IJRU is excited to partner with Double Dutch Contest World (DDCW) to host the DDCW Finals at the IJRU 2020 World Championships!

How do I qualify?

There are two ways to qualify for the DDCW Championships:

1. Attend a DDCW qualifying tournament held by your country's organization

2. Participate in the IJRU DDCW qualifying tournament in Ottawa

To participate in the IJRU DDCW qualifying tournament in Ottawa, athletes need to qualify through their National Governing Body (NGB). Each NGB can qualify 1 team in each age category.

What are the age categories?

The IJRU DDCW qualifying tournament in Ottawa will have the following age categories:

• Under 19 (12-18)

• Open (19+)

These age categories align with the IJRU age cut-off dates. Each NGB can send 1 team in the above age categories to the DDCW qualifying tournament hosted by IJRU prior to the DDC Finals in Ottawa.

If you qualify through another DDCW qualifying tournament, you may have athletes under the age of 12 qualify in the DDCW Junior age category.

DDCW Finals age categories

The DDCW Finals event which will be held in conjunction with the IJRU 2020 World Championships in Ottawa, is run by the JDDA/DDC and the competition has the potential to have 11 and under athletes.

The DDCW Finals will run the following age categories:

• Junior (ages 5 to under 13)

• Under 19 (ages 12 to under 19)

• 19+

Although IJRU is committed to making our competition system compliant with the age restrictions applied to some of our NGBs, we are also aware that some countries have already selected or started the selection process for DDCW 2020.

We are allowing the DDCW rules for 2020 in order not to disadvantage the athletes. However, we would like our member countries to notify the attendance of under 12 athletes in the DDCW junior category and send an exemption request as soon as the selection is completed. IJRU will also hold continuous discussions with our NGBs as well as JDDA/DDCW for future championships in 2022 and beyond.

What are the DDC rules?

The IJRU DDCW qualifying tournament and DDCW Finals being held at the IJRU 2020 World Championships in Ottawa will follow the DDCW rules.

Are you excited to participate in the International Sport Federation (ISF) Gymnasiade Summer Games 2020 in Jinjiang, China? You will get to compete alongside young athletes from a variety of sports around the world. Learn more about the Gymnasiade Summer Games.

How do I register?

To register for the ISF Gymnasiade Summer Games, you need to speak with your local IJRU National Governing Body. Don’t miss out on this opportunity. Registration is already open.

You will register as part of a national delegation. Please review the Gymnasiade Summer Games Bulletin 1 for more information about official delegations. As an NGB, you will need to reach out to the ISF School Sport Entity in your country for registration details.

Events

Check out the jump rope/rope skipping events that will be featured at the ISF Gymnasiade Summer Games and start practicing today!

Girls events

• 1x30 Single Rope Speed Sprint

• 1x180 Single Rope Speed Endurance

• Triple Unders

• Single Rope Individual Freestyle

• Single Rope Pairs Double Under Relay

• Double Dutch Contest Speed

• Double Dutch Single Freestyle

Boys events

• 1x30 Single Rope Speed Sprint

• 1x180 Single Rope Speed Endurance

• Triple Unders

• Single Rope Individual Freestyle

• Single Rope Pairs Double Under Relay

• Double Dutch Contest Speed

• Double Dutch Single Freestyle

Mixed events

• Single Rope Pairs Double Under Relay

• 4x30 Single Rope Speed Relay

• 4x30 Double Dutch Speed Relay

• Double Dutch Contest Speed

• Single Rope Pairs Freestyle

• Wheel Pairs Freestyle

• Double Dutch Singles Freestyle

Any gender (boys/girls/mixed)

• Double Dutch Contest Freestyle

Age categories

In order to participate in the ISF Gymnasiade Summer Games 2020, you must be born in:

• 2002

• 2003

• 2004

• 2005

The Gymnasiade Summer Games is for school-aged athletes. 

Flight discounts

If you register before March 31, 2020, you may be eligible for an 80% flight fare discount. Please review the Gymnasiade Summer Games Bulletin 1 for full details about flight fare discounts. 

Delegation details

Each School Sport Entity may enter a maximum number of 18 persons: 

• 12 girls and/or boys

• 2 coaches

• 1 team official (Doctor, Physiotherapist, Trainer, Statistician, Team manager)

• 3 judges

Participation limits

Review the participation limits for each national delegation.

Individual events: 

• 2 athletes per delegation

Team events: 

• 2 teams per delegation

Judges per delegation:

• From 1 to 5 athletes = 1 judge

• From 6 to 10 athletes = 2 judges 

• From 11 or 12 athletes = 3 judges

Please note

• All judges must have a valid certification distributed through IJRU.

