Papa Joe De Luca’s Double-Unders from Down Under (Ep. 25)

Dizzy Skips (00:42)
Papa Joe, Joe De Luca, thank you so much for joining me on Jump Rope Podcast. I’m just thrilled to have you here.

Papa Joe (00:50)
G’day mate, how you doing? I’m really privileged to be here and quite honoured. Thank you very much.

Dizzy Skips (00:55)
man, the honor is all mine. On a recent podcast when I was talking to Kathy Jumps, she was talking about Papa Joe and like, like he’s a real OG. Like you guys go back a long way, right?

Papa Joe (01:07)
We do back to 2017 and then we really started in 2018 as part of the original Facebook group from JRD, Jump Rope Dudes, which I’m still a member of today. So everyone else has sort of moved on, but I’ve stayed with Jump Rope Dudes because my whole jumping regime is on fitness. And I like the fact that the fitness exercises are about

Dizzy Skips (01:22)
Yeah.

Yep.

Papa Joe (01:36)
roughly 30 minutes, I get in and get out. But I also enjoy what’s enjoyable, as you well know, that jumping rope is just amazing. And Kathy, she sort of touched on the story of when she was starting the original 100 day challenge and she was sick and we were really worried that she was so sick that she literally just threw the rope over and stepped over.

Dizzy Skips (01:37)
Cool.

Yeah.

Papa Joe (02:00)
And

we were really concerned, but there’s a whole heap of stories there with Kathy. She’s a superstar. I’ve admired her from day dot. When she went Kathy Jumps, I was in the background cheering her on and almost like a parent. You can look at this girl. She’s doing so well and she’s brilliant.

Dizzy Skips (02:07)
Gosh.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

She is brilliant. Yeah. It’s hard not to love her. She’s just got such a down to earth attitude and the way she explains stuff is so, you know, considerate and she does a great job of like, here’s the motion. Here’s what not to do, or here’s what you’re going to want to do, but this is how you get through it and make it look graceful. Yeah. I can’t say enough good stuff about Kathy.

Papa Joe (02:37)
Yeah, yes, yes,

yes, she’s great. And I tried to be a minute subscribed to her platform, but unfortunately, I’m in one of those countries that don’t accept it. So which is a bit of a shame. once she’s, once she’s up and ready, and I think she’s going to a different platform, then I’ll be on there as well. So yeah, that’s right.

Dizzy Skips (02:48)
Oh really? Oh yeah?

Yeah, I think she’s working on her own website, but yeah, I did

actually subscribe recently and she’s got so much great content, but I see what she means. Like having her own website and her own catalog that’s searchable will make it a lot easier to find the different programs and she’ll have a lot more freedom of organizing that content. So I’m looking forward to that. Yeah. So what got you into Jump Rope to start with Joe?

Papa Joe (03:12)
That’s right, Yeah, me too.

Well, this is an interesting story. If I can go back a bit, back in 2017, I was quite heavy. I got married and had the married life, you know, growing up with kids and whatnot. And I was inactive. So I got to a point where I was really, really heavy and I needed to get some exercise. And my wife said, why don’t you come along to my gym?

Dizzy Skips (03:29)
Okay.

Papa Joe (03:45)
She was a member of an old school boxing gym, an old, if you think of Rocky, a sort of old school, no nonsense, blood, and tears and all that. And I went there and there was a circuit that we were doing and it came to a point where it came to a two minute skipping session. I could do everything else. I could run around, could box, I could hit the bag. And they said, it’s a two minute skipping session. I went.

Dizzy Skips (04:07)
Yeah.

Papa Joe (04:11)
Oops, and they said any of you blah blah, that cannot skip, get on the bike. I was the only one on the bike. So that was a little bit embarrassing, not embarrassing, but I was like, damn it, you know, cause it didn’t matter. Even the basic jump looked cool. So to me, boxer skip who, no, no, cause I, no, no, I couldn’t do it. So I just got on this, on the bike. And then after that, I literally said to my wife after that session, said,

Dizzy Skips (04:20)
Yeah.

Did you try to skip at the time, Joe, or you just knew you couldn’t do it?

Papa Joe (04:41)
I gotta learn how to skip or jump and then come back. So I learned to skip but I never went back. So that’s how I learned. And I bought all the little ropes that everyone’s mentioned on eBay here in Australia is more popular than Amazon but also got some Amazon ones. And the best one that I had was one that was literally weighted to a lower level.

Dizzy Skips (04:48)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Papa Joe (05:09)
And I had the thin ones and I didn’t like them and then I found the Jump Rope Dudes like Kathy did and that’s where I met Kathy and and learned slowly slowly the basic jump the boxer step through Dan and Brandon at the time and I just loved their whole attitude the whole setup I like the fact that it’s 30 minutes of working out and then you’re done and you’re dusted because because I’ve got so busy with life

Dizzy Skips (05:16)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Papa Joe (05:36)
young family, well not so young now, but work is high pressure there. That is my release. So I do, I do my quick 30 minutes, which tend to go to about 45 in total, but I get up at five in the morning. By 5.30 I’m jumping in my garage. Everyone’s seen my little setup in the garage. And by six-thirty seven o’clock I’m in the shower, ready to take my son to school and off to work. So yeah, it’s all about.

Dizzy Skips (05:36)
Sure.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Wow.

Papa Joe (06:05)
fitting into

the busy lifestyle. But I love it. I’ve been doing it for so long. I had to actually think when Kathy said it was 2018, went, yikes. So this is pre-COVID. So when COVID came along, it was even better. It like I didn’t have to go anywhere. you know, here, here we were locked down for quite, almost two years in total. So it was, it was a tough time, but I had my release with jump rope. So that’s, it, and as you know, mentally,

Dizzy Skips (06:08)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Right.

Yeah, wow.

Yeah.

Papa Joe (06:35)
it helps. really does it clears your head.

Dizzy Skips (06:37)
Yeah.

How has it helped you mentally, specifically?

Papa Joe (06:43)
I can’t live without it to be honest mentally physically of course, but mentally it sort of shakes everything up and throws it out and because I’m at a stage now in my jumping that I can just go somewhere else and I’m not much of a music guy as as yourself and whatnot in the workout side of it. I do like it to have a higher beat so I can jump to it keep my

Dizzy Skips (07:05)
Mm-hmm.

Papa Joe (07:09)
body weight, calisthenics as well as the jump rope. But on the mental side, yeah, get me pumped. mentally, if I just want to just skip and hear that rope, just tap, tap, that tapping sound, it’s almost mesmerizing and it takes me somewhere. I don’t know where I go, but I come back and it’s all gone, it’s clear. And I’ve done it at work. yeah, definitely.

Dizzy Skips (07:12)
Right. Get your pumped.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Does it help you focus? Does it help just kind of

move the daily worries out of your head? That’s the meditation part of it for me, which is fricking magic. I just love it.

Papa Joe (07:37)
Sure, yeah.

Yeah, yes.

So you see, don’t even sometimes I don’t bother getting changed. I just grab that rope and jump. So you’ve seen a few of the reels where today’s a rest day and rest is important to me. But I’ve done it at work where I’ve got a little PVC rope that I’m not too much of a fan of the PVC rope, but it fits nicely in the bag and I’ll jump in the middle of the office and people will look at me and say “Joe’s picked up his rope– must be stressed.” So and

Dizzy Skips (07:48)
Yeah, right.

Sure.

Mm-hmm.

Hahaha!

Papa Joe (08:11)
And

they know, I’ve been bashing it for years, but I haven’t been able to convince anyone else to jump. yeah, they know that I’ll jump in my, well then I used to wear suits. Now, because of post-COVID, it’s not as strict as more anymore. So you’ll see me jeans and a top. Yeah, but yeah, I used to jump in a suit for about quick three or four minutes, because I didn’t want to sweat up too much being at work. yeah, I definitely have done that at work.

Dizzy Skips (08:17)
Yeah.

Sure, a little more casual. Yeah.

Right, Yeah.

Yeah, I was saying, at home or at work?

Papa Joe (08:40)
Now we’ve got a gym. So I use the gym at the level. No, the gym at

work. They actually introduced the gym. So they’re on the reels as well. when I met the work gym.

Dizzy Skips (08:47)
wow.

Are you doing strength

training as well as skipping?

Papa Joe (08:54)
I there is a program within the JRD that uses dumbbell and it’s actually my favorite but a lot of my strength comes from pull-ups and push-ups and calisthenics and But I’ve used the dumbbells but not traditional bench presses and stuff, you know Like I said my my wife being a trainer. She she she squats she jumps she lifts and and she’s

Dizzy Skips (09:04)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Right, right.

Yeah, a lot of body weight stuff.

Papa Joe (09:21)
out there at the moment, know, fifth triathlon. So she’s quite an amazing woman. Yeah, we are. We’re a family that believes that, you know, education has to coincide or work has to coincide with activity, health and activity. You know, growing up, from a migrant family who came out in the 60s and

Dizzy Skips (09:27)
Yeah, no kidding. Like, you guys are active.

Yeah.

Papa Joe (09:46)
their whole thing was education, education, education. There was no real time for sport. know, once it got serious, you you got to spend your time studying. And I think now we’ve tried to teach our children a bit of a balance. know, yes, you have to study and achieve whatever you want to achieve, but the exercise is just as important, particularly for mental health, particularly for mental health. So yeah, yes.

Dizzy Skips (09:53)
Mm-hmm.

Sure.

Yeah. Yeah, that’s a lesson I learned late in my life, you know?

