Jump Rope, Mental Health, and the Power of Community with Kathy Jumps (Ep. 21)

Dizzy Skips (00:45)
Yeah. And who else can you talk Jump Rope about with the same level of fervor and zeal? I mean, at least for me, my family, they’re like, yeah, that’s that crazy thing that Dizzy does, but you know.

Kathy (00:57)
It’s not

a lie. And you could tell when people’s eyes kind of start glassing over because, you know, just like the general public when I start talking about jump rope. So this is a good audience.

Dizzy Skips (01:01)
I know.

Yeah. Right. And heaven forbid you

throw the acronyms in there. Like I just did a TS or whatever. they’re like, yeah.

Kathy (01:11)
forget it. Yeah.

It is a big womp-womp. my gosh.

Dizzy Skips (01:15)
Yeah. Well, Kathy Zetelski, thank you so much

for joining me on the Jump Rope Podcast, the newly renamed Jump Rope Podcast.

Kathy (01:25)
I saw that. I’m super happy to be here.

Dizzy Skips (01:27)
Yeah, so nice to have you here. I thought I would start by telling you a few things that I really love about you and what you do online. One is that I love that you share your difficulties. I’ve said this in podcasts before, but it’s so nice to see really glam, you know, well put together, jump rope reels where everybody pulls off all the tricks, but it’s also super satisfying to see people who you respect smack themselves in the face with the jump rope or fall down or stuff like that.

Kathy (01:52)
yeah. yeah.

Dizzy Skips (01:55)
And you’ve shared a lot of those

reels. love the one, like there’s one where you wake up next to the puppy and you’re like, why do I have a lump on my head? And then it’s a few.

Kathy (02:03)
You know, and I know that

was the truth. I swear to you, you know, that reel was based on real life because I had, I thought I was like, I have a zit like an underground, you know, those underground zits that really hurt. And then I was like, no, it’s in a weird spot. And then what happened was I went to jump that day and I did that stinking backward EB toad and it smacked me in the same spot. And I had video of me going,

That’s where it is. That’s where it came from. And it got me in the same. And then I realized that in fact was not as it that was the mark from the rope that it got me. It just got me in the same spot. That’s when I broke out the goggles. I was like enough, enough. I’m not playing around.

Dizzy Skips (02:35)
You got the smack and the light bulb came off at the same time.

Yeah. Yeah. That’s the other one. That one killed me. Like your kid’s goggles, your kid’s lab goggles.

Kathy (02:50)
because it’s,

I didn’t even have an adult size pair, but it was just so cold that day and I just couldn’t do it. So I was jumping inside I usually wear the sunglasses. And it’s funny because people think, and I’ll set the record straight. I don’t think I’m some like cool, like I wear them for eye protection, you know? Like, and I did a reel, I did a reel about this too, cause some woman was like, what are you trying to hide behind those sunglasses? Like what’s behind there? And I’m like,

Dizzy Skips (03:10)
Yeah. Yeah.

Kathy (03:20)
It’s for my eyeballs. Like, people don’t understand if they don’t jump or if they don’t jump backward. That rope is just, it’s a direct line to your eyeball and I’ve gotten hit. And I thought I blinded myself one time and yeah, it’s just glasses all the time and those safety goggles. I should have, I should have. People can be weird, but have you ever gotten smacked in the eye or the face?

Dizzy Skips (03:24)
Yeah.

Right. Yeah.

Yeah, that’s funny. You should have just responded, I’m a cyborg and I didn’t want anybody to know. Right, yeah.

Kathy (03:49)
Yeah, it’s, I think those are the worst. Like it’s just, it stuns you.

Dizzy Skips (03:52)
Yeah, I mean,

exactly. I mean, the number of times I’ve smacked myself in the back of the head going forward, skipping real fast and like doing crosses and pulling out too far or something. I mean, you’re doing the same thing just backwards in your eyes.

Kathy (03:58)
Mm-hmm.

Yup.

It’s this

direct line right there. It’s rough. my gosh.

Dizzy Skips (04:10)
Yeah, line of sight, absolutely.

One of the things I

love about your reels is that you share the joy and encouragement of jumping rope. You have a great way of radiating positivity and happiness in your videos. And I think that’s one of the things that is just a cornerstone of this community. And you just are so good at that. And also you have this reel that I saw earlier today. I was kind of poking through and you had encouragement to jump and you had a statement in there was

Kathy (04:24)
Thank you.

Mm-hmm.

Dizzy Skips (04:38)
that was like, when was the last time you felt proud of yourself as an adult? when you do jump rope and you accomplish these things, you feel proud. And my God, that resonated with me so much because that’s totally true.

Kathy (04:42)
Mm-hmm.

It’s,

you know when you unlock those tricks, especially as adults, because if you think about like growing up where kids were like, know, teenage years, you’re doing sports or you know, whatever it may be. But as an adult, that’s the thing. When was the last time you felt super proud of yourself for doing something? I mean, and those unlocks are just, I mean, we all know just that elated feeling is just unmatched. It’s not like anything you feel or experience. It is, it is.

Dizzy Skips (04:59)
Yeah.

Right.

Yeah. Yeah.

I know, it’s like a drug, it’s totally a drug.

Kathy (05:18)
We’re all high on jump rope out here.

Dizzy Skips (05:19)
Yeah, I know, I am. Yeah. You also have some really fun phrases in your videos, like one where I think you’re explaining crosses and you’re encouraging people to have Gumby wrists and then have a little video of Gumby on screen. Yeah, yeah.

Kathy (05:29)
Mm-hmm. My little Gumby that like flew by. That’s

the thing. I really, I like to have fun when teaching. Like I want people to just enjoy it and have fun when doing this. It shouldn’t be like a, I just want people to have fun really. So when I say those things, I’m just trying to get a laugh out of people, you know? So hopefully, hopefully that works.

Dizzy Skips (05:41)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, no. Yeah, that one. And then

also when you’re explaining releases, you’re talking about how you dip and you do this little dip-a-roo, the dip-a-roo. So now every time I do releases, I’m going to be telling myself, the dip-a-roo, Dizzy, do the dip-a-roo.

Kathy (05:56)
Do a little dip. Do little dip. Can I do the little dip-a-roo?

My favorite, that, you know, that reel that I made with the mic release. I don’t know if you saw the whole thing where I edited myself flying through space. That was, I was, I was laughing at myself. like, I have a problem. Cause I just, thought that was so funny. Because people, lot of the times you’re doing your release and they just toss it to outer space. And I was like, that’s.

Dizzy Skips (06:10)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yep.

Kathy (06:25)
You

just get in a rocket, float right up to outer space, because that’s where it’s going.

Dizzy Skips (06:28)
Yeah,

I think your point was like don’t do this out of a What was it don’t do it out of a jump or a cross or something because then when you throw it it

Kathy (06:37)
A lot of times when drilling the mic release, when people are learning, they’ll just stand still and just go, they’ll swing side to side, side to side. And then when they release it, you’re on that trajectory of those swings. So it just boop, it goes off kilter. And then it’s hard because yeah, outer space. And the second question I get with the mic release is why can’t I jump through it? And that comes down to that.

Dizzy Skips (06:45)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Right. Yep. To outer space.

Kathy (07:02)
trajectory of the rope going that way it has to be right next to you so yeah that’s it.

Dizzy Skips (07:06)
Yeah. You also have

a phrase that I came upon, which was the three P’s, the patience, perseverance and practice. And that is just everything with jump rope, isn’t it? Like that just encapsulates it all for me.

Kathy (07:13)
Mm-hmm.

It absolutely is. I

can’t even, yeah, because we all want to learn it super quick, you know? And as much as we all want to learn it in one day, the chances of that happening are slim. So yeah, you have to have the patience or else you’re not going to stick with this for the long term. You have to have the perseverance, not the long term. And yeah, practice. You just got to show up every day.

Dizzy Skips (07:24)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah. And it’s those wins that you get when you do land something that give you that little, I’m going to keep at it. I’m going to do it. If I can do that, I can do that. You know?

Kathy (07:47)
It’s that little taste. Yep,

you get the little taste of success and then that’s why it’s a drug. That’s why it’s just so addicting. It’s so addicting in a good way, in a very good way.

Dizzy Skips (07:52)
Yeah.

Yes, right.

Also, finally, I will say that you did a masterful job of working in Michael Scott’s “That’s What She Said” into an instructional video.

Kathy (08:06)
Yes, success, I’ve made it. The Office is my, that’s my favorite show of all time. That, yeah. my gosh, I can’t. I could watch that series. I mean, I have over and over. It will never get old. yeah. It’s so good. It really is. It really is. And a lot of that is improv with The Office. There’s a lot of just banter back and forth that.

Dizzy Skips (08:08)
Yeah. Yeah. my God. And Michael Scott is such a gem. Like, yeah.

yeah, me too. All the outtakes and everything. It’s just amazing. It’s a work of art.

