my carry-on. So she has to check a bag now when she travels because they worried that TSA, like, what’s she going to choke someone out with a rope?

Brandy Brown (33:07)
Did you do a carry on? Did you carry?

Bye-bye.

traveled in my carry-on four times now and never have them taken. I know. I know that would be really hard. Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (33:32)
Yeah, I just got paranoid about it. Because I named them and they’re part of my family. Like, what if they took… Yeah, they took Janie!

So do you have, like right now, you have go-to ropes or if you’re gonna just go freestyle or work on something, do you have ropes that you tend to go back to?

Brandy Brown (33:53)
I really like, for the footwork that I’m working on now, really like the PVC. But I’m trying, I actually listened to the podcast that you boys did last time, and I thought that was really interesting, that conversation about like, you can, I mean, you talked about the ropes and the different ropes, and I was thinking about that, you learn with a heavier beaded rope, there is more feedback, but then when you’re used to doing it with a PVC, it’s almost like you go back to the beaded rope, and it’s just different, it gives you different,

Dizzy Skips (33:58)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Brandy Brown (34:21)
like fills and different, it defines your skill even more, like you have to use your wrists a little bit more. And it’s just different with a different rope. like I say, went to when I was doing my crosses today, I went and got one of my heavier beaded ropes and used that and was so much easier than the other one. So I I love them all, Dizzy. I can’t, I love them all.

Dizzy Skips (34:28)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, yeah, I do too. But I’ve had that

same exact experience where like, like I’ve been doing crosses poorly forever. And when I got a heavier beaded rope and started doing crosses, it was like, I had so much feedback that it wasn’t as hard, you know, and it wasn’t like the rope was much longer. It was just like, I knew where it was the whole time. And I didn’t think about it. It just happened. But that one move that I’ve been trying to do where

was multiple crosses in a row and I could do two or three, then I got this heavier rope and it’s like eight, 10, 12, and without tripping up and I felt like, all right. And once I got comfortable with that, then I could move back to a lighter rope and I had learned the motion, you know, like I learned where to put my hands. And so then I, it wasn’t like I was great, but it was like I could sort of move to lighter ropes and still have that muscle memory.

Brandy Brown (35:26)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think that’s what I experienced when I got that first crossroad was like, wow. I I think that was the difference, just the feedback, just the, yeah, yeah. It’s

Dizzy Skips (35:45)
Yeah.

You mentioned that when you started jumping, you missed one day out of how many days?

Brandy Brown (35:55)
I couldn’t tell you now, May 8th of 2023 is when I started my 100 days It was my daughter’s birthday. My birthday is two days later. And I just decided, I’m just going to, I mean, it was a summertime fine program that Sydney Cummings did, and it was like, you write a letter to yourself to say, who are you going to be in 90 days, and where do you want to be? And so it started May 1st, but it took me eight days to like figure it out. And so I just thought, okay, this is what I want to do. I’m going to…

Dizzy Skips (35:59)
Okay.

wow.

Mm-hmm.

Brandy Brown (36:22)
I want to be better at endurance because endurance is really different than strength training. And so I just really want to get stronger in that arena. I don’t want to run. I don’t want to, you know, I’ll walk but I’m not going to be a runner so I’m going to jump rope and I kind of wrote myself a little letter and just kind of went from there. Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (36:27)
Yeah, right.

Cool.

Brandy Brown (36:42)
I was going say, I didn’t realize, and maybe you’re going to get to this, but I didn’t realize what a world that it would open up to me of possibilities and friendships. It did really this huge void in my life. And I have to admire, whoever’s listening that has kids that’s doing this, I have to give a huge shout out to these moms that

Dizzy Skips (37:00)
Mm-hmm.

Right?

Brandy Brown (37:04)
know, it is their outlet and they get away and I wonder, think, gosh, that would have been really good for me as a mom. Like, I think it’s really good. Like, I wish I would have had that tool. Like, when you’re at the gym for hours watching your kids play sports, I how cool, be the cool mom out there. Oh, I wish I would have done that back then. That would have been so fun. But for me now, filling that void in my life and just having that, like, my own thing and, you know, I finally get to have my own thing and I’m a jump rope. I ended up being jump rope for some reason.

Dizzy Skips (37:10)
Yeah. Sure.

Right, yeah.

Mm-hmm.

So how

long after you started jumping did you start realizing benefits from just the jumping? know, benefits that came as a result of the jumping. Things like endurance or other benefits, mental health.

Brandy Brown (37:43)
Yeah, I just think it’s, I just love it. you know, there’s some days, I guess for me, my jump rope is kind of my gateway into help in a lot of ways because there’s some times when I just don’t want to work out or maybe I’ve been sick and I haven’t been a while and I can always trust my jump rope to think, okay, you know what, I’m just going to jump. I’m just going to get my jump rope out, just jump a few jumps. And it’s true anytime you start moving.

Dizzy Skips (37:53)
Mm-hmm.

Brandy Brown (38:08)
any activity that you do and you know whatever your thing is, may not be jump rope but whatever your thing is just do that. Because if you do that then it opens the window to better endorphins, you know, it gets you moving to do all the right things, to eat better, to feel better, get off the couch and to not be depressed or whatever. mean it’s just kind of my gateway into that world. It opens that world for me because I love it so much and you you eat.

Dizzy Skips (38:14)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Brandy Brown (38:36)
Even if you don’t feel like it, you pick up a rope and before you know it, you’re like, oh, OK, yeah, this is my thing. I love this.