I mean, you hear it and I think you may have heard me say it on previous podcasts. Like I’ve had, you know, struggles with depression And of course you go and talk to a doctor and they say, so what are you doing for exercise? And I mean, honestly, I had times where I was like, buddy, I I’m having trouble getting out of bed. Like you’re talking about exercise. Like that’s a dream. But the truth is like dragging my ass out and

Papa Joe (10:26)
Yeah, yeah.

That’s right. Yeah, that’s right.

Dizzy Skips (10:36)
jumping rope like the other night I was feeling poorly and I was like just mentally like I don’t want to do this you know I’m kind of hungry maybe I should just eat something and give up and I went down and started bouncing and it was not even two minutes and my I was like Cheshire Cat smile and like this is awesome you know I needed this so bad

Papa Joe (10:55)
Exactly.

And you’re right though, because once you get in there and like even this morning, as you know, I’m doing a little bit of a challenge within our little group that we’re doing. then we’ll talk about that. Yeah, the Jump for Joy 100 and Ripper Peta there, who’s just absolute gem. is. He’s just the Ripper. And yeah.

Dizzy Skips (11:04)
Yeah, the Jump for Joy 100.

Yeah, yeah, no kidding. She’s like

four foot 11 Tasmanian devil, isn’t she? She just. I love her to pieces.

Papa Joe (11:19)
That’s right. She’s great. look,

I’ve been around for a while, but I’ve been very behind the scenes. I haven’t been as upfront as I have in the last few months, to be honest. I haven’t posted so much. And that’s tribute to Peta and yourself too, because I remember posting a comment on Peta’s jump. And I just said, great stuff. I’ll come in exactly in shape. Come back to me.

Dizzy Skips (11:33)
Mm-hmm.

Hmm.

Papa Joe (11:48)
I asked her the question if she was an Aussie and I said yes and I said what part of the world and we found out that we’re in the same state in Victoria and I’m from Melbourne and she’s from Dalesford which is only an hour and a half drive from Melbourne and she basically said how come I don’t know about you and I said I’ve been around a little while I’m just in the background so and I and yeah and also with yourself I commented months and months ago and you replied

Dizzy Skips (12:03)
Yeah, that’s so cool.

Yeah.

a little while.

Papa Joe (12:17)
these people are great. They’re actually coming back to me. Yes, I’ve sort of stepped out recently and now you can’t stop me because of my daily poster now and that’s because of the Jump 100.

Dizzy Skips (12:21)
Yeah.

Yeah.

It’s awesome. Yeah,

since you’re an OG and you were back when, you know, there was really only like Facebook group and there were fewer members and it wasn’t like there was no jump rope at all, but it was less of a thing than it is on Instagram right now. How was the community different back then and how has

Papa Joe (12:44)
That’s right.

Dizzy Skips (12:48)
its effect on you changed as you’ve gotten more into Instagram.

Papa Joe (12:52)
Well, the difference is that it was more personal because you got to know the people more so personally. Look, I’ll go back to this. There’s a few champs. I call them jump rope champions in that community. We know we’ve got we’ve got guys in Texas Morris who’s just an absolute ripper of the guy. You know, we’ve got

Dizzy Skips (13:03)
Sure.

Mm-hmm.

Papa Joe (13:17)
Claire Bozeman, who, her and I won the first competition, I, she was, well, she won the most supportive member of the group, and I won the most consistent, and we both got Crossropes the quarter pound. yeah, we, and you get to understand, and you see the window of their families, because it’s Facebook, you can actually see what’s going on. Kathy, she’s a gem, and I remember the day again with Kathy, where,

Dizzy Skips (13:27)
Nice.

Nice.

Mm-hmm. Sure.

Papa Joe (13:45)
She was jumping along and I’m watching and all of sudden she rips out this sonogram of a baby. And I’ve got you Ripper, the first JRD baby. so the little boy, I won’t mention his name, but he’s a Ripper kid. So yeah, it’s fantastic. And yeah, yes, that’s right. yeah, it’s better in that, sorry, I wouldn’t say better, it’s different.

Dizzy Skips (13:51)
Yeah.

Announcement.

Yeah. Yeah. I think I’ve seen him toddle through a few videos. Yeah.

Papa Joe (14:10)
because it was more of a personal level. And most of us are still connected by Facebook. you know, like, I know that Morris and I, and also including yourself, we lost family in 2023. I lost my mom, you lost your dad, and Morris also lost his mother soon after I lost mine. So, you know, we had that connection. Again, Kathy and what I’ve already mentioned.

Dizzy Skips (14:18)
Sure.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Papa Joe (14:39)
Clare and

her family and marriage and you get to know them more personal level. So one of my big bucket list items is to go to New York and jump with Kathy. It’s a big thing and I’d love to do it. At the moment it’s a little bit tricky but at some stage we will do it and then hopefully we can get get those others to come to New York. Hopefully and you know because some of them in Texas, in California. So it’d be great.

Dizzy Skips (14:44)
Yeah.

Hell yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Papa Joe (15:07)
and the IG

Dizzy Skips (15:08)
No, it’d be awesome.

Papa Joe (15:09)
yeah so this the group here now this group is super super supportive unbelievable and the superstars we have in there you know you got Aaron he’s a nutter i’m sorry to say from from a guy from UK that he’s jumping he’s just somewhere else and then you got Richard

Dizzy Skips (15:24)
Yeah. He’s a

six foot seven tornado of jump rope, isn’t he? He’s just, yeah, he’s six, seven. Yeah. And he’s been on, on, I asked him, you know, like, why, why is it that you don’t wear tennis shoes? And he’s like, cause I jump way too high. And then it just like, he’s, I know, I know I get, my brain sometimes gets twisted into like,

Papa Joe (15:29)
Is it 6-7? Wow!

My days hurt just watching him.

Dizzy Skips (15:50)
pretzels watching him like crisscross like he’s just a machine gun of tricks.

Papa Joe (15:52)
Yeah.

I sort of sort of asked him. What’s your footwork like? So he started to do a little bit more footwork because i’m a foot i’m a footwork guy because I use heavy ropes and My thing with jump rope is basically is to jump and move whereas the tricks Like Kathy says it’s not something I won’t do just I haven’t

Dizzy Skips (16:02)
Yeah. Yeah.

Papa Joe (16:16)
thought about it. so yeah, I see you. I’ve even commented about just the fact that your flow is just natural. And you can see it that it’s just natural. And then even if you drop the rope, you’re still moving, you’re still going, you’re still following. And I was like, there you go. There’s a reason why we jump, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s everything. It’s everything. People don’t, people that don’t do it don’t understand it. And I’ve got no members of my family interested.

Dizzy Skips (16:18)
Sure.

Mm.

Hahaha

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah

Papa Joe (16:45)
in the jump rope. I’ve tried, like you, I’ve tried this and I’m thinking yeah you might, you might not.

Dizzy Skips (16:45)
Yeah.

Yeah, you try proselytizing and yeah,

people like give you the smile like, that’s sweet of you. But, know, I’m never fricking going to do that. Right.

Papa Joe (16:58)
That’s right.

That’s right. And look, and this group here, particularly the Jump For Joy 100 group, and thanks for joining us as a few blokes that have joined. I was thinking, well, this is a little bit high profile. I’ll ask anyway, because I didn’t know. Well, we’re all some dude and we’re all some dudettes. But I was thinking, you know, because we really hadn’t communicated too much by then.

Dizzy Skips (17:08)
Yeah, yeah.

High profile, I’m just some dude.

Yeah, right.

Papa Joe (17:25)
Thought I’ll just ask like , know, I I’d been listening to all the podcast pride I really love the fact that there is a platform for us to speak. I Really do I? The are the insights like Em in the last one Wow Wow, you know and Yeah, she’s brilliant then and it’ll go Jenny. Jenny although she was a little shy she had some gold nuggets in there and I watch it now and

Dizzy Skips (17:25)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, isn’t it fun?

I know, my god, she just blows my mind.

Yeah.

my gosh,

yeah.

Papa Joe (17:55)
Her footwork is brilliant. Her footwork is absolute superstar.

Dizzy Skips (17:59)
Yeah, she’s a

Golddurn superhero. Like, I love watching that woman skip. She is amazing.

Papa Joe (18:02)
Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (18:06)
Yeah, she’s like one of my original supporters. know, like after I was posting videos, just a few of them, she was showing up saying, you know, keep going or fire emoji and yeah.

Papa Joe (18:09)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

And that’s cool. And this is the whole thing now. Like, as you know, it was, it was my birthday yesterday. Well, you know, 56, I’m, look, I started this journey when I was 48 and I’m still jumping at 56 and I still love it. Um, it’s only a number really to me now. Um, and

Dizzy Skips (18:24)
Yeah, happy birthday to you.

Okay.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Papa Joe (18:40)
I’m still answering birthday messages a day later. I’m still like this morning. I’m still got, know, obviously the through Instagram, everyone, everyone still and it’s just like even some people that have never spoken on Instagram, they’re wishing me my, you know, best of luck and birthday wishes. But yeah, it’s, it’s amazing that, and I just feel blessed that, you know, someone’s recognized and I did as a joke posting with the, with the music and whatnot.

Dizzy Skips (18:46)
through Instagram? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Papa Joe (19:10)
You know, the targets of jumping and what not.

Dizzy Skips (19:11)
No, but it didn’t surprise me in the slightest, Joe, because people, like my impression of you on Instagram is you’re a dude that just shows up and gets it done. Like you mentioned, you’ve got your 30 minute window, you’re in it to get the exercise, you smile at the camera, you do your thing and you just show up consistently and people see that and so they’re rooting for you. Like I’m rooting for you.

