Jump Rope Tricks, Robz 360s & Dizzy Freestyle Vibes (Ep. 27)

Dizzy Skips (00:42)
That’s right. Three, two, go. Robz at @robz_360s on Instagram. Thank you so much for joining me. I’m just so happy to be able to talk to you. Like, I love watching your videos. What you do is just, I don’t know, it’s like super heroic to me. It’s just so fricking fun to watch. And so I’m I’m happy to have you on to talk more about that and what got you into jump rope. So can we start by you telling us like where you are in the world?

Robz (00:44)
Three, two, and go!

Thank you.

Yes, yes, yes. First of all, I also appreciate your time. Thank you so much for taking your time to talk to me. It’s a pleasure always to share our stories. It’s a little bit unfair because I also would like to know from your side. So I hope I can ask you back some things. And thank you so much. Thank you so much for it’s a pleasure to be here with you. Hopefully we’re going to have a good time.

Dizzy Skips (01:19)
Yeah.

Sure.

Nice.

Robz (01:34)
Replying to your question, I’m basically currently in Germany. I’m originally from Portugal, but I’m a little bit of a son of the world. So I travel a lot. I like staying in different places. I lived in Brazil. I lived in England. I lived in France. And now I’m in Germany, but going back to Portugal soon. But originally from Portugal, yeah.

Dizzy Skips (01:38)
Okay. Okay.

Yeah. wow.

Yeah.

So have you had your jump rope punch card stamped in all of those different countries?

Robz (02:01)
I tried my best. I tried my best. I think not as I would like to, but I could see something.

Dizzy Skips (02:07)
Yeah.

Yeah. You have some of your videos or at least some of your most recent videos, the background is like, it looks like you’re in, like a brick building or you’re up against a brick building and it’s just such a cool environment and it really makes your rope pop as well. Is that, is that like your home or is that nearby?

Robz (02:24)
Man, thanks, yeah. Thank you

so much. No, actually, I found it on the street, you know. I’m a street guy, yeah. I love being on the street. I love jumping on the street. And here in Bremen, where I’m currently at, I found this spot because I mean, in Germany, the weather is not the best, right? So I have to try to get some plan b’s.

Dizzy Skips (02:33)
Yeah? Yeah.

Right.

Robz (02:51)
and I was always trying to think about a place that it could be you know not that many people walking around where I could have my time and at the same time you could have a good light so I could record and by mistake I just passed by I was like what spot is this like what like dear and then I stopped recording I really enjoyed the videos

Dizzy Skips (03:03)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Robz (03:12)
For me now it’s difficult to record there because it’s getting night later here in Europe. So it has this shine when I record during the night. Actually during the day it’s not the same. But yeah, it’s on the street, it’s a really nice spot.

Dizzy Skips (03:21)
sure.

During the day, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

That’s fun. I’ve noticed that I have that same sort of habit of I’ve like developed the eye for jump rope backgrounds. You know, as I’m going around town, I see something I’m like, wait, no, that’s, that would be so cool to jump in front of that. Like from this angle, you know,

Robz (03:44)
Yeah… Where

do you… Where are you living?

Dizzy Skips (03:50)
I live in a town called Red Wing in Minnesota. It’s a small town. It’s I think 16,000 people, 17,000 people somewhere in there. so yeah, Red Wing, yeah. It’s near Minneapolis, St. Paul. So that’s about an hour away from me. So it’s a rural enough community where there’s not a ton of people. It’s a small town, but it’s super pretty and there’s all sorts of great places to jump here. know, like, so.

Robz (03:54)
Okay, Red Wing.

Red Wing. Red Wing, you said?

Okay.

Okay, okay.

okay nice

i’m seeing here

Dizzy Skips (04:18)
Some of

the fun of my Instagram is just finding fun places to go skip outside, because I love being outdoors as well.

Robz (04:24)
That’s good, that’s good. Are you growing the community over there or what? I believe so. How’s that going? How’s that going?

Dizzy Skips (04:29)
I

don’t know. I’m growing the community of people who know that jump rope nut that is always out on the street or at the park or whatever, you know. I have had people stop and ask me questions or whatever, but yeah, so far I haven’t had any converts. I did do a photo shoot with a friend of mine yesterday and she said that her daughter was sort of interested in jump rope. So I dropped the jump rope off to her yesterday and hope to have a convert soon, you know.

Robz (04:35)
Okay, okay.

That’s good, that’s good.

Awesome. You sure?

That’s what we are talking about converting people. Like, come here man, what you doing? Do you like this? Come and try, come and try. That’s good, that’s good.

Dizzy Skips (04:59)
Yeah.

Yeah, right. Yeah, but

I am at the point where, you know, the jump ropes themselves are precious enough to me that I don’t want to just give them out to somebody who’s like, yeah, jump ropes kind of cool. You know, like I want to know that they’re like, yeah, yeah. Like I would totally skip. Like if you give me a rope, I will skip them. Hell yeah. I’ve got a rope for you.

Robz (05:18)
in the yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah that’s

that’s a little bit what I feel as well you know like it’s even if we if we come go to them and say like hey try you know like hey you can do this move and it’s different when they are interested you know when it comes to you like hey I want to give it a try that’s good

Dizzy Skips (05:28)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

I realize they don’t have to have the addiction like we do, you know, like they don’t need to be an addict like I am where I’m like skipping seven hours a day, but they have to be like, yeah, that is totally cool. I want to do that. You know.

Robz (05:45)
Yeah.

Yeah,

I believe that I’m trying to, in quotes, understand and study how people can really get this addiction, you know, because for people, a lot of people, it’s really hard. They have no coordination at all, you know, like they have no, they are so, it really looks like it’s the first time they are trying something like this. So it’s not easy, you know, they really have to see and believe that they can start.

Dizzy Skips (06:18)
Yeah.

Robz (06:18)
from

somewhere and developing little by little. And this has to be understood somehow. Why you’re not into it? What is actually what can boost you? Really.

Dizzy Skips (06:20)
Yeah.

Yeah, it’s interesting. I’ve been thinking about that too, like that in

like different brain types. Like one thing I’ve thought a lot about is sometimes people will comment like, hey, you jump in rhythm to the music. I don’t know how you do that. Like, and to me, I’m a musician, so I’m used to keeping rhythm. I could play drums And so I have that sort of built in it.

Robz (06:43)
See?

Good.

Dizzy Skips (06:51)
and my brain

works that way. But some people, that’s just not how their brain works. And that’s okay, but they have to learn it a different way or they have to find their joy in a different perspective. And that’s okay. Not everybody has to be dizzy like out there doing his flailing like a muppet. Or Robz doing like tornado 360s. Like, man, what you do is so fun to watch.

Robz (06:58)
Exactly. Exactly.

Exactly.

Thank

you, man. I think we should at least, I should use one of, I should use your name. I should be Dizzy. I should be Dizzy Skip.

Dizzy Skips (07:21)
You make me dizzy, you know, I was

going to name myself something else and I watched one of your videos and just, woo.

Robz (07:28)
Thank you, man. Thank you. Appreciate it. It’s something different. It’s a different style. And that’s exactly I was going to reply as what you said. That is, it’s totally fine because people have different connections. They have different feelings, different ways of seeing things. Same as music, right? I’m also, by curiosity, I’m also not a musician, but I’m a beatboxer. So I also have the rhythm in my mind.

Dizzy Skips (07:30)
No.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Sure.

Robz (07:55)
But

Dizzy Skips (07:56)
Yeah.

Robz (07:56)
people feel more free when they dance or even when… whatever. And it’s really interesting. It’s exactly really interesting to see things from this perspective that is about doing differently. You finding your best way of doing what you would like to do. Same thing, but I found a different way of doing it. And 360 was a little bit like this as well. I just started spinning.

Dizzy Skips (08:01)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Robz (08:22)
You know, I started with wraps, arm wraps, then I unwrapping and then I was like, okay, start going around. Exactly. And then, yeah, I I started enjoying, you know, start getting dizzy, really dizzy at the beginning. But then I was like, okay, it’s good because I also going to, I have to go against it. You know, like if I get dizzy, I have to control my body, you know, like so here I am.

Dizzy Skips (08:25)
Yep.