Dizzy Skips (38:42)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Did you, I’m curious, did you have like, I’ve talked to some people and I know my experience was, you know, that I fell in love with it right away. Like the bounce, the music, because I’m a music guy, you know, listening to music and going out and bouncing, I overdid it quite a bit as well and made a habit of overdoing it. But, but there were specific points in time where I looked at videos that I recorded and

was like, my God, look what I did there. Like, I can’t believe I did that. And then I started feeling like the mental health benefits or things like that and things that I didn’t quite expect. And I’m wondering, did you ever have that sort of experience where you were like, my gosh, I really do feel better when I bounce

Brandy Brown (39:27)
Yeah. it’s total confidence. Like I will look back. In fact, I’ll look back even like a year ago and thinking I’m going to see like how much better I’ve gotten. And sometimes I’ll look back and go, wow, I learned that back then. Like that’s really cool. You know, I mean, even as you’re evolving, it’s like that. I mean, it is really fun. And I also think if you’re persistent at it, you can get it right. I mean, it gives you this confidence like you can take something really hard.

Dizzy Skips (39:40)
Mm-hmm.

Brandy Brown (39:53)
the impossible and you work out it long enough. that’s why I love about, well I do a shuffle group once a month and they are really hard and I thought this is way over my head. And honestly I’m probably like the worst one in there and I don’t do it very good. But when I started doing that I spent all month and you know some of them say, well I didn’t have time I just did it tonight and they did it great and I’m like okay I’ve been working on this all month long.

Dizzy Skips (39:53)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Right.

Brandy Brown (40:20)
But when you’re done and you accomplish it, it’s like, wow, anything in life, if you just take one step at a time, just a little bit, small and simple things, and over time it compounds, and before you know it, you can do it. And it’s super fun to see that confidence and that knowing that you can accomplish whatever you put your mind to.

Dizzy Skips (40:29)
Yeah.

Yeah.

It is.

Yeah, it really is. you know, my buddy Richard Head has been on several episodes. He’s, he’s called attention to that and how sort of the lessons that he’s learned from Jump Rope can apply to the rest of his life. You know, like by eating the elephant one bite at a time, you know, showing up and doing your 60 pushups and just doing that every day.

Brandy Brown (40:45)
Yes, yes.

absolutely.

Dizzy Skips (41:02)
And then you realize that, yeah, I can do this. Some of the first videos that I saw were like Kaydee Jumps and Lauren Jumps where I looked at them and was like, that is fricking magic. I’ve got to do that, but that looks like magic to me. And, you know, the releases and the footwork and the spinning and stuff like that. And now I have been at it long enough that I know I can do what she does. If I put.

Brandy Brown (41:26)
I

know!

Dizzy Skips (41:26)
If I keep showing up and I keep doing it and keep practicing, I’m

not going to do it tomorrow or whatever, but I know that if I have the patience and I keep showing up, I’m, you know, and it’s so fun. It’s so fun when like releases are one of those tricks that I feel like so many people want to do because they do look so cool. They look kind of magical. And, and I just thought I had this thing in my head, like, I’m never going to get that. And that’s okay. I’m just never going to get it. But I started working on it and practicing it and I’m not great.

but now I can catch them, you Yeah.

Brandy Brown (41:55)
You’re getting it. I know. It’s so fun.

And if you choose to, if that’s what you want to do and you spend time doing it, doing it, you would get it. That’s what’s cool is you kind of pivot where you want to go. Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (42:06)
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

Are you following coaching in an app or do you kind of plan out what you’re going to do or what you’re working on? Like, do you have specific tricks when you go to practice each day? Do you have a plan?

Brandy Brown (42:21)
I’m just gonna show this, there’s my plan. This is my living room. All my jump ropes, my dry erase board.

Dizzy Skips (42:27)
That is awesome, I love it.

Brandy Brown (42:30)
have little drive, I have do Laura’s remix, then I have it written down, and then I have Timeless Jump challenge, box shuffler straddle, I I write it down, and I have my little mirror here so I can watch my footwork. I haven’t been using the mirror quite as much lately, because it kind of sometimes trips me up a little bit. But it is, like with strength training, you just really want to make sure you’re doing your correct technique.

Dizzy Skips (42:47)
Mm.

That’s it.

Mm-hmm.

Brandy Brown (42:57)
And I’ve been working really hard on getting my form right only because my elbow’s starting to bug me and I really think I just gotta use my wrists more and not my elbows. And so it comes with time, I know. I just need to relax and it’ll come. But I try to check in on myself quite often.

Dizzy Skips (43:04)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

When you get tripped up using a mirror, is it a mental thing?

Brandy Brown (43:17)
Um, I don’t know. I- I- Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (43:20)
You know, like when I talked to my friend Sarah,

she can’t look in a mirror because it’s backwards of what she’s doing, right? You know, like it’s a reflection of what she’s doing and then she gets in her head about, you know, am I? Yeah. But I was working, I am at a place where there’s a gym here and I was in the gym and they’ve got like, you know, basically a dance floor with a huge mirror on one wall. And I found it super fun to be able to watch myself. I was trying to work on side to side

Brandy Brown (43:26)
Yeah

Alright!

I’ve got to try that. I totally got to try that.