Papa Joe (19:34)
Thanks, man. consistency. That’s my thing. Consistency, consistency and persistency. I’ve got a few goals that I want to meet. And with anything, anything in life, I don’t want to get too, you know, up there. But everything that I’ve achieved was through persistence and consistency. Everything, everything that I’ve achieved. And then it just breaks down to very simple, small targets, such as

Dizzy Skips (19:37)
Yeah, right.

Yeah.

Papa Joe (20:01)
little challenge that I’m doing to myself. I’m not doing it to myself. I was challenged by Aaron Way, started with the Jump 100. I think it was a throwaway comment from him, where he said, oh, double unders. Hmm. How many can you do by the end of 100? it’s a little bit of a challenge there. So I’ve done one a day and added one every day.

Dizzy Skips (20:11)
Yeah.

Yeah.

added

one a day. Yeah, you’re killing it, buddy. Like, it’s fun to watch.

Papa Joe (20:30)
Yeah, thank you.

Yeah, well, you know, and now and I was actually posting to Aaron just before we got came on here. He was sending out. He just congratulated me for hitting my PB, which today was 23 plus one, as I always say. And the reason why I put plus one because my counting is not 100 percent. So I want to make sure I put that extra on just in case. So, yeah.

Dizzy Skips (20:48)
Nice.

Yeah. Yeah.

I can’t remember if it was day 18 or it was one, it was a few days ago where you, you counted like 18 or you were going for 18, but I counted one more and I think you had actually gone over, which is good. So yeah. you’ve mentioned that you use heavy ropes and I’m curious that you mentioned that you had a PVC that was like too light What

Papa Joe (21:09)
Yeah, so I’d rather go over than under.

Dizzy Skips (21:18)
What do heavy ropes do for you or why do you jump with heavy ropes?

Papa Joe (21:22)
Because for me, jumping was always about fitness. I was what was typically called the little nerd kid at school, nine pound weakling in the American stat. I was a little kid scared. As I got older, I developed late in life, as in growth spurts and whatnot. And now, people at my age or this era of the…

Dizzy Skips (21:26)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Papa Joe (21:51)
Their lifestyle is a lot of people are very unfit look older than they They actually are a lot heavier than they should be for their heart and health so for me I enjoy the reaction or the feedback from the heavy ropes and If you notice that my double unders are with the quarter pound. I’ve tried it with the PVC

Dizzy Skips (21:59)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Me too,

Mm-hmm.

Papa Joe (22:16)
And it just feels like I’m battling the wind. It doesn’t go anywhere. I don’t have that coordination. I don’t have that feedback. my fitness workout, because the whole workouts that I do with the JRD community, the programs that we’ve got, it’s all about body weight exercise, push-ups, pull-ups, lunges, squats, as well as incorporating.

Dizzy Skips (22:19)
Yeah. You don’t have that feedback, right?

Mm-hmm.

Papa Joe (22:38)
the jump rope and typically I use the quarter pound I go up to half pound today I went at a half an hour workout and I threw in instead of just using the half the quarter pound I went to half to one pound and I actually brought out the beast the two pound which I’ve got here I’ve got them all here but and like you said with Kathy with a five pounder that’s far too big but even that I always

Dizzy Skips (22:54)
Yeah.

Yeah. The thing looked like an

anaconda. It looked like it was about to swallow someone.

Papa Joe (23:04)
That’s right.

Yeah, well, the two pound I’ve always had, I’ve always commented when I use it, don’t have a good relationship with the two pound. It always wants to fight me. So it’s a heavy rope and it’s, and you’ve got to be careful because I have got tennis elbow from incorrectly using it. So I’m very careful on how I hold it. But that comes with experience. You learn what, where not to push it and whatnot. So

Dizzy Skips (23:17)
Mm-hmm.

Sure. Yeah.

Yeah.

Papa Joe (23:33)
When I was younger, I would push it, push it, push it, hurt myself, oh well, recover. These days, if I hurt myself, the recovery’s a lot longer. I can’t afford to stay off the rope mentally and physically, as you know. So staying away from the rope, maybe three days max, max. And because I’ve been doing five days a week since 2017.

Dizzy Skips (23:45)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

And when you do that, you have specific days that you jump or do you just kind of alternate as your body tells you or?

Papa Joe (24:04)
No, no, I got specific. My workout week starts on a Saturday and finishes on a Wednesday. And that’s because of my work time, yeah, my day job, because I don’t have to go into the office now unless it’s Wednesday, Thursday, officially, and also picking up the kids and whatnot with the schooling and stuff. So it works that I do. I start from Saturday.

Dizzy Skips (24:09)
Okay. Okay.

Your day job?

Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Papa Joe (24:31)
Monday I work from home, so that’s okay. Tuesday I can start a little bit later, so I jump in the morning. So typically I jump in the morning. And then on the Wednesday, which is the fifth day, I go to the work gym. I get up super early, because I don’t have to take the kids to school. I’m in the work gym at jumping. I try to get there by 6.30, but because I have to catch transport, depends on the transport.

Dizzy Skips (24:33)
Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Papa Joe (24:56)
I don’t start until 8.30 anyway. and you’ll see, people have seen me in the reels and the, yeah. And then Friday, because now we’ve got the Jump 100, my rest days where typically I’m in the warehouse on the Friday, you’ll see my Friday reels with, which would be probably your Thursdays, my Friday reels with a vest where I’m in the warehouse. And that is definitely about 6.30 in the morning when nobody’s there.

Dizzy Skips (24:57)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, and your safety vest.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Papa Joe (25:26)
Nobody’s

there and I jump in let’s say they’re up and keep that that counter going for another hundred or eighty something days left or ever So yeah, yeah, you see me in the vest and and I thought I will I get changed I said, I know just wear my safety boots and jeans and vest and different different dynamic and get it done

Dizzy Skips (25:34)
Yeah.

There you go. Get get her done. Yeah, right. Yeah. So

important question. What role does coffee play in your skipping? Because I think we had a little side conversation about good dark coffee, didn’t we? Yeah.

Papa Joe (25:52)
Coffee?

Correct. Yes. I’m

look, I grew up in a house where coffee was coffee. It was the little espresso, you being from an Italian family every night. My parents would have that little espresso cup with the little what we call the caffettiera, which is the little percolator. And that’s what I thought coffee was. I didn’t know what instant coffee was. I didn’t know what drip coffee or, I even to this day, yeah. Well,

Dizzy Skips (26:06)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah. No, that is coffee, right?

Yeah. Yeah, you can cut it with a knife.

Papa Joe (26:25)
tell you what, knocks you off your feet. so,

well, that’s right. So I’m a huge coffee drinker in the morning. Like I’ve already had, what is it now? It’s 1 p.m. in the afternoon here, Sunday afternoon. And yeah, I’ve already had three espresso. So, you know, and it’s a big part, but it’s not a die hard thing for me. So that is a big part.

Dizzy Skips (26:40)
Okay.

Yeah.

That’s not it. Okay.

Papa Joe (26:53)
But I love

Dizzy Skips (26:53)
Yeah.

Papa Joe (26:53)
good quality and Richard was very, very clear on what was good coffee and what wasn’t good coffee, as you know.

Dizzy Skips (26:59)
Yeah,

Yeah, he and I both have lived in the Seattle or he does live in the Seattle area and I moved out here from that area and there’s a major chain of coffee that he was disapproving of that is yes. Yeah, very much so. about warmups like when you go out to do your skipping, do you have a warm up routine that you stick to and what does that look like?

Papa Joe (27:11)
Yes, yes, we understood that then. Yeah.

Definitely. Again, being older, I know I play on that, but my muscles… Yes, definitely. Definitely. Definitely. I’m getting a little bit excited here. Well, that’s the thing. My kids look at me and they’re like, it’s not that bloody jump rope again. And my wife, she understands.

Dizzy Skips (27:29)
You are a young man, Papa Joe. In fact, do you feel like you’ve been reverse aging a little bit with this jump rope stuff? Yeah. Yeah, me too. I was already immature as hell, but I’m basically a 12 year old.

Hahaha

Papa Joe (27:51)
being exactly she understand my wife being in the fitness game so the the rope is such a good good thing you know like it just brings you back so in in that I always warm up I very simple I know people ask what do you do what not it’s very simple I try and keep things as simple as possible I get on to YouTube five minute warm up

Dizzy Skips (27:52)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Papa Joe (28:15)
And you’ve got a plethora of choices, plethora. And then the same. Yeah, I’ve got a regular one that I do because it deals with, because depending on the type of warm up, but I found one that, you know, warms up your wrists, your shoulders, your legs, all the jump roping, particularly the shoulders and the wrists. And then, and then then the reverse, it’s a different platform, but five minute cool down.

Dizzy Skips (28:19)
So you just search five minute warmup.

Okay.

Yep.

Yeah.

Papa Joe (28:44)
But I have to have that. Sometimes time gets away from me and I have to run out. That’s the night I have to stretch at night. And I’ve got a stretch routine from a member of the JRD who actually started his own business and it’s a stretching program, you know, so that’s a deep, deep hole program, full body program. He reached out to me to see, you know, Stephen.

Dizzy Skips (28:44)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

neat.

Papa Joe (29:11)
He brought the whole stretching game to where if you follow his program, it just wakes up parts of your body that you never knew you had and it loosens up everything. So stretching is very, very important for me. And I know that you guys had a conversation a few podcasts ago about not stretching and I’m literally shaking my head. That’s going to hurt in the future.

Dizzy Skips (29:15)
Mm-hmm.

That’s so cool.

Yeah.

Yeah, I-

Yeah, I’m pretty not religious about it, but I’m very consistent about doing stretching of some sort. But I’m not as consistent with doing the cool down and I’ve noticed a difference. Like even last night I was jumping for a while and before I went to bed, I just got the yoga mat out and sat down and did some stretching and it made all the difference. You know, I didn’t wake up feeling like I was half crippled.