• Each athlete can only participate once in the same event. For example, an athlete who has participated in Girls Singles Rope Pairs Double Unders relay, cannot also participate in the Mixed Singles Rope Pairs Double Unders relay 

We’re SO excited to announce a new tournament that will be taking place from April 9 to 13, 2020 in Shizhu, China. Do you think you can be the next Jump Rope King? The Chinese Rope Skipping Association presents, the China International Jump Rope King Championships. Compete for cash prizes against athletes from around the world!

Register now

Don’t miss out on this unique tournament! The registration deadline is February 15, 2020. Please contact your National Governing Body (NGB) to register. Contact lm@crsa.cc if you have any questions about the tournament or registration process.

Win cash prizes!

The winner of the China International Jump Rope King Championship will win a trophy and $8,000USD! Second place will take home $2,000USD and third place will receive $1,000USD. 

The top three in each individual event will also win cash prizes. Check out the Jump Rope King Championship Flier for more details. 

Free event packages

Wait there is more? The Chinese Rope Skipping Association will also offer 5 free event packages to IJRU members. Contact lm@crsa.cc for more details! These packages include:

• Transportation between Chongqing airport and the hotel

• Local transportation

• Dining

• Accommodations

• Competition entry

• 1 day of sightseeing

Event details

The China International Jump Rope King Championship will include 5 of the sport’s most exciting speed events: 

• 30 second speed

• 3 minutes speed

• Triple unders

• Single rope pairs double unders (2x30)

• Double dutch speed (1x60)

Athletes will compete in each event and the top 20 overall will face off to compete for the title of Jump Rope King. In this round of competition, athletes will perform a set routine and see who can complete the routine the most times within a set amount of time. Is anyone else getting excited for this?

Review the Jump Rope King Championship Flier for full event details.

Start practicing

Watch this video and start practicing the set routines so you can become the Jump Rope King!

Promotional video

Check out this promotional video and start planning your trip today!

After several years working together on the formation and creation of IJRU, for the final time, on December 15, 2019 the FISAC-IRSF membership gathered for a general meeting.

The assembled member countries voted to officially dissolve the organization. We ask the global rope skipping/jump rope community to join us in celebrating the achievements of FISAC-IRSF while looking towards the future.

“I would like to express my sincere appreciation to everyone I have met during my time serving for our wonderful sport of Rope Skipping as a board member. All the athletes, coaches, judges, officials and enthusiasts. You have been my inspiration and motivation during all years. My respect and gratitude also go towards all the founders and former board members who worked selflessly to advance our sport. Without your diligent service, Rope Skipping has never been brought up to this height.” - Takashi Ogawa, President

FISAC-IRSF helped lay the foundations of our sport in the international sporting community. IJRU plans to build upon the work of FISAC-IRSF and World Jump Rope Federation to help our sport reach new heights.

“On all my years as a FISAC-IRSF board member, I always believed that we were all starving to bring our Sport of Rope Skipping/Jump Rope one year at a time to the Greatness it is now, we still have many hurdles to go through in the future, but united, I believe we will surely reach our goals” - Ron Kappert, Executive Director, Past President 2000-2011

FISAC-IRSF through the years

For the past 24 years FISAC-IRSF has helped grow and promote the sport of rope skipping/jump rope around the world:

1. The first organization to promote rope skipping as a sport was the “International Rope Skipping Organization” (IRSO) founded by Richard Cendali which was essentially an American organization with two non-Americans on the Board of Directors who were elected by the US members. This organization split in the early 1990’s with a new organization, the “World Rope Skipping Federation” (WRSF) being formed in competition to the IRSO. In October 25, 1995 both these organizations dissolved and became the USAJRF

2. February 25, 1996 the founding meeting took place, Countries represented at this foundation meeting were Belgium, Netherlands, Sweden (representing the European Rope Skipping Organization, ERSO), Australia, USA, Canada and Hungary, it became the meeting of the first truly international rope skipping organization in both scope and representation, A draft constitution and the name “Federation Internationale de saut a la Corde” (FISAC) were adopted. By-laws were discussed and adopted, and the organization was up and running, Its first Board of Directors consisting of President, Eric de Boever of Belgium, Vice - President: Greg Bannerman (Australia) Secretary: Geert Hoste (Belgium), Treasurer: Jean Hodges (USA) Advisors: Josh Henson and Nancy Bell (AAU) and Board members Kajsa Murmark (Sweden), Eric Herber (Netherlands) and Richard Cendali (USA). To help the new organization establish itself, a first World Championship event was scheduled to be held in Sydney, the *1st - Australia in 1997. Rules were developed and adopted and these still form the basis of our current rules of competition. Eight countries competed, some under the FISAC flag as at that time they were not full members (USA, South Korea, Sweden, Hungary, Belgium, Canada, Denmark and the host Australia).