Dizzy Skips (43:51)
Yeah, was a lot of fun and being able

to see and actually one of the places that I jump in Red Wing, this, you know, a band shell place, when it’s dark, they’ve got windows in the back of it. So when it’s dark, I can, yeah. And so I’ve used that as well, just to kind of to make sure my hands are the right spot or things like that.

Brandy Brown (44:02)
Yeah, the reflection. Yeah.

And what I find out a lot too is you think you’re doing something like I think I’m doing something just the way I want to do it and then you watch yourself and go wow like my toe was like way back behind or it’s not there. I you can definitely like make things look more sharp and more you got to look if you don’t and you can do that by filming. I actually probably do better when I film myself and I look back at it and go and then you can do slow motion and then

Dizzy Skips (44:17)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Brandy Brown (44:33)
That’s probably more

Dizzy Skips (44:34)
Yeah.

Brandy Brown (44:34)
effective than the mirror, but if you just don’t want to, you know, you don’t want to do all that because sometimes that takes time. The mirror is good. Yeah. Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (44:39)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah,

I learn so much from watching myself. Mostly it’s like, that’s why I whacked myself in the back of the because my hands were out here when I came out of that cross.

Brandy Brown (44:47)
Yeah.

You get all excited and all of sudden you’re out here going, why? Why can’t you just stay here? Just stay down. I don’t mind myself and it makes me so mad. You get excited and you’re just like flying like a bird, you know. Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (44:52)
I know. Woo! Boom!

Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Yeah It happens

especially when I pull off some trick that I really wanted to pull off and then coming out of that trick Then I mess it up somehow, you know but

Brandy Brown (45:14)
one thing

I really love about you, have to say, is like, I love these podcasts, by the way, and I love you said something about I’m finding my footwork voice. And I go, I just love it that within Jump Rope, that we have our own ability to find ourselves and our style. And we don’t compare ourselves with anybody else, but we’re a melting pot in some of the stuff I do. I heard you say, I don’t.

Dizzy Skips (45:33)
Mm-hmm.

Brandy Brown (45:38)
thought you were talking about me and I’m sure that you weren’t, but I thought you were. Because I remember every time I see a rock, I’m like, Dizzy. I gotta go skip on that rock. I’m on vacation. Every time I see a rock, I’m like, or I go fishing with my husband. I literally would never do that, or maybe I would, but if I do, it’s like, I think of you, I get on that rock, and I just, like, yeah, like, you’re part of me, you know what I mean? And I think that community is, and I just gotta say too,

Dizzy Skips (45:41)
Heh.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, you’ve totally done that. You’ve totally pointed out rocks at me before.

Hahaha

Yeah.

Brandy Brown (46:08)
reel friends become real. And I witnessed that with you, which I almost cried when I saw that video. I think that is so cool. I also like that’s your story. But I love it. I love every bit about it. But I had a similar experience, not quite that awesome. Like that is so awesome. But after a year or so, I don’t know how long it was, I decided to go to the New York Jump Rope Meetup.

Dizzy Skips (46:13)
Mm-hmm.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Right, yeah, I’ve seen some videos.

Brandy Brown (46:37)
And so

I flew by myself and my husband, go, I’m gonna go to New York. you’re what? And I go, yeah, I’m gonna go meet my friends. And he goes, your friends? And I go, they’re my friends. I mean, they were my real friends, right? R-E-A-L. But when I got there and we went in that room and I saw Peta and Laura and and all these girls, I looked at them, Pam. I thought, my gosh, these are like my friends. Like I’ve spent a year talking to them.

Dizzy Skips (46:43)
Ehh

You have friends?

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Brandy Brown (47:06)
They know my ins and outs. We have a little chat now that we talk about protein and fiber and recipes. We just share it all. We just become such good friends. Then Kathy Jumps walked in and I’m like, my gosh. I’m meeting her in life and seeing that she’s, and Marie and Jen, I might just go on and on. There are so many of them that I met that had just, that they’re part of me. Marie does pushups every day and she tags me every day. see her doing pushups and I think, oh my gosh, these people have,

Dizzy Skips (47:11)
Yep.

Yeah, that’s so amazing. Right? Right.

Brandy Brown (47:35)
grown me and had confidence in me and have supported me and I just hope to do the same. I’m still finding my voice, my footwork voice. think, is my voice? You made me think about that. What is my, you know, I love jump rope and I love it all. don’t know that I have a style yet. I’m still figuring it out, but I love it all.

Dizzy Skips (47:38)
Mm-hmm.

I know what you mean.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, yeah,

that is so fun though. And it is amazing, like the support from the community in general, but the quality of friendships that I’ve developed, you know, I live in a small town in Minnesota and I moved there, you know, shortly before COVID hit the first time. And so didn’t really get a lot of chance to meet that many people and don’t have a lot of friends in town that I hang out with. So a lot of the jump rope community is my

you know, is my friendship, you know, it’s my support group. It’s the people I love talking to and making jokes with and stuff. And I’ve just learned so much and it’s been entirely positive. Like I’ve never had someone, you know, I’ve never had bad experiences. it’s like this jump rope community doesn’t need policing because people are all patting each other on the back and saying, Brandy, you’re doing great. Or I love that footwork. Yeah, isn’t it?

Brandy Brown (48:33)
Yeah.

