(Hannah Gunnell/South Indy Connect photo) Indy Air Bears jump rope team is sending eight individuals to the International Jump Rope Union World Jump Roper Championships in Japan this summer. Here, OwenWilling throws Brendan Fisher into a front flip, while Ella Fisher and Bria Mittendorf swing two ropes.
By HANNAH GUNNELL
Indy Air Bears, an Indianapolis-based jump rope team, will be sending eight individuals to represent Team USA in the International Jump Rope Union World Jump Rope Championships in Japan this summer.
Ella Fisher, Bria Mittendorf, Elise McQueen, Ella Beck, Blake Long, Owen Willing, Brendan Fisher and Sonora O’Connor qualified in a variety of different jump-rope events. They’ve all been jump roping for at least eight years.
It’s not the team’s first time sending jumpers to Worlds. All eight qualifiers have attended Worlds before, but this is the first time they’ll be leaving the country to compete in the championships. Nationals was held in February at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
(Hannah Gunnell/South Indy Connect photo) Fisher and Willing swing Double Dutch jump ropes while Blake Long does a trick in the middle. Tricks can look like handstands, pushups, or flips, among others, and increase the difficulty of a routine, which in turn can increase its overall score.
Each routine has an opportunity to qualify. Some routines consisted of individual jumpers, while others included multiple jumpers. The eight jumpers representing the Indy Air Bears qualified for at least eight events. (There were so many they had trouble keeping track.)
Long’s favorite event is the team freestyle.
“There’s four of us that compete with single ropes and we do a routine to music,” he said. “It’s my favorite because it’s more fun to choreograph and find songs you like to use, go with the beat and figure out certain tricks you can do at points in the song. It’s like a dance routine but with jump rope. The four people would each have their own rope, and we all do the same tricks at the same time.”
The eight will compete the same routines they qualified with at Nationals, but left some room in the routine to make the tricks harder. Harder tricks increase the difficulty, and the overall score. Tricks include flips, pushups, handstands, footwork, or making the rope go under you more than once in one jump, Long said as examples.
The goal at Worlds is just to perform as best they can, McQueen said.
“If you can get a routine perfect, no misses, then you did your best, and at that point, it’s up to how everyone else does,” she said.
There is no off-season for jump rope. After Worlds, which is set for July 27-Aug. 3 in Kawasaki, Japan, the jumpers will come back and start creating new routines.
(Hannah Gunnell/South Indy Connect photo) Some routines include moments where jumpers jump simultaneously, like Ella Fisher and Bria Mittendorf do here.
“We’re going to be so jet-lagged,” Mittendorf joked.
Indy Air Bears was founded in 1986 by then-Arlington Elementary Physical Education teacher Niki Glover, according to the website. The team began with 14 elementary students as the Arlington Air Bears. When they stayed on the team into middle and high school, the team named changed to Indy Air Bears. They still practice in the gym of Arlington Elementary, a Franklin Township elementary school. Now, the team boasts K-12 and older jumpers from Franklin and neighboring townships.
It started out as a performance team, and still hosts various performances for the community to enjoy — in fact, the Spring Spectacular is set for 7 p.m. May 10 at the Franklin Central High School auditorium. Their first competition was in Richmond, Indiana in 1987, and have hosted their own Indy Open tournament annually since 2000. More information about the team and the schedule is available on its website, indyairbears.org.
