[upbeat music]
- [Reporter] For most of us,
jumping rope may seem like a simple childhood pastime,
but for this woman, it's a way of life.
- My name is Tori Boggs, and I'm a professional jump roper.
- [Reporter] For more than 20 years,
she's been pushing the boundaries of jump rope
and elevating her craft to unthinkable levels.
- My favorite moment is when I pull out my rope,
do something absolutely crazy,
and see how people's minds are blown.
- [Interviewer] So at what point did you realize
that you were pretty good at this?
- Yeah, I was not good at jump rope when I first started.
[intense music]
- [Reporter] Those days didn't last long.
By the age of 13, she was the grand world champion.
One of her signature events is a power skill
called triple unders.
- A triple under is where you jump up
and the rope makes three revolutions around your body
and then you land, and it's the only event in our sport
where you're going as long as you possibly can.
So jumpers are either going till they're fatigued
or they make mistake.
It's definitely a really brutal event
and requires a lot of power and endurance.
- [Reporter] Doing a single triple under
can be extremely hard, but landing hundreds and hundreds
of triples in a row, well, there's only a handful
of people on the planet who can do that.
- I tied the world record, had to wait two years
to come back to the world tournament, and I tied it again,
had to wait two more years to come back,
and I broke the world record,
but I wasn't happy with my score
because I knew I could do better.
Two more years, and then finally was able
to solidly break the world record.
I got 412 triple unders.
- [Reporter] Tori has since broken her own record
and set a new one,
493 consecutive triple unders.
- You're doing triple unders for six minutes.
That's a long time to be doing this constant jump
and going through the burn of different parts
of your body as you go,
whether it's starting with your legs,
moving to your arms, and then you're kind of losing eyesight
a little bit sometimes.
- [Coach] Good job.
Good job, Tori!
Good job.
- [Reporter] Tori is a 32 time US Grand National Champion
and a five time all around Grand World Champion.
She's traveled the world teaching jump rope skills,
performed was Cirque de Soleil,
and appeared on shows like Ellen.
- I remember the very first time I saw jump rope,
I was five years old,
I thought it was the coolest thing
and couldn't stay away from it.
There was a lot of struggle.
I was always really having to practice hard.
There definitely was never a natural talent
or affinity towards using the rope.
[timer beeps]
- [Reporter] Tori also broken the world record
multiple times in an event called three minute speed,
where jumpers use a wire metal rope that moves so fast,
it can be hard to see.
- I definitely encourage people to know
how to control the rope before they move to a wire rope,
because it moves so quickly.
And when you mess up, you feel it.
I even still am making mistakes
and leaving wire whip marks on my body sometimes.
- [Reporter] Tori says she first broke
the three minute speed world record
when she was just 11 years old.
Not satisfied, she spent the next 10 years
perfecting her technique.
- You're thinking about all these technique points
as you go along, and of course, you're tired,
so as you get more exhausted,
you're lowering your feet too much,
and there's always that balance of like,
you don't wanna be lifting your legs so high,
'cause that takes so much energy,
but you also have to keep them up a certain distance
so that you're keeping your timing on.
So there's all these little intricate factors
that go to make really just one jump come together.
- [Reporter] At 20 years old, she broke the record again.
This time, with 1,010 jumps,
averaging a ridiculous 5.61 jumps per second
for three straight minutes.
- And I remember finishing the event,
I dropped my rope, and my mom was on the floor with me,
and we both just broke down tears,
because how many years in the making it was
to get this record.
And my brother ran down from the stands,
'cause he also knew all of the hours
that I've spent in the gym.
So this was a really special, for sure, world record.
Yeah.
♪ Yippee ay oh ♪
[cool synth music]
- [Reporter] Nobody can agree
on where exactly jump ropes started,
but we know it's been around since at least the 1600s.
In modern times, it's gained fame as a playground activity,
a fitness craze, and a training tool for boxers.
But it's also a global sport with competitors
for more than 50 countries, and Tori's been a pioneer,
pushing new techniques and inventing new tricks.