3. In 2000 Ron Kappert was elected President (2000-2011). With the original founding board members staying on for many more years, FISAC under his guidance was reconstituted and incorporated in Montreal, Canada, and the English translation “International Rope Skipping Federation” (IRSF) was added to the name. Additionally, an official color logo was designed and later added to the bylaws and constitution. Under the new constitution “Continental Organisations” were formalized and tasked to further develop rope skipping in their respective regions, by holding competitions, coaching and training initiatives.

4. In February of 2018, FISAC-IRSF and WJRF announced the intention to merge the two organizations to form the International Jump Rope Union. According to former FISAC-IRSF President, Takashi Ogawa, this decision was simple; in order to move the sport forward, FISAC-IRSF and WJRF needed to create a unified international organisation for the sole management of the sport at the international level.

Past tournaments

• 1997 Australia

• 1999 St. Louis, USA

• 2001 South Korea (Masters only)

• 2002 Gent, Belgium (Teams only)

• 2004 Gold Coast, Australia

• 2006 Toronto, Canada

• 2008 Cape Town, South Africa

• 2010 Loughborough, United Kingdom

• 2012 Tampa, USA

• 2014 Hong Kong, China

• 2016 Malmo, Sweden

• 2018 Shanghai, China

Thank you FISAC-IRSF

We would like to thank all of those who volunteered their time and energy to FISAC-IRSF over the years. There have been hundreds of people who have combined to provide their support, energy and involvement to progress our sport. Every athlete that took the floor and all of the parents, family members and volunteers that made this organization a success should celebrate the success that FISAC-IRSF has created.

We are excited to continue pushing our sport to new limits and we can’t wait to see what the future has in store!

The IJRU Board of Directors met electronically on December 7 and 8, 2019 to discuss membership, board and committee appointments and more. Read our meeting highlights to stay informed.

IJRU appoints new board member

We would like to welcome Lindley Langhorne as the new Pan-American Continental Representative on the IJRU Board of Directors. Langhorne is from Guyana and comes to IJRU with 10 years of experience as the Senior Physical Education Officer for the Ministry of Education. He is also the current president of Jump Rope Guyana. We believe that Mr. Langhorne’s skill set and experience will help IJRU promote our sport and expand our membership in the Pan-American region.

New member National Governing Bodies (NGBs)

IJRU continues to grow! Join us in welcoming our new members:

• Austria - Rope Skipping Verband Österreich, RSVÖ

• Belgium - GymFed, Rope Skipping Belgium

• Swaziland -  Swaziland (Eswatini) Gymnastic Federation

 IJRU currently has 49 members and we are well on our way to our membership goals.

Hong Kong update

Over the past year and a half, IJRU has worked with the Hong Kong Rope Skipping Association and the Hong Kong Rope Skipping Federation. This includes a two-day face-to-face meeting, which was held in Hong Kong in the month of October, with six of our board members attending. 

The IJRU Board of Directors is committed to ensuring the attendance of the Hong Kong athletes at the IJRU 2020 World Championships. 

Ethics panel

We are in the process of reviewing all applicants for the IJRU Ethics Panel.With all interviews complete, the IJRU Board of Directors will review each candidate and notify those who have been selected before the end of the year. We would like to thank all applicants for their time and we look forward to working with you in the future.

Technical Committee appointments

IJRU approved new members for the Technical Committee. Individuals will be contacted over the next few weeks and the new Technical Committee will start meeting shortly. 

We ask the entire jump rope/rope skipping community to join us in thanking all members from the initial technical committee for their tireless work drafting our rule set. Some members will continue in this role, while others will take on new roles within our organization.

Technical Congress

Does your country want an opportunity to provide input and feedback about proposed rules before they are official? Each National Governing Body has an opportunity to appoint 2 delegates to the IJRU Technical Congress. Between the 2 delegates, each country will receive one vote on all proposed rule changes.  

Send an email to info@IJRU.sport to appoint your national Technical Congress delegates. NGBs can appoint delegates at any time, however, we recommend that you provide these names as soon as possible, so that you can have your say.