Yeah.

Kathy (08:33)
it’s so good. That’s another podcast. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, I could talk about The Office.

Dizzy Skips (08:34)
Yeah, Steve Carell is a genius. Yeah, you’re right. It is another podcast. And in fact, I think a few of the

ladies from the office have a podcast of their own. Yeah.

Kathy (08:44)
Do they? do they really?

gosh. That’s funny.

Dizzy Skips (08:47)
Yeah. So,

Kathy, where are you located in the world?

Kathy (08:51)
I am in New Jersey, Northern New Jersey, because a lot of people, think, when they think of New Jersey, think like the Jersey Shore. I am not like the Jersey Shore people. However, Vinny jumps. Have you Vinny from the Jersey Shore? He has a jump rope account. He does jump rope. Yeah, it’s interesting. So I’m Northern Jersey where I’m basically in the woods. So I don’t know if you’ve seen a lot of my reels with like the bears popping out.

Dizzy Skips (08:58)
Mm-hmm.

I did not know that.

Mm-hmm.

Kathy (09:19)
it’s, it gets pretty wild. There’s a, there’s a lot of, a lot of bears. And now’s the time I even told my kids, I was like, cause it was a warm day today. This is when they’re, they’re starting to come out. So we’ll see if I catch another on my, on my camera. Cause I’ve gotten them walking through as I’m jumping. It’s insane. It’s insane. Yeah. The, well, the one I, I have like a sixth sense. Like I knew I could just like feel there was something.

Dizzy Skips (09:35)
That’s crazy. As you’re jumping, do they just nonchalantly walk by?

Mm-hmm.

Kathy (09:49)
And you know, I’m jumping, have my headphones in, which can be pretty dangerous. I wanna look into those headphones that are, have you heard, they’re like open headphones? That’s something I probably should get for safety, but I just turned around and he’s just like lumbering up the driveway, coming up the stairs where my mats are. And in my reel, cause I edited it all together, it pretty funny. You could see me like, I like dropped, I threw my rope, ran past the camera.

Dizzy Skips (09:57)
Yeah.

You

Kathy (10:15)
And then he just like pops up and yeah, I filmed him like going around my jump ropes and on my mat, like coming up to the window. Yeah, yeah. So we live with the bears in New Jersey. But I wouldn’t, I love it here. It’s great. It’s great. Yeah, grew up here, stayed here. Yeah, went to college here. So yeah.

Dizzy Skips (10:22)
That’s amazing. Wow.

Yeah.

That’s cool. Have you been there all your life? Cool.

Wowza.

So I normally ask about people’s profession. I think this is what you do for a job now, right? This is your career. This is so cool.

Kathy (10:48)
Mm-hmm. It is. Yeah, I went to it. So I went

to yeah, it is the best job in the world I went to school. It’s funny because I went to school undecided and I took so many classes I ended up graduate graduating with two bachelor’s so I had a psychology I have a psychology degree and a nutrition degree so when I was working My like my desk job was nutrition counseling. So I did that for years years and years

Dizzy Skips (11:04)
Wow.

Hmm.

Kathy (11:13)
I also taught group fitness, I taught spinning, and that’s where jump ropes really started for me because I would use to teach bootcamp classes. And one of the stations I always had was jump rope. At the time, I don’t know what, I was just like, I didn’t know what I was doing. I, you know, I like to think I’m pretty athletic, but looking back, it was very, not great. But yeah, jump rope became full time in 2000.

Dizzy Skips (11:21)
Mmm.

Kathy (11:39)
2020, I think. Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (11:40)
Wow.

Wow, that’s cool. why did you take the leap or what afforded you to take the leap?

Kathy (11:47)
Well, at the time I was working from home so that nutrition counseling job I had, I used to work in a doctor’s office. And then when I had my kids, the office allowed me to work from home. So it was great. I was calling people and I did a lot of like my fitness pal work where could see people’s food logging. I enjoyed it. It was great. But then it kind of didn’t allow me the time to do what I really wanted to do.

Dizzy Skips (11:53)
Hmm.

cool.

Kathy (12:12)
And that kind of segues into jump rope, because my first jump rope job was working for the jump rope dudes. So I worked, yeah, I worked for them for close to two years, I want to say. A year and a half maybe? Two years. And then I was their community manager. I did, I like ran their Facebook groups, because that’s the thing like.

Dizzy Skips (12:19)
No.

Okay.

What did you do for them?

Kathy (12:35)
I know a lot of people started jumping in 2020, but believe it or not, there was a big group over on Facebook before Instagram, know, JRC existed. So we were all on Facebook. And so I like moderated those groups and, you know, answered DMs, posted for them. Yeah. Whatever they asked me to do, I would do. It was fun. Yeah. Yeah. Dan is…

Dizzy Skips (12:46)
Mm-hmm.

Cool. Cool.

Kathy (13:00)
They’re the OGs, honestly. They’re the best. And they’re such good guys too. Dan is just one of the funniest people I’ve ever met in my life. Yeah, yeah.

Dizzy Skips (13:02)
Yeah.

Nice.

Yeah. So what does your

day to day look like now?

Kathy (13:13)
So now it’s, I do a lot of work for Crossrope. And obviously, I mean, I have all my ropes down here just in case, because I don’t know if you ever jumped with weighted ropes before. I was listening to some of the podcasts with some of the guests talking about weighted ropes. So I have kind of my work with Crossrope and then I have my subscription in Instagram where a lot of stuff goes down there. So I have like over a hundred people and you know, I have like workout programs.

Dizzy Skips (13:25)
Mm-hmm.

Kathy (13:38)
follow along workout. So day to day it’s, know, what am going to film today? What am I going to post? What am I going to do? And it’s, yeah, basically that’s it.

Dizzy Skips (13:47)
That’s cool. with the Instagram subscription, like I noticed when I look at your Instagram profile, there’s a subscribe button. And if I click that, then I can join your community. What does it look like to be part of that community?

Kathy (13:51)
Mm-hmm.

So in that, and this is where, you know, moving forward, I am gonna start kind of changing things around. Number one, that subscription isn’t available to everyone worldwide, which I didn’t know. When it first launched, I was like, oh, this is great. Like everything is right here, you know. And then as time is progressing here, it’s almost like your regular Instagram feed where I don’t want things to get lost for people.

You what I mean? So you’re scrolling. I don’t want someone wasting time scrolling through countless amounts of videos trying to find a certain one. So moving like in the future, this upcoming year, my plan is to take a lot of those videos and put them on my website in a more, much more organized fashion where people from wherever you live can, can join, subscribe there because it does stink. I’ve gotten the messages like Kathy, I want to subscribe, but it’s just, it’s not available in my country. So.

Dizzy Skips (14:29)
Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Right.

Kathy (14:57)
Yeah, but I have…

Dizzy Skips (14:58)
I wonder what that’s based on. It must be some sort of Meta thing. Hmm.

Kathy (15:02)
I have no idea. have no

idea. And then also if you think about it, it was about two years ago. I went to sign into Instagram one day and just poof, my account was gone. There was, I couldn’t log in. The panic attack I had was unbelievable because if you think about all the years of hard work, all the videos I have, my gosh, just videos of my kids jumping, like, you know, it was just so much and.

Dizzy Skips (15:21)
right?

Yeah.

Kathy (15:29)
I don’t even to this day, no one really knows what happened. People from Meta were taking accounts. I don’t know. But as someone who’s using that subscription feature, what happens if poof, it’s gone one day? It’s not great. Exactly. Yeah, after it was a couple days, I think it was like four or five days. Oh, actually, you who?

Dizzy Skips (15:42)
Yeah. You got all your eggs in their basket. Yeah. So did you recover that account or?

Kathy (15:56)
who was my shining light was Coach Chris. He knew someone that worked at Meta. Him and there was also another woman, a friend of a follower who I connected with who worked at Meta. And between those two people, they were able to get my account back. But can you imagine for someone who didn’t have that connection or, know, it was just, it was very stressful. It was very stressful, but.

Dizzy Skips (16:13)
That’s amazing.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Kathy (16:22)
Yeah, but in my subscription, like I have a 20 day beginner program. have like the one series I just finished was it’s kickboxing and jump rope. Just fun stuff. I just want people to have fun when they work out. So that’s what a lot of it is. And of course, the tutorials, combos, skill of the week, trick of the day, all that kind of stuff.

Dizzy Skips (16:31)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. So how often are you

posting new content to it?

Kathy (16:46)
I would say…

maybe once or twice a week depending, mean, I do these programs, it’s almost every day. So I put the next video out and some of these videos are like 20 minute follow along workouts. But yeah, a few videos a week for sure.

Dizzy Skips (16:49)
Cool.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Got it. So do you do coaching as well? Like personalized coaching?