Yeah, the camaraderie is amazing. And

even like the, I mean feel like I’m still the underdog. I came in like not knowing anything and you have these experienced jumpers that just take you underneath their wings and they just, you know, it’s just amazing, the communities and the jump, you know, just the support, you know, we’re in the middle of it, it’s awesome. And even you doing this podcast so we can get to know each other better and it’s really great. It’s so fun. Yeah, I love listening to them. So I’d love it though if somebody in my town would

Dizzy Skips (49:03)
Right.

Yeah.

Isn’t it fun? I just love it. Yeah. Yeah.

Brandy Brown (49:22)
jump rope. I think it would be really fun to have somebody that had the same passion. would say, hey, let’s do this together. What about this? But you still have your own style and do your own thing. It’s a very personal, you just kind of go where you, there’s so many different ways to move throughout it. And it’s just a beautiful process to see where you end and how you go.

Dizzy Skips (49:23)
Yeah, I know it to me.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, that’s so cool

that you’re doing the jump rope thing for kids. That’s something I’ve thought of now. Jump rope has given me so much confidence. And now I feel like, yeah, I could do a community ed class and teach people basic jump rope. Because…

Brandy Brown (50:00)
Yeah. Well, somebody asked

me. Somebody asked me, says, hey, would you mind teaching? And this will be the second time I’ve done it. And I just buy those cheap jump ropes from Amazon and give everybody one in the class. These are older kids. This will be way fun. The first time I kind of overdid it, because they were little and couldn’t really do what I wanted them to do. I was like, oh, OK.

Dizzy Skips (50:11)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

You’re…

Listen, you little for-old, said boxers skip.

Brandy Brown (50:27)
I know, come on!

But yeah, like to give back and if I could find a few people that would love doing it, it would be kind fun to go to school. Maybe I should go to PTA again and say, we need to have a jump rope team come and give out jump ropes again.

Dizzy Skips (50:41)
Yeah, yeah, totally.

Did you? You probably saw the Peta podcast where she talked about like buying 100 jump ropes in bulk and then carrying them around in her car. That was hilarious because she wanted to eliminate objections. You know, people are like, yeah, yeah, yeah, would. I need to get one. She’s like right here.

Brandy Brown (50:52)
Yeah. Yeah. Here you go, there’s no prob. Well, I…

to jump ropes and I’ve actually given quite a few away too. I actually, the reason why I have a bunch is because I bought them for my family for Christmas. And then I decided I’m just not going to give it to them because I want to know that they’ll use it. I mean, I love my jump ropes and for me to just give them a jump rope is just going to sit there. And so we played this bingo game and I had all these prizes. And I snuck in two of my jump ropes and a rope flow rope just to see who would choose them. Nobody chose them.

Dizzy Skips (51:11)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Whomp, whomp.

Brandy Brown (51:32)
Okay, fine. I’m not giving my family my jump ropes. I’m gonna give them to somebody that decides to ask me if they want a jump rope.

Dizzy Skips (51:39)
Yeah, that’s hilarious.

Brandy Brown (51:41)
I’m stretching the truth a little bit. My son took the flow rope and then my daughter ended up taking the jump rope. But it wasn’t their first pick and I saw that they were feeling sorry for their mom.

Dizzy Skips (51:46)
Okay.

Have a

So are they jumping

and flowing now or?

Brandy Brown (52:00)
So, I, no. So, my husband will jump with me every once in a while. So, he warms up to a jump rope and he actually, he’s watching me a little bit and he’ll like, oh, he starts trying stuff and he’s seeing the value. I mean, he sees it in me. He really does. He’s like, he sees what it’s done for me. So, I’m wanting to go to another meetup right now and he’s like, really? I really want to go to one.

Dizzy Skips (52:03)
Okay, well, that’s alright.

That’s great.

I bet.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah,

Brandy Brown (52:28)
I want to go to London. Yes, I do.

Dizzy Skips (52:29)
London on July 5th. Yes.

Brandy Brown (52:32)
I’m going to try to make that happen. But he just gets nervous about me leaving. that’s a huge long ways. But we’ll see.

Dizzy Skips (52:39)
It was a long way. I would love to

do it too. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to financially pull it off this year, but my gosh, the idea of meeting so many people in one place and being able to learn from them. Yeah. Yeah. Just nerd out over jump rope for days on end. Sounds great.

Brandy Brown (52:45)
I know that would be so amazing.

Well, the thing is,

it’s only like four hours, so it would be really hard because you’d be like, I think it should be like a weekend, like should be like two full days to try to fit it all in. I don’t know how he does his, but our New York one was just like four hours. And it was, the best part about that was the day before Peta and I went over to New York and we jumped all over the place. We turned our jump ropes, literally here we are, jumping all over the and people were watching us and were like, I would have never done that in a thousand million years.

Dizzy Skips (53:08)
Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Brandy Brown (53:25)
care less. We jumped in middle of Times Square in front of everybody. Nobody cares. We didn’t care. If you would have told me I was doing that 10 years ago, I would said, no way.

Dizzy Skips (53:28)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Right. Yeah. Yeah.

Peta is four foot eleven of fearlessness, right? I mean, yeah. Yeah, she’s super fun.

Brandy Brown (53:42)
she is amazing. Her

energy is contagious, and I want to bottle it up.