The following countries have provided the names of their Technical Congress delegates:

• Australia

• Botswana

• Canada

• China

• Denmark

• France

• Germany

• Japan

• USA

Please check back regularly for more news, announcement and board meeting highlights!

Have you started training for the first IJRU World Championship? At IJRU, we are in full tournament planning mode! We are pleased to announce more details about the International Open Tournament (IOT). The IOT will take place in Ottawa from July 6 to 7, 2020.

Learn more about the IJRU 2020 World Championships including the our information package and pricing and the events and qualification information for the IJRU World Championship (WC) and Junior World Championship (JWC).

IOT age categories

The IOT will have the following age categories for both individual and team events:

• 12-14

• 15-17

• 18+

• 30+

Unlike in the IJRU World Championship and Junior World Championship, athletes are able to compete up an age category with a few exceptions:

• You must be at least 12 years of age by December 31, 2020 to compete in the IOT

• You must be at least 30 years of age by August 31, 2020 to compete in the 30+ age category at the IOT

• Individuals who are over the age of 30, can choose to compete in the 18+ age category (no other age categories are allowed to compete down an age category)

• Teams will be registered based on the age of the oldest athlete in each event 

Please note

If a National Governing Body (NGB) is unable to fill all of the 15-17 or 18+ slots, they are allowed to have teams/individuals jump up an age category to fill the spots. In these instances, the NGB will need to indicate the team is competing up an age category with their registration. This doesn’t apply for the 12-14 or 30+ age categories.

Events and number of entries

Each NGB will receive 3 spots per event per age and gender category at the International Open Tournament. 

The following individual events will be competed in all age and gender categories (female and male) at the IOT:

• Single Rope Speed Sprint (1x30)

• Single Rope Individual Freestyle

The following team events will be competed in all age and gender categories (female, male and mixed) at the IOT:

• Single Rope Speed Relay (4x30)

• Single Rope Double Under Relay (2x30)

• Double Dutch Speed Relay (4x30)

• Double Dutch Speed Sprint (1x60)

• Single Rope Pairs Freestyle

• Single Rope Team Freestyle

• Double Dutch Singles Freestyle

• Double Dutch Pairs Freestyle

• Wheel Pairs Freestyle

The overall and all around categories will not be awarded at the IOT in individual or team events. We will also not offer DDC or Team Show events at the IOT. 

Competition rules

The International Open Tournament will use the IJRU Judging Manual. Due to the anticipated number of participants, we will only use music for the Single Rope Team Freestyle event. All other freestyle events at the IOT will not use music.

WC, JWC and IOT additional spots

We want to encourage participation at the World Championships, Junior World Championships and International Open Tournament. Early registration for the IJRU 2020 World Championships will begin in February. We will review and analyze the early registration data in order to make more spots available. We encourage NGBs to register as soon as possible. IJRU will only release additional spots if they can be applied to all eligible NGBs equally. Please continue to follow IJRU and read our communications for more information. 

How do I participate?

You must register for the IOT through your NGB. It is up to each NGB to decide how they will fill the spots for the IOT. View a full list of IJRU member countries and contact your NGB today.

What is the IOT?

The International Open Tournament gives athletes an opportunity to compete in an international event with athletes from all over the world. As a result, we want to encourage participation by allowing more age categories and athletes. This is very much a tournament to help develop the next generation of World Championship athletes. 

In the future, we may even test new events through the IOT before introducing them to the World Championships and Junior World Championships.

Questions?

If you have any questions about the International Open Tournament, please send an email to tcom@ijru.sport.

IJRU appoints board positions and committee members while reaffirming a commitment to our missions, visions and values at the October Board of Directors meeting held in Ottawa, Canada.

On October 25 and 26 the IJRU leadership gathered in Ottawa for their annual fall board meeting. It was a busy weekend filled with meetings, strategic planning sessions and a site visit to the 2020 World Championship venue.

Shaun Hamilton, IJRU President described the meeting as follows:

“The Board of Directors engaged in a great discussion about the current state of our sport and the evolution and changes we will need to undergo to move our sport forward. We made some decisions that we believe will assist in this evolution such as nationality assignment, gender policy clarifications, filling of vacant positions and other matters that bring greater clarity to our member countries and athletes. We also began developing our strategic plan, which will bring greater focus to our sport and board of directors. Overall the meetings were productive and positive as we continue to grow and develop our sport together.”

Site visit and 2020 tournament planning

The weekend began with a site visit to the venue for the 2020 World Championships, Junior World Champions and International Open Tournament. This site visit then informed a tournament planning meeting. We discussed tournament structure, marketing and communications and created a detailed itemized task list to begin delegating and documenting all aspects of running an IJRU tournament.  