Kathy (17:03)
Yeah. Yeah. So

with the coaching, it’s funny how I usually, have like, I have seven clients right now. and it usually happens in the DMS and the messages, like someone will send me a message like, do you coaching? really need help. You know, and that’s when I’ll like talk to them and then we’ll kind of figure out if they want coaching. And that’s when I take people on. So I don’t really broadcast it because

Dizzy Skips (17:25)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Kathy (17:32)
I don’t want to get overloaded, you know, I just, don’t want to burn out and I like to keep it pretty small. So yeah. Yeah. But it’s fun. I just, love teaching. I love teaching.

Dizzy Skips (17:34)
Yeah.

Sure.

Yeah, I mean, it sounds like you have the ultimate lifestyle job.

Kathy (17:47)
yeah, yeah. It’s great. It’s definitely great.

Dizzy Skips (17:49)
It’s awesome.

So I’m curious, like you put out so much great content, what’s your process for deciding what to put out next? Are you, are you getting a lot of feedback or requests from your community?

Kathy (18:03)
It’s funny because when I’m on calls with Crossrope too, they always ask me like, what kind of content do you have planned? I couldn’t even tell you. when I go out, this is how my brain works. When I go out to jump, you know, I do my workout, I’m jumping, and then I might do something and then think like, you know, I’m going to do, let me do a tutorial on it or let me, you know, start filming and do a combo. So I usually figure it out.

when I’m on my mat outside or inside. I don’t have like a content calendar. I’m not planning in advance really. It’s either maybe I saw influx of comments, people saying the same thing they want to learn or just something comes to me outside. Yeah, very sporadic. I have a sporadic brain.

Dizzy Skips (18:31)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, but your

your content is so great. I love how clear and step driven everything is like you break everything down into steps and you do a great job of explaining not just what to do, but not what not to do. You know, like you’re when you do crosses, you’re going to want to but you know, keep it in here and that stuff.

Kathy (18:52)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

And you know how

the biggest teacher are my videos from six years ago. Yes. So when I look back at my videos from when I started, that is what you don’t want to do. And that’s why I put all that stuff into what’s happening now, because I wish, I wish I knew this stuff when I started. Like, why didn’t anyone tell me what I was looking at? Like with my arms out here and crossing like a maniac, like muscling it.

Dizzy Skips (19:11)
really?

Bye.

I know what you mean.

Kathy (19:32)
My arms are like this. Why didn’t anyone do, you know? Like, know, oh gosh, yeah, the old videos are, you know, and so I’ll watch those and think to myself, you know, that’s what not to do. People need to know these things because I wish I knew at the time.

Dizzy Skips (19:33)
I know. Why do my shoulders kill me?

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. You’ve, I think you’ve been pretty vocal about making fitness accessible to people and I’m curious

Kathy (19:51)
But.

Dizzy Skips (19:57)
How do you, plan jump rope workouts for people who might find it intimidating? Do you know what I mean?

Kathy (20:02)
Hmm.

Yeah, I mean, I think especially someone, you know, imagine pulling up Instagram and searching jump rope and you see these insane videos of just all like all of these people and it’s it can be very daunting because it’s not it’s pretty rare to see a video of someone doing basic bounce, you know, like it’s pretty rare. I mean, just like standing like, you know, what a beginner would do.

Dizzy Skips (20:11)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Kathy (20:31)
So it’s just, we were all beginners once. And that’s I say to everyone. Like you just have to start like less thinking, more doing, pick up a rope. It could be any rope. And you just have to start slow and start smart because I know a lot of us, you get that itch and then you just jump for far too long and you’re done. You’re done for. did you, were you?

Dizzy Skips (20:39)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, yeah, I did that. I was done for for a couple months. Yeah.

yeah. Yeah, I gave myself plantar fasciitis really bad from jumping too much, not warming up, not listening to my body, getting to the point where I could only jump on one foot and going, OK, I’ll just do this for a bit.

Kathy (20:57)
no.

That’s it.

Why didn’t I talk to you then? Yeah, well, that’s the thing. Like it’s fun. It’s a fun exercise. Of course, we want to do it, you know, for a long period of time, but you got to stop at that five minutes as a beginner.

Dizzy Skips (21:08)
Not super smart. I know, right?

Yeah.

Yeah, it’s

tough. Part of my problem is I love music so much and I put on music and then, you know, a song is five minutes. Right, yeah, you get lost. No, I gotta do it just one more time. Just one more time. Right, yeah, I had no idea. I put this on the playlist. Yeah. What are some common struggles or misconceptions you find that people who are new to jump rope have?

Kathy (21:25)
Mmm. You get lost. Yeah.

I know, or the next song comes on, it’s like, this song was even better than the last one. I gotta keep going. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. You gotta just.

I think one of the biggest ones is you have to learn everything right away. and this is, this goes back to my start. I did basic bounce and boxer skip for a year. I did a couple crosses, maybe. but the amount of time I just spent just, just showing up and putting those reps in just regular jumping. and I really.

Dizzy Skips (21:50)
Mm. Sure.

Kathy (22:10)
credit that to just being able to be smoother and understand how these tricks work now because I just focused on that form first. But as far as tricks, you have to start with the basics, fundamentals, learn the core four basic footwork moves before starting to shuffle or running man backwards. Just got to take it slow one step at a time. And you don’t have to learn everything at once.

Dizzy Skips (22:15)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah.

I love your footwork. It’s amazing. but it seems like when you’re illustrating it, you always start with just kind of holding the rope. you’re, you’re, you’re showing the footwork. Do you, what, like when you’re learning new footwork, do you get it down before you introduce the rope?

Kathy (22:38)
thank you.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, usually. I think

that’s usually best, especially for, you know, when there’s complex moves or compound footwork where you’re combining all these different steps. Our brain, like think of the two hemispheres as I always tell people, like this side is focusing on what your feet are doing, this side is focusing on what your arms are doing. So practice them independently before bringing them together. I find that’s where you’ll have the most success.

Dizzy Skips (23:12)
Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense.

Kathy (23:14)
Yeah, especially like complex,

any complex footwork where you’re combining a couple skills together. Yeah, you gotta practice it. Footwork first and then add the rope in.

Dizzy Skips (23:19)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah. I, I know that my tendency is to want to just get it done, you know, just like throw everything in the bowl and start, you know, whipping, but, but I always do better if I can kind of work out the footwork and then slowly introduce stuff. And to speak to what you were saying about like doing basic bounce and boxer skip for so long. I did something similar. mean, I, I did some shuffling and stuff too, but

Kathy (23:28)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, yup.

Mm-hmm.

Dizzy Skips (23:50)
I did not try to go out and learn all of the tricks at once. I just loved working on footwork and I loved jumping to music. And I think it gave me a better sense of rhythm and innate feeling of where the rope is, if that makes sense. Yeah.

Kathy (23:54)
at once.

Absolutely, absolutely, for

sure. And I think that it’s so important. It’s so important because you can tell, you could spot it a mile away when someone’s just, you know they want to just get all these skills in and it doesn’t look like they’re having the fun because they’re just so concerned with getting the tricks. you know, I am just such a fan of just easy breezy, enjoy it. You put on your music and just sometimes you just got to

Dizzy Skips (24:19)
Yeah.

Right.

Kathy (24:31)
stop thinking so much and just go with the flow a little bit.

Dizzy Skips (24:33)
Yeah,

Yeah, that’s my motto is don’t think, just jump. That’s right. If I could do it. Yeah. So I’d love to talk gear with you too. I know you have a Kathy Jumps rope, don’t you? is that through Crossrope?

Kathy (24:38)
Yes, that’s it, that’s it, turn your brain off. That’s when this is really, really enjoyable.

Mm.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Would you like to see it?

Dizzy Skips (24:55)
I would love to see it. As a matter of fact, I have a friend who has one and she was showing me hers. Yeah.

Kathy (24:59)
really?

Well I have my beaded rope but my pride and joy is really like the weighted rope system so it’s the one pound and the half pound but the handles are just so it’s it’s it’s the the Jump Rope is Life logo the shirt I’m wearing with like the sun so it’s yeah you see how the sunshine is kind of integrated in there and then you got like the logo there and then yeah those ropes clip in so half pound.

Dizzy Skips (25:16)
Okay.

Yeah, that’s so cool. Yeah.

Kathy (25:27)
and the one pound and then my beaded robe. But, you know.

Dizzy Skips (25:30)
Are the Crossropes

as easy to release?

Kathy (25:36)
No, they’re, they’re, they’re hefty. So with, and the other thing with it is the handles with that, this attachment, the metal, you know, clip. Yeah. It’s, if you look at it, it’s, it’s this thing in itself, if this clocks you in the head, forget you’re, you’re down, you’re down. So I always, I tell people, if you want to do releases with the weighted ropes, you have to be able to get your release with a beaded eyes closed. Like you should be able to.

Dizzy Skips (25:36)
No.