Papa Joe (29:59)
yeah.

That’s right, that’s

right.

Dizzy Skips (30:03)
my

god, you get those days where you roll out of bed and feet hit the floor. I’m like, what am I doing to my body?

Papa Joe (30:10)
That’s right. And because we’re such a high, because it is a natural high to do the jump rope, as you know. So, and then when you’re off and you’re finished, you know, you’ve got your endorphins flying everywhere. The last thing you want to do is stretch, really. You’re like, hey, let’s go do this. Yeah, you want to jump around and whatnot and enjoy the feeling. over time, I’ve learned that stretching is extremely important for me. Even on my rest days.

Dizzy Skips (30:16)
yeah.

Yeah, no, I wanna dance. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Papa Joe (30:38)
Obviously when I go back to five days a week those off days are also walking or stretching But I try and be as active every day again trying to reverse that aging process

Dizzy Skips (30:50)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, yeah.

So when you go for a jump rope session like daily or weekly, do you have goals or plans? I mean, aside from just getting the heart rate up, are you trying to learn specific tricks or different types of footwork?

Papa Joe (31:07)
not really because there’s these are programs and this and they’ve got the steps of what you need to do in the programs I’m more of the fitness guy I’m more of keeping myself fit and My big thing was my my highest achievement so far a few years ago was We had a bit of a challenge within the group that the most push-ups you could do in an hour

Dizzy Skips (31:32)
wow.

Papa Joe (31:33)
Yes, in an hour. I sort of asked within the group with the Jump Rope Dudes, said, look, is it OK if we do this month a push-up challenge? And they went, yep, sure, no worries. And then I said, they came back to us. said, right, these are the rules. And they said, one hour. And I went, jeez, one hour? I said, OK, I’ll do it. And I hit 450 push-ups in an hour.

Dizzy Skips (31:46)
Mm-hmm.

Nice.

Papa Joe (32:02)
and my, I had no arms. I had noodle arms. I think about, I was really fit in those days. I think about a couple of days wasn’t too bad. But I did, in afterwards, I did a lot of stretching, but yeah, was 450. There was no way I can get close to that today. No way. Cause everything was sort of geared. I did about six, nearly 12 months.

Dizzy Skips (32:05)
For how many days? Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Papa Joe (32:31)
100 push-ups a day, every day. Yeah, I’ve got to get back into that sort of regime. well, I know what it takes to get to that level. I’m not saying that I’m not fit. I’m just saying that to do that at that level will take a few months to get put that training regime back in. But my next challenge now, as you know, the double-unders. And I haven’t really, this will be the first time actually.

Dizzy Skips (32:34)
I believe you could do it, man. Don’t discount yourself. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Papa Joe (33:01)
verbally say it, but my plan is to at the end of the jump rope challenge or one jump 100 is to be at the meetup with Peta and go for 100 consecutive. So consecutive. I’ve really pushed myself. That’s why I’m doing one extra a day, just build and build. So that’s the first time I’ve said it. So

Dizzy Skips (33:12)
Yeah.

Nice. That would be amazing.

Yeah, that’s so cool.

Papa Joe (33:29)
Those of you who are planning to come along, there’ll be a little bit of a sideshow. I’m not trying to take anything away, I’m putting it out there. Peta said that she would help me with the filming side of it. if anyone from overseas thinks they’re gonna come, by all means come, love to have everyone.

Dizzy Skips (33:40)
Yeah.

So, and

to clarify, the meetup that you’re referring to is this the July 5th meetup?

Papa Joe (33:50)
That’s the one. Is it July? Yes. No, no, the one in Melbourne. The Melbourne one on the last day of the 100. I should have actually wrote down the date. So that’s the last one in Melbourne. So it’s the first one I’ll be attending. I’ve been jumping for so long. I’ve never been to a meetup. So it’ll be the first one I’ll be at. So yeah.

Dizzy Skips (33:53)
In the UK?

Melbourne, okay.

Okay, got it.

Nice.

That’s your

first in-person jump rope conference or meetup at all?

Papa Joe (34:18)
My first. My first. I’ve always tried to get people involved. No one’s interested. Oh well, I’ll just go back to the garage. And even just jumping outside, I’ve been doing that more often these days, is a big thing. But not that I’m embarrassed to do it in public, it’s just the whole get out there, grab your stuff and whatnot. But Mr. Limestone Jumper here, that was…

Dizzy Skips (34:20)
Wow, that’ll be cool.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Hahaha.

Papa Joe (34:46)
seeing

you jump on those limestones how does he do without falling over, know, going over the side.

Dizzy Skips (34:51)
man. Yeah.

I don’t know if you’ve looked back, but like last summer, Janie @janieonthejump she was being so nice to me and saying, Hey, you know, you’re jumping on these limestone benches and you’re doing it. And it’s like making me nervous that you’re going to fall off and get hurt. I’m like, Hey Janie, you know what? do it all the hundreds of hours of jumping on these benches. And literally the next day I fell off like five times in a row, like

Papa Joe (35:07)
Yep.

Dizzy Skips (35:15)
one after the other. was just humiliating. so every time I did it, I would say, “damn it, Janie!” And it just made me laugh so hard. And she’s such a sweet person. yeah, she became the scapegoat for all of my falls. yeah, I’ve been on the limestone benches a couple of times. Last weekend, I hiked up the hill. The park isn’t open to cars yet. So I have to hike up the top of the hill and then do it.

Papa Joe (35:15)
Yeah.

Yes, sir.

Yeah.

Okay, well then it’s the

other thing, you know, you’re jumping in the snow as well. Hats off to anybody that gets out there when it’s freezing because it’s only dropped here a few degrees and I’m a real baby. I’m like, no, I’m not going out there. I’ll be my garage and you guys are jumping in snow and sleet and ice and whatnot. And I’m thinking, look at these people, you know, that’s commitment. So, you know.

Dizzy Skips (35:44)
Yeah

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

It is sort of fun to jump in different environments. I will tell you though that I learned the hard way that cold weather, like you, your muscles don’t want to stretch the same. Like you have to warm up more intensely and I’ve had to stop and re stretch when it’s been below freezing because I can more easily overdo it. You know?

Papa Joe (36:24)
That’s right.

Yeah. Yeah. yeah. My other thing is like my ropes, they don’t want to, they’re not malleable when it’s cold. you know, there’s that challenge as well.

Dizzy Skips (36:36)
Right. Yeah. PVC

kind of PVC or the, some of the heavy ropes, just kind of get really stiff and onry when it gets cold like that.

Papa Joe (36:47)
and you hit your toe when you’ve got a cold feet, the swearing that happens when I hit my toe in a cold weather, I’m dropping that F-bomb like it’s nobody’s business.

Dizzy Skips (36:51)
Yeah. Yeah, man.

Yeah, me too. Yeah. was, you know, Aaron, we were talking about Aaron jumps, @aaronjumps.365 and he’s just the cross master. And so the other night I’m, working on these crosses, just one after the other and I’m picking up speed and I’m getting happy with myself. And then I hit myself so hard in the back. took my breath away and I was sure I drew blood, you know, and then I’m like, all right, okay, just calm down. Started again, slowly worked up a little speed.

right in the same place. And then, and then I was like, all right, I’m going to switch to practicing releases. And it was like two tries before I whacked myself right across the face with the handle. I was like, this is so much fun. I love this. It hurts so good.

Papa Joe (37:29)
Ha ha ha.

You do you have to have you

Yes, exactly because he gets your battle wounds and I can’t remember who was one of the ladies in the group She posted the they’re on a but got a big whip mark and went the price we pay and They’re almost like a badger badge of honor and like I’ve had him over my shoulder But the back of the legs the toe the tight look I don’t care what anyone says when your feet are cold and you your toe

Dizzy Skips (37:56)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Papa Joe (38:09)
For me,

it’s like they’ve just been hacked out with an axe. It’s just hurt so much. And then, you know, cause…

Dizzy Skips (38:14)
Yeah, yeah. And beads,

like beads in the cold. A beaded rope. Yeah. It’s like a cat of nine tails. Yeah.

Papa Joe (38:19)
Yeah, yeah. Can I tell you something? Can I tell you something?

I have never used the beaded rope.

Never. Never.

Dizzy Skips (38:27)
Well, think Peta

will remedy that. I think she’s got a trunk full of them still in her car and she’s gonna just shove one into your hand and make you do it.

Papa Joe (38:31)
Exactly. Exactly.

Yeah. She, she, she, she said that she, commented on her colorful, not the green one, but there was, she had a multicolored one. said, that looks great. That beaded rope. And I said, and I said to her, you know, never use one. She goes, we’ll fix that. And she said that, but yeah, I’ve never used the beaded rope. I’ve been blinded by, using heavy, heavy ropes. Cause that’s what

Dizzy Skips (38:52)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Papa Joe (38:58)
got me in the jumping game. And look, my go-to moves are the basic, the boxer skip and few crossing of the feet. But typically that’s what I do, running in place, sprinting side to side. I’ve got about 20 something moves feet-wise, double unders is my biggest one at the moment.

Dizzy Skips (39:00)
Sure.

Mm-hmm.

Yep.

Mm-hmm.

Papa Joe (39:25)
my crisscross is schuizenhausen. I’m not good at them. I’m not good at them. Something I need to work with. But the move I really want to perfect is the southpaw. Southpaw move. It just looks cool. Well, that’s where we swing it and then flip one side, come back to the other side. And just you do that.

Dizzy Skips (39:28)
You

Yeah.

Yeah. Can you describe the Southpaw for the audience who might not understand it?

Yep.