Dizzy Skips (53:48)
BLEH

Yeah, yeah, I totally

know what you mean. So what’s next for you in jump rope? Yeah, you showed us your whiteboard, but like what? Yeah, but what are your big goals here for? Like if you had goals

Brandy Brown (54:00)
My whiteboard.

all the fun stuff that we’ve been talking about is really opposite of that. I think my goal right now really is endurance. Because I find myself learning like I’m constantly well I have this idea that I might do and I don’t know if I will or not. It has to do with music. I know I got it when I commit myself I have to do it and I’m not sure I want to but I want to jump more with music and I want to like more freestyle and for longer period I want to be able to jump for like

Dizzy Skips (54:12)
Okay.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Brandy Brown (54:34)
five thousand jumps or like ten minutes. I’ll jump for one song and I’m like, okay, I gotta stop and take a little break. I can jump for a long time, but I take long breaks and I just want to have more endurance, better form so my body can take it, more cardiovascular. That’s what I like about footwork. If you do footwork properly, it’s really low impact.

Dizzy Skips (54:44)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Brandy Brown (55:03)
should

be able to jump for a long time and just work on that VO2 max. That’s kind of what I want to kind of increase my VO2 max, kind of that training.

Dizzy Skips (55:11)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah. The endurance is like I realized the benefit of the endurance to me, you know, like it is the amount of time I can jump now. Of course, I’m compulsive about it and I’ve injured myself.

Brandy Brown (55:27)
can you jump?

How long can you jump in a row without stopping?

Dizzy Skips (55:30)
You mean like if I just start… mean to like one song or something like that or just…

Brandy Brown (55:34)
literally after about, I could probably jump for maybe five minutes and then I have to stop because I’m like…

Dizzy Skips (55:41)
Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, I think that’s… Yeah, I don’t know, honestly, Brandy. Like, I will go out and jump for two hours, but, you know, I do a song and then I redo the song and then I redo the song and then I, you know, I’ll trip periodically and stuff. So I’m never jumping for just 10 minutes in a row, you know, but it’s, but I will be jumping for 10 minutes a row, but I will be stumbling.

Brandy Brown (55:55)
Yeah.

Same. Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (56:09)
restarting and then rewinding and you know stuff like that so like today I went out twice and I I jumped for a half hour basically all the way through but I you know I had to restart the song or I’d trip and I’d whip myself and I laugh at myself and goof around and then dance a little bit and then jump but I don’t stop moving you know

Brandy Brown (56:11)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah,

yeah, yeah, no, that’s good. That’s what I want to work on. And I think for me, that’s like footwork, shuffling. I did buy a shuffling class that I’ve been kind of taking just to move a little more, just to get a little more fluid with that kind of stuff. I think it’s fun.

Dizzy Skips (56:43)
yeah?

Yeah. Is

it a jump rope specific shuffling class or is

Brandy Brown (56:52)
No,

it’s just the Shuffle Mamas. They just have a beginner card. Yeah, I actually bought it on our Black Friday sale, so it was super cheap. I just thought, you know, I really like the Charleston. so I’m in their second class. I prefer to jump rope. And you can only fit so much in, because I am still doing the, Ghadi had a January end of the year challenge. And he’s doing one now. And I’m doing that. So every day he has one. And I love that. So I do that every day.

Dizzy Skips (56:56)
my god, I love them. Aren’t they so fantastic?

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Brandy Brown (57:20)
It’s tough

stuff, so I probably spend 15 or 20 minutes working through that. And then I usually work on whatever we’re doing for our Saturday song, which is a skill. So this time it’s those running crosses. And then because we, I film, that’s pretty much when I post is for our Saturday songs. I like that accountability. I don’t know if I’d ever, I’m not very good at the social media stuff. It stresses me out to post stuff, know what to write. I don’t know.

Dizzy Skips (57:26)
Mm-hmm.

yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

Brandy Brown (57:50)
I

mean, I do when I feel like it, but I don’t ever want to feel pressured that I have. I don’t want to, I want it to be a joyful experience, not something that I feel obligated or stressed out. And that’s great about the community too. I I want to post because I want to be involved and I want to contribute. I mean, I think it’s super important that we do do that, but I don’t want it to ever feel like it’s work. I don’t know. I don’t explain that. I have love-hate relationship with it.

Dizzy Skips (58:03)
Right.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, no, I totally get it.

Yeah,

yeah, I totally get it. I mean, honestly, so I went to this business accelerator thing once last year, and there were several people giving a talks on how they turned their hobby into a business. So it’s like a guy who’s a musician who now gets paid because that’s all he does is music. know, he just he’s got a band and they go around and do music and that sort of thing. And

And there was another person who had like a crafty business that they had turned into a business and stuff like that. And one of the questions I asked was, did you ever worry that as you made your hobby a business, you would lose the passion that you had for it, or it would start to feel like more of a job and you’d go, my God, I gotta go play music, you know? And the guy who played music, he had a really great answer, which was…

No, I’m an introvert basically and music is how I communicate with people. this is the way that I talk. And so I thought that was fantastic. And there was one lady there who said, yeah, once I got my business off the ground, I felt less like doing it in my spare time. And so she sort of fell out of the passion for it. She still liked it. And so I asked the question because I was thinking about the podcast.

What if I ever made jump ropes or something like that? I just love it so much, I never want to get to that point where it’s like, my God, I gotta go, you know, gotta go do woodwork or whatever.

Brandy Brown (59:44)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, that’s.

Dizzy Skips (59:48)
I foresee that happening though, I’m just having too much fun.