- So I always say that when you learn a new jump rope skill,
you can say that you have it
after you've done it five times,
but to really know the skill it takes a good 30 times.
A Mic Release is where you're letting go of one handle,
but the rope is still moving in a forward direction.
It looks like it defies laws of gravity,
but it's really simple physics that makes this skill work.
It kind of blows everyone's minds.
Splits are doing a split with a jump rope in your hand.
The tricky part of this is that you gotta jump out of it
or else it's not a jump rope skill.
There's another skill that I'm kind of known for,
it's called the Bubble.
The Bubble is where you're jumping up off the air
and then the rope is moving horizontal around your body.
For a Kamikaze, you're starting in pushup position
and you jump and swing the rope around you
and land back in pushup position.
The Back Tuck is a back loop with the jump rope.
It was really scary when I first started doing it,
I was about 10.
Now it's an easy skill that I can just like,
"oh, let me go run and do a back flip with my jump rope."
The TJ is the most famous of jump rope skills.
The TJ consists of a side swing to start,
and then when you cross your arms,
the bottom arm is going under one leg,
this is called a toe, or a leg over cross,
and then the last part of the skill
is opening your arms and jumping out of it.
The Webster is a one footed front flip.
The thing with doing any forward front flips
is you're always worry about the landing.
Once you get around, you gotta get back up
into to the next jump and keep moving on.
One of my favorite skills is called a Johmmy.
So you go side swing, a leg over, and a cross out of it.
And it looks pretty cool.
I actually named my dog Johmmy because of that skill.
I'm known as a like a power dynamic jumper,
which is how I strive to move with the rope.
So the idea is that I'm constantly kind of cutting
and changing direction.
- [Reporter] Tori's also invented skills
never seen before.
She named this one the Torminator.
- It's a back extension roll, but I have one handle
under my leg, and I'm in a handstand
and then reach out and grab the rope
and pull it under me.
- [Reporter] While the ability to master individual skills
can take years, it's the ability to seamlessly link tricks
where jumpers' creativity and style really show.
- Everyone has their own unique way of doing skills,
which is also really special about jump rope,
that you have your own style,
but the really creative part is how you choose
to combine those skills and how you choose to move
with the rope, and that's really where
your own individual style comes into play.
[ethereal percussion music]
In general, jump rope is a pretty safe sport.
Most of my injuries have come from overtraining
or because I've tried something new,
which has also happened.
I was really confident.
Like I can jump over this rope.
It's just a little bit hotter this time, right?
But I got it wrapped around my ankle,
ended up with second, third degree burns.
My goal then was I'm gonna immediately tomorrow reset,
resoak my rope and do it again.
Yeah, I think that's also a lesson
that I've learned in jump rope is to face your fears,
and if something does go wrong,
instead of panic and abort,
let's problem solve and figure out how to get around this.
Jump rope is really hard,
and a lot of people will pick up a jump rope
and immediately get frustrated,
but it's really just because they didn't know
how to properly break it down
or even it's an equipment error,
they didn't have the right size jump rope
and they just didn't know the first steps to it.
I feel very responsible to help someone
have a good experience with jump rope for the first time,
because it truly can open so many doors in their lives
whether they do wanna pursue jump rope competition
and challenge themselves in that way,
or they're just working with a rope for fitness,
or it's just a child having fun with a jump rope.
So that's really a special part of my jump rope career
is being able to teach other people
and share this activity with them.
[upbeat synth music]
Pretty much everything I've learned in life
has been through jump rope,
or with a jump rope in my hand at least.
No matter what's going on in my life,
I can be in the lowest of moments,
but when got my jump rope, I just have such a good feeling
and it kind of brings me out of whatever funk I might be in,
and that's not to say I don't ever have fights
with my jump rope.
We've definitely gone through this relationship of,
I hate you, I can't figure anything out, nothing's working,
but I think ultimately I love jump rope,
because it's fun and it brings me joy,
and there's nothing I would rather be doing with my time
than jumping over a rope, which sounds so silly,
because it's just something so inexpensive and simple
that can bring so much joy to people.