I can unwrap while I’m going in a circle, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, right, right. Yeah,

I feel like I’ve seen one or two of your videos where you’ve done some pretty acrobatic spins and then stopped and sort of done this a little bit like internally you were still spinning, you know? Yeah.

Robz (08:58)
Probably, probably.

Because before recording I’m constantly trying, constantly trying. Always, always, always, always. So when I ended up finishing the combo, sometimes it happens that I’m a little bit dizzy. Sometimes it’s not about… No, sometimes it’s actually not the dizziness, it’s the…

Dizzy Skips (09:13)
Yeah, you’ve been spinning like a top for like a half hour. No wonder you’re a little dizzy, right?

Robz (09:21)
the control of the spinning of the body. know, the equilibrium. That’s exactly what I wanted to say. So if I spin, especially triples, I go really high. So having a right equilibrium while 360, it can be challenging. So sometimes it’s more this.

Dizzy Skips (09:25)
Okay. Okay, sure.

Yep.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I should back up real quick and just for people who have not yet seen any of Robz reels like one of the like his Instagram name is @robz_360s Robz underscore 360s and it’s because this mother he 360s like he goes in a circle like he’s jumping rope like crazy and doing these tornado 360s and it’s super fun to watch and one of the things that when I was looking at those I was thinking Robz like

Robz (10:01)
Okay.

Dizzy Skips (10:06)
Because you are adding that variable of spinning, you have to, and you’re doing, you’re not just jumping, but sometimes you’re doing jumps or crosses or wraps or things like that. It’s very important that you have that fundamental like form down. Like you can’t be sloppy on any of those ingredients or else the outcome is sloppy, right?

Robz (10:09)
Mm-hmm.

and

Wait, sorry, when you say sloppy, what do you mean by sloppy?

Dizzy Skips (10:31)
sloppy, mean messy. Like you can’t be really lackluster about the way that you do your wrap. You have to like get that cross in tight because you can’t be way out here because you’re not going to be able to pull off that 360. So each ingredient that you’re doing in that 360 routine has to be tight. And that’s why it’s so fun to watch. And one other thing I’ll say,

Robz (10:33)
Okay, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, Exactly. Exactly.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Dizzy Skips (10:55)
I’ve seen in several of your reels where you’re trying to pull off something like that. And then in your comments or maybe in your real description, you make it known that it’s not perfect. You know, like it was all good until I kind of messed up at the end or whatever. And the people commenting, including me are like, my God, dude, you just like did this triple, you know, back flip double under, you know,

Robz (10:55)
you

Hehehehehe

So funny.

Dizzy Skips (11:20)
toad thing and landed it and then you’re unhappy because you you took an extra step or whatever and and I want and I know that feeling but I wanted to say like obviously I think you’re a superhero not just because of what you do but more because you obviously show up and you put in the work like you put in the work to get your form down you put in the work to start doing these 360s and to figure out how to wrap and unwrap and get under the rope and

Robz (11:25)
Yeah bro, that’s it. It’s so funny.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

appreciate it

Dizzy Skips (11:48)
stuff like that and so I think that makes you a superhero. It’s not that you

pull off every reel just like you want it man. And I think the same of all the other people in the jump rope community who are showing up. It doesn’t matter if you’re a week old or you a month old or you’ve been doing it for 10 years. Like showing up and putting in the work makes you a freaking superhero.

Robz (11:55)
Thank you

Sure, sure, Sure, sure. For

sure, I totally agree. It’s not easy at all. It’s not easy at all. And people definitely, they have space to shine their own thing, you know, because each one has their own bright, you know, their own movements. So that’s good. I’m really, actually, it’s really appreciate your feedback. It’s really good to know. It’s really good to see that.

Dizzy Skips (12:13)
Right.

Yeah

Robz (12:28)
My style, it’s seen, you know. And it’s funny exactly as you said, for me, I’m definitely too perfectionist in my things, especially in videos that is like, And the phone that I normally used to record, it’s always running out of battery or running out of space, you know. So for me, it’s, yeah, it was like, it was not the best, but I have to take this, you know.

Dizzy Skips (12:31)
Yeah.

space. Yeah, it sucks.

Yeah.

Robz (12:56)
that yeah here we are trying harder and harder and look

Dizzy Skips (13:01)
Yeah. Yeah. And,

you know, I don’t know if you saw that episode with Em Foley, but she had this, this great like quote from the episode, which is like, fail a hundred times before breakfast. And her point is like, you know, failure is part of this and like, you should wear it as a badge, like, because every time you don’t pull off that 360 exactly like you wanted to, you put another notch in that badge that shows you’re, you’re getting there, you know, and you’re going to get beyond it even.

Robz (13:25)
Yeah, exactly.

Agree, totally agree. That’s a good saying. That’s a really good thing. I love it. You should actually, it’s a tip, use a board and write some words or phrases that people probably said that were important in your podcast.

Dizzy Skips (13:33)
Yeah, yeah, I thought she’s brilliant and I thought that was great. pointing out, it’s okay. Like failure’s part of it.

Yeah, no,

that’s true. I have it up in the attic. have like a six foot by eight foot whiteboard, like marker board. I could like stick it back here and start writing on it. A backdrop of all the cool quotes I get from people. Yeah.

Robz (14:04)
That’s so good.

I hope to be in that book soon. I have to think it’s something important.

Dizzy Skips (14:09)
Yeah, no,

it’s the stuff that just slips out that’s always iconic to me, you know. So, Robz, when did you start jumping and where?

Robz (14:12)
Yeah, for sure, For sure.

Okay, as I believe 90 % of us because of pandemic, right? Pandemic definitely, definitely. Was it the same for you? Yeah, yeah, was it the same for you? Okay, okay, Okay, you’re not part of, maybe let’s reduce to 80 % of the people.

Dizzy Skips (14:24)
really?

That was your kickoff? No. No.

Yeah. No, it actually is was like a huge thing for the jump rope community, right? Like it got a lot of people started including like Lauren Jumps like very iconic jumper.

Robz (14:41)
Mm-hmm.

Wow, a lot,

Lauren, Ria, Ioniz, Geraldo, a lot of people. I started around, actually, my first contact with jump rope was when I was living in Brazil practicing boxing. So, of course, I had to pick up the rope to warm up or to improve as a boxer.

Dizzy Skips (14:51)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Did you do any tricky stuff? Cause that’s, that was my intro as well. was like for kickboxing and it was just like straight ahead warm up every once in we would cross, but that was like, or we’d try and jump backwards, but that was like as tricky as we got.

Robz (15:18)
Yeah.

Okay,

I never tried backwards at that time. For me it was more footwork, know, footworkish thing. know, like lifting knee, changing, boxers skip, you know, nothing of big footwork in terms of poly pocket or, you know, not more simple moves, but at least I could get the rhythm, you know, understand a little bit of it.

Dizzy Skips (15:29)
Yep. Boxer skip,

Mm-hmm. Right.

Right, right, right.

Robz (15:47)
When we were kind of locked down, we could have a time slot where we could supposedly go out to exercise or to do our things. And I used jump rope as a warm up, once again. And then by mistake, not by mistake, but I was not posting on my personal Instagram at the time for quite a while. And I posted this little footwork thing and people were like, man, that’s good. that’s amazing.

And I was like, that’s nice, man. I didn’t know that people would enjoy that that much. So I started looking. This was around 2019, I believe so. I started looking, trying to find people to start to get inspired, you know, to get some inspiration from someone. I started finding professional people, but it was not that much my thing.

Dizzy Skips (16:18)
Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Robz (16:38)
I wanted something more freestyle, know, something where you could bring your style with your… And then I saw Jimmy Says Relax from United States. And then the game start changing, you know, then that was on, fully on, fully on. And this was, yeah, 2020, I started like properly, you know, like more regularly.

Dizzy Skips (16:41)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

That’s right. Then it was on, right?

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Robz (17:03)
Even I created my jump rope account trying to get into the community and instead talking to people, et cetera, et et cetera. So yeah, it was around that.

Dizzy Skips (17:06)
Mm-hmm.

Right. So how

did you learn? Like once you got started, what were you doing to learn tricks or learn more than you had learned with your boxing experience?

Robz (17:22)
Actually, Jimmy showed me a lot of things, know, like inspired me a lot of things.

Dizzy Skips (17:29)
Mm-hmm.