Yeah.

Yeah, ball bearings and stuff.

Right, right, yeah.

Yeah.

Kathy (26:03)
very proficient and if and when you try with the Crossrope do it on grass or like some sort of mat because you don’t want to break those handles because they’re expensive and lots a helmet a face shield yeah yeah yeah and umpire like what are those vests those puffy vests yes that’s it that’s it yeah because with the weighted the weighted rope you have to whip it

Dizzy Skips (26:12)
And three pairs of safety goggles, right? Three pairs? Right.

Football, yeah.

Right, yeah, just basic hockey gear. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So.

Kathy (26:33)
with a lot more force because it’s got that weight to it. So there’s a finesse to it, but it’s a powerful feeling when you catch that.

Dizzy Skips (26:36)
Yeah.

Yeah. One of the things I saw in one of your videos and I was, I’ve been chatting about this to other people and, and you said it just really succinctly was that the heavier ropes give you more feedback and so it can make learning tricks easier. And that was totally my experience where I got a heavier beaded rope and like these crosses I was having trouble with it. I was doing, you know, one or two and then tripping up. I had got this heavier rope and like eight or 10, you know, and like, wow.

Kathy (26:52)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

It’s such a misconception where people think the weighted rope, it works two ways. The first way is it’s great for a beginner, whether it be like a weighted beaded or I always recommend like the half pound because you can just feel where the rope is. And especially with the crosses, it’s slower. like dragging through the air. So it just gives you that extra millisecond that you might need to know where to go. There was this one woman

Dizzy Skips (27:13)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Kathy (27:38)
that I had been coaching and she had a hard time jumping over the rope one time. Like she just, she couldn’t understand how to get it. She used a one pound rope and she was getting like 20 in a row because it was just moving so slow and she was able to actually see where it’s coming. And it just, you know, it just made it so much easier. So there’s that aspect to it. But also if anyone wants to get faster, if you want to get quick double unders, if you even want to like unlock a double under.

Dizzy Skips (27:50)
Nice. Right. Yeah.

Kathy (28:07)
Use a weighted rope first because you will be very surprised at what a PVC feels like after doing double unders with a weighted rope. It’s like a piece of dental floss. You’re like, you’ll do triple unders. Yeah. It’s such a good training tool for just getting faster too. Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (28:14)
Yeah. Right. You feel like superwoman, right?

Yeah,

yeah, I love that. I love jumping with a heavier rope, then going down to a beaded, then going to a PVC and just, yeah, you hardly even have to pick your feet up off the floor. You’re going so fast, right?

Kathy (28:28)
Yeah, you feel like a superhero. It’s, yeah.

Exactly. It’s

awesome. I love that. Yeah, I always compare it to dental floss because it’s so, you know, especially going to like a four millimeter PVC after like a one pound rope or which I just for to show you a five pound rope.

Dizzy Skips (28:37)
Yeah, yeah.

Whoa! Yeah, that is something. That looks like a piece of plumbing equipment.

Kathy (28:50)
There’s a lot. Yeah. It looks like

it’s bigger than a garden hose. I used it once just to say I did it. That thing is a killer. There’s no need for anyone to get a five pound rope.

Dizzy Skips (29:01)
Yeah.

Yeah.

so you started in 2017? Or did you?

Kathy (29:10)
Yeah. Um, so

I had like toyed around with a jump rope before, but when I really started, like really started was, uh, 2017, I had my daughter and I was a runner for years and years and years. Like I ran the New York city marathon. I would do like running streaks. Like I was, you know, really, really big into running because that was like my mental escape was running. So when I had my daughter,

Dizzy Skips (29:37)
Mm-hmm.

Kathy (29:40)
I had put on a lot of weight because I was in the fitness industry for so long. I always maintained like, when you’re a personal trainer, I hate to say it, but I wanted to look a certain way and I maintained my weight for years. And then when I got pregnant, I gave myself that green light to just whatever I wanted. I ate it. A lot of it. So I gained like 70 pounds with that pregnancy.

Dizzy Skips (29:55)
Right.

Hell yeah.

Kathy (30:10)
So after I had her, you know, I got the clearance to start exercising and put on my running shoes, went outside and it was horrible. Like the weight on my, it was just, I was like, I can’t, this is just so painful. But also I had a newborn, so I couldn’t put her down for a nap and go running around the neighborhood. So I started making little…

Dizzy Skips (30:10)
Hmm.

Hmm.

Mm.

Kathy (30:36)
stations for myself. I would put her down for a nap. I had my spin bike. I had a jump rope. And then I had an elliptical at home. So I would spend five minutes on the spin bike, five minutes with my jump rope, and then five minutes on the elliptical. And then I would, you know, just rotate. And that’s what I did. And then slowly but surely, the spin bike got phased out. The elliptical went into the attic. And that because I always looked forward to the jump rope interval. I was like, I want to, you know.

And then

Dizzy Skips (31:04)
Yeah.

Kathy (31:05)
that just became it. And I was like, wonder if I could do like tricks and like, what do you think I could do with this thing? And I looked it up and that’s when I found The Jump Rope Dudes and their whole community on Facebook, which is what they had at the time. And I met some amazing people who I still, I don’t know if you, know Papa Joe? I’ve known him since 2017. He’s been like, I’ve known him forever. He is one of the-

Dizzy Skips (31:12)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

No kidding.

Kathy (31:30)
I love him, yeah, he is the best. Yeah, he is such, he is

Dizzy Skips (31:31)
Yeah, I love him too. He comments on my videos a lot. He’s such a nice guy.

Kathy (31:35)
such a nice person. He’s just, so, yes, yes. And there’s a few, and I keep in touch with a lot of them. Some of them have kind of stopped jumping, but we had a very, very close group on Facebook and I got pregnant with my son in 2018. And then after I had him,

Dizzy Skips (31:37)
From Down Under.

Kathy (31:58)
That’s when I started the 100 day streak, which was November 25th. Yeah, November 25th I start, I was like, you know what? I got the clearance. I’m gonna jump rope for a hundred days. I’m just gonna, you know, let me do this. And I had been, I’ve been itching to get back. Cause you know, I had jumped for years before and I just wanted to get started. And I posted every day in that Facebook group. I posted every day. I had an old Instagram account, my personal account where I just annoyed people I think.

Dizzy Skips (32:16)
Mm-hmm.

Kathy (32:25)
just every day, like people I went to high school with, they don’t care, like what is she doing? But I posted, you know, even if I went the other day to my old personal Instagram account when I haven’t been on in forever, and I have a highlight, 100 days, and you could see, I posted every day, I created a highlight, it’s still there. You know, it’s pretty crazy. And then I credit being able to do that to Papa Joe.

Clare is another one, Julie, these people in this Facebook group, we just all kept ourselves accountable. And a couple of them did the 100 days too. And then after the 100 days, was like, I’m just gonna keep going. And I never stopped. So I’ve jumped every day for almost 2000 days now. I’m almost at 2000. I’m gonna hit it in like 50 days. I just never stopped. just, I, you know, I just, I love it.

Dizzy Skips (32:58)
Mm-hmm.

Good.

That’s amazing.

That’s

so amazing. know, Papa Joe actually invited me, I think it was last week, to take part in the Jump For Joy 100 that Peta is organizing. Yeah. Yeah, I told him, he said, we need more dudes. There’s like three of us. So I was like, all right, I’m in.

Kathy (33:23)
The beach she saw, saw the app, yeah. Are you gonna do it?

Yeah.

Do it. It’s just fun. It’s, it’s, it’s, and I remember that feeling. There’s a video of it. That first, you know, 100 days I did that day, 100, I jumped it. And I was just like, I did it. You know, like I jumped for a hundred days. can’t believe it. It’s so crazy. Um.

Dizzy Skips (33:35)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, when you

were doing it, did you did you have any sort of agenda for each day or was it just general jumping?

Kathy (33:58)
just whatever I felt like doing. I always, the five minute rule, just try to get out and do something for five minutes. We all know it’s gonna be longer than that. And then there was one day where I had the worst stomach virus and I just flipped the rope over and stepped over it. And I was like, I’m counting that. I stepped over this rope. It’s the principle of the matter. It’s keeping the streak alive and yeah.

Dizzy Skips (34:00)
That’s so awesome.

Yeah.

Yep.

Yeah, you had the willpower. That’s what counts.

Kathy (34:25)
Yeah, yeah, exactly,

exactly. The streak did not die that day.

Dizzy Skips (34:31)
So

when you set up your exercise stations and everything lost out to jump rope, was it just the fun of jump rope or were you actually realizing more benefits from jump rope than the other thing, than the other tools?