Gender policy update

During the meeting, we approved a clarifying statement to accompany the Gender Policy. This statement takes into consideration changes to the official tournament names for the Junior World Championship and International Open Tournament. We also clarified information about gender eligibility at the International Open Tournament.

IJRU is growing

Join us in congratulating our new members. We are pleased to announce 3 new member countries:

• Argentina - Asociación Argentina de Salto con Soga

• Botswana - Botswana Rope Skipping Federation

• Chinese Taipei - Taiwan Kinetic Art

Board and committee appointments

The IJRU Board of Directors has a few continental vacancies. In order to ensure geographic representation around the globe, we are committed to filling these positions in the coming months. At the meeting, we reviewed applications and narrowed down the candidates based on the required skills and experience necessary for the position. We will announce the new appointees in the coming weeks once the roles have been accepted.

We also reviewed applications for the Ethics Panel and Technical Committee. Thank you to all those who applied for a position. We are still in the process of narrowing down the applicants and will communicate our selections in the coming weeks.

Technical Congress representatives

We received a list of Technical Congress representatives from a number of National Governing Bodies (NGB). Many countries have still not provided IJRU with the names of their 2 Technical Congress representatives. Each NGB can appoint 2 representatives to the Technical Congress. They will have an opportunity to review and vote on rules before they are presented to the full membership. This gives your country an opportunity to have a say in the direction of the rules in our sport. Please contact us at info@ijru.sport to send us a list of your representatives. 

Continental reports

The African Jump Rope Federation presented their constitution and through a unanimous vote, was recognized as the official IJRU continental organization in Africa. This is a huge step forward for Africa and we would like to congratulate them for their hard work in establishing an official continental organization.

Each of the IJRU Continental Vice Presidents provided a report that included membership numbers, a tournament planning update and organizational structure. 

Strategic planning 

IJRU is committed to setting goals and creating a long term vision for our athletes and sport. Luke Winstanley (IJRU Vice President - Oceana) led a series of strategic planning sessions that allowed participants to brainstorm ways to achieve our strategic goals. 

During the meeting, we identified the following goals and management objectives:

• Financial Management

• Good Governance

• Events and Sanctioned Competitions

• Communications and Engagement

• Recruitment of Skilled Individuals

• Marketing and Promotion

We then began to explore actionable ways to achieve each of these strategic objectives. IJRU’s strategic plan will continue to evolve over time and we are excited to put this important process into motion.

We’ve got exciting news… 

Jump rope/rope skipping has been added to the list of sports that will be competed in the International School Sport Federation (ISF) Gymnasiade Summer Games 2020! Check out the ISF Gymnasiade Summer Games bulletin for more information about the event. 

What does this mean?

The ISF Gymnasiade Summer Games will take place from October 17-24, 2020 in Jinjiang, China P.R. and will feature 18 sports, including jump rope/rope skipping. Athletes from IJRU member countries may be eligible to compete as long as their country is an affiliated member of the ISF. 

Benefits for participants

All international participants have access to an 80% fare discount on flights, and there’s no participation fee! 

Next steps

Stay tuned for future updates from us in the coming weeks. We will communicate more information about the events, age categories and registration details.

In order for IJRU to achieve success, we need the help and support of our members and the entire global jump rope/rope skipping community. Although we’ve come a long way in the past year, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done on an ongoing basis to help our organization function and achieve further success.

Committee positions

IJRU is currently accepting nominations for the Ethics Panel, Technical Committees, and Technical Congress.

Application deadline

Please send your completed application to info@ijru.sport by Friday, October 18, 2019. All applications will be reviewed by the IJRU Board of Directors. Only those under consideration will be contacted.

Thank you for your application!

We are excited to announce that the IJRU Judging Portal is now live! We will be rolling out courses over the next few weeks. Right now, you can begin with the Judging Fundamentals course and Speed course. 

Signing into the IJRU judging portal

You will need to create an account to access the IJRU judging portal. Please contact us at tcom@ijru.sport if you have any difficulty accessing the online judge training.

IJRU judging criteria and training

Check out our judging page to find out more about IJRU judging criteria and learn how to request an IJRU judge training.

We hope you are all planning for the IJRU 2020 World Championships that will be held in Ottawa, Canada. In order to help with your preparations, we wanted to provide clarity around the competition format and qualification process. We will continue to provide regular updates in this format. 

What competitions will take place at the IJRU 2020 World Championships?