Robz (17:29)
But I always, of course, like not only Jimmy, but then I start coming across Chris, Nate KG, and a few more, he’s amazing, a few more jumpers, not only doing tutorials, but watching some movements and getting inspired by them.

Dizzy Skips (17:39)
Okay. Yeah. Nate, he’s brilliant.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Robz (17:52)
And I always was this guy of trying to create my own movements, of course, getting inspired by something, but I was especially because I start in 360. For me, was more, yes, practicing a lot by myself, trying to understand new movements, et cetera, et cetera. And with practice, yeah, here I am, you know, like pretty much mostly of my movements, it’s…

Dizzy Skips (18:00)
Yeah, yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah.

Robz (18:20)
I came up with them.

Dizzy Skips (18:22)
So is it fair to say, because I would say this is kind of my story in a way that I really wanted to get basic fundamentals down, like the basic bounce and then boxer skip and then a basic shuffle and stuff like that. And once I got a basic fundamental, I kind of. Whether through, whether purposefully or through laziness.

Robz (18:36)
Mm-hmm.

.

Dizzy Skips (18:42)
I stopped looking

for specific instruction on how to learn new tricks and I started just like trying to flow and figure out my footwork voice kinda and just kind of figure out how I did stuff. And I feel like that really helped me in a way. And it sounds like you’re describing the same sort of thing.

Robz (18:46)
again about you.

Yeah,

that’s good. That’s exactly that. That’s exactly that. Because you start getting in your own flow, you know, like it’s good. It’s always good that you get we get inspired by something, you know, because sometimes the movement that we see is not exactly what we were trying to do. But by trying it, we come up with something else that it’s even easier for us and it applies completely in our style or movements or sequences, you know, so.

Dizzy Skips (19:05)
Yeah.

Sure.

Robz (19:23)
it’s fine. So yeah, totally agree. It’s pretty much the same. It’s all about getting your own rhythm and let it go. Let it go.

Dizzy Skips (19:32)
Yeah. Yeah.

I think we’re all here to have fun, right? And I think one thing is that, or one thing I’ve said a few times recently is I don’t think you have to put a lot of pressure on yourself to learn all the tricks. depending upon your personality type, if you’re scrolling through Instagram, you see people doing all this amazing stuff. And if you’re, if you’re, you know, you’re worth

Robz (19:36)
Yeah.

Exactly.

Dizzy Skips (19:57)
as a jump roper is based on what other people are doing, you’re kind of screwed, right? Like you have to find out what makes you happy and then do that stuff. And, you don’t have to learn at a huge pace or whatever. You just do what makes you happy. Like, yeah.

Robz (20:01)
Exactly. Exactly.

exactly and comfortable and comfortable as well

totally again what what if we how how would you describe your style what’s your style what you normally practice it’s easy more footwork tricks tricks footwork footwork

Dizzy Skips (20:24)
Yeah, I would say if I were known for anything, it would be footwork stuff. And it’s just kind of free flowing. Like I always jump to music. so I have a, know, whatever I’m listening to, I just kind of channel the music and flow if I can, you know, that’s my, and my motto is try and turn my brain off and just flow, you know, just move to the music. so, you know.

Robz (20:28)
That’s good.

That’s so good.

That’s good.

That’s good, that’s really good, that’s really good.

you said that you started before pandemic, I definitely would like to know when you started your jump rope journey.

Dizzy Skips (20:53)
I did kickboxing and karate and a few other martial arts almost 20 years ago. And sometimes as a warmup for those, know, like we would always do stretching and stuff, but if we were gonna do boxing or sparring then we would always do just some basic jump rope. And it was usually like three rounds of one minute.

Robz (20:56)
Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Dizzy Skips (21:14)
And,

um, and that was my favorite part. I just loved that, you know, it was a lot of fun and it wasn’t like I had a great rope or anything like that, or that I especially knew what I was doing, but it was just fun, you know, especially when the sensei would like put on music and just like, all right, we’re going to listen to, you know, like Metallica, just go to town. I’d be like, having so much fun with it. But, um, when I got out of martial arts or kind of let that go, I didn’t

Robz (21:17)
Hehehehehe

It doesn’t matter, right? It doesn’t matter.

Dizzy Skips (21:42)
keep with the jump rope for a while. then back in late 2023, I think it was like after Thanksgiving or something like that, I was sitting around late at night and I was on YouTube and I found a Lauren Jumps video and then I found a Kaydee Jumps video and then I watched videos for like three hours in a row with my jaw just open going.

Robz (22:00)
good.

NNNN

Dizzy Skips (22:10)
How do you do, like

this is amazing. How do you do this? Like I just, it was just the coolest thing I’d ever seen. so then I, I got a couple of jump ropes off of Amazon. and Christmas Eve. I went over to my parents’ house and did our thing and came back here and

Robz (22:14)
close.

Dizzy Skips (22:28)
went out in the driveway with a jump rope and started jumping and I had so much fun listening to music and jumping. I jumped for like two hours. You know, I tripped constantly or whatever, but I didn’t warm up at all or anything like that. And I totally overdid it. And then I did it again the next day. You know, was like all I could think about over the course of Christmas was like,

Robz (22:38)
Yeah.

you

Dizzy Skips (22:46)
I could get back out in the driveway with a jump rope. And so I did. And then I jumped again for two hours until I could only jump on one foot because one of them hurt so bad. And then I gave myself plantar fasciitis and I couldn’t walk for like six weeks. And it was the most painful, humiliating thing. Cause all I wanted to do was like jump and dance. that’s also one reason why my perspective on making mistakes and

Robz (22:49)
That’s amazing.

Definitely you couldn’t forget.

Dizzy Skips (23:11)
you know, effing up when you’re trying to like pull something off is like I dance and I laugh at myself because there was a time that I couldn’t make mistakes because I couldn’t walk, you know, and all I wanted to do was be out there and whipping my shins and crack cracking my knuckles, right? Like and and now when I’m out there and I get a good, you know, like I whacked myself so hard in the ass today, it took my breath away and I was like, this is why I’m here. I’m I’m here for it.

Robz (23:24)
Yeah, that’s another thing.

Dizzy Skips (23:37)
100%.

Robz (23:40)
That’s amazing, that’s amazing. You don’t care whip me Mac, whip me. Feel free to whip me, I won’t stop. I won’t stop, I’m gonna keep it going. I can imagine you jumping like fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck and then you stop.

Dizzy Skips (23:47)
I know, like, it hurts so good, like the John Mellencamp song, right?

You

Robz (23:56)
Your brain is like, that’s what I’m talking about.

Dizzy Skips (23:58)
Yeah,

there’s sometimes that I say that after a few other colorful metaphor, you know, like a few other swear words or whatever. so so can I ask you like, as far as what jumping does for you, like once you got started with jump rope, when did you start realizing physical or mental benefits and how did it benefit you?

Robz (24:06)
Exactly.

I actually, started, it’s funny because when I start jumping, I didn’t know exactly that it was that powerful. I knew it was good, I knew it was important, it was a good exercise. Well, I think I was aware of how good it was, but I was not aware of how quick it could be.

Dizzy Skips (24:37)
Right.

Right, right.

Like how fast acting it is. Yeah.

Robz (24:48)
Exactly, exactly,

that’s the thing. And of course, like in pandemic, we were at home eating, eating, eating, eating, eating everything, right? So it’s pretty normal that you Exactly. So I gained some some pounds as you guys say in America extra. And so I start falling in love with jumping rope, you know, after posting the thing and doing my

Dizzy Skips (24:56)
Right? Like the world’s gonna end might as well.

Yeah, me too.

Robz (25:14)
my video and then I start constantly because I wanted to get something new, something different, you know, so I was trying and trying and trying more into footwork, also new movement. Yeah. And then same as you, I was jumping for two hours, no joke, two completely hours. I remember one day I jumped for three hours, three hours and half, almost four, you know, my digital watch

Dizzy Skips (25:14)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Like trying different tricks and stuff. Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah.

Robz (25:39)
was counting 3000 calories burned you know I was like what and man at that time at that time I was trying everything at home I remember my my roommate she had a bicycle right those standing bicycles and I was trying it I was trying and watching Netflix and trying you know and trying to get man as soon I picked up the rope everything was like disappeared it’s like easy you know

Dizzy Skips (25:44)
Right, Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah,

like mentally you mean?