Papa Joe (39:48)
And it just looks smooth and easy. And a lot of the films, the boxing films and stuff, they have them all. And they just look, I don’t know, it just looks smooth and yeah.

Dizzy Skips (39:56)
Yeah.

Yeah, you watch like

Floyd Floyd Mayweather like skipping and doing that.

Papa Joe (40:04)
Yeah, and he he’s he’s ropes are ridiculously long when you got that if you look on YouTube, it’s I think how the hell can he

Dizzy Skips (40:09)
Yeah. Yeah. There’s a lot of

boxers who have these ropes that I don’t even understand how they can get their feet. Like don’t, why don’t they just bounce up constantly and trip you?

Papa Joe (40:16)
Yeah.

Yeah, that’s right. they’re all different. look, people say, oh, that’s a childish thing to do. just first think, people say, isn’t that a girl thing? Or is it a kid thing or a child thing? And I say, what, do you think that the boxers who are making millions of dollars and punching away, you’re going to call them girls and whatnot? And they’re like, oh, OK. I’ve had that conversation too, though.

Dizzy Skips (40:24)
Yeah.

Like jump

rope is a childish thing to do? Yeah, I guess.

Papa Joe (40:51)
Yeah, and

it’s got us that’s something they did in primary school or you know back in when you’re at school and I’m like and and only girls did it and I said well we missed out the boys missed out because it was fun it was fun so yeah so we’ve had that conversation.

Dizzy Skips (41:03)
Yeah, no kidding. Yeah, even like,

good Lord, the amount of fun I get from it, like I can’t tell you how little I care about what someone thinks about me jumping in a park. I’m just like, you don’t understand. Like this is my mental health. This is the most fun thing I’ve done as an adult bar none, without a doubt. And the mental health relief,

Papa Joe (41:13)
You have to!

It is. It is.

Dizzy Skips (41:29)
I’ve got from it the physical, you know, toning and endurance and shiz unmatched, you know, like it’s, I wish I could convey it in words to people so that their eyes didn’t glaze over and they instantly think I’m a nutter, you know?

Papa Joe (41:44)
I’ve tried for eight years They do or they don’t and most 90 % of them don’t They’re like, great. Yeah good for you Move on to the next thing

Dizzy Skips (41:47)
Yeah.

Yeah.

I think I’m going

with attraction rather than promotion from here on out. Like I’ll jump in public and if somebody’s interested enough to come up and say, hey, you know, like, would you teach me or can I use your rope? I’m all in, but I’m not, I’m not shoving ropes in people’s hands anymore. It’s just, it’s a recipe for heartache.

Papa Joe (42:04)
Yeah.

So

that’s right. It’s it. Yeah, we try we try and promote it and and again, this is this is why the I’ve been so quiet for so many years that you know, Instagram is a lot different to what the Facebook system platform was and you know YouTube’s another one, you know, I remember in the early days I would go into YouTube trying to learn the basic Boxer skip

Dizzy Skips (42:16)
Yeah.

Mm hmm. Yeah.

Papa Joe (42:38)
nearly did my head in all those years ago because I

just could not get it and then it was actually…

Dizzy Skips (42:43)
Were you,

can I ask, were you learning from videos like from the Jump Rope Dudes at the time or what other, or what methods were you learning?

Papa Joe (42:51)
I was YouTube. YouTube was big in those days. was, yeah, I, Initially it was just random people. But there wasn’t that many out there. It always popped up. The Jump Rope Dudes were doing it. And that’s how I started to follow them because I wanted to learn how to jump rope. And even the basic bounce, I struggled with that.

Dizzy Skips (42:54)
Mm-hmm. So just random videos on YouTube or were there specific people you were following?

Papa Joe (43:17)
right at the beginning. for our community here, even if you just master the basics, and that’s what I do, that’s my whole thing is to master the basics. It’s great to do all the fancy stuff that’s brilliant. But if you don’t have that foundation and to the point where you don’t even think about it, you don’t think about it, you do the basic bounce, so you do the boxer skip. So to me now, the

Dizzy Skips (43:19)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Papa Joe (43:45)
boxer skip falls into the basic bounce. It’s a warm up move. And all the others, if you to increase the intensity, running fast on the spot, and you do your kicks and you do your heels and heel toes and your taps and whatnot. But it all comes down to having the good form. So if you don’t have the good form, everything else is more difficult.

Dizzy Skips (43:49)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Papa Joe (44:11)
So, you know, there was a comment the other days, and I’m getting it probably more so the last week or so with, again, with the double unders, that people are saying your form is quite good, because I’m straight up and down, there’s no kick up of the feet. And, you know, I’m, I’m very particular with my form. I learned that pretty much from the beginning, if your form wasn’t right, you know, you know, got, you got Rush Athletics from UK.

Dizzy Skips (44:12)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Papa Joe (44:40)
I love

his form. His form is just out of this world. I learned where to put the hands, the elbows. I learned a little bit from everyone. But you develop your own style. You’ve got your own style. And that’s why I watch your reels to the end. every step, every step, it’s, how can I describe it?

Dizzy Skips (44:43)
Yeah. Yeah, it’s tight.

Yeah. Yeah.

Hahaha

Papa Joe (45:06)
Not only that it’s entertaining, but it always brings a smile to my face because the passion that you show is the passion that I have, but I don’t show it when I jump. You know what I mean? It comes out. And it’s true. look, Aaron, Aaron’s another one. Laura, Peta, Peta’s another one. Her joy that comes, she’s got that extrovert look yourself, you’re out there and yeah.

Dizzy Skips (45:18)
That’s so nice of you Joe, thank you.

in spades. Yeah, I don’t feel

like an extrovert, but my gosh, Peta she’s an entertainer.

Papa Joe (45:38)
She’s great. She’s awesome. Look, we’ve got so many different personalities in this community we’re part of. And some of the people that they’re actually, I know I’m overusing the word superstars, but that’s what they are. They are superstars in this game that we play here. I’ve had people reach out.

Dizzy Skips (45:46)
Yeah.

I think so many

of the people in this community are superstars. Like honestly, I think, you know, that consistency you were talking about, people who are just showing up and trying, it doesn’t matter if you have been jumping for two days, two years, 10 years, like you’re a superstar in my book because I know what this can do for you and I know what it does for me. And so I, yeah.

Papa Joe (46:01)
Yeah.

Yeah,

yeah, I’ve got a few mentors with the mental health. You know, I’ve got I read two books that are currently reading, know, but the Brandon Epstein’s book, he’s a mental health guru now. He always has been. So I’ve read his program to fail. And he’s a brilliant, brilliant author. I’ll follow that. It sort of opens up your mind.

Dizzy Skips (46:38)
Mm-hmm.

Papa Joe (46:48)
again, incorporating, not that he’s sort of out of the jump rope game, but your mental health really comes through jumping. all the things and the exercise he has, it resonates. Okay, that sort of links it all. And it’s always that physical side that does your mental health. And I’m currently with another mentor, and she’s also

Dizzy Skips (46:58)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Papa Joe (47:12)
entrepreneur and I’m sort of working with her on that level and she’s a new author and she’s got a brilliant scientific approach to rewiring self-love. So and it’s about finding yourself and seeing why you are where you are and how you can move on to others. But that again it’s all about the mind. Everything’s about the mind. So unless we fix what’s here everything else sort of stumbles around. So I’m

Dizzy Skips (47:23)
Wow.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Papa Joe (47:41)
I’m, I’m, I, again, I discovered this late in life. mean, post thirties, you know, and, know, what was good back then. And then we, had a lot of troubled people, you know, because they achieved all this super stuff, but their mind wasn’t right. You know, get that mind right. And you can achieve anything. Be consistent, clear your mind. Self love, love yourself is the first thing you’ve got to love yourself.

Dizzy Skips (47:47)
Me too,

Mm. Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Papa Joe (48:09)
But not to the point where it gets all that, you know, rah rah stuff. It’s about who you are in the mind and clear your mind so you can be who you are. and, you know, people, people see, unfortunately now with all the instant stuff that’s on, on, on our phones and whatnot, we’re, losing the, the work behind the achievements. You know, look, it takes

Dizzy Skips (48:19)
Yeah.

Mm.

Papa Joe (48:37)
a long time to be good at one thing and we try and multitask too many things. I’ve had to cut back all that because I try to do five different things and you do five of them terribly. So just focus on one thing and after a while you master that, you go to the next thing. Same thing with the jumping. You learn one thing.

Dizzy Skips (48:41)
Yeah.

Yeah, I’ve totally been guilty of that.

Right, right.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Papa Joe (49:06)
and stay on that. So my goal at the moment is the double unders. The next thing is maybe the crosses, maybe the South Pole, or maybe, maybe get a better rope and do some tricks. Who knows?

Dizzy Skips (49:10)
Yeah.

Yeah.

There we go. Yeah.

Do the underhanded elephant frog toad release or something like that.

Papa Joe (49:24)
I learn the

vocabulary, I just don’t know.

Dizzy Skips (49:27)
my gosh, me too.

I say that stuff and I don’t know what I’m saying, but it’s funny how many times there actually is a trick, you know, named after some shit that I come up

Papa Joe (49:31)
So, wait,

Yeah.

Yeah, well, that’s the thing is like when you were discussing with the doc, with Emma, and you were talking about toads and frogs and I think I have no idea what you’re talking about, but it sounds good. yes.

Dizzy Skips (49:42)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I try to remember

to ask people to describe those moves because there’s so many acronyms, you know, there’s the TS and there’s a, there’s a lot to learn. Yeah. The EB and yeah.

Papa Joe (50:00)
Yeah.

But, but look that, and everybody wants to learn the mic release or, as, as Richard says, the “mike release” So yeah. Well, you know, I think I’d love to have a coffee with Richard. reckon the conversation would be quite interesting. Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (50:09)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, to purposefully take people off. Yeah, the mic release.