The 2020 World Championships will include the following competitions:

• World Championships (WC)

• Junior World Championships (JWC)

• International Open Tournament (IOT)

• Double Dutch Contest (DDC)

Review the IJRU Competition Manual for a full list of events, age and gender categories, and age category cut off dates for the WC and JWC.

What rules will IJRU use for the 2020 World Championship?

We will be using the IJRU Judges Manual and Competition Manual. We recommend that you review these rules in order to best prepare for the World Championship.

For more information about the IJRU rules, please follow the Technical Committee News feed or send an email to tcom@ijru.sport if you have a question.

We will continue to publicize clarifications around the rules as needed.     

How many athletes/teams can each country send to the World Championships?

The 2020 WC, JWC, OT and DDC is unique from any other international event our sport has held because we have more potential countries participating than ever before. Our objective is to maximize participation so that we can make IJRU 2020 a great experience. 

With this in mind, we have decided to create a minimum amount per NGB per event with additional rounds of registration to follow. This will allow more athletes to participate in the spots that were not filled by NGBs. A detailed chart of minimum spots per country per event will be communicated in the near future for the WC, JWC and OT.  The DDC may have a different qualifying procedure.  

Each IJRU member National Governing Body (NGB) will be able to send a minimum of three athletes/teams in each event and gender category (Female, Male, Mixed) for the World Championship. They will also be able to send at least three entries in each event for the IJRU Junior World Championship. As of now, NGBs should plan for three spots in each event and we will give guidance on additional entry slots as they become available. We want to emphasize that the number three is a starting point. We want to allow as many athletes the opportunity to compete as possible.

We plan to have similar events in the Open Tournament. This will run concurrently with the Junior Championships in an adjacent venue. Our goal is to provide at least three slots in this competition in all gender and age categories. Again, this is a starting point with plans to add more slots during the registration process. We are planning to include more age categories in the Open Tournament. Please stay tuned for more information.

How do athletes qualify for the IJRU World Championships?

All athletes will need to qualify through their respective NGB. IJRU doesn’t set the qualification criteria for each country. We do encourage NGBs to utilize the IJRU rules for qualifying for the 2020 World Championships. However, it is not required. Please note that participation in the WC, JWC and OT is determined by the NGB.  We encourage NGBs to maximize participation through their respective qualifying procedures and processes. You can contact your NGB to find out more about the qualification process. View a list of all IJRU member NGBs to find out more information about the NGB in your country/sport territory .

Double Dutch Contest qualifications for the WC 2020 will be available soon. 

Future topics 

Please stay tuned for more information about the registration process and timelines. 

On July 10, 2019, IJRU held the first General Congress meeting in Oslofjord, Norway. With 36 member delegates in attendance, the General Congress ratified the IJRU Constitution, Rule Book, and Competition Manual. This represents an exciting step forward for our organization and sport.

“We are officially unified! The two global bodies came together under one banner (IJRU) and formally adopted the constitution and rules of competition by its members. This has been a long time coming and we are excited about the journey we will take together.” - Shaun Hamilton, President IJRU

Executive Vice President, Takashi Ogawa stated:

“It was such a significant moment that IJRU’s vision and values got embraced by the member countries. It was the moment the jump rope/rope skilling family finally reunited and we are very encouraged to advance our tremendous sport with all family members.”

At this meeting, we announced the competition structure for the 2020 World Championships. There will be a Junior and Senior World Championships and member National Governing Bodies (NGBs) will be able to send up to three athletes in each event. More spots may become available based on confirmed NGB attendance. There will also be an open tournament. Please stay tuned for more information about registration dates and packages.

IJRU currently has 41 member countries. If you are interested in becoming an IJRU member or learning more about our sport, please contact us by email at info@ijru.org.

The IJRU Board of Directors is now in the process of developing a strategic plan, filling committee positions and planning for the 2020 IJRU World Championships in Ottawa, Canada

We are excited to announce the location of the first IJRU World Championships in Ottawa, Canada. Shaun Hamilton (IJRU President) and Takashi Ogawa (IJRU Executive Vice President) made the announcement today at the 2019 World Jump Rope Championship Grands, in front of a packed crowd in Oslofjord, Norway.

“This is a tremendous opportunity for our entire sport to meet in historic and beautiful Ottawa, Canada for the first joint global jump rope championship. This location and event will mark the start of an amazing journey for our sport. We are looking forward to welcoming the world’s athletes to Ottawa.” - Shaun Hamilton

“2020 World Championships will be the very first event where FISAC-IRSF family and World Jump Rope family officially unite. We, IJRU, are extremely excited to have this opportunity to expand our family in such a beautiful country.” – Takashi Ogawa

The tournament will take place at TD Place Arena a world-class sport facility in July of 2020. We can’t wait to welcome the entire jump rope/rope skipping world to Canada.

