One of the many recess games we played in my elementary years at Windsor School was Chinese Jump Rope, a popular game in the 1960s and 1970s.  We used an elastic rope that was tied in a circle.  You need 3 girls to play (I’ve never seen a boy do it).  Two girls stand facing each other with the stretched elastic loop around their ankles so it forms a rectangle.  The third player is the jumper.

The jumper performs a sequence of jumps and moves, jumping over, or stepping on the bands without making a mistake.  Our sequence was always in this order: Right toe in, right toe out, repeated 3 times.  Then the right foot would scoop up the closest rope and move it over the rope on the other side 3 times.  The next move is to jump with both feet, landing on both ropes, then jump inside the ropes, then outside the ropes, then bring your ankles together and twist around with the ropes on your ankles until you face the other direction.  Last of all, you jump up and unwind your ankles, then land in between the 2 ropes.  Then you jump out and you’re ready to advance to the next level: the rope around the knees.  If your feet have missed correctly stepping on or over the ropes, you’re out and you trade places with one of the rope holders.

The rope levels advance in this order: ankles, knees, thighs, hips, and then to the waist.  The higher it goes, the harder it gets.  I was always the tallest girl in my grade, so I usually had the advantage, and could often make it all the way to the hips.  It’s pretty impossible to jump onto both ropes at the same time when they are at waist level, but we tried!  Girlfriends played this simple game through 100s of recesses, on the hard-packed dirt of the playground.  We never tired of it.

This week in my cleaning, sorting and organizing, I found this Chinese Jump Rope book with pictures and instructions.  I think I’ll see if the granddaughters want to learn.