Kathy (34:42)
It was just,

how do you describe it? It’s just, I just enjoyed it more. Like when I’m on a spin, when I was on the spin bike, I still was listening to music, but it just was like, you know, pedaling to nowhere. just did, you know, same thing. Just wasn’t as enjoyable. And even though I was just doing basic footwork, box or skip, it was just the fun of it, but also learning it. You know, I was a beginner then and I was learning it and that feeling of

Dizzy Skips (34:54)
Mm-hmm. Right, I know.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Kathy (35:10)
feeling accomplished was great. It was great. I was just thinking after I finished that 100 days, it was January of 2020. And I remember because I felt like I was annoying all those people on my old Instagram account. I was like, you know what? Kathy Jumps. I jump. I’m gonna make this username and you know, let me do that. So I made this Kathy Jumps account.

Dizzy Skips (35:12)
Yeah. Yeah.

Kathy (35:36)
And then, know, fast forward how many years later with all these people with the first name jumps, I’m like, yeah! You know, like, I just, it was just, yeah, no one had that. No one was, the jump rope community didn’t exist. But when I was like, Kathy Jumps sounds pretty good. Let’s go with that. It’s got a nice ring to it. Man.

Dizzy Skips (35:43)
Yeah.

Yeah, it’s got a nice ring to it. Yeah.

So it didn’t

take you long to follow in love with jump rope once you really started incorporating it into your routine.

Kathy (36:03)
no. Yeah, it was almost immediate.

Yeah. And you know what? It was also the community aspect of it too. You know, if you think about it online, we had that Jump Rope Dudes group on Facebook and we all felt like family, you know, which has now kind of moved over to Instagram and Facebook groups are pretty non-existent, but there’s just this community of people. You feel like you know these people, even though you may have never met them before, but you have these shared experiences and

Dizzy Skips (36:16)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Kathy (36:30)
Yeah, it’s great to have that community where we’re encouraging everybody and it’s… Spinning didn’t have that, you know? I didn’t have the spinning community. had, know? So… Yeah, exactly! Where’s the elliptical community? Watch, we’re gonna look it up. There’s gonna be some, like, elliptical community. Yeah, right. my gosh. So…

Dizzy Skips (36:37)
Right.

Yeah, there aren’t people patting you on the back for your elliptical skills, right? Look, I did another rotation!

Elliptical skipping community, right?

So when

you did start out, were your, so you started with basic bounce and like boxer skip for a while, but when you started learning tricks, what were your biggest challenges?

Kathy (37:03)
Mm-hmm.

So I didn’t really know what was possible with a rope. It was only when I created that Instagram account that I was like, let me search Jump Rope on Instagram. And I never really did this before. And Mike Fry came up, @letsjumpla who’s just the goat of Jump Rope, creator of the mic release. And he posted pretty frequently at the time. And he had these little, what did he call them? One minute tricks or?

I can’t remember what he called them. I think he still has them in a highlight. And that was the first time I ever saw someone do a toad. And I was like, what? You can put your arm under your leg? Because Dan and Brandon from the Jump Rope Dudes, more fitness style jumping. they focus, think, maybe an EB swing, but they weren’t doing those tricks at the time. So when I saw that, was like, whoa, I did not know that was a thing.

Dizzy Skips (37:39)
Mm-hmm.

Mm.

Mm-hmm.

Kathy (38:00)
and the other person who was jumping also was Jimmy. @jimmysaysrelax who another goat of like jump rope freestyle. And he was the first person I saw do the mic release. And then I was, I was just like, what? This is insane. So there’s a, there’s a, there were a few people on Mimi was another one. just unbelievable. And that’s when my mind was blown. And that’s when I started learning some tricks.

Dizzy Skips (38:12)
Okay.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Kathy (38:26)
And it was, yeah, trial and error. I’m the type of person where, I don’t know if you’re the same way, but I just, and I struggled in school lot growing up. I was a horrible test taker. I can’t memorize things, which is why I can’t do choreography. I can’t watch a tutorial. doesn’t like enter my brain. I have to stand there and physically do it and kind of work it out. there’s,

Dizzy Skips (38:39)
Mm.

Mmm.

Mm-hmm.

Kathy (38:51)
hours upon hours of me just standing in front of a mirror and just trying to figure out how to do like an EB or an EB swing, you know, without it like clocking me in the head. Because I could watch, I could watch 15 tutorials, but just none of it made sense to me, you know? So yeah, a lot of trial and error, but that, yeah.

Dizzy Skips (38:58)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Are there specific

types of skills that you’ve had more challenges with than others?

Kathy (39:16)
I think leg crosses are my kryptonite. I feel like a stick bug when I do them, because I mean, I’m almost six feet tall and my legs are quite long and lanky. I like, like, I just feel like a glom when I do it. Just, I don’t know. I’ve gotten better. And it’s really funny because years ago I was.

Dizzy Skips (39:21)
Yeah.

Hahaha

wow.

Yeah.

Kathy (39:40)
I could go back in time and slap myself in the head I would. But I said, oh, I’ll never do leg crosses. I don’t like leg crosses. You know why? Because I couldn’t do them. And that’s why I said that. Because I couldn’t do them and I would feel frustrated. that kind of made me think I don’t like them. But you know what I did when my Instagram account was taken away for those couple days? I didn’t have.

Dizzy Skips (39:51)
Yeah. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Kathy (40:08)
to post, I had all this kind of time and I learned every leg cross front and back. And that’s what I did for those four days because I was frustrated, I was angry, I was upset and I was like, I’m just gonna learn some crazy things that I never really had the interest in learning. And it was a lot of fun to do that. It really was. So yeah, yeah, leg crosses are, those are the ones that get me.

Dizzy Skips (40:20)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

That’s cool.

It’s funny because I just talked to Eddie Jumps and I told him, yeah, I don’t know if I’ll ever be a toad guy.

Kathy (40:39)
Mm-hmm.

Did you say

that? I said those exact same words. Mark my words, if and when you learn it, your tune will change. Your tune will change. We don’t have… Well, I used to call it crab walking. That’s what I called that, like, style of… Yes. Yes. And will I ever, like, throw them in a freestyle? Probably not, but I appreciate it now. I appreciate all those…

Dizzy Skips (40:49)
I know, I know. Like every video will be just ribbiting around.

Yeah. Yeah, it does kind of look like that.

Sure.

Kathy (41:08)
those skills that I never wanted to do because they’re, I mean, they’re challenging. They’re really, I give credit to all those jumpers that are doing those leg crosses with ease because I’m a stick bug. A daddy long legs.

Dizzy Skips (41:11)
Yeah. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Hahaha

Going back to your

progress with jump rope as well, like one of the things that I have found so remarkable about jumping rope is the mental health benefits that I’ve got from it. And I’ve talked to a whole bunch of mothers who, you know, after having children or after children leaving the home sort of realized similar benefits. Did that work the same for you?

Kathy (41:33)
Mmm, absolutely.

Oh yeah, this is where, so running, jump rope replaced that running, because running for me was my meditative state to reduce anxiety and depression. back in, yeah, in 2013, my little brother was killed in a hit and run in New York City. And from that point, I was like looking, I was like looking for something. I needed something like, you know.

Dizzy Skips (41:58)
Sure.

I’m so sorry.

Kathy (42:13)
the state I was in was not good. So I started running and running, I would go out and I wouldn’t think about what happened. I wouldn’t think about the tragedy. I wouldn’t think about how I was feeling. I just would run and breathe fresh air and I felt really, really good. So that’s where when, you know, after I had my daughter and I realized like running isn’t gonna really work right now, what the heck am I gonna do? You know?

Dizzy Skips (42:15)
Great.

Kathy (42:36)
like depression just doesn’t poof go away, anxiety just doesn’t go away. And what I realized when I was jumping, especially jumping outside, fresh air, I got those same feelings and that same benefit and I would black out almost and just not think about anything. So when I tell you the mental health benefits are, know, it’s ridiculous. So, you know.

Dizzy Skips (42:47)
Mm-hmm.

Yep. Yep.

Yeah.

Kathy (43:03)
And that’s the thing with this kind of goes back to I think I mentioned like choreography is hard for me because I can’t really remember stuff very well, but the thing with choreography is it makes me have to think and when I jump I don’t like to think I like to turn my brain off and just kind of yeah exactly just get in that flow state and just kind of listen to my music you know what it’s like when you’re just like tuned into that music and that’s

Dizzy Skips (43:09)
Mm-hmm. Right.

yeah, flow.

Kathy (43:28)
where I get those mental health benefits. When I try to do choreography, I get frustrated and I usually get discouraged where when I’m in that flow state, I’m just free flowing, having the time of my life, you know, on that jump rope high. So yeah, for anyone, like whether it be depression, anxiety, like, the benefits that jump rope can give you is just, it’s amazing. It’s amazing.

Dizzy Skips (43:41)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, I don’t think I even have the words to describe how much it’s helped me, you know? Yeah.