Brandy Brown (59:49)
No, I don’t

so either. I wouldn’t think so either. And for me, it’s totally a hobby. It’s just the posting part is like… And sometimes it’s really hard too because when you post something, the community is so supportive that it isn’t like… When you post something, it’s not just posting and writing. It’s interacting with everybody. It can be a couple hours experience by the time you film it, post it, share it.

Dizzy Skips (59:53)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Brandy Brown (1:00:15)
And you want to share it, and you want to watch everybody else’s reels. so then it’s become like this.

Dizzy Skips (1:00:20)
Yeah.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I posted one the other day that got a lot of feedback and my gosh, just not only is it the feedback and going and adding, know, responding to comments and stuff, but for me, sometimes it’s when I do that, then the video starts playing again and then I watch it again then I have my little emotional or, know, I think so. Yes. Yeah.

Brandy Brown (1:00:42)
my gosh. Is it the one I’m thinking of?

watch that instead of turn on the TV. I love a good romance. I watched that like a thousand times. I’m just like, oh my gosh, this is like the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in my whole life. I don’t know. I just loved it. Everything about it was just like, and I feel like I know you. I think, oh my gosh, that’s so good. That is like so perfect. I don’t know. I just loved it. was, oh!

Dizzy Skips (1:00:50)
Hahaha!

That’s great.

Yeah, it was so fun. We both had so much

fun rewatching that over and over again. And the comments that we got were hilarious. Somewhere just… Yeah. Yeah. was super special, but yeah. Yeah, that’s a benefit that I never thought I would get from jumping rope, you know, is just the strength of relationships.

Brandy Brown (1:01:15)
I lost it over and over again. I show it to my husband. go, look at this. That’s what I said to him. go, real friends can become real. Look at this. Like, this is real.

Yeah

I’m…

Dizzy Skips (1:01:37)
but also just the way that I feel about people in the Timeless community, the people I’m connected with on Instagram that I interact with. you know, yeah, it’s great.

Brandy Brown (1:01:45)
Yeah, yeah. They become

a part of you. In fact, I don’t think I commented yet, but I think I just watched a reel of yours, and I went, oh my gosh, I think Dizzy is actually doing Aaron right there. Because I saw some of this, like, for just a minute I saw. go, oh, there he is. And you can never do some of that wrangling without thinking of Aaron. It’s like, OK, I can do this. And he’s helped so many people.

Dizzy Skips (1:02:04)
Yeah.

Yeah.

I

know he’s yeah, he’s ridiculously helpful and he’s very funny too. Yeah.

Brandy Brown (1:02:16)
He’s very funny. I everybody’s just so helpful. It is really great. It’s awesome.

Dizzy Skips (1:02:20)
Yeah, best community.

It’s the best little corner of the internet, yeah.

Brandy Brown (1:02:25)
100%.

And it’s pretty tight-knit. I mean, it’s pretty small. we invite. I mean, come, come. Anybody needs to come. Like, I was shy, and Laura was bold to me to say, just Brandy, you’d be surprised. And I waited like three months. I mean, I really was shy, gun-shy to hop in. I mean, because when you hop in, you kind of want to be a contributor. And that’s scary. It can be really scary to be a contributor, but.

Dizzy Skips (1:02:39)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Brandy Brown (1:02:48)
And that is another

Dizzy Skips (1:02:48)
Yeah.

Brandy Brown (1:02:49)
thing I’d say to new people, like I’m really sad that I, when I first started doing all of that, because I wasn’t doing social media, I have no recordings of my early jumps. I have one from really early on, and the only reason why I did it is because I happened to, I was trying to do double unders and I was gonna, I took it to send a friend. And then another time I was,

Dizzy Skips (1:03:10)
Okay.

Brandy Brown (1:03:12)
with my sister and her little daughter and I, hey, you to jump rope with me? And so my sister videotaped us doing this little jump rope routine. And it was the most pathetic thing you’ve ever seen. thought, by the time I have any video, I’m kind of jumping already. And so if you’re beginning, just record. Record a lot and embrace it because it’s so fun to see how far you come and you don’t really experience the new jumps. When you’re a beginner, you improve really fast. It’s when you get, you’re only a beginner one time.

Dizzy Skips (1:03:18)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Brandy Brown (1:03:43)
And to see that progress and that growth, to document that, I just have kudos to people that are doing that on Instagram. I’m so proud of them. And I kind of wish I would have entered in sooner, so I had that.

Dizzy Skips (1:03:43)
Yeah, yeah totally.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I started my account on March 1st of last year and I didn’t, I did it at first because I just wanted to be able to analyze my jumping. You know, I knew other people did this, you know, and, but I had no idea the power of the community or how much the community would affect me and, and the depth of friendships that I would make, you know, it, was just.

one of those benefits that now is so important to me that I’m like you, I just want to convert people. know, like, no, you know, if you want to feel good, let’s bounce, you know, and post a video because people are going to be insanely supportive. And, and I know that feeling of, I’m not good enough, you know, or I’ll just look silly or whatever. But just F it, you know, do it. Right.

Brandy Brown (1:04:28)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, no, I totally

agree. I do agree. And when I was gone, when we were on a trip, we didn’t have Wi-Fi. And so I was just completely dark. And I actually had a couple people who would talk to me and say, hey, Brandy, hey, are you? And I’m just like, oh, that’s so nice. I don’t contribute that much, but people recognize that I always think, wow, that’s

Dizzy Skips (1:04:58)
All right. Yeah.