Stay tuned for more information about the qualification process and registration packages. Follow IJRU on all social media channels and join our mailing list for regular updates!

IJRU is the sole international sport federation for the sport of Jump Rope/Rope Skipping and was formed through the merge of FISAC and World Jump Rope.

The International Jump Rope Union (IJRU) is pleased to announce that a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed in December 2018 between the Asian Rope Skipping Federation (ARSF) and the Asia and Pacific Jump Rope Federation (APJRF). This is the first step towards the creation and recognition of the new Asian Jump Rope Union (AJRU). The IJRU has worked closely with ARSF and APJRF to help the two organizations come together to support the future of our athletes and sport. We truly believe that a unified global sport community is necessary for the growth, development, and advancement of our sport.

In response the the merger, Mr. Michael Chan (ARSF) states:

Thanks a lot for working group from ARSF and APJRF. The MOU get approval from all members from both side and has been done fairly and transparently. Congratulations to AJRU! Asian Jump Rope/Rope Skipping get a new start. One rope, one dream. For Asia, for all of us!

Mr. Deajung Kim (APJRF) would like to:

Thank you for those individuals and organizations who expressed their support as well as concerns towards this merger. This merger is not for anybody’s gain, but this is for the sport of Jump Rope/Rope Skipping. AJRU’s working group and board members are all working hard voluntarily to advance our sport.

The AJRU will become the official Asian continental organization recognized by the IJRU and plans to hold their first General Congress at the China Open in October 2019. Please join us in congratulating the Asian continental organizations on this major step forward. 

#IJRUnity

IJRU is excited to support the 3rd annual China Open hosted by the Chinese Rope Skipping Association (CRSA). This tournament will take place in October 2019 and is open to participants from all IJRU member countries. For more information about the event, including exciting funding opportunities for participating NGBs, please review the 2019 China Open Brochure. Mr Michael Chan (ARSF, Vice President) would like to “invite all IJRU member countries to the China Open in Gu-an, China.”

Contact the Chinese Rope Skipping Association by email at lm@crsa.cc and start the registration process today!

The International Jump Rope Union (IJRU) made a big splash at the 2019 Sportaccord Convention on the beautiful Gold Coast, Australia.

Five IJRU executives and three athletes attended to showcase the wonderful sport of Jump Rope/ Rope Skipping and made further connection with other international federations, multi-sport games and major city representatives throughout the SportAccord Convention where over 100 sport Internationals federations were present.

An enormous thank-you to the Australian athletes, Luke Boon, Lilly Barker and Ben Cooper who displayed Jump Rope/ Rope Skipping at the convention. The extraordinary skills in their demonstrations utterly impressed other sport federations and representatives including Mr Raffaele Chiulli who is newly elected as GAISF President.

The local athletes from Cleveland Air Magic and Hot Shots of Queensland, Australia, took part in the United Through Sport/ Gold Coast Sport Festival. This was the very first opportunity for the sport to be showcased in such event where GAISF, AIMS, IOC representatives as well as the 8th Secretary General of the United Nations, His Excellency Ban Ki-moon attended. The Queensland athletes made great engagement with local students and general audience at the event and made the Jump Rope/ Rope Skipping communities all proud.

IJRU will continue advancing Jump Rope/ Rope Skipping for the athletes by making further engagement with GAISF and other IFs at the future SportAccord Conventions.

As we prepare for the 2020 World Championship, we have a number of exciting announcements to share.

IJRU 2020 World Championship Update

We are working towards hosting the first IJRU World Championship. There are many things that we need to consider as we develop a new rule set and tournament structure. In order to accommodate our diverse and growing membership, we have decided to allow countries to choose which rules they will use to qualify for the IJRU 2020 tournament. This means National Governing Bodies can use IJRU, FISAC, WJRF, or their own national rules at the qualifying tournament. Please talk with your local NGB to find out which rules they will use for your qualifying tournament.

The Latest Draft Rulebook

On March 31st the Technical Congress released a second draft of the IJRU judging manual and competition manual. Please review these documents and fill out the survey to offer your feedback. 