Kathy (44:00)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, it’s,

yeah, it’s next level. And even when I ran it, it, jump rope is, I don’t know, it’s different. It’s just different. Like you, the people talk about the runner’s high and yeah, I experienced that. was, it was all right. But the jumper’s high man is, yes, yes, that’s it. That’s bad. I like that. That should be your, your motto. I like that. Yeah. Yeah, there you go.

Dizzy Skips (44:09)
All right.

Yeah. Yeah. There’s something badass about the bounce, isn’t there?

Yeah. My motto. Yeah. I’ll make a t-shirt. So

when did you realize that you wanted to start like teaching and coaching people to jump?

Kathy (44:32)
When I, even, you my old Instagram account, I had people, because Jump Rope Dudes did a video on my transformation, and I did get quite a few people following me over there, and everyone just wanted to learn. Like, how do you do that? How do you do this? So even back then, I was, you know, giving tips, and especially when I started the jump rope account, I wanted to describe tricks in a way that…

Dizzy Skips (44:40)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Kathy (44:57)
people could understand because I have a hard time understanding. So I wanted to really like break it down and I don’t know, it’s just, just really like teaching and then seeing someone unlock a trick. it’s like, it’s the best. But you know what happened and I, it stinks almost when your following starts growing.

Dizzy Skips (45:00)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Kathy (45:21)
You know, I loved it back in the day when I like, would send videos to everyone and I respond to every single DM. There would never be a DM that I didn’t respond to. But after a couple of years, it got harder and harder and it pains me to like not open everyone’s DMs, but it hit a point where, you know, I was on my phone all the time and my kids are there and I was too busy responding to everybody. And then I took a step back. I was like, I gotta let something slide here.

Dizzy Skips (45:47)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Kathy (45:49)
which stinks because I just love, love teaching. So that’s where I always tell people, come to my subscription. I do live videos and I bring people on the live videos. And that’s where it’s so, cause it’s, you’re engaging and everyone’s having a good time. I’ve had like six of us all on at one time. It’s just like a party, you know? Sorry, I don’t even remember what the question was. I went off on a tangent.

Dizzy Skips (45:53)
Mm-hmm.

Mmm.

Yeah.

I was curious, like,

when did you realize, hey, I want to really teach people and coach people?

Kathy (46:16)
Okay,

so that really came from the beginning of just giving these little tiny tips that helped people unlock a crisscross or, you know, whatever the trick was, just maybe something I said resonated with them or it was a little bit different and they were able to get it. And that’s I was like, maybe I’m okay at describing this stuff. And yeah, I got that bug to just wanna teach it. Now going back, what I would change is I would have…

Dizzy Skips (46:23)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Kathy (46:43)
focused on myself and my skills first, because I did have bad habits back in the day that I was teaching other people. So if I could go back in time, I would have told myself, Kathy, just put off teaching for a couple months, maybe a year, focus on getting your skill set down immaculately before teaching other people. Because I, you know…

Dizzy Skips (46:50)
Mmm.

Mm-hmm.

Kathy (47:08)
I specifically remember one video teaching the EB swing and I was trying to describe to people how to bring it over your head and I made that motion and then I saw people doing the EB swing like that where it should be tight, you know, and I was like, I gave that advice. What was I doing? You know, so little things like that. But yeah, just hearing the feedback from everyone saying, my gosh, I finally got it. I understand it. It’s just, yeah, I love teaching.

Dizzy Skips (47:21)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Kathy (47:37)
I just love it.

Dizzy Skips (47:38)
Well, your, and your comments about, you know, like not being able to learn choreography or having trouble learning choreography. And that makes so much sense with the way you teach because you break everything down very step by step and that’s how you learn. And that’s how you commit it to memory is by doing it with experience. And that’s why it resonates so much with me too.

Kathy (47:49)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That’s…

That’s what it is. it’s just,

yeah, and just repetitively, like you gotta repeat this stuff over and over and over again. And if you think you did it too many times, do it like a hundred more times. And then you’ll get to that point where you could just do it without thinking, you know? And that’s where I hope everyone can get to that point where you can just, that flow state, you know, where you don’t have to think about what you’re doing. It’s a great feeling.

Dizzy Skips (48:03)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It is.

One thing I’ve noticed a few times, especially in the recent past is with just going out and jumping and flowing is that there are footwork steps that I’ve seen other people do where I’ve thought, man, that’s so cool. I would love to do that. And I never really worked on it. But when I get into a flow state where I’m really not thinking, sometimes I throw those things in almost subconsciously and they work.

Kathy (48:35)
Mm-hmm.

That’s awesome.

Dizzy Skips (48:47)
And I think it’s kind of like I’ve got my rope rhythm down and I know how my feet work. And not that it always works, because I slap myself more than anything, but you know. Yeah. Yeah.

Kathy (48:53)
Mm-hmm, you got that.

But you’ve got that baseline set and that’s what that’s what you need and once you

have that you’ve laid all the bricks down now then you can just keep layering and layering and Yeah, that’s that’s awesome. That’s really really cool

Dizzy Skips (49:06)
Yeah. Do you find

like, it seems to me that as you get that baseline, it makes it easier to learn more skills. Like once you can, you know, basic bounce without having to trip up every few, you know, skips like I did in the beginning, then, you know, it makes learning a cross easier and it makes kind of advancing easier. Yeah.

Kathy (49:17)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

And that’s that step by step. Absolutely. Yeah. So

you don’t want to go from basic bounce to a TS. You know what I mean? But someone who doesn’t really know might be doing a basic bounce and then see a video of someone doing a TS and just jump over there without even learning like a front cross first or, you know, so slow and steady, slow and steady.

Dizzy Skips (49:33)
Right.

Yeah.

Yeah, slow and steady.

You mentioned like developing your own community on your website and, moving things over there. Are there other things that you’re working on or excited about that are coming up for Kathy Jumps?

Kathy (49:50)
Mm-hmm.

I think, well, the website is gonna be pretty big. And then what kind of fell into my lap here, which is pretty amazing. So my son’s school had a wellness week and they had an exercise day. And it’s funny, cause all the teachers follow me on Instagram. So they all know what I do and they approached the principal. They’re like, we have to have, know, like Kathy come in and do some jump rope stuff with the kids.

Dizzy Skips (50:16)
Nice.

Kathy (50:25)
So 225 kids ranging from ages four to six. And I’ve never done an assembly before. I’ve taught my own kids, but I didn’t have ever like hundreds of kids right in front of me. And when I tell you it was the freaking time of my life, because it combines everything that I love, Like jump rope, teaching.

Dizzy Skips (50:32)
Wow.

Kathy (50:48)
I always thought in another life I would be like a kindergarten teacher. I love kids and it was just their excitement and just, my gosh, was on another level. it was amazing. I broke them up in different groups. We played games, they enjoyed it. And then even I had parents sending me messages through the class, it’s called Dojo. It’s messaging within parents, with the parents and they were like.

Dizzy Skips (50:55)
Yeah.

That sounds like so much fun.

Yeah.

Kathy (51:13)
you know, so and so wants to get a jump rope, what should I get? And I was like, I got you girl. But you know, like I, I don’t, I know people talk about like that jump rope for life. Was, is that what it’s called? I never had jump rope in school. Did you?

Dizzy Skips (51:16)
You

Hmm.

You know, I remember us having Double Dutch ropes on the playground and I remember every once in a while using jump ropes in elementary school, but it was like, nobody ever really taught us. was like, here’s a bunch of beads and go, go at it. You know? Yeah.

Kathy (51:37)
Yeah, we, yeah, try to do what you could do. And usually people

are like whipping them around like a lasso, but yeah, I never did. And that’s why I didn’t give the pre-K kids their own rope because I was like, they’re gonna all get clapped in the head. But, you know, I think starting them this young, mean, we’re gonna have world champions if they’re starting at four. Exactly. And so after I did that, I just shared like a little clip of it on my Instagram story.

Dizzy Skips (51:44)
Right, yeah, I was a boy, I was lassoing people.

Hahaha

My goodness. Yeah, releases by six.

Kathy (52:06)
I had all these, some of these people that I knew from college and high school that are now teachers, they want to book me for their assemblies. And I was like, this could be, this could be my thing now.

Dizzy Skips (52:14)
Nice.

Kathy (52:18)
It’s, you know, it’s just kind of like organically kind of fell into place, but it was so much fun. my gosh, it was so much fun. Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (52:20)
That’s amazing.

that would be great. So

does this school supply jump ropes?

Kathy (52:30)
I have a lot, I have a lot of ropes and I actually found on Amazon, know Amazon ropes are not the best choice, but I found some really good ropes for kids and it was like a 40 pack for like 20 bucks and for right now that’s all they need, it worked out well. So yeah, it was awesome. So I think a couple more of that.

Dizzy Skips (52:33)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Kathy (52:54)
is to come this year for sure. Yeah, yeah, definitely cool. my gosh. And then of course meetups. There’ll probably be another New York City meetup. I know people were asking me for dates. I like to do usually like two a year. Yeah, so yeah, that’s the one where like Peta came and Laura Doc Jumps, who is just one of my like best friends. She’s just amazing.