He’s, he is a true gem. Yeah. He is so funny. I

love Richard to pieces. yeah, he gave me a music recommendation this morning for a cake song. So I went out and jumped to that. then, Gina, Gina jumps rope. She gave me, I asked for a French recommendation or recommendation for some French songs, cause she’s jumped to some really cool stuff. And so she gave me some there and I went out and jumped to that. I have a quiz for you, Papa Joe.

Papa Joe (50:49)
okay.

Dizzy Skips (50:50)
This is the first time I’m actually going to quiz one of the contestants on the Jump Rope Podcast. So I thought it would be sort of fun because, like one of the things I love about this podcast is learning more about people and learning more about the community in general. And, I host the podcast on Spotify and Spotify gives me some analytics showing data about, know, who’s listening to the podcast. So I thought it would be sort of interesting if I could

just ask you a few questions so that we could, yeah, well you should be, because a lot is on the line here, buddy. gender, so I’m gonna, there’s two, we’re gonna talk about the percentage of female versus male versus non-binary in the last 30 days versus the start of the podcast.

Papa Joe (51:17)
Goodness me, I’m nervous.

Dizzy Skips (51:35)
What would you guess in the all time the percentage of female listeners versus male listeners? What would you say?

Papa Joe (51:43)
listeners to the podcast. I would say listening. would say listening. That’s a tricky one. I would say it’d be heavily female. I’m going to say.

Dizzy Skips (51:45)
Yeah, to the Jump Rope Podcast.

Okay.

So this is since the beginning of the podcast.

Papa Joe (52:01)
I’d say 60%.

Dizzy Skips (52:03)
Okay, 60 % female. And then as far as age ranges go, I’m gonna tell you the two most popular age ranges, which are 35 to 44 and 45 to 59. So what percentage would you say since the beginning of jumpers are between the ages of 35 to 44?

Papa Joe (52:26)
think that would be less. I think there are more of us on the other side of 45. So I would say…

look at the surprise look with your face. on. I would say more on the younger, sorry, less on the younger, more on the over 45s.

Dizzy Skips (52:44)
on the older. Okay. So I’m

going to try and share my screen here. So here is all time. So female 50, basically 57 % and male 43%. And then 35 to 44, 53.2%. And then 45 to 59, 32.8%. So that’s over 85 % of the listeners are between say 34 and 60.

Papa Joe (52:54)
Close

There you go. Yeah, well, it’s…

Dizzy Skips (53:12)
Kind of interesting, huh? So

it’s a little bit different though in the last 30 days. So how would you guess that it has moved in the last 30 days? Do you think it’s become more female or more male? And do you think that there’s been any change in the composition of the age groups? What would you guess?

Papa Joe (53:31)
I think

hopefully more of us blokes or guys have jumped on podcasts because I know my habits have changed. I listen to podcasts while I’m driving. I don’t think I’ve been well over a year, maybe two years since I’ve actually turned on my car radio. So I’ve got lots of podcasts, but this one, I was very excited when I found it. You had a podcast. That’s great. Something to listen to while I’m driving.

Dizzy Skips (53:44)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Nice.

Papa Joe (54:01)
So I would say that there’s more increase on the male side of it.

Dizzy Skips (54:01)
Yeah.

Okay, any shift in the age group do you think?

Papa Joe (54:11)
Yes, I think more of the older ones.

Dizzy Skips (54:15)
Well, I think you are brilliant here. So if we look at the last 30 days, look at this. So 56 % male, 44 % female, and the age groups, we actually have more in the 45 to 59 range at 43 % than in the 35 to 44%. It’s still 85 % of the listeners are between 34 and 60.

Papa Joe (54:17)
Haha

Wow.

Dizzy Skips (54:39)
And that is so cool. I mean, and that’s kind of what I’m seeing, you know, when I’m watching Instagram, there’s definitely people who are younger and older, but I thought that was an interesting stat.

Papa Joe (54:49)
Yeah, it’s quite amazing that there’s a lot of younger, so-called younger. But there’s no 21-year-olds, what’s going on? And what about the teenagers?

Dizzy Skips (54:56)
Yeah.

I know like the 18 to 22

in the last 30 days is 0.5 % and for all time it’s 0.8%. The zero to 17 is 0.2%.

Papa Joe (55:13)
Yeah, they’re too busy having fun, not getting off their computers and playing online. And well, even the older ones, if they’re in college, they’re having their college fun and good luck to them. So that was quite good, quite interesting. So yeah.

Dizzy Skips (55:19)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah,

I’ve, you know, the podcast is also on YouTube, so there’s also a YouTube channel, and it’s interesting to see the rankings of episodes there as well. I think the most popular episode, or the most viewed episode, I should say, is our friend @skippyimmy from the UK, Imogen Blue. Her episode has been listened to the most number of times, but the top five,

Papa Joe (55:41)
Yeah.

Yep, yeah, she was great.

Dizzy Skips (55:56)
only differ in number of lessons like one’s 530 and one is 518 and one’s 517. So yeah, but having a lot of fun with it.

Papa Joe (56:02)
very close Yeah, yeah, I’ve I’ve

recently subscribed onto youtube because when because i because i’m Because i’m home Earlier than my wife i start dinner. So I cook I enjoy cooking so I just put my little iPad up and I’ve got my ear buds in and i’m cooking away and and now I’ve started listening to Your podcast on youtube. So

Dizzy Skips (56:16)
Yeah, me too,

Nice.

Papa Joe (56:30)
not getting away from it. it’s absorbing more of my time now, which is good because it’s what I enjoy and what’s what I love. it’s all positive. There’s no negative here. This is the great thing about jump rope. Where’s the negative? There isn’t any. You jump, you feel better.

Dizzy Skips (56:38)
Yeah.

Right Yeah, no The only

negative is what I say to myself, right? Like it’s it’s only internal right? Like you’re rooting for me. I’m rooting for you every once in a while I’m a jerk to myself, but you know, I shake it off and then I keep going

Papa Joe (56:49)
Yeah.

Exactly.

Well, you know, and you’re right, we’re rooting for each other. But also, when someone achieves anything, it could be their first time they’ve done the Boxer Skip. And you’re like, yes, you’ve got it. Well done. And everyone’s excited. And then there’s the fancy moves and whatnot. I know there was, I think it was Maria. She did 75 double unders.

Dizzy Skips (57:10)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Papa Joe (57:24)
recently and I’m like, oh, is that where I need to go? But I’ll get there. I’ll get there. You know, I’m still so many days away from them, but I think it’s amazing. You know, people are just showing achievements even now. No idea about flow rope. I’ve had no contact until I saw actually Peta doing the flow rope thing. I’m like, what is this? So now

Dizzy Skips (57:24)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Papa Joe (57:54)
people picking up the flow rope and talking about it and thinking, I might have to look into it. Like I said, I’ve stayed in my lane for so long, I’m almost just looking over, what’s going on over there? Like I said, I haven’t even used a beaded rope. So I’ve stayed in my lane for so long that it’s repetitive to the point where it’s almost robotic.

Dizzy Skips (57:58)
Have you done that yet?

No.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I know what you mean. You mentioned the episode with Em Foley at @doc.jumps who is amazing and she’s a flow rope coach. And I left a comment on one of her posts today or earlier today, basically saying, this is one of my goals for the weekend is to get a climbing rope and make my own flow rope because she totally has me convinced that it’s, I had it in my head like, flow rope, that’s sort of another thing to learn.

And I’m really gonna focus on jump rope, because I wanna get good at jump rope, but I think that learning flow rope is gonna accelerate my progress in jump rope and take me in different directions. When you watch Doc jump, when you watch Em,

Like you can see the grace that she gets from the way she understands the movement of the flow rope. And it’s just, it’s glorious. I just think it’s great. So yeah, I’m excited. Also, it’d be a good excuse for me to not jump every day because sometimes my ankles need a break.

Papa Joe (59:09)
Yeah, yeah. The flow, was, Doc, she captivated my imagination when I’m listening to that podcast. I’m thinking, that makes sense, you know, if you use the flow rope to help you with your arms and your, I think she mentioned the EB and all those moves and, know, what it’s called in the flow rope community. The Sikh, was it? Yeah, so.

Dizzy Skips (59:10)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yep.

The sneak? Yeah.

I think it’s the sneak, if I remember right.

Papa Joe (59:36)
The sneak.

Yeah. So what we call one thing, they call something else. And I think it’s just, again, another avenue where we can explore and people who do flow rope will come into jump rope. People from jump rope go into flow rope. And then you’ve got those that run both like, you know, those ladies that we’ve spoken about there. They’re out there doing it. And I think it’s a good exercise or a good thing to do if you’re technically having a rest day.

Dizzy Skips (59:39)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Papa Joe (1:00:03)
But do we really have a rest day? Really? we really have a rest day? know, like I said before, the Jump For Joy 100, I was five days a week and my Thursdays and Fridays were typically rest days, but that just meant I didn’t pick up a rope, but I’ll be doing other things. I’d be going for walks and whatnot. So just to keep, you know, stretching and whatnot.

Dizzy Skips (1:00:04)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Papa Joe (1:00:29)
very important to balance all that. So to make sure that you don’t have those unnecessary injuries. So if that can avoid, but we all learn, you know, I did my shoulder trying to do too many pull-ups, you know, after I did my jump rope, you know, I, like I said earlier, my two pound rope gave me tennis elbow and it took me a long time to recover from that. So much so that my hand grip has changed, whereas I used to hold the wrap. Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (1:00:38)
Yeah.

Yep.

Yeah.

Really?

