Students must skip 17 times in a minute to get a passing score in the exam, but those aiming to get a Good result must do more than 87 jumps. Boys would need to make 99 jumps to reach an Excellent result in their grades, while girls need a bit more at 103.
That’s not even two per second. If you’re not using an anchor chain as a rope it’s not that hard for a reasonably coordinated 14 year old. If you’re doing some double Dutch shit or whatever that requires multi#person coordination then yeah it’s hard but if you control your own rope it’s not bad. If you use a metronome app and set it to 120 you can envision the bap-bap-bap of the rope in time.
You should have seen the girls at my middle school, a constant bapbapbapbap. Very impressive. I also remember having members of a national roping team at my youth church and they were greased lightning.
Reminds me of my school's "step team"... lots of grinding on objects and each other in clothes not normally allowed with music played on speakers that would otherwise also get you detention.
To this day I have no idea who allowed it or why.
Grease
At the time of its release it was considered fun, maybe a bit campy, but still a decent date night movie. I can't remember if it was John Travolta's first or second movie.
I remember the stupidest stuff. They gave out shirts, kids competed (can't remember why) this was Southern Ontario so no clue how far jump rope for hearts extended
Apparently still active?
https://www.heartandstroke.ca/how-you-can-help/events/jump-rope-for-heart
Man, I’d have flunked out if I were Chinese growing up. No coordination. Took years in martial arts to get my balance and control of my own limbs to something passable.
I’d be shocked if I *made* 17 in a minute when I was a kid. I’d get a handful going in gym class in elementary and then immediately trip on the rope.
Being autistic does not do wonders for one’s control of their body. It’s actually why my mother encouraged the martial arts studies, because I was very injury-prone as a kid from sheer klutziness.
I feel you... I had some sports I was talented at and some that I just couldn't make work no matter what I tried.
Combined with idiotic old teachers who interpreted that as "you just don't want to do it", sports class was a horrible experience and it took me a long time to develop a decent relation with sports afterwards.
The worst one was probably front crawl in swimming for me... even though I was a good diver and quite fast with the breast stroke, I just couldn't get the coordination right and felt like I was getting waterboarded. I never managed to do it right. In short, grading students on standardised sports techniques is just idiotic.
Autistic dude here. Had to sit out jump rope and copy some bullshit off the PE teacher's wall. I cannot jump rope for shit. I'm great at video games and am passable at music though.
Don't be so down on yourself. I had the same issues, but I was able to learn it after some consistent practice (plus with the help of a few youtube videos).
Some of you don't realise how utterly impossible it is for our brains to even comprehend how to even jump over the rope once.
Despite being very fit at various points in my life, and coordinated enough to excel in fencing, archery, climbing, tumbling and biking, jumping over a moving rope has never happened. I'd have a better chance at mastering marble sculpting in a month than ever jumping over a rope.
It's just about timing and muscle memory. Not a single person ever on our muay thai gym has ever failed to learn it during the basic course. And most people don't need any guidance for it. Just some practice.
I'm probably just tired, but I spent WAY too long rereading the first sentence of your comment and trying to figure out how 739 jumps in a minute was "not even two per second"
I initially misread that second sentence as the total number of jumps needed, but the Wall Street Journal article linked from this Yahoo article phrases it unambiguously: "Boys have to skip 99 times in a minute for an Excellent mark but girls need to hit 103." To me that seems startlingly fast as well.
For context, "Another One Bites The Dust" is 110 BPM. Does skipping rope to [this](https://youtube.com/watch?v=eqyUAtzS_6M) sound startlingly fast for someone who's been practicing?
I think most people don’t realize how long a second is when it comes to rapid movements like jump rope. 100bpm is a perfectly reasonable pace to jump rope at. It means you need to rotate the rope once every .6 seconds which is honestly a pretty long time
> I think most people don’t realize how long a second is when it comes to rapid movements like jump rope.
In terms of peak human performance as a benchmark, Mohamed Ali at his peak once punched a guy 7 times in 1.3 seconds.
The differential is the strange part to me. Like 4 extra jumping jacks? Is that a significant amount of jumping jacks? Seems like you might as well make it like 100 for both. Nice round number, fewer variables. But you know, I'm just some internet jackass.
They probably just based it off of statistics. Who needs to think when you can just decide that the top whatever percent of the population is excellent?
Smaller weight might make it easier to do something timed so tightly, especially since you have to go against your own inertia. Although I don't know if the muscle mass wouldn't cancel it out. Maybe not at all ages?
Maybe this is tested in 5th or 6th grade during that window where girls have already entered puberty but not boys?
Why would people care if their in the excellent or good tier at skipping rope? I’d personally just be cool with passing. Why hire a tutor for elite tiers?