Robz (26:06)
No, it was mostly physical, but mentally, mentally it was after when I become even more free in terms of pandemic, And when I was going with the jump rope everywhere and having this relief of everything and forgetting the world around, you know, that’s when…

Dizzy Skips (26:09)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Robz (26:26)
it was mentally the punch. So first of all came the physical one and then mentally afterwards.

Dizzy Skips (26:29)
Yeah.

Yeah.

How would you describe the mental benefits that you get from jumping rope? Like what, or what different benefits do you get? I know like for me, like hyper focus is one of them. And then, and then the ability to block out everything else.

Robz (26:35)
.

Anime

I would say…

I would say somehow the benefit of being constant, consistency, it’s really applied here because same as the movement, same as your attitude, you’re getting out there and practice and do your thing. When I say consistency because you have, when you want to…

Dizzy Skips (26:54)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Robz (27:10)
to get the shape of these movements that you really want, you have to practice it and practice it and fail and fail and fail and fail and fail. Patience is also something that completely matches here, you know, there was a different, also another level reached. And relief, man, it’s this freedom of…

Dizzy Skips (27:17)
Mm-hmm and swear it swear

Mm-hmm.

Robz (27:36)
you like you forget about everything, you just think about the movements, it’s something that it’s unpayable.

Dizzy Skips (27:41)
Yeah. Yeah,

it’s magic. This friend, Sarah Marshall, who was on one of the early episodes, I think she stated it perfectly where she said like, she gets the jump rope going and she’s in her little force field, nothing outside of that like can touch her. And I was like, that is the perfect way of describing what it does for me. I’m in my force field.

Robz (27:57)
That’s exactly it.

That’s exactly

it. That’s exactly it. It’s a bubble completely. We stay in a bubble that is… Nothing happens out there.

Dizzy Skips (28:09)
Yeah. When you’re jumping rope, how much thinking do you do? Are you planning routines like, hey, I’m planning this combo. It’s going to be these, you know, eight moves or 10 moves or do you just free flow?

Robz (28:23)
Yeah, it’s a good question because I try to have combos but I don’t have combos. know, like if you would tell me, do show me your best combo, I wouldn’t have, you know. I would probably freestyle. I would think about two or three movements that I could apply in this combo, but I don’t have like a full combo. So I’m a…

Dizzy Skips (28:36)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Right.

Robz (28:46)
more

freestyled person you know so it’s it’s it’s mainly that i have some movements that i know they are hard they are difficult they can be applied pretty much in in any any combination but yeah it’s really to be honest it’s really hard for me especially

Dizzy Skips (28:48)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Robz (29:04)
That’s why I don’t think I’m a footwork guy, because it’s really hard for me to remember a certain pattern. From here to here I have to do this, this, this, this, this. It’s really hard for me. It’s really hard for me.

Dizzy Skips (29:11)
Sure.

Yeah.

Yeah. on your Instagram profile, you, think you have a statement like you can teach people to do three sixties And I may be curious, like when people are learning how to do three sixties, like you do, like maybe not to the level that you do, but when they’re learning how to pull them off.

Robz (29:34)
Mm-hmm.

Dizzy Skips (29:36)
What are the steps

in teaching someone to do a 360? Is like, do you have to focus on those fundamental things? Like, Hey, in order to do this 360, you’re going to have to be able to do an arm wrap and a basic bounce and, you know, a one 80 twice or like,

Robz (29:51)
Yeah, yeah, yeah,

yeah. Definitely the most important tip is the dizziness part. know, because, yeah, because since the beginning, you’re going to be practicing one, you’re going to do it twice, you’re going to do three times, four times, ten times. So you’re going to end up dizzy, you know, and people get dizzy really, really, really easy. So it’s mainly about the technique.

Dizzy Skips (30:00)
Really?

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Robz (30:20)
the opposite technique, so we spin in different directions. And the good thing is, of course, like the basic bounce, it’s super important. It has to be there because it’s going to be part of the sequence that we’re going to build. But at the same time, there are a lot of movements, 360 movements that you don’t need exactly to jump on it, right? So you can learn 360 without exactly jumping.

Dizzy Skips (30:24)
Right.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Robz (30:46)
Exactly. Wrapping Open 360, Texan 360, you know, like… Texan is this one that you swing, you bring the rope here, you spin and then it comes to the front.

Dizzy Skips (30:46)
like rapping, for example, or okay.

What is a Texan?

Okay, so

you’re not actually crossing, you’re just kind of rotating and bringing it back over.

Robz (31:05)
Yeah, spinning. Yeah, yeah,

yeah, exactly. Exactly. Here we go. So of course it’s always important to have the basic bounce, right? It’s always be there. And this is definitely pretty much the same level because as soon as start spinning, basic bounce is coming.

Dizzy Skips (31:08)
Yeehaw!

Mm-hmm.

When you

Yeah.

When you’re teaching people how to do 360s, where do they hit the snags most? what’s the hardest thing for people to get over?

Robz (31:32)
It’s the arm position. Normally, because it’s kind of tricky when we spin, one arm has to be a little bit farther from your body. So it’s really hard to find the center in 360s. And it happens, of course, like legs, they… all the time. But it’s mainly in the… finding the center in the position. Sometimes they curve a lot.

Dizzy Skips (31:41)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah.

Robz (31:59)
to make sure that the rope goes down. So yeah, this too, I would say.

Dizzy Skips (32:00)
Yeah.

I know what you mean. There’s one move that I do probably overdo where I try to like lean out over my body like it looks like I’m slanted forward. And when I do that, I have to move my arms back to rotate a little bit further back because my center has moved back, right? Like it’s not out under my chest anymore, right?

Robz (32:15)
He

Exactly, Yeah, yeah,

exactly, exactly, exactly. It’s funny to understand because when our body rotates in a certain way, the rope and arms we have to kind of follow and understand where everything is positioned, you know. So mainly arms we have to, you know, control and balance correctly to let

Dizzy Skips (32:42)
Mm-hmm.

Robz (32:47)
the rope pass and at the same time we have to think that we should go as slow as possible. I actually try to apply this a lot to my students, not only people that I teach 360s, that is like chill, know, like feel, to understand every single movement that you do like calmly, you know, because sometimes a lot of people have tension, you know, and…

Dizzy Skips (32:57)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Robz (33:13)
it doesn’t help at all. And as soon as they understand this, it’s a little bit game-changing because it gets more, it gets smoother, they finish the movements with more accuracy.

Dizzy Skips (33:26)
Right.

Yeah. That makes sense. You know what it makes me think of is like, I, I love driving. love high performance driving stuff. I went to this racing school as a client of my company’s and, they’re out in Washington state and they teach race driving and stuff. And so I went out and I had a class and the owner or one of the owners of the company, this, race car driver, he was saying,

Robz (33:29)
Okay.

good. That’s so good.

That’s so good.

Dizzy Skips (33:50)
You know, your job as a driver of a car is you are a weight manager. Like your job is to manage weight. And when you’re on the track or you’re off the track, your job is to manage the weight of that car as you take a corner, whether it’s rainy or icy or whatever, you manage the weight. And it’s the same exact thing with jump rope, right? And if you think about it in terms of managing the weight and the rotation of the rope, rather than forcing it, like if you think of it in doing like,

Robz (34:01)
sense.

That’s the repeat.

Dizzy Skips (34:18)
I need to do the minimum necessary and be as efficient as possible to get this done rather than I need to go at it and just get, you know what I mean? Like if you realize, hey, my job is to manage the weight and the rotation of this rope and I need to intervene only as much as necessary to get that done.

Robz (34:24)
Exactly.

Exactly and Dizzy, it’s really important what you’re saying right now because a lot of people they not even go that far. It’s more, it’s not going and then they whip again. It’s not going. Nah, this rope. Nah man, this rope, doesn’t, nah, nah, And it’s not in the rope, it’s on you. know, it’s exactly, not only you control the weight, but first of all, you’re gonna control your mind to make your muscles relax, to make you be…

Dizzy Skips (34:50)
Yeah.

Right, right.

Robz (35:01)
completely chill, know, and to understand exactly what is… I see a lot as math, you know, because you have to understand exactly where’s the center, where’s the position. Do you think that every movement… Exactly, exactly, but not only. Yeah, exactly, exactly. A big question is, do you believe every movement is possible?