Dizzy Skips (52:55)
That’d be so cool. I’m looking forward to more video of that. That would be fun.

I was gonna ask you about that. So did you organize one last year? Okay. Peta and Laura.

Kathy (53:20)
Yeah, the fact that you’re having people fly from Australia is wild all around the world, really. Chris, Jump Rope Chris came last year. We did a meetup together in New York. But yeah, it’s just, it’s just, and I remember at that meetup, sick, cause we all ate lunch after and we’re, we’re like sitting at a table with just people from all around the world. And I was like, is this real life right now? Like these are my like.

Dizzy Skips (53:24)
I know, right?

That’s awesome.

Hahaha

Kathy (53:47)
These are my really good friends and I’m meeting them for the first time right now. We’re just like laughing, having the time of our lives. And I feel like I’ve known these people for, I mean, I have known them for years, but it’s just a bond that no one can understand until you’re like, you’re in it, you know? It’s so great. It’s so great. then.

Dizzy Skips (53:57)
Yeah, right.

Yeah. Yeah. I’ve heard amazing

stories from Peta and other people of going to meetups and, it’s something I’ve not done yet. Like I live in a small town in Minnesota and I just, there’s no, I have given a bunch of jump ropes away, tried to convert people, but, but actually, so there, there are a few people I know who are north of me in Minneapolis. and we’ve talked or I talked with one lady, @shmalli_is_skippin – I don’t know if you know her.

Kathy (54:17)
Oh, there’s no one that you.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah, yeah,

Allison. Yeah, she’s great.

Dizzy Skips (54:31)
Yeah, Alison is fantastic. So she’s

north of Minneapolis and I told her we should like meet at the Mall of America and do like a little flash mob jump rope. Yeah.

Kathy (54:40)
would be awesome. That

would be great. She’s got the energy and the personality to do that too. Yeah, she is. is. Yeah, the meetups I would definitely highly recommend if you can get to one. it’s great.

Dizzy Skips (54:44)
Yeah, she does. She’s fantastic.

Yeah.

so is there anything you’d love to do within the fitness or jump rope space that you haven’t done yet? You’ve done a lot. Community manager.

Kathy (55:02)
Yeah.

Yeah, I’m

Keep doing what I’m doing to be honest with you. It’s great. It’s really, really great and it’s enjoyable.

Dizzy Skips (55:07)
Yeah. It sounds like a ball. Yeah.

So for people who are just discovering jump rope or maybe haven’t even, maybe they were like me and they saw some really impressive videos on Instagram and YouTube and are thinking, man, that looks cool. I don’t know if it’s for me. What sort of advice do you give people who are thinking about it?

Kathy (55:21)
Mm-hmm.

I always tell people, number one, get a rope. You don’t have to be investing hundreds of dollars in a rope. I started with a rope from Target. Obviously, some ropes will make it easier. Get a rope, set up your phone. Seconds Pro is what I recommend, a free app. And you just set a timer, circuit, 30 seconds on, 30 seconds rest, and stop at five minutes. And that’s what you have to do to start.

And then when you wake up the next day, assess how you’re feeling. Don’t go jumping for, however long you jump. Exactly, exactly. So just 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off and just stop at five minutes. The next day, if you’re feeling great, do it again. Maybe add another set of 30 seconds. And that’s all it comes down to is just those short intervals. You’re just getting used to it.

Dizzy Skips (56:04)
Yeah. Don’t do two hours in the driveway on Christmas Eve. Yeah.

Kathy (56:26)
Um, and if you trip up, you trip up, it’s not the end of the world. We all, we all trip. We all trip. And that’s why I like showing all those videos of the learning process and tripping and hitting myself in the head because it happens to everyone. Everyone. Maybe everyone’s not showing it, but we’re all tripping. I trip like 99 % of the time, the first skip I trip. Like I’m going outside. like, I’m ready to go. Whomp. I always trip on that first rotation. Why? I don’t know.

Dizzy Skips (56:31)
Yeah.

yeah.

Hahaha, yeah.

Yeah, no, I do the same thing or I’ll set my phone up and I’ll have a song on and I’ll think, yeah, I’m gonna shuffle the heck out of this song. And I have a like, you know, 10 second intro of me just shuffling and then I bring out the rope and I whip it around and whack my shin, you know? I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve done that. I’m feeling so good about myself until, Yeah.

Kathy (56:56)
so yeah

And then you just like…

You

That’s how it is. Yup. Whack. You get it. But that’s the

thing. See what’s happening here though is that we’re laughing. And I think a lot of people might take this, like jumping, they might take it too seriously. Like you have to be able to be silly and laugh at yourself. And if you trip, you trip. It’s not the end of the world. I know it’s easy to turn to the Hulk. It has happened many times for me. I have had the anger, but you just.

Dizzy Skips (57:29)
Yeah.

Kathy (57:41)
laugh it off and just don’t stop, know, just keep going.

Dizzy Skips (57:42)
Yeah.

Yeah. I, one thing I’ve told the story before, but one thing that really helped me is that I did overdo it insanely on Christmas Eve of 23. Yeah. And then again on a Christmas day or a Christmas, uh, night of 23, I went out and did it again and I could not walk for six weeks. And during the entire time of having plantar fasciitis, I was just, all I wanted to do was dance and jump rope and

Kathy (57:52)
Mm-hmm.

Mmm.

Dizzy Skips (58:10)
So when

I was able to do it again, I was so thankful to be able to use my feet that when I would smack myself in the shin, I would laugh and I would dance. And I just laughed my ass off all the time because I made so many mistakes, but I was so thankful to be able to make mistakes. And so I try to focus on that now when I get frustrated, like, hey buddy, you can get frustrated now because there was a time when you couldn’t.

Kathy (58:19)
Mm-hmm.

that you would be able to, you’re absolutely. yep.

Six weeks, were, my, did you go to physical therapy too? It was a, or it was.

Dizzy Skips (58:35)
Yeah. Yeah. No, you know, I

mean, honestly, I didn’t have health insurance. And so I procrastinated going to the doctor and I went to the hospital and they diagnosed me and gave me some steroids and stuff. But, but it was so painful that I would roll out of bed in the morning on my hands and knees and crawl to the bathroom because it was just too, I know it was insane, but yeah. And so that’s why I love your tip about five minutes, like, and listen to your body. Like that.

Kathy (58:41)
Yeah, that’s a pretty penny.

my gosh. That is unbelievable. Now at the time did you

Yeah, that’s

Dizzy Skips (59:05)
Tip

Kathy (59:05)
it.

Dizzy Skips (59:05)
about like, wake up the next morning, how do you feel?

Kathy (59:08)
assess

it. If you can’t walk downstairs, that means you take a rest day. You know, and, and, you know, with all like the streaking and the hundred days going on, and I always tell you, you don’t have to do a streak. Like, yeah, it’s fun for a lot of us, but a lot of us have been jumping for a long, long time. I would never suggest to beginner, unless they’re incorporating rope flow into their 100 days or just standing still and practicing releases, you have to be smart about it.

Dizzy Skips (59:24)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Kathy (59:35)
But

that was my next question to you is, did you know about road flow when you couldn’t walk at that time?

Dizzy Skips (59:41)
You know, I had seen it. and, there’s a lady, Ash Skip Flow. I don’t know if you know her in South Africa and she would post stuff and I would see that. And then I would encounter other people, but I’ve never done it with, you know, outside of jump rope, but yeah, it looks amazing.

Kathy (59:45)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Okay.

Right, right.

It’s a totally, yeah, it’s a different thing. It takes a little bit of getting used to, but I had a stress fracture in my foot three years ago. And that’s when I took up rope flow. And I have it hanging here because here’s the thing with these things. I make all my rope flow ropes. You can go to rope.com and it’s a climbing rope and you make your own rope for like literally $3. You just like seal the end, you know, over the stove.

Dizzy Skips (1:00:06)
Okay.

Okay.

Yeah. Yeah.

Kathy (1:00:26)
and the amount of skills I learned during that time when my foot was injured, I was able to put those skills into jumping like a lot of like the arm wraps or like the dragon roll, like wrap around my head. And that the only reason I can do that stuff is because I was doing rope flow for a good month. so it’s a good tool to use if anyone is injured or if you’re doing a hundred day streak and you’re a beginner, you have to have those rope flow days. And there’s a lot of skills that.

Dizzy Skips (1:00:39)
Mm-hmm.

Sure.

Mm-hmm.

Kathy (1:00:55)
can be integrated with jump rope. It’s very unique, think it’s unique and cool, but it is different in that you don’t get that adrenaline rush from jumping that we all love. It is a more laid back kind of thing, but it is pretty cool. yeah.

Dizzy Skips (1:01:00)
Yeah.

