Roping in New Style

Bruce Lee jumping rope on his patio.

Years ago at my old martial arts school, under my old master, Kristin Barrett had to do jump rope 500 times and was allowed only five mistakes! If she made a sixth mistake, she would have to do them all over. After watching that, I made sure that I could do that. So for six months before my first Black Belt test, I was doing this every week several times. I was doing more than I had to by doing these double jumps in between when the rope had gone past under my feet. It was actually Master Bardatsos who showed me at the age of 12 that I was in fact, doing them wrong. Isn't that funny? Who knew I'd be sparring in his school Wednesday nights so many years later today!

Then on my Black Belt test, my master made me do 600 with only three mistakes allowed. I was prepared and did it well. Then he made mention of 1,000 with only two mistakes. Well once I heard that, I went right to work and before you knew it, I could do 1,000 mistakes with only two mistakes. Sometimes no mistakes!

When I left my old master in 2008, I gained a lot of weight and one of the first things I did when I began training again was jumping rope. I couldn't even get to 200 before messing up a sixth time. I was so discouraged. But one of the ways I began pushing myself was by changing my reps to time. I would do 15 minutes or 30 minutes straight of jumping rope. I could go for a very long time, but I never counted the reps. It is now four years later, and I can still jump rope for a very long time, doing 15-30 minutes straight several times a week. But I haven't tried doing reps.

Robert was training yesterday at the school and he decided to jump rope. As he was jumping I gave him the challenge to try 1000 with only two mistakes. It was challenging and he was getting frustrated at first. Finally he made it to, I think, 672 before making his first mistake. I don't now if he made it, but he did 15 minutes straight and he said that was "big" for him. LOL, OK!

Then he had me thinking.....can I still do it? It's been four years. I honestly had a little doubt in myself. That is why I had to do it and see if I could. When you count your reps instead of letting time go by, you become more focused, and your mind does not wander. So I decided to do it. I jumped my rope and made the commitment of doing 1000 with NO mistakes. I did 110 then a mistake. Then 145 then a mistake. I'm just warming up, I told myself. Then I made the commitment to get it done, even if I have to exceed my time.

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8.....up to 100....200....300....400.....500, half way there! Wow....I'm not doing too bad...let's keep it up....600.....more than half way....700....laughing at myself now, going back into time in my memory bank to how I would create short term goals for myself. I was allowed to give myself a mistake after 500 and 700, but I haven't made one yet.....800......Oh well now there is just no excuse, I'm going all the way! There's no stopping me......900.......96-97-98-99-1000!!!! I did it. WOOOOOW. It's been so long. I still got it.....Amazing.....

That was yesterday. SO today I was doing jumping rope again. I went over my 15 time limit yesterday. Today I am doing 30 minutes. So my goals was to do it again and exceed and see how far I can go. Long story short, it took me ten minutes to do 1,111 before making my first mistake. I was so proud of myself. Now I am just going to keep exceeding it and see where I get by the mock-test. It's funny how some of these exercises and forms bring me back into time to a different point of my life and I compare from then to now. It's really an amazing journey only another martial artist could really understand. But here's to the not accepting limits!

My goal =P

Yours in service,
ANDREW TRENTO