Dizzy Skips (35:03)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Especially when you’re spinning and stuff like that, right? Because your center might be changing as you’re rotating.

Do I believe every movement is possible? I’m not sure I know what you mean by that.

Robz (35:29)
Like every jump rope movement, you know, like when you imagine, if you imagine the craziest trick, I’m not saying something completely impossible that is like you jump, you backflip and then you do mamba mamba, cross backwards.

Dizzy Skips (35:41)
I’m just thinking of

flight. Like, I just want to take flight, you know, like do a double cross and then just fly on for a half hour. Like, yeah.

Robz (35:44)
Hahaha

Okay, half an hour, okay, that’s challenging.

But somehow I believe a lot of movements, jump rope movements are possible. When you think about something really hard, even if it takes one year, two years to achieve this movement, it’s possible.

Dizzy Skips (35:54)
It’s had too much to ask.

Yeah.

yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Do you know that guy is a jumper Yaseen? Like I’ve seen this guy come cartwheeling across a stage, jumping rope at the same time as he’s cartwheeling. I’ve seen flips, like I’ve seen people do all sorts of acrobatic stuff. And yeah, I think if you can envision it, and, if physics is not, you know, going to get too much in the way, you could pull it off. You could learn to pull it off. You may need to

Robz (36:28)
Exactly, what I’m That’s what I’m playing.

Dizzy Skips (36:33)
start on a really soft mat or a trampoline or something like that. But I think you can learn all sorts of stuff. And so when people say, I can never do what you do. I like “yet.” Right. Yet. Like you could learn it if you put your mind to it and you do what Robz does.

Robz (36:38)
Yes.

See? That’s exactly it. Exactly.

That’s exactly what I’m talking about. That’s it. That’s exactly it. That’s good. That’s good.

Dizzy Skips (36:54)
Yeah, yeah.

So you’ve got the poster behind you for The High Jump and I know it’s also linked for your profile. Can you talk a little bit about that and your involvement in that?

Robz (37:04)
Yeah, sure, sure, sure. It’s a pleasure. So I created the The High Jump. I developed the The High Jump myself as soon as I started to get into the community. going backwards a little bit, I was already involved in the community, the Beatbox community. So when I started doing Beatbox, it was a street thing. I also had a…

Dizzy Skips (37:23)
Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Robz (37:30)
a rap group, a rap crew. So I used to be this guy of beatboxing and people freestyling around me going to competitions, cetera, et cetera, cetera, like different things. So I had this experience of being involved in a community. And as soon I came across the Jump Rope community, I started seeing that there were a lot of people from different parts of the world sharing their movements. I kind of visualized pretty much the same as beatbox, you know.

Dizzy Skips (37:31)
Okay, nice.

Nice.

Mm-hmm.

Robz (37:58)
And I was thinking like, then I want to see actually who’s behind it, who’s coming up with movements, with different challenges, with whatever it is. And I found some brands, of course, like jump rope brands, selling products, also find Elevate Rope, Chris, et cetera, cetera. And I…

Dizzy Skips (37:58)
Mm.

Robz (38:22)
When I created my personal account, I like, want to share people, know, like I want to spread what people are doing, but it’s kind of weird that I’m doing on my personal, right? Because if I’m only here on my personal sharing people’s Instagram, it might be weird. So maybe I’m going to create something, develop something that can involve everybody, know, can involve the whole community. That’s exactly where The High Jump.

Dizzy Skips (38:39)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Robz (38:49)
came and that’s exactly the purpose. It’s about uniting everybody, know, with any enthusiasm, brands, communities, you know, where everybody can connect and share the joy of of jump rope.

Dizzy Skips (39:03)
So I think I’ve brought it up on the screen here. This is the site for it, right?

Robz (39:07)
that’s

the site. Yes, yes.

Dizzy Skips (39:10)
So

can you define what The High Jump is for people who haven’t heard about it? Like what exactly is The High Jump?

Robz (39:18)
Yes, so The High Jump it’s a jump rope community where people from all around the world can connect themselves regardless if you are an enthusiast, regardless if you are a brand, if you have communities it’s a place where everybody can connect, can see each other, can get inspired and bring the movement even higher all around the world.

Dizzy Skips (39:43)
Okay, so when, so they register for the site and then get like a user account. How do they connect?

Robz (39:50)
So the website, it’s actually, we are working on the website. It’s not launched officially. No, no, no, it’s totally fine. Totally fine. That’s why it’s on because we always have space to improve and to see different perspectives and people give feedback. So we have indeed the login part, but it’s not exactly structured as we want.

Dizzy Skips (40:07)
Sure.

Mm-hmm.

Robz (40:19)
But there you can find some events that will happen that we have there. The Paris Meetup, the Gdansk Meetup, online events that we had.

Dizzy Skips (40:33)
So are these events all community events or are they events that you are organizing personally?

Robz (40:41)
No, no, community events, community events. Gdansk, for example, is organized by people in Poland, Paris, it’s from Chris, Geraldo and The French Jumper. Yeah, they have some information there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but the purpose is exactly like connecting people across…

Dizzy Skips (40:44)
Okay.

So this is great. Like people can go get.

Robz (41:03)
the globe, know, like regardless if it’s United States, if it’s Gambia, if it’s whatever it is, like people if they are around they can see what’s gonna what’s gonna happen in the following days or months, you know.

Dizzy Skips (41:08)
Yeah.

So

if someone wants to engage with this, like how do they get signed up?

Robz (41:22)
So that they have the this login mainly of our information is on our Instagram right so we can we can share we can share Information directly here is some out general informations, right? So it’s not updated as our Instagram for example, but there for example Yeah

Dizzy Skips (41:30)
Okay.

Perfect.

Mm-hmm.

Sure. It’s hard to keep up so many things, isn’t it? Like as somebody who’s got a website and Instagram and people are like, you

should be on TikTok and Facebook. I’m like, I don’t have time for it all.

Robz (41:52)
Indeed,

indeed, indeed. In our website we also, we are taking care of our shops that we also are gonna be partnering with different brands. That’s exactly what The High Jump is made of, of connecting also brands. Brands will also expose their products on our website. So if people are just getting started in the jump rope,

Dizzy Skips (42:14)
Mm-hmm.

Robz (42:21)
They want to buy a jump rope. They go there. They can learn about it. They can find places to buy jump ropes regardless of their location. And it’s a little bit too uniting everything and every information about jump rope. We have our blog as well that it’s definitely going to be a pleasure to introduce Dizzy Skips and his podcast around.

Dizzy Skips (42:25)
they can kind of learn about it or find places.

Nice. Yeah.

Robz (42:51)
So yeah, all this.

Dizzy Skips (42:53)
Cool. Well, that’s really cool that you’re doing that. I mean, one of the things that made me start the podcast to begin with was how amazing the community is. Like, I mean, it was just the love and support that I got and how everybody was positive. Like, you know, like in it didn’t matter.

Robz (43:10)
Cool.

Dizzy Skips (43:11)
really how like I didn’t have to be jumping like a pro. I had to be trying and people were there saying you’re doing a good job keep trying like and like that is so awesome and so I wanted to learn more about people who are out there rooting me on and contributing to the community. So

Robz (43:16)
Exactly. Yes, yes, yes, yes.

Dizzy Skips (43:27)
once you started looking around on Instagram for other people, then you started noticing the community. When did you get to the point where you’re like, wow, this is something different, like this jump rope community, I wanna be part of this.

Robz (43:40)
I think I started, I think it was a little bit during this time that I was getting into jump roping. When I start seeing the community, Jimmy and so on and so on and so on, a lot of the jumpers around, that automatically my brain was like, okay, so we can definitely, I could also understand that community was not that big.

So we are not talking about a skate, are not talking about BMX, it’s a sport that is still coming. Still, still, still. I mean, in the United States, it’s completely different. But even though we can see that it’s still growing, right? In your city, it’s not as normal to go around and see people jumping rope as you do. You see?

Dizzy Skips (44:03)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, it’s evolving, right? Yeah.

No, no, I’m the freak out on the street with the jump rope.

Yeah.