Right. Yeah.

But it’s totally legit practice. Like my

friend Laura, she injured her leg and couldn’t jump for, think a couple months and she just went after the releases and now she’s like a release queen. Like, it’s like, I’m going to do arm stuff.

Kathy (1:01:21)
Mm-hmm.

That’s, yeah,

that’s a great opportunity to learn some crazy releases if you can’t jump. Yeah, for sure, for sure.

Dizzy Skips (1:01:31)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I was, I thank you by the way, for spending so much time with me. I’ve only got a couple more questions for you. One of them is, so I noticed that you have, you know, YouTube channel and TikTok as well. Are you, how engaged are you on those platforms or how do they figure into your online presence?

Kathy (1:01:38)
Yeah, of course.

Mm-hmm.

It’s all of the social media stuff can be a lot. It’s like, you you post on Instagram and that’s like, I gotta post on TikTok. I gotta post on YouTube shorts. It gets to be a little, a little much, but I’ve actually really been enjoying TikTok. Not only for like jump rope, but the amount of information. me tell you, are you on TikTok?

Dizzy Skips (1:01:53)
I

Yeah.

You know what’s funny is you said that you got kicked off of Instagram. I started a Dizzy Skips TikTok and I posted like two videos and got banned and I have contested it and whatever. And they’re the same videos that I post to Instagram. I have no idea what happened, but I know I haven’t, I didn’t get my account back.

Kathy (1:02:13)
Uh-huh.

Yeah.

That’s weird.

Maybe

the music or something? Start another one. I would say start another one.

Dizzy Skips (1:02:33)
But I had to actually re

yeah. I actually built my videos in TikTok though, and use the music app there. So it wasn’t just like I saved a video from Instagram and uploaded it. I had video of me jumping and I just repeated my actions on Tik TOK. It was weird. All I figured was like, you know, maybe some, maybe there was some complaint or yeah. Yeah.

Kathy (1:02:37)
It’s-

Yeah, that is…

Huh.

something weird, yeah, something weird, I don’t know. When was that?

Dizzy Skips (1:03:00)
That would have been probably like June or July, something like that. But.

Kathy (1:03:02)
Huh, I have heard

of people getting like random bans like that. I mean

Dizzy Skips (1:03:09)
Honestly,

I mean, I didn’t want to manage another social media presence.

Kathy (1:03:13)
I know, I know, it’s another, I know,

it’s a whole nother thing, I agree. But it’s, I’ve learned so much on TikTok, just random things, just very random things, not jump rope related, but I just, enjoy going on TikTok and watching videos there. And it’s a whole, it’s actually, it’s like a whole nother audience, which is pretty neat. Like people that don’t even know about my Instagram follow me on TikTok, cause they don’t use Instagram. And yeah.

Dizzy Skips (1:03:17)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Cool. Yeah.

I was gonna ask you, how do you find

the audiences differ between the platforms?

Kathy (1:03:42)
YouTube, I get the most hate comments, actually. I am not, I don’t know what it is. I don’t know, it’s very weird.

Dizzy Skips (1:03:46)
Yeah.

Who has the energy

for that stuff, by the way?

Kathy (1:03:52)
trolls sitting in their parents basement probably like, you know, like, and those kinds of things. either, it depends on the mood I’m in because sometimes I do enjoy a good clap back. Like I like, like, I’m going to fight with you. This is fun. But I delete, like I don’t even pay any mind to it. But TikTok is very rare to get a hate comment there. And I recently had a scare. So I had a mammogram done in

Dizzy Skips (1:03:55)
Hahaha

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Kathy (1:04:21)
December and it came back abnormal, which was like, you know, as a, you know, I’m almost 42. My, my second cousin passed away from breast cancer. So the thoughts going through my head were insane. And on a whim, I made a TikTok video and just the amount of women and support just, it was, it was overwhelming to be honest with you.

Dizzy Skips (1:04:33)
Mm-hmm.

Wow.

Wow.

Kathy (1:04:45)
It actually like eased my mind because all these people were like stitching it and making videos and reply saying like they had the same experience and this is exactly what what it’s going to be like when you go back for the biopsy. And you know if I posted it on Instagram I I would have gotten that same response probably from my my group of followers but I don’t know if it would have been it would have reached anybody I don’t know but

Dizzy Skips (1:04:57)
Hmm.

Yeah.

sure.

Kathy (1:05:10)
something happened in the TikTok algorithm and it just reached all of these women that either had breast cancer or are going through the same thing. And it was just, it helped, it helped a lot. yeah, I don’t know how TikTok, I don’t really know how the algorithm works, but it was very comforting. Yeah, but biopsy came back, I’m all good. So knock on wood. Yeah, I know, I know it was very nerve wracking, but yeah. But I would say make another account.

Dizzy Skips (1:05:24)
Yeah.

Well, that’s good.

Well, that’s the important part.

Yeah. Yeah, I bet.

Kathy (1:05:39)
You might like it over there.

Dizzy Skips (1:05:41)
Yeah? Yeah, I need to get to the point where I can hire a community manager. Yeah, sounds like you need a lot more than I do.

Kathy (1:05:46)
That’s it. Yeah. Me too.

I have such a problem though. I don’t want anyone else talking to people. I don’t want anyone thinking they’re talking to me and it’s not me. It’s a push and pull. I always get back to as many people as I can. If I don’t or if anyone’s listening and I haven’t responded to, I’m so sorry. Just DM me again. It’ll come back to the top.

Dizzy Skips (1:05:53)
Hmm

Right.

Yeah. Yeah.

You could hire an assistant and

call her like faux Kathy Jumps and then.

Kathy (1:06:16)
Focus. I should say that.

Oh my gosh. Or if I ever do hire someone, it has to be someone in the community or someone that knows jump rope, you know, not just some, you know. Yeah, we’ll see. Yeah, exactly.

Dizzy Skips (1:06:26)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, so that they can represent you well.

Yeah. So as far as where people can engage with you now, so on Instagram, you’re at @kathyjumps

Kathy (1:06:38)
Mm.

Mm-hmm. All one word,

KathyJumps. It’s across the board. TikTok is @KathyJumps and YouTube is @KathyJumps. Yeah. And then my website is KathyJumps.com. Yeah. It is. It’s all the same. Yeah. Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (1:06:46)
YouTube the same.

Kathy Jumps, it’s so easy to remember. You’re just, that’s great. And so

if people are interested in your, subscription, they go to Instagram right now. And then presumably you’ll keep people posted as you work on your site.

Kathy (1:07:00)
Mm-hmm, yes.

By

summer, I’m going to have the, it’s called the studio, like a back end studio. So think of it like joining a gym. You can go in, access whatever programs, or if you want to do like beginner or certain tutorials, I’ll have it all set up. So I’m hoping probably by June, July, it’ll be done. Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (1:07:23)
That’s so cool. And will

you be doing, when you do that, will you also be doing like periodic zoom classes? I think you mentioned that you bring people in at some point.

Kathy (1:07:31)
Mm-hmm. Yeah,

that’s the fun with the Instagram subscription is we all, like I’ll poll everyone, because that’s the thing, we’re all in different time zones, you know? So maybe it’s, you know, 2 p.m. for me, but it’s 10 p.m. for someone else. So we try to find a good, you know, middle ground. yeah, we all jump together. We do something called Create a Combo, where we each kind of throw out a trick. And then we all have a trick and we just put it together. We try to, you know.

Dizzy Skips (1:07:40)
Mmm.

Yeah.

Kathy (1:07:59)
have a fun thing. There’s one person in my subscription, she knows who she is. She always throws in like a ground cross. my gosh, so like the caboose. No, like the caboose where you, this is real crab walking where you bend over and you, you know, the rope goes through, goes through your legs and then over. So, but it’s a challenge. It challenges us all and we’re all.

Dizzy Skips (1:08:09)
What is a ground cross? Is that when you throw your rope?

yeah, Yeah.

Kathy (1:08:27)
giggling and laughing, so getting stuck in the rope. Yes, yes. So it’s fun, yeah.

Dizzy Skips (1:08:30)
Yeah. Whipping yourselves. Yeah.

That sounds amazing. Well, Kathy,

I can’t thank you enough for coming on and jawing about jump rope with me. just, it’s been a pleasure talking to you. Yeah, well, we’ll do it again then.

Kathy (1:08:40)
yeah, of course. I mean, we could go on for another hour or two. Yes,

absolutely. Absolutely. Thank you for having me on.

Dizzy Skips (1:08:49)
It’s my absolute pleasure and

thank you for putting out such amazing content. I’ve learned some great things from you and I know a whole bunch of people who have already been on the podcast and cited you as a big inspiration to them. So thanks. Thanks for everything you do for the community.

Kathy (1:09:01)
that makes me so happy.

I love it. I love it.

Dizzy Skips (1:09:05)
Yeah.