Papa Joe (1:00:58)
my rope, I used to hold the ropes like that. that,

Dizzy Skips (1:01:00)
Yep.

Papa Joe (1:01:02)
so I used to hold the rope like that. Now I only hold it like that because, and then because they’re weighted rope, it’s a very loose grip. And so I don’t have the force onto my elbows and whatnot. So yeah, it’s all fun and games. Everyone’s got their own style.

Dizzy Skips (1:01:05)
Yep.

Okay.

Okay.

Right.

Papa Joe (1:01:22)
Handle grip doesn’t really work with that PVC, right? But you have to really get in there, you know, so

Dizzy Skips (1:01:26)
Yeah. Yeah, you have to be

very deliberate about directing it. And that’s one of the things that you notice, or at least I notice, I should say, with a heavier rope is because you have all that feedback. It doesn’t feel like you’re working as hard to move the rope, even though you’re working every bit as hard, but it’s easier to kind of feel the flow. Whereas with a 4-mil PVC,

Papa Joe (1:01:32)
Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (1:01:49)
You have to be deliberate about moving that little sucker and you can’t like get lazy with your wrists, right? Or else you trip up.

Papa Joe (1:01:52)
Detroit here.

No, no,

not at all. Now, have you used anything as heavy as a quarter pound, half pound, one pound rope? Have you used any of those?

Dizzy Skips (1:02:04)
Yeah. So I’ve got a few quarter pound ropes and there’s a reel from last year where I tried to plow snow with my quarter pound rope. I was jumping and there was like this. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was a quarter pound rope. And actually a company is sending me another one now to try out. I have one of Mira Wate’s ropes. It’s a heavy beaded rope. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. They’re like lumber.

Papa Joe (1:02:11)
Remember that, yes!

With the wooden handles.

Dizzy Skips (1:02:25)
my gosh, I love it. I love that rope so much. And it has made it easier for me to learn some of the crosses and stuff, like this stuff we were talking about from Aaron, just because there is so much feedback.

Papa Joe (1:02:25)
Yeah.

Yeah.

That’s right. Yeah. Look, the feedback is very important. and it’s the part once I got into the heavier ropes, the, the passion and the love for the rope. That’s probably why I’ve stayed in my, in my lane. Kathy said it, she said that, you know, when we were in that group all those years ago, we’d never thought of doing fancy tricks, you know, we never until, until I’ve been doing this for 8 years and, and

Dizzy Skips (1:02:47)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Papa Joe (1:03:04)
And only now, like I said, since the start of year, since I’ve joined the group on Instagram and whatnot, I’m starting to think, maybe I do need a beaded rope. Maybe I, part of the reason why I got this PVC rope was to try and, well, everyone, everybody wants to do the mic release. It’s just one of those things everybody wants to, because it looks so cool. And it is, it’s cool. It’s a cool move. I tried it a couple of times and the F word got used very, very,

Dizzy Skips (1:03:21)
Yeah. I mean, it’s beautiful, isn’t it? Right? Yeah. Hell yeah.

Papa Joe (1:03:32)
very frequently. So yeah. And also the other thing is, because I really don’t have that much space in my little garage corner, I had to fight for that piece of corner too with my wife about getting more room many, many years ago. But now that it’s established, that’s right. Well, you’re right. So hence why I started going to the truck box. So yeah, you just.

Dizzy Skips (1:03:32)
Yeah, yeah, I’m fluent in that, buddy. Yeah.

Hmm.

yeah.

You don’t want to get boxed.

Papa Joe (1:03:58)
That’s why I’ve started to extend to go outside and not going into the work gym. a few years ago, I would never have thought of going into the work gym or into a gym where there’s other people. I’ve seen plenty of people, I think, it’d be righty. But when you actually do it, something in your thing, what if they’re looking at me? But all I’ve had was positivity. mean, Joe, what are you doing there? I said, I’m just jumping half an hour and whatnot. And they, I can have a go. Yeah, no worries.

Dizzy Skips (1:04:08)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, cool. Yeah.

Papa Joe (1:04:28)
this is heavy, whoa, you know.

Yeah, it’s great fun. And the heavy rope for me has been the thing, but it might be time for me to sort of get out of my little comfort zone and try something a little bit different.

Dizzy Skips (1:04:35)
Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, you certainly can. I think one thing that you mentioned, you know, focusing on the footwork and doing the boxer skip and that sort of thing. And I know this has come up in prior episodes, but if I could say anything to anybody new is that, you don’t have to put pressure on yourself to learn everything. Like there’s all sorts. You watch Instagram and there are people doing.

Papa Joe (1:05:03)
Exactly.

Dizzy Skips (1:05:06)
freaking amazing stuff, you know, like I am constantly floored every day when I look at Instagram at how cool people are and the fun stuff they’re doing. But I don’t need to compare myself to them. You know, like I’m having fun doing what I’m doing. And I spent a whole bunch of time like in Kathy Jumps interview. She talked about basically doing basic bounce and like boxer skip for like a year and a half. And and yeah. And you know what that that foundation like

Papa Joe (1:05:27)
That’s what we did. We did that.

Dizzy Skips (1:05:33)
gets you to a point where you don’t think about that stuff, right? Like you get to learn these other tricks and stuff and it’s, you’re not tripping over. Well, you’re not, well, I should, we are all tripping over our own feet, right? But like you, you get, you get that pattern, you get that muscle memory down and then it affords you that platform that you can start learning other stuff. But, I think it’s, you know, for newbies, for anybody, it’s okay to just do what you do. Like you don’t have to learn releases. You don’t have to be, you know,

Papa Joe (1:05:36)
Exactly.

We do, we do, every day.

Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (1:06:02)
Shuffling backwards or whatever in order to be a good jump roper if you’re out there having fun and if it’s Improving your mental health or your physical health or just giving you something to do while the kids are in, football practice Rock on

Papa Joe (1:06:14)
Yeah, exactly right.

They’re exactly right. look, um, I know for a fact that what you do, I can’t do 90 % of it, but I love it. I love seeing it. I love the passion. Why not? You know, all your moves now, seriously, all your moves, you know, outside, you know, the basic footwork, I can’t do any of that. But I, a long time ago,

Dizzy Skips (1:06:28)
You mean be a smart ass on Instagram?

yet.

Papa Joe (1:06:43)
yet. Yes, of course, once you decide to. My point here is I’ve been jumping for so long that I still enjoy it like everybody else. I do what I do for my own reasons. You do what you do for your reasons. And everyone has their own thing. But it’s very important that particularly the beginners, and we’ve got a lot of beginners in this community, not to rush. Don’t rush it. It’ll come. Just be consistent.

Dizzy Skips (1:06:52)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Right.

Papa Joe (1:07:10)
do a little bit every day. And hopefully with what I’m doing with the double unders, people can see that doing a little bit every day builds and builds and builds and builds. So that’s important. Hopefully that’s a lesson learned that people will get within the community that as long as you do something every day, just a little bit, just push yourself. Now, because I’ve got to be honest, this morning when I thought, I’ve got to hit.

Dizzy Skips (1:07:13)
Yeah.

Right. Yeah.

Papa Joe (1:07:38)
Today was my PB, 23. And I’m thinking, I don’t know if I’m going to do it. I’m not sure. You’re talking yourself out of it. Did my little session, did the warm up, my body was right. And I said, well, let’s go for it. And in the end, ended up doing 24, 23 plus one. know, it’s up here is a big part of it. As long as we prepare and we do a little bit, you know, put that.

Dizzy Skips (1:07:46)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Papa Joe (1:08:06)
brick in the wall as Pink Floyd used to say, that brick in the wall one piece at a time and we can all achieve whatever we set out to do.

Dizzy Skips (1:08:09)
Yep.

Yeah.

That’s

right. You can make it mountain that way. You just show up every day with one little brick. Yep.

Papa Joe (1:08:19)
every day marathons

one step at a time all that sort of stuff so yeah which elephant we talking about here yeah or eat the toad there’s there’s the other one eat the toad

Dizzy Skips (1:08:24)
That’s right. Eat an elephant one bite at a time. Yeah. Yeah. Right.

Right. Yeah. Someday I’ll learn the elephant and then have to put it on Instagram just to make people laugh. But yeah.

Papa Joe (1:08:37)
Hey.

Yeah, well,

yeah, so there you go. yeah, but it’s, for me, for me, in the last three months, I’ve really come out of my social shell because the Instagram world is so different in the Jump Rope community than the rest of the world. It’s just such a positive place to be.

Dizzy Skips (1:08:45)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, isn’t it?

Yeah.

Papa Joe (1:09:07)
The ladies are brilliant.

The ladies that reach out and encourage everyone, they’re just brilliant. And us blokes tend to keep to ourselves and encourage each other and whatnot. But the ladies are superstars.

Dizzy Skips (1:09:12)
Yeah.

Dude, I think you’re brilliant and you’ve been so encouraging

to me and I see you being encouraging to other people as well. think it seems sometimes it seems like the jump rope community on Instagram is like, I don’t know, 80 % women. But there’s a bunch of us dudes out there doing our thing and we’re all encouraging each other and I think it’s awesome.

Papa Joe (1:09:37)
Yeah.

That’s right. Yeah, you’re right. know, there’s, just find that, and I love the different demographic, the fact that we’re speaking to people in Europe, we’re speaking to people in Scandinavian areas. you know, Jenny, I think she’s from Germany, if I got that right, she’s from Germany. So, Stockholm, there you go, Sweden. So, you know, I don’t even get the countries right because we’re all over the world.

Dizzy Skips (1:09:48)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

@jennyjustjump. She’s in Stockholm, Sweden. Yeah.