Robz (44:30)
As soon as saw that this could have the potential of being in again the playground and the game and having fun of the street, you know, but not only for kids. I was like, nah, that’s exactly the moment that I’m going to apply also ideas that I have that I had from Beatbox and bring it to the jump rope community, you know.

Dizzy Skips (44:44)
Right.

Robz (44:54)
So that’s why we came across of doing online tournaments. are doing this meetup that we are organizing now in Portugal is it’s a meetup that also has a urban battle, you know, like where people go there and just they show their tricks and it’s giving this space to people to shine, you know, because there are people that are skilled up there, you know, and I don’t need to be professional to

Dizzy Skips (45:13)
Yeah?

Yeah. Yeah.

Robz (45:22)
to be competing or to show my skills somehow. So that’s why we came across with this idea and started creating this movement. And luckily it goes, it goes, it goes and people are inspired to be part of it. Man, you should, you definitely should, you would love it, definitely. I hope so.

Dizzy Skips (45:35)
That’s so cool. I can’t wait to come to one of your meetups. yeah. As soon as I can afford it, like

maybe I can help you organize one over here. You know? Yeah. That’d be.

Robz (45:48)
It would be amazing. I would love to, I’m sure. This is definitely

something that I would like to tell you even before, after our podcast, because I definitely want to talk to you again to see what we can bring together. Because what you’re doing is, man, I really appreciate it. Once again, you are one of those bringing something different to different audiences, you know, like…

Dizzy Skips (46:02)
Yeah.

Mmm.

Robz (46:11)
bringing new concept people that they see you like I like what this guy is talking I like what this guy is doing you know like I want to be more involved in it seeing the freaking guy jumping on it on the streets and they’re like I want to I want to be like him you know I want to do what he’s doing you know so congratulations

Dizzy Skips (46:17)
Thanks.

Yeah, I

mean, it’s just thank thank you so much. That’s very sweet of you. And I just get so much joy from it that it’s hard not to want to spread it right. Like it’s just and it’s so accessible. Like you’re talking about like jump. How many have like, you know, my stepmom, her hobby used to be horses. Like how much money can you spend on a frickin horse or a boat? There are people here towing boats to the river all the time and.

Robz (46:30)
No.

can’t believe it.

Exactly.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (46:52)
You know, the boat itself costs more than their car and it needs maintenance. And here in the cold weather, you got to take it out of the water. You got to put it in the water. You take it out and all that stuff like a jump rope under a hundred bucks. You know, you can get a bunch of right. Yeah. Take it out of the pocket. You could be at the mall. You could be anywhere and just whip it out and have fun.

Robz (46:55)
Hehehehehe

Take it out of your pocket.

Exactly, that’s exactly what we’re talking about man, that’s exactly what we’re talking about. One of my missions is definitely reach this to the younger people, know, like the these people, the younger generation, you know, people they are watching TikToks, they are on Instagram, they are on YouTube, they want to learn something.

Dizzy Skips (47:19)
Yeah.

Mm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Robz (47:36)
I really want to bring this to this generation, to get them involved, get this passion about the new freestyle things that we can. I’m really, really rooting for this.

Dizzy Skips (47:47)
Yeah.

You gotta position it as rebellious, you know? Like, this is something your parents don’t want you to do. And then they’re like, hell yeah, give me a colored rope and I’ll be out there jumping my ass off.

Robz (47:52)
That’s true. That’s exactly

it, man. That’s exactly it. You’re gonna jump up again?

Dizzy Skips (48:03)
Yeah, you gotta use that reverse, yeah, that

jump rope beaded reverse psychology on him. Get him out there doing it. That’s so fun. So I’m curious when you’re out on the street jumping, do people ever come up to you and stop? And if so, like what age groups actually take notice of what you’re doing?

Robz (48:10)
I love it.

That’s a good question. think I take pretty much all ages. Recently I had… Last week I was jumping. So I try to be… When I jump, don’t like that much to be seen. If I’m jumping, if a group passes, probably I will stop. Depending how far they are… Zach is showing off.

Dizzy Skips (48:27)
All ages. Yeah.

Right, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, you’re not like Prince out there and meeting stuff like, look

at me. Yeah, no, right, right.

Robz (48:48)
Exactly. I try to keep it low. But well,

sometimes it’s not possible, right? Sometimes I also want to jump around because people are just chilling around. So sometimes I’m also into if someone comes to give me feedback, of course, it’s gonna be a pleasure to hear. So last week, I had mainly kids, around three, four kids, come to me, they’re like, oh, that’s so good that you’re doing. When I say kids, like,

Dizzy Skips (49:06)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

That’s cool.

Robz (49:16)
8 years from 8 years old to 14. I already had older people or way older people, 70s, 50s.

Dizzy Skips (49:20)
That’s cool.

Yeah.

Robz (49:27)
It’s good. It’s good. good. Well, that’s even better, right? When we can reach everybody, everybody sees it, they know what it is, right? But even though…

Dizzy Skips (49:29)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. And I

mean, like when I watch you, think that guy is having so much frickin fun. Like he is having a ball, right? And I think if people watch me, that has to come through as well because I’m laughing at myself and I’m dancing like a Muppet out there or whatever. And I think that’s fun to watch, even if people don’t care about the jump rope as much. Like just watching someone getting their groove on is kind of fun, right? It’s kind of rad.

Robz (49:54)
you

I believe,

I totally agree with you. Are you more into jumping in your corner or showing off a little bit? Do like to show people, to spread it more?

you

Dizzy Skips (50:21)
No, I’m not dressing like Elton John and like, like skipping right down the middle of the red carpet. No, but I am not afraid to jump in the park. like, this morning I, I hiked up to a park that is closed to cars right now and I jumped up there for a couple of hours and there weren’t many people there, but

Robz (50:30)
Okay.

Dizzy Skips (50:43)
you know, there’s a few people out walking their dogs or whatever. So it’s harder to stay hidden because there’s, you know, or to feel anonymous because you’re one person out of four people in the entire park. But, but I don’t care. Like I’m having fun and I’m not offending anybody but I, but I don’t get in people’s face and like, Hey, watch me jump, you know, but I did lose my shame. So I,

Robz (50:55)
Yeah.

That’s good.

Dizzy Skips (51:07)
Like if I figure

if people like what I’m doing, that’s really cool. If they don’t like what I’m doing, that’s their business. And it’s not mine, you know.

Robz (51:14)
That’s good. Are you

shy if you would have to perform for…

Dizzy Skips (51:19)
I used to be

very much so like paralyzed by it, like stage fright kind of thing. And you know, what’s funny is I had, I got this grant for business development stuff and one of the things I put it toward was photography. And so I had a photo shoot with a photographer yesterday and we’ve done one more in the recent past and.

Robz (51:23)
Hahaha.

good.

Dizzy Skips (51:39)
And it was all me jumping, you know? And so she’d say like, I want you to face this way and then jump here. And I’m going to try and stop your rope when you’re doing this move. And I tell her like, I can try different moves. And she’s like, I like the single hand swings. So it’s like, do more of those. And so two years ago, if you would have said, oh yeah, you’re going to jump rope in front of somebody who’s like photographing you, I would have.

like everything would have been tripping and I would have been so frustrated. There were the pressure and there was no pressure. First of all, she’s a great photographer and it was just fun. I just, I’m to that point where I’m in it for the fun. And so I just went out and had fun. And I think for people, my opinion is that kind of stuff comes through on camera and it makes like when you see someone genuinely having fun, even if they’re

swearing and whacking their shins or whatever, you know, those are real people and you can identify with that. And so, so yeah, so I just sort of went with it and I know there’s plenty of those moments where I’m whacking my shins and stuff, but it was, that’s part of it. It was fun. Yeah.

Robz (52:31)
you

Yes, that’s good. That’s good.

It’s part of it. It’s like, it’s like, it’s like,

that’s amazing. That’s amazing. It means that when the, the, the city hall of Red Wing come to you, like we have a performance for you for the whole city. You’re going to be like, yes, I’m in. That’s good. That’s good.

Dizzy Skips (52:59)
Yeah, the, actually the photographer I was working with used to work with the visitors bureau and she’s like, yeah, you have to do the partner thing with them. And so, so I think I will go talk to them and see, cause I have skipped in every park and I skip on all sorts of benches and stuff. So anyway.

Robz (53:06)
Yai yai yai.

