Organizers of Calgary’s SkipTime are recruiting new members to learn about jump roping and how the sport can take them all over the world for competitions.
The club was founded in 2010 and became a non-profit three years later. It’s members are aged six years old and up.
“We have lots of skippers who come to us with no previous experience and it’s really fun to watch them grow throughout their time with us,” said head coach Piper Bourne. “We love to provide a super energetic, fun experience for our participants, our skippers.”
Bourne knows a lot about the program because she started young and worked her way up through the ranks.
“I’ve competed provincially, nationally and internationally, so you can go very far in the sport,” she said. “We always love new additions, we want as many people to love the sport as we do -- so everybody’s welcome.”
Twelve-year-old Riley Ball is in her fourth year at SkipTime. She’s graduated from the ‘recreational’ level up to ‘competition’ which means she could compete in nationals if she qualifies and has set a goal to go to worlds when she’s older.
“In the past I was trying a lot of sports like soccer and hockey and dance and (then) I found skipping,” she said. “I thought it was a really cool sport because there were older kids to help me but then also it’s this nice mix of creativity and athleticism.”
Ball is also a junior coach who works with youngsters enrolled in recreation.
“It’s just such a nice community and everyone’s just supportive of new and young skippers,” she said. “So it’s really welcoming, we’re all a fan of it.”
Jill Foreman, Riley’s mom, said she has enjoyed watching Riley grow playing a sport that keeps her active.
“I’ve got three children, she’s my youngest and it was a very nice group to join where the commitment level slowly grew as her interest grew,” said Foreman. “So we actually started out one night a week for an hour and then she got really into it and she wanted to come twice a week for the recreation program.”
Now Ball is skipping four nights a week and her mom says she’s never bored and always looking for new challenges.
“In her competitive program, I believe the age ranges like eight years to university students,” said Foreman. “So she’s grouped with her similar age cohort but in the same gym she can watch, she can learn, she can ask for advice from older skippers so she’s never bored as far as what’s the next thing she should try.”
Sixteen-year-old Kiyah Thompson is a veteran at SkipTime and was part of the team that went to the worlds in Colorado Springs in 2022.
“Our next open competition is actually in February (22-23 in Ponoka, Alta.) and we get to talk to a whole bunch of different athletes in different parts of Alberta,” she said. “Through that, we can learn a whole bunch of new tricks that they’ve been working on which is really a unique experience.
Thompson says going to worlds is an amazing experience and now everyone is focused on qualifying for the 2025 event in Japan.
Learn more about SkipTime here: www.skiptime.ca