IJRU gets a .sport web address

We are excited to announce that the IJRU has been given a new web address: ijru.sport. As an observational GAISF member, we have access to this unique and prestigious domain name. The .sport initiative allows us to:

• Stand out in an increasingly crowded online sport community

• Gain recognition as the primary rope skipping/jump rope organization globally

• Increase our visibility through search results

You can review the GAISF .sport initiative for more information about this exciting opportunity. We are also in the process of updating our website with new features and functions to make it more user friendly for our members and broader sports community.

One of our core principals is to promote and spread the sport of jump rope/rope skipping around the world. Check out and support the upcoming events from our members and learn how to promote your next event through IJRU!

Promote your event

Are you an IJRU member country and hosting an upcoming competition, workshop, or promotional event? Let us know. We would be happy to promote your event to the entire jump rope/rope skipping community on our blog. Fill out our event survey!

Upcoming events

We are excited to help promote two exciting events taking place in Africa in the upcoming months!

African Jump Rope Training Workshop

The Nigerian Rope Skipping Federation is excited to welcome athletes from Botswana, South Sudan, Uganda, South Africa, and Kenya to a three day workshop in Lagos, Nigeria. The workshop is sponsored by World Jump Rope Federation and will take place from April 18, 2019 to April 20, 2019. Instructors and delegates from the United States and South Africa will help teach new skills and promote the sport! For more information about the event, read their media release.

Arnold Classic Africa

From May 17, 2019 to May 19, 2019 jump rope/rope skipping will be featured in the Arnold Classic Africa. This multi-sport event will take place in Johannesburg, South Africa and will help promote our sport and introduce it to new participants. This is the fourth time jump rope/rope skipping has been featured at this event. Best of luck to all those taking part in this exciting event and thank you to World Jump Rope Federation for helping with sponsorship.

Recent events

On March 21, 2019 Kazakhstan held their national jump rope tournament. We would like to congratulate all of the athletes, coaches, officials and organizers for an excellent event! Check out photos and videos from the tournament on the Kazakhstan Rope Skipping and Jump Rope Facebook page

We are excited to hear interest in IJRU judge and clinician training. Here we’d like to provide some guidance and details for those interested in attending training and for groups hosting training. Please share feedback as we’re looking to constantly improve. 

The rules are currently in development and hopefully you are seeing updates here as the Technical Congress publishes information and collects feedback. This process will continue through June. In July at the first IJRU Annual General Meeting (AGM), the rules will be put up to a final vote. At the same time, IJRU will hold the first judge clinician (judge trainer) and judge training. There cannot be IJRU-sanctioned judge training before this event as the rules and materials will not be ready.  

The Tech Congress is building a working group to build the judge training materials. We are looking for experienced judge trainers from around the world drawing from both incoming organizations (FISAC-IRSF and WJRF). Please submit nominations here. (Please feel free to nominate yourself.) 

We are working on a process for approving, staffing, promoting and tracking IJRU judge training. If you are already planning IJRU judge training at your event or with your group and your country is a member of IJRU, please work with your country membership. Otherwise please email info@ijru.org with the details of your event. To be certified, all IJRU judge training events must be sanctioned and approved by the IRJU. Prior approval is required in advance to use IJRU’s name in promoting any event (judge training, competition or otherwise). We do this to set standards on quality and to ensure that the event is consistent with IJRU’s core values.  

We are excited to launch the IJRU blog. This will be a space for us to communicate news and updates to the global community. Membership in the IJRU is reserved for National Governing Bodies (NGBs). As a result, some information will be sent directly to your country’s NGB. That being said, we recognize that many athletes, coaches, judges, volunteers, and administrators in our sport want to stay informed about the IJRU.

Communication strategy

Our communication strategy will provide regular public updates, to all individuals in our sport. Here, you will learn about upcoming IJRU sanctioned events, news stories, call for volunteers, and important IJRU deadlines and reminders.

Our public communication strategy will focus on 4 important channels of communication:

• Email

• Website updates

• Blog posts

• Social media posts

Give us your feedback

On our blog, we will provide you with an opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback. We are going through a large structural change in our sport and we have heard from many individuals that they feel left out of the process and don’t know how to offer their input. By creating this blog, we hope to encourage the development of a healthy dialogue and a space for our community to learn and share ideas.

Updated constitution

We listened to your feedback and have made some changes to our constitution. Please review an updated version of the constitution here.

IJRU becomes a member of TAFISA

Membership in The Association of International Sport for All (TAFISA) will help promote the sport of Jump Rope/Rope Skipping and provides us with access to a diverse network of international sporting organizations, exciting events and informative workshops.

TAFISA works to raise awareness around the benefits of Sports for All and physical activity.

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