That’s so good.

That’s so

good. I have some pictures of your place running on my computer right now. That’s so great.

Dizzy Skips (53:21)
yeah. Nice.

So I’m curious

I think you kind of hinted at this before with your phone, but I was gonna ask you about your tech stack. Like when you are filming yourself, how do you physically do it? Is it just your phone? And if so, are you just using standard video mode, propping it up? Or do you have a tripod?

Robz (53:37)
Yeah.

Well, I actually have a tripod. Yeah, this low budget tripod. I use this phone that I’m using right now for the video call. It’s not the best quality. This phone is an S9, so it’s almost from the 90s. But it still works. It still works. As soon as I record it, I edit it in…

Dizzy Skips (53:45)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Robz (54:05)
in a video editor, also not too complicated to work with. I apply some effects and frames and that’s it, that’s all we got. Of course I would like to level up a little bit in terms of more quality, know, like better edition, but it takes time, it takes time.

Dizzy Skips (54:12)
Mm-hmm.

Sure. So, then.

Yeah, it does. I am always learning about that stuff and feel like I make a little progress here and there. And, so what about like your ropes? Are you a beaded rope guy? Are you a PVC guy? Are you an equal opportunity employer?

Robz (54:33)
that.

That’s good question.

That’s a really good question. I used to be an beaded guy. Definitely an beaded guy. I started with PVC. So PVC was my first jump girlfriend. But as soon as I started seeing these tricks as releases…

Dizzy Skips (54:56)
Mm-hmm.

Robz (55:03)
I started the PVC as well but mainly releases. I have to get one of these. And it’s funny because I…

Dizzy Skips (55:10)
You felt like you had

to get a beaded rope in order to learn releases? Yeah.

Robz (55:13)
Yes, yes, yes,

definitely. It’s funny because in Portugal I couldn’t buy, you know, it was not possible to buy at all. I had to ship from somewhere, at the time it was not accessible for me. So, and I wanted now, you I didn’t want to wait, I really didn’t want to wait. So what I did was I went to some stores in Portugal, they sell a lot of material.

Dizzy Skips (55:27)
Wow.

Yeah, right.

Robz (55:41)
and I bought myself a tube I started cutting the tube in more or less the same I changed some handles and I got my first beaded rope man and then guess what? I I still have it at home man definitely this is gonna be and

Dizzy Skips (55:48)
Nice.

Dude, that is industrious as hell.

That’s awesome. That

is a motivated mother right there. Like you wanted to jump so bad you were gonna build it from scratch.

Robz (56:03)
this.

Yes, sir. And that’s exactly what I did. And it worked, man. It worked. was my… Definitely, I started doing 360 with this rope, you know, like, it was good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This rope, definitely, I got it for a couple months because then I started having the idea of building The High Jump, our… Producing our own ropes and the…

Dizzy Skips (56:17)
Yeah? Nice.

Robz (56:33)
So I was always changing ropes, always changing. I ended up buying original ropes from different brands, trying it, whatever. yeah. This is reply that I’m a beaded rope, yes. This was the story of the beaded. I started with PVC. Nowadays, I’m really into PVC. I’m really into PVC moves. I’m trying constantly some double sequences, double under, cross, open, open, cross, cross.

Dizzy Skips (56:36)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. So.

So with your PVC, like what weight? I know I’ve got some from like Elevate, for example, that are like four mil PVC that are like relatively thin, whippy ropes. And then I have some that are like, I’ve got one from you rope that’s a six mil that’s heavier.

Robz (57:05)
Yeah.

I would like to try that one. Mine I think it’s 4 or 5 if I’m not mistaken. But I really would like to try this 6mm.

Dizzy Skips (57:19)
Yeah.

Yeah, the six is my favorite. in fact,

Robz (57:25)
Are you

you PVC? Are you PVC guy?

Dizzy Skips (57:28)
I would say I jumped like 90 something percent of the time with Beated. Like I’m a Beated guy, like totally. I like the extra weight and the feedback, but when I had a former guest on Sean, he was like, @seeseanskip he was talking about how he had tried a six mil PVC and how it was like the perfect balance of the weight of a Beated with the sort of, you know.

Robz (57:32)
Okay, okay, Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (57:51)
forgiveness of a PVC, I guess. I don’t know if that’s the word that he used, but so I picked one up and yeah, totally. Like it’s, heavy enough that you can feel where it is. You get that proprioception, you know, like, yeah, that I think, and I’ve said this recently, but with the, lighter PVCs, they’re super fun. Like you can go insanely fast with them, but you have to pay attention to what your wrists are doing.

Robz (57:54)
Okay, okay, okay.

That’s so good. That’s why I’m really excited about trying it out.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (58:19)
If you get lazy with your wrists or your form, then things can just, you know, kind of crumble. And with beaded, you have enough feedback that it’s easier to kind of keep cognizant of where the rope is, you know? And yeah. So I feel like that six mil PVC gives, gives you enough weight feedback that you kind of.

Robz (58:24)
messed up.

I I totally agree. I totally agree. I’m really

excited to try 6mm, I’m not joking, because I feel that you can, yeah, I agree, because when I have this in mind that I think I would like this, normally it’s like, 90 % I’m gonna be.

Dizzy Skips (58:44)
Yeah. You’ll love it, dude. I know it.

No. No, you’re gonna frickin’ love it. You’re

gonna write me and go, my God, I can’t believe I didn’t do this sooner.

Robz (58:59)
Bro,

for sure, especially because I’m trying to get a little bit more into doubles footwork a little bit as well Trying to get some movement, some rhythm, know, it’s also really important, really nice So definitely six millimeters I think will balance the desire

Dizzy Skips (59:06)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah, it’s fun. You can get it going

so fast that you don’t like your feet almost don’t even come up off the floor. Just, you know, like enough for the rope to pass underneath. And that feels so good. It’s fun. It’s fun to watch to where you watch a video of yourself and it almost looks like you’re standing still, you know, just vibrating.

Robz (59:36)
That’s so good. You’re making me jealous. Now I need to make my own pvc. I’m joking. They have a pvc? Give it to me! Have you tried longer than this? bigger than this? Like 7mm or something?

Dizzy Skips (59:42)
You’re going to go out to the hardware store and all right. Six mil PVC stat. Yeah, that’s right. I need nine feet of PVC stat.

I have one from Herope that is a quarter pound and it’s PVC but it’s got the wire in the middle of it, you know, for the extra weight. So I don’t actually know what the diameter of it is. I would guess it to be like seven or eight millimeter or something like that, but…

Robz (1:00:13)
I don’t know, maybe I was too

heavy for you, maybe.

Dizzy Skips (1:00:17)
No, it’s a quarter pound. I love it. I love those heavier ropes because again, it’s just so easy to feel where things are and I don’t mind the workout. feel like if I want to make something look really, really good on PVC, I will practice it on a heavy rope and then I will practice it on a beaded rope, kind of step down and then I’ll start practicing on the PVC. then you just, first of all, you feel like Superman because you can move the thing like

Robz (1:00:41)
Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (1:00:42)
bright, like you can just go so fast and and then having stepped down from a heavier rope you have that feeling you have that muscle memory of where things are so that by the time you get to something that’s lighter you don’t have to think so far about

Robz (1:00:55)
Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, sometimes for me it’s… For example, if I’m using a beaded rope, of course we all have this rope, this beaded rope or rope that we’re talking about. This is mine. Regardless if you have 7 millimeters, that is 1, 7 millimeters and then this is the one. Exactly. Exactly.

Dizzy Skips (1:01:18)
The perfect one, yeah. Your baby.

Robz (1:01:22)
So when I change from beaded to PVC it’s fine, but then if I get a lighter beaded it’s not fine at all. Well actually it depends because I have a jump rope from Coach Chris. This rope is really heavy, I really like it because it has a totally different flow. However my beaded…

Dizzy Skips (1:01:31)
yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Robz (1:01:45)
is you know i don’t know if it’s the same the one that i say this is the one but you know i so it’s it’s a level down but i’m still okay if i get a lighter one maybe i’m not gonna be that okay you know a lighter beaded so

Dizzy Skips (1:01:52)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

It’s interesting. I’m totally exactly the same. Like this, this one is

from URope and they’re URope pro. They have a heavier cable in them and I like the, and Chris on his website, you can order with two different sizes of cable, but I think the heavier one is the one that like the people that I’ve talked to say, it’s exactly what you want. And I love that level of feedback.