Yeah, you weren’t posting as

well. Yeah.

Brandy Brown (1:05:05)
Yeah, is everything okay? And I’ve actually had people that have gone quiet, which is great. It’s okay if you need to go quiet, and I understand people have spans like that, but you’re like, you think about them, you have to message them, say, hey, how’s everything going? And I mean, it isn’t just about, yeah, I we can beat it over the head, but all you can say is it’s it’s remarkable. It’s really great.

Dizzy Skips (1:05:16)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah,

it is great. Yeah, you learn to care about people, you know, for their whole, I mean, they become friends and it’s just jump rope, you know, yeah.

Brandy Brown (1:05:32)
Yeah, exactly.

Yeah. Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (1:05:35)
Well, Brandy, this has been so fun. You already gave some advice to newcomers and I’d like to ask, know, like if you had people who are considering Jump Rope or thinking like, hmm, maybe I should try what Brandy and Dizzy tried, what are your recommendations for them? Aside from video yourself.

Brandy Brown (1:05:54)
yeah, I mean definitely video your progress and maybe don’t show it to anybody until you’re good and then you can look back and you’ll be really glad you have the footage. But you can learn by watching yourself too. I would say, well, the number one advice I’d give that if you’re really passionate about it, you probably won’t listen to me, but is just take your time. I mean just take your time, take a few jumps at a time and…

Dizzy Skips (1:05:58)
Mm-hmm.

Hahaha

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Brandy Brown (1:06:17)
and maybe set a timer. I remember I did a post one time that says I used to have to set a timer for how long I’d work out and now I have to set a timer to stop. And I think Jump Rope kind of does that to you. I mean, if you want to have injuries and you wanted to go for it, you can do it that way too. I mean, it’s part of the process. We’ve all done it. But I think if you just kind of go slowly, a little bit at a time, maybe do releases, just the hard impact when you’re first starting. Because I think your form isn’t as good and I think you just have injuries so much better.

Dizzy Skips (1:06:26)
Right.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

So what do you think

is like a reasonable time to start out with? what would you recommend?

Brandy Brown (1:06:51)
Um, well I don’t, most people will say, like, I meant probably, literally, like, less than five minutes a day. I meant maybe five minutes a day, maybe do some rope flow. I think rope flow is an incredible way, you know, and back to your, have you ever rope flowed? Have you ever tried it?

Dizzy Skips (1:06:58)
Mm-hmm.

Not,

I’m not with an actual flow rope. No, I mean, just, just what I’ve done with the jump Yeah.

Brandy Brown (1:07:12)
mean, because like,

if you actually like get into, mean, it’s a whole different, but it also helps you in your jump rope. It really helps, like EBs and all those things that are so hard to do. I never learned that with a jump rope. I learned that with a rope flow when I was out. And so then for me, I never had to learn it with a jump rope. I just came natural to me because I had to rope flow. So I would say just find ways to maybe still do it and just don’t do it so quickly that you get injury. And I also wonder, I didn’t,

Dizzy Skips (1:07:21)
Mm-hmm.

That’s cool.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, that’s a really great.

Brandy Brown (1:07:40)
You know, I didn’t really think about, I usually did it at end of the workout, but there was a lot of times when I would just jump. And I think the warming up and cooling down is, maybe if you’re younger, I mean, this is in my age, I would definitely do that. That might prevent a lot. no, I will say, I actually set these out because I wanted to, have you ever seen any of these things?

Dizzy Skips (1:07:48)
Mm. Mm. Mm-hmm.

No! Are those brass knuckles? Those are to knock your husband out when he doesn’t.

Brandy Brown (1:08:01)
Like, okay, are, oh, yes, these are my

best friends. Like, this is the best thing for jump rope. So, you know when your shins get really sore and you can touch them and they hurt? These are scrapers. And so, if you want to, you know, like when you, yes, and it helps, my physical therapist, actually my son-in-law is a physical therapist, and he, this has been the biggest tool for me to keep my calves and stuff strong.

Dizzy Skips (1:08:13)
Yeah, yeah.

It’s like a massager.

Brandy Brown (1:08:28)
You’ll just take your shint and you just run it. And you can rub out all of those not only, right now I have one that hurts right now. And you just kind of rub it out. And so when I sit in there watching TV, this one you can really get in there tight. This one here is a little softer and you just kind of, it really helps heal and it really.

Dizzy Skips (1:08:44)
Do you use it

just on the shin part on the front of your legs or are you using it on your the back of your legs as well?

Brandy Brown (1:08:49)
So I

don’t know about you, but this is where I hurt. This is where my pain is. I don’t get calf pain anymore, ever. But if I did, I would do it on my calves. And when I had my ankle problem, I use this a lot because this will help in physical therapy. And I am not a physical therapist. I’m saying it wrong, but you can Google it or whatever. When you have knots, it just kind of helps the blood flow and you scrape it. It helps the healing process.

Dizzy Skips (1:08:59)
Yeah.

No.

Interesting.

Brandy Brown (1:09:18)
needled a couple times, which also helps bring blood flow. Yes. I just wanted my ankle to heal so bad. I tried so hard. I went a whole month without jumping. I just wanted to jump so bad. And so this, actually think these have really saved me from just keeping my… And then I also can know how…

Dizzy Skips (1:09:20)
Like acupuncture? Okay.

Cool.

And what are

they called? Like if someone wanted to look something like that up?

