Rules Update and Technical Committee Report

IJRU held the first Technical Congress meeting on May 31, 2020. More than 20 National Governing Bodies (NGBs) were present to review and vote on a variety of rule proposals presented by the IJRU Technical Committee.  

This is an exciting moment in our sport’s history as we start a new phase of rule development that is founded on the principles of mutual respect and collaboration between IJRU and our member NGBs. We would like to thank everyone who participated in the meeting and all of those who worked on developing our updated ruleset. 

Rule book updates 

We are pleased to announce that all rule proposals were approved by the Technical Congress. Please review the updated IJRU Competition Manual and IJRU Judging Manual for the official wording and rule changes.  

Here is a high-level overview of the major changes to the Competition Manual and Judging Manual. If you have any questions or need clarifications about the rule updates, please send an email to the Technical Committee at tcom@ijru.sport.  

Age categories and age cut-off date 

Due to the postponement of the World Championships, we decided to make some changes to the age categories. This was done in order to allow those athletes that have already qualified to remain in the same age category.  

The new age categories are: 

  • 12 to 15 for the Junior World Championships 

  • 16+ for the World Championships 

The International Open Tournament will have the following age categories: 

  • 12 to 15 

  • 16 to 18 

  • 19+ 

  • 30+ 

We have also adjusted the age cut-off date in order to align with other International Sport Federations and based on feedback we received from multiple member NGBs. The new age cut-off date is December 31. For the 2021 season we have kept the following exception to allow for those athletes who have already qualified to remain in the appropriate age category: 

  • Those athletes who turn 16 between September 1 and December 31 will be allowed to compete in the Junior World Championships  

Presentation weight 

We have changed the presentation weight from +/- 35% to +/- 60%. This decision was made after reviewing the data from 18 tournaments that took place using the IJRU rules in 2019 and 2020.   

The current data available indicates that the majority of presentation scores fall within a condensed range, with only a small separation between presentation scores. In this case, presentation is having a relatively small impact on the results and scores of routines, particularly in comparison to the difficulty scores. 

We want to ensure that presentation remains an important aspect of our sport and this will increase the impact of form/execution, entertainment and musicality on the final score.  

Repeated skills 

We have updated the repeated skills rule in order to ensure that the deduction for repeating a skill is consistent with the difficulty level of the skill that was repeated. In the previous rule, it was a set deduction that could over-penalize athletes who repeated a low-level skill and under-penalize athletes who repeated a high-level skill. 

The new rule places the responsibility of judging repeated skills with the Required Elements judge and includes the following details: 

  • Skills that have a difficulty of 0.5 to 2 will not be counted by repeated skills judges and can be repeated throughout a routine without penalty 

  • Skills that have a difficulty level of 3 or more will receive a deduction that is equal to the difficulty level each time they are repeated during a routine 

We believe that skills with a difficulty level of 2 or lower are often building block skills and we don’t want athletes to avoid repeating these foundational skills.  

Judging single rope multiples 

In single rope multiples, once a hand has been placed in a restricted position, it must change positions or exit and re-enter a restricted position before it will further increase the difficulty level of that skill.  

  • Quintuple AS –Side, open (going into AS), AS, AS, AS = L6  

    • L4 for quint, L2 for two hands restricted in the first AS 

  • Quintuple AS–Side, AS, open, AS, open = L8 

    • L4 for quint, L2 for two hands restricted in the first AS, L2 for two hand restricted in the second AS because the first restriction was exited and re-entered 

  • Side-EB-CL= L4  

    • L2 for triple, L1 for restricting one of your arms behind your back during the side swing on the 2nd rotation of the rope, L1 for restricting your second arm behind your legs on the third rotation of the rope 

How do these rule changes impact my judging certifications? 

The Technical Committee is in the process of updating the online judging training materials to reflect the newly approved changes. All IJRU certified judges will need to take an online recertification course in order to judge at upcoming tournaments. If you have any questions, please reach out to the Technical Committee at tcom@ijru.sport.  

Technical Congress representatives 

The Technical Congress will work with the Technical Committee to research, develop and approve new rules for the sport of jump rope/rope skipping at the international level. The following NGBs were represented at the inaugural Technical Congress meeting: 

  • Australia 

  • Austria 

  • Belgium 

  • Botswana 

  • Canada 

  • China 

  • Czech Republic 

  • Denmark 

  • Finland 

  • France 

  • Germany  

  • Hong Kong 

  • Hungary 

  • India 

  • Japan 

  • Russia  

  • Singapore 

  • South Africa 

  • South Korea 

  • Sweden 

  • Switzerland 

  • United States 

If you are an NGB with full or provisional membership status with IJRU, you are eligible to have two representatives on the IJRU Technical Congress. Please send an email to info@ijru.sport and we will work with you to ensure that you have representation on the Technical Congress moving forward.  

IJRU