But there’s,

you’re right. mean, you, you, you probably got happy birthdays from people in like nine or 10 different countries. Like easy. Yeah.

Papa Joe (1:10:13)
a lot more. I’m

still half an hour before I came on here. I’m still responding to birthday with. Yeah, yeah. Well, you got to remember Australia is one of the first countries to go over the date line. So New Zealand’s before us and then it’s Australia. So when I post, it’s like today is Sunday here. I know, I know you’re, you’re, you’re Saturday evening there. And it’s just, I have the advantage of being a day ahead.

Dizzy Skips (1:10:18)
Yeah, your phone’s vibrating off the table.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Papa Joe (1:10:43)
And so I’m being spoiled on my non-birthday day, from where they come from, like everywhere, all over the world. And we’re everywhere, Singapore, Italy is another one, a gentleman in Pakistan, I think it is. So we’ve got worldwide. So kudos to Peta for arranging this, because she’s worked her butt off in the background. And I know at times,

Dizzy Skips (1:10:44)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Papa Joe (1:11:13)
I’ve reached out to her and I said, you’re doing a great job. You know, because I know what it’s like to do so much work for so many people. And sometimes when you put all that work in, go, do they really appreciate? Well, we do. We do appreciate it. We might not say it, but we do appreciate the hard work.

Dizzy Skips (1:11:16)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, no, absolutely. And

it may sound like, I don’t know, big talk or whatever, but honestly, this kind of stuff changes people’s lives. Like being inspired by other people to pick up a rope and do something good for themselves and contribute and network with people. Like we’ve made, like you are half a world away from me and I consider you a friend, you know, and I have…

Papa Joe (1:11:38)
Yeah.

Yeah, definitely.

Dizzy Skips (1:11:52)
And Aaron is half a world away from me and I consider him a friend. I’ve have so many friends through the Jump Rope community and it’s such a special thing and I just feel privileged to be part of it.

Papa Joe (1:12:00)
And you’re right.

You’re right. But we are friends because go back to the OG, back when I started, I still have those conversations with Kathy, 2018. Claire, who nobody knows here, but Claire, I still speak to her. Morris Apple, he’s a guy in Texas. Till this day, yesterday he wished me happy birthday and I spoke to him, how are you doing? What’s going on out that way?

Dizzy Skips (1:12:11)
Yeah. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Papa Joe (1:12:25)
And

he’s in cryogenics and whatnot. He’s trying to get himself all nice and fit and healthy in that world. And that’s from 2018. And now another branch of friends we’re meeting up here. And as long as we’re doing this thing and we’ve got that commonality, because we’re part of the one community, we all pick up, we all understand the rope. We all love the rope. And that’s our connection.

Dizzy Skips (1:12:30)
Wow.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah,

I love in Em’s episode where she was encouraging me to go to a jump rope meetup. And one of the things she was saying is even if you’re introverted, like you go to one of these meetups and there’s a whole bunch of stuff you don’t have to say, you don’t have to explain to me how much you love the jump rope. I love it too, you know, like, and you express yourself a lot through movement. And so yeah, I’m

Papa Joe (1:13:04)
Mm.

Dizzy Skips (1:13:09)
The idea of going to one of those meetups is amazing. So I have one last question for you, and this is not a quiz. There’s no grading, but for people who are listening, who maybe have just started with Jump Rope or are thinking about starting Joe and thinking, you know, this guy’s been at it for, you know, so long. I’ll never get to that level or something like that. what kind of advice can you give somebody who’s just starting out or thinking about it?

Papa Joe (1:13:10)
Yeah.

Starting out, it’s very simple. Stick to the basics. It doesn’t matter. Everyone said it. You don’t need an expensive rope. The ropes I got are quite expensive. But I invested it in…

about a year after I actually got into it because I wasn’t going to spend that money if I wasn’t committed. So for the beginners, go, everyone say that. Get onto Amazon. They’re not great, but they’re good. So, just, just, just, and just start and just do the basic, basic bounce, basic bounce, basic bounce. Be consistent. Pick a time in the day some people are morning people. Some people are evening people.

Dizzy Skips (1:13:47)
Yeah.

Right.

Yeah, you get something.

Mm-hmm.

Papa Joe (1:14:11)
I used to be an evening person, then found out that if I do it first thing in the morning, my rest of my day is brilliant. So find whatever time in it, but only start with maybe not even five minutes because as we know, if you haven’t done it before, the legs and the shin and the shin splints start. So nice and easy. Go on YouTube and find a two minute workout. YouTube is a great resource.

Dizzy Skips (1:14:13)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yep.

Papa Joe (1:14:38)
basic bounce base and get your technique down and then expand. Don’t be in a rush to do the the mic release or whatever the case may be. If that’s what you want, fine, go ahead. But if you want to build a good foundation and it can be a little boring after if it starts to get boring, that means you’ve done enough. It’s time to move on to the next thing. So. But change it. Well, music.

Dizzy Skips (1:14:38)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Right. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Or you need to change your song. You need to put on little

guns and roses.

Papa Joe (1:15:06)
That’s right. Bit of gunners. No worries. but yeah. And music, like you said, the music is important. after the, find your passion in, we’ve got Spotify these days. You know, when I started Spotify, I wasn’t that big, you know, try and find stuff on YouTube or stereo and whatnot. Our phones are brilliant for sort of resourcing information. So basic, get the basics down and be, be consistent. If anything,

Dizzy Skips (1:15:12)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Papa Joe (1:15:36)
I can express here is be consistent. Turn up every day, do a little bit every day, a little bit more the next day, a little bit more in small increments. then you do, if you started doing one minute a day for 30 days, you’re doing 30 minutes in the end. You know what mean? So a little bit, day one, do one minute, day two, two, two minutes. I don’t recommend that because by day 10, you’re doing 10 minutes and your legs.

Dizzy Skips (1:15:40)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Ready for that. Yeah. Yeah.

Papa Joe (1:16:02)
may not be ready for that. And also,

if it’s a path and I speak to more about the fitness and the weight loss, take your time. It takes time for the fitness and the weight loss to come along, but you’ll enjoy it. You’ll enjoy the journey, but just be consistent. would say do it five days a week and make sure you rest. Rest is very important. And warm up. I speaking to Aaron there.

Dizzy Skips (1:16:17)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Papa Joe (1:16:32)
Warm up is important. yes. But yeah, just be consistent and do a little bit and just stick with the basics. We can learn everything else later. Like I said, I’ve been doing it for a long time and I’m still nowhere near as trickster as others are. But I love it. I love it for what I do.

Dizzy Skips (1:16:32)
Yeah. He’s crazy. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I love

that advice, Joe, because I still do this from time to time, but I think jump rope has helped break me of it a little bit. But I get it in my head that I’m only really going to make progress if I can actually go work on this for two hours. I’m going to work on the mic release for an hour, and then I’m going to work on the EB swing or whatever. I’m going to work on my shuffle moves.

And I think that kind of thinking, first of all, is incorrect. mean, it can be self-defeating. And I think honestly, if you do show up and you put in five minutes a day and, that may not seem like a lot, but it adds up and, it can give you superpowers, right? Like it can accelerate your learning. Like if I put in five minutes a day for five days, that’s, you know, 25 minutes. If I waited to do 25 minutes in one block, you know,

Papa Joe (1:17:33)
Exactly.

Dizzy Skips (1:17:45)
I may make an excuse one day or whatever, but I think by nature of spreading it out, being consistent and giving yourself that break in between where your mind can chew on what you did, like video what you did, watch it back and find the, you know, find the good spots. think Em has just some brilliant advice in her episode, like, but yeah, I think terrific advice.

Papa Joe (1:18:01)
Yeah.

very much so. Yeah, very much so.

Dizzy Skips (1:18:10)
Joe, thank you so much for coming on to talk to me on the Jump Rope Podcast. just, I’m so excited to have been able to connect with you again, like half a world away, but we’re both kindred spirits here in the bounce.

Papa Joe (1:18:20)
Yeah.

Yes, we are. Thank you for opening up this podcast because it is another avenue. I thoroughly enjoy listening to this. And just so you know, this is actually a bucket list event for me because I’ve always wanted to tell my story and you’ve given me the opportunity to tell my story. And I thank you for that because now tick one off the bucket list. So yeah.

Dizzy Skips (1:18:45)
Awesome.

Well good for you, man.

Papa Joe (1:18:51)
Yeah, so it’s great. So there’s some other bucket lists and then one of them will have to be jumping with you one day on those limestones. If that happens, that’d be brilliant.

Dizzy Skips (1:19:00)
Yeah,

that would be awesome. Like if you’re thinking about coming over for a New York meetup, you know, I’m kind of halfway in the country, so you could stop here in Minnesota. We could do some limestone bench jumping and then just road trip it out to New York. I’ll drive. Yeah. Yeah, we could see if we could cram Aaron Jumps 365 in the back seat of the car, all six foot seven of them might have to like open up the tailgate and let him poke out the back.

Papa Joe (1:19:11)
Yeah.

Why not? We’ll see how it all goes.

Well, you know, look,

he’s brilliant. Sorry, Aaron, we’re laughing at your expense, but you’re a brilliant bloke. are really an awesome guy. He’s a superstar.

Dizzy Skips (1:19:37)
Yeah, yeah, he’s he’s

Yeah, he’s a mensch All right. Well, thank you again Papa Joe for coming on. I really appreciate it. And I really appreciate your support on Instagram It’s lovely to be connected with you and let’s keep bringing it

Papa Joe (1:19:52)
Yeah, thanks, Dizzy. I really appreciate it. Thank you.

Dizzy Skips (1:19:54)
Right on.

Papa Joe (1:19:55)
Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (1:19:55)
Hahaha.