Robz (1:02:10)
Yeah.

Thank you.

Yeah.

That’s

a completely different flow on your head.

Dizzy Skips (1:02:29)
Yeah, and I feel like once you and you know, what do I know? I’m still young at this, but I feel like once you learn a trick and can nail it with a rope of that heft and stuff, you can get that muscle memory down so that you can step down to a 4 mm PVC or six mm or whatever, or or step up to a heavier rope if you want. And still you’ve learned the mechanics of it, right? And you can adapt.

Robz (1:02:46)
in the morning.

Yeah.

Exactly, that’s really interesting.

Yes, for sure. For sure. That’s really interesting. It happens exactly like that. You know what you’re doing. Even if you pick up like the cheapest, shittiest rope in the market, you know what to do with that. So you’re still going to have the mechanic. You might be able to release with it if it’s case or do some footwork. When there was…

Dizzy Skips (1:03:10)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Robz (1:03:20)
in vacation in Azores, in an island in Portugal and I found kind of a bamboo stick, you know, like a bamboo stick and I kind of folded it to give it a little bit rounded shape I started a jumping rope with it and man, did a release, can you believe that I could catch it? It spins like twice and then I could catch it, insane man, insane. So that’s exactly as you’re doing, once that you know

Dizzy Skips (1:03:28)
Yeah?

Hahaha.

Nice. Yeah.

Robz (1:03:49)
the mechanics you can perfectly work with it. So that’s amazing.

Dizzy Skips (1:03:49)
Right.

Yeah,

it’s, you know, the mechanics and then also you build up those muscles and, um, neurons or pathways in your brain that allow you to do that stuff. Like one of the other things that I’ve talked to people about, and I’ve noticed with myself a whole bunch is just my reaction time to stuff is so much better. Like if I drop a pencil, I can grab it out of the air without looking at it. Right? Yeah. I mean,

Sometimes I feel like a little ninja and it’s not like I’m really trying hard. It’s just like, no, I have spun that rope around me so much and I know where, what it takes to move my hand to catch something, you know, that it’s, yeah.

Robz (1:04:35)
That’s so true man, that’s so true,

that’s one of the powers of jumping rope man, that’s…

Dizzy Skips (1:04:40)
Right,

yeah, it’s a great exercise for your brain. My stepmom does Legos and I think that’s a fun exercise for your brain. But jumping rope is also a good one, right? It keeps your circulation going up in your noggin and all sorts of fun things to learn.

Robz (1:04:43)
That’s not a…

that’s so good.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Try to build a LEGO jump rope for her so that maybe she jumps with you. Try to imagine.

Dizzy Skips (1:05:00)
my gosh, yeah. Yeah, the mechanics of

putting together a Lego jump rope that would actually hold together while you were jumping. I’m sure someone can do it. There’s some jump rope engineer out there. Yeah. So what’s next for you, Robz? what are you? I know you’ve got some upcoming community events, right? Some meetups.

Robz (1:05:09)
Yeah, it would… would… I for sure, for sure have no love for about it.

Dizzy Skips (1:05:24)
What’s next for you personally with Jump Rope? Are you working on anything in fun, either skills-wise or community-wise?

Robz (1:05:30)
Yeah,

yeah, I think I can include everything that is related to drum pop. Personally as well, developing or improving my skills, learning. I would like to be more active on my personal Instagram to share a little bit more of the tricks.

Currently I’m in Germany so in a few months I’m going to Portugal exactly to step out of the game a little bit more in Portugal because it’s still to be applied, know, like in Portugal there’s no jump rope movement at all so I want to bring it to schools, want to bring it to social neighborhoods, know, like social hoods.

and taking care of the brand, know, improving the brand, partnering with people, taking care of the new thing as well. So everything is growing little by little, it’s kind of officializing kind of a little bit more the brand. Once I’m going to Portugal, I’m going to apply 100 % of my time for jump roping.

Dizzy Skips (1:06:34)
Mm-hmm.

wow.

Robz (1:06:39)
So

let’s see how it goes. I really have a mission, man. I have a mission with this. I have to keep going as much possible. Yeah, a lot of things to do. Thank you for sharing.

Dizzy Skips (1:06:49)
Well, that’s exciting. That’s an exciting mission. like, I remember

my grandpa telling me when I was young, like, you got to find something that you love and get paid to do it. like, man, like I want to get paid to do this stuff, you know, because this is so fun. It’s like insane.

Robz (1:06:59)
Yes, exactly. That’s exactly it. Are you thinking,

do you have the same vision? Like, do you see yourself like applying? Because what you’re already doing, it’s amazing, man. It’s like you’re bringing people to talk about it, to spread the word, to spread the word to the world. And…

Do you see yourself doing it as, you know, as living, like having a podcast, your YouTube channel, you know, having people, having your studio? Do you see yourself this?

Dizzy Skips (1:07:31)
I would love to get to the point where that was basically my job. I don’t know what that looks like. I don’t know when that could happen. I’ve got some personal issues I have to get past, some legal stuff that I can’t quite talk about, but I think at some point there’s no reason why this can’t be part of my job, if not all of my job.

Robz (1:07:38)
Yeah

Okay.

Okay.

Well, as your grandpa said, if it’s something that you love, you can definitely do it. This is not even a question, you know? If it’s in your brain like, I wanna do this, then no, I will f*** this.

Dizzy Skips (1:07:56)
Yeah. Yeah, I think I can make it.

Dude, I learned how to

catch a release. figure if I can catch a release, then yeah, I can, I can make money at jump rope. Right.

Robz (1:08:06)
You can do anything.

I love this man, I love this. This is gonna be my quote for sure. Someone I met, Dizzy Guy, if you can do a mic release, yo you can do jump rope for living for sure. Love it bro, love it. So it is, it is indeed, it is indeed. And if you already catch this mic release, no doubt you can do it. No doubt.

Dizzy Skips (1:08:24)
That’s right, that’s right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. As my friend Richard is, has pointed out a few times, you know, if, if he applies the lessons that he’s learned through jump rope to the rest of his life, it can help in so many ways. Just that idea of showing up day after day and sometimes failing day after day to catch that mic release or whatever, just putting in the time. Like if I apply that to getting my finances order in order or getting my house in order or whatever it is, you know,

Eating an elephant. If I just show up and take one bite at a time, you know, it may not taste good, but I could get through that elephant, right?

Robz (1:09:06)
Thank

That’s exactly what we’re talking about man. That’s exactly what we’re talking about.

Dizzy Skips (1:09:10)
Yeah. Robz I

am so thrilled that you came on to talk to me on the podcast. I hope you will come back sometime and do it again because this has been a blast.

Robz (1:09:14)
Thank

Thank you so much for sure it was a pleasure as well, always a pleasure. Thank you so much for taking your time to show your curiosity, know, and not only on my side but what you’re doing also with all your guests. You ended up knowing a little bit the story of you getting inspired constantly. And I really hope you can keep going it. I really, really hope you can keep doing it and spreading, spreading more and more.

Dizzy Skips (1:09:34)
BANG

Robz (1:09:45)
I’ll definitely going to talk to you off camera, right? Because we definitely, would be a pleasure to do something with you and help you spread the word.

Dizzy Skips (1:09:49)
Yeah, yeah.

Absolutely, man.

It’s so fun to find people who are just so enthusiastic and thrilled about, you know, the community and inspired to make it better, to like keep making it better because it’s already fucking fantastic. Right. Like it’s the place on the Internet to be in my book. And so when I find people who are like, hey, let’s contribute like whether that’s just telling people, hey, you did a good job, like you’re doing great. Or whether it’s developing tools or

Robz (1:10:06)
Thank

Sure, sure. Sure, I’m so sure.

Dizzy Skips (1:10:25)
whatever to organize, just mad respect for you,

Robz (1:10:29)
Yeah, same, same, same, same, same. Everything that is for the community, let’s go. Bring it on, bring it on, everybody. Thank you Dizzy, really appreciate your time, really appreciate it. Thank you, thank you for all your feedback, man.

Dizzy Skips (1:10:34)
Yeah.

All

Likewise, thank you so much.