Brandy Brown (1:09:42)
A scraper? I don’t know. I don’t know what it is. I did buy this one on Amazon though. I could share it with you. I’ll find the link in my thing and I can send it to you, what I got. It’s like a massage scraper. If you Google a massage scraper, you could probably figure it out.

Dizzy Skips (1:09:43)
scraper.

Yeah.

Okay, that’d be cool. Okay.

Brandy Brown (1:10:03)
But then you also know how sore you are. Because I didn’t even know I was sore. And when I scrape over it, it’s like, oh, there’s a lump right there. Like, oh, that is really tender. And I just go really soft in the beginning. And before I know it, I can go really hard and I work it all out. And I just think that’s been really integral. And education, too. also think that working

Dizzy Skips (1:10:09)
Yeah.

Yeah. That’s great.

Yeah.

Brandy Brown (1:10:24)
think you can learn form right away or do think you just have to get in and go for it and then learn form? I’m not sure. I wish I would have paid a little more attention to form, but I don’t know if I could have done it until I just learned the muscle memory first.

Dizzy Skips (1:10:36)
Yeah, that’s a good question. I think if I’m happy with where I’m at, so I wouldn’t change that much. But if I could change something about my trajectory, it would have been to pay close attention to rope size up front. Because when I bought these jump ropes over Amazon, I did sort of like a casual sizing based on what they recommended. like if you buy ropes from different manufacturers, you’ll get different sizing.

recommendations for almost every rope, you know, like everybody does it their own. So some are like, bring it up to your shoulders or bring it up to your chest or whatever. But I knew right away that I wanted to be good, you know, like I want to get good at this. And so I want to have good form. And when I watched, I bought the Fancy Feats app on a Black Friday sale a couple years in 2023 or something. Yeah, Lauren’s a great teacher and the app is really well laid out.

Brandy Brown (1:11:08)
28.

Well, I first did things about that. Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (1:11:34)
but she has a little help article on sizing your rope. And she talks about like when you’re starting out, know, having it like come up to your chest or the bottom of your armpit or something that can work. But she points out that the size of your rope is dictated by the way that you jump and the way you jump is dictated by the size of your rope, right? So.

If you have a really long rope, which I started out with, it made my arms go out further and I was doing this more and I would go home and my shoulder would kill. And so once I got my rope down to the short enough that it made me keep my hands closer to my, you know, closer to my waist and my elbows back and stuff, then it took some getting used to. But once, once I got used to it, then I can go so much faster. It’s so much more efficient because I’m not moving.

Brandy Brown (1:12:01)
And you gotta be out. Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (1:12:27)
I’m not using so much energy to move the rope. I’m moving with my wrists, you know. And it makes adding tricks and things like crosses are much easier because I’m not going from out here to in here. You know, I’m going, it’s a much more efficient move.

Brandy Brown (1:12:41)
Yeah.

Yeah, no, I agree. So that’s good advice. So rope length and form would be something that to nail that in early on would be really great. Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (1:12:49)
Yeah, yeah,

I know when I’ve learned things the wrong way and then I try to learn them the right way, breaking bad habits can be harder than just up with learning it right the first time, you know what I mean?

Brandy Brown (1:13:02)
That is true, but I also think as a beginner if you love it, just jump and enjoy it and and and get to the point where it is the release part for you because that’s when you’re to love it the most you know I’m at the form and all that stuff comes with time, but Do all that stuff, but just just get in the moment. Just have fun with it and don’t

Dizzy Skips (1:13:07)
Yeah, totally.

Yeah. Yeah.

Brandy Brown (1:13:21)
pressure yourself, don’t compare yourself with anybody. Everybody’s journey is different, every journey is beautiful. I love, find your voice, find your footwork voice. Just find your rhythm that works for you. And then share it, share it with us. Come, be our friends. That’s a great place to be. It is, yep.

Dizzy Skips (1:13:24)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. It is. It’s the best place to be. Yeah.

Well, Brandy, this has been so much fun. I really appreciate you coming on and talking to me. This has been terrific. And I’m sure I will see you before too long in one of the master classes. I know he’s kind of changing his schedule around those. And we were doing a few more of them last year. But I think they’re going to kick up again soon. So, yeah.

Brandy Brown (1:13:56)
Yes, yes.

That would be great. That

would be great.

Dizzy Skips (1:14:07)
That’s always

so much fun. It’s always so much fun to join these Zoom classes where there’s like you and I are the two Americans and then there’s a few people from the UK and there’s a guy from and there’s someone Sweden and Norway. Yeah, the community is incredible.

Brandy Brown (1:14:15)
Yeah!

awesome. It’s a worldwide community.

That’s another thing that’s been really great. Like we’ve met people from all over the world. I’m going to to Australia one day. I’m going to go meet those girls. So from down under. Yeah. Yep.

Dizzy Skips (1:14:27)
Yeah.

Yeah, from Down Under. Yeah, that would be amazing. Yeah, I gotta do the same someday. Someday when I’m

rich and famous, I’ll be on a jump rope world tour, you know?

Brandy Brown (1:14:42)
There you go. You need to make some awesome jump rope that travels the world. Thank you.

Dizzy Skips (1:14:48)
Right? Well, thank you so much, Brandy. I really do appreciate

it. You’ve been so supportive and so inspiring. And so I’m just so happy to be connected with you.

Brandy Brown (1:15:00)
Yeah, right back at you.