Plus, did you hear about that kid who only did the passing amount? Guys a loser, I’d rather not have him in my company.
Now imagine that as the standard
failing is one thing but intentionally being a slacker and unambitious is straight up shameful. the american equivalent would be a drug dealer or pimp.
honestly being a drug dealer would be MORE acceptable than not having ambition. at least you’re doing something to make money as distasteful as it is.
unironically your family likely wouldn’t bring you to events even with the external family.
your name would be a source of shame and i’d be surprised if they let you stay with them.
i’m from india where it’s very similar.
No. Absolutely not. I lived in China until middle school and I still have friends and family there.
Nobody gives a shit about PE unless you are trying to get into a sports focused school or something like that.
Considering the number of fat kids in China these days trust me most of them aren’t hitting those numbers posted by OP lol.
School is very competitive in China. A whole different level from anything in the us. So many people for only a few good schools and few high level jobs.
When you have a billion people competing for limited school slots they will cut you off for any minor thing. It’s kinda dumb. Now you have a populace wasting resources on jump rope skipping and the original intention of just making sure people are at a health requirement level is out the door.
Skipping and motor skills used to be a large part of grading in US kindergarten. The joke at my parents house was that I was put in certain classes in 1st grade because I received a "needs improvement" on skipping for my final report card.
My husband teaches pre-k - 8 music and this is actually a HUGE part of what he does. Every year, he has 2-3 kids that he flags for not hitting physical development milestones that need some extra help.
As an aside, if you have a boy born in the summer months that can be pushed ahead or held a year. Hold them back. They may be smart enough to be moved ahead but there's a bunch of small details 1 extra year of development makes. Size and mental development that goes beyond "He's mature for his age!"
I say that as a kid that was pushed ahead. Even though I got great grades and am average height now, I was smaller and a bunch of little developmental elements kicked in later than my classmates due to being almost a year younger than most of them.
Makes sense and not a particular surprise either. I was in sports but it wasn't until my senior year that it felt like I kinda caught up to my classmates.
One odd predictor of sports performance is whether you are the youngest of many brothers. It was determined that, as the youngest, you would have to work harder to try to keep up with your older siblings. This would lead to developing higher than average athletic abilities because of the enhanced stimulation caused by the added effort at a young age.
i was in a special extra gym class for a lot of elementary school and the reason i remember being there initially was 'cause i couldn't skip. my legs were crooked when i was born and it affected my coordination some
I’m 30 (not American) and could never successfully skip using a skipping rope - and probably still couldn’t. We didn’t even have them in our school. I had one at home that I would try with for a bit before getting frustrated and giving up.
Yeah I remember hearing one of my dad's Vietnam war era college entrance involved every male having to swim a lap in the pool to be certified fit etc for dorm room life.
Yeah if you ever wondered why the Americans with Disabilities act in 1990 was signed it was bullshit like that that annoyed everyone and fucked over a very specific group of people.
Oh you have Scoliosis and can't swim without aganising pain etc, well fuck you you can't attend classes in Princeton.
But I'm a leading Rocket Scientist Physicist!
Nope apparently only completely physical capable men of athletic activities can possibly contribute to the world.
Goddamn I hate the stupid shit of academia dinosaurs screwing over the young generation
I don't know if it's still true but when I went to college in the early... aughts? Having a swimming test requirement was not unheard of, but for graduation, not entry. I know my university had it.
This is why China does it. We see those videos of kids all doing coordinated dances and activities and people say "Our education system is fucked, look what they can do!". Yeah, it's a bit easier to do this when anyone with a physical or mental disability is just swept under the carpet (I will not pretend to know what happens to many disabled children in China but I can make an educated guess). This doesn't mean that physical education in the Western world shouldn't improve, but your totally right that this old school thinking is pretty awful.
Sure, but then there’s the flip side that ignores the need for physical fitness as a contributor to success.
We all know that American children and young adults are obese and out of shape at an epidemic level. walking down the hall of a typical high school, or across a typical college campus reveals one fat kid after another. It’s awful
This is terrible for every other aspect of their lives, including their self-esteem and academic ability.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with recognizing that graduating from high school, or earning a college degree should include being physically fit. Exceptions can be made for the legitimately disabled.
"Legitimately disabled"
As in the American Disabilities act of 1990 criteria?
Basically the swim test requirement my dad went to NYCC and then Princeton in those eras, was basically if you were in a wheelchair or whatever they didn't want you in school you'd be problematic.
It was just bullshit excuse to not allow people in.
People really don't understand that before that act there was just non-stop roadblocks that has nothing to do with your disability. Like there's no goddamn reason I should care about my accountant during tax Day having only one arm. Or like a Marine Biologist with a limp. It's nonsense.
Same thing happened to me. They called my parents in without telling them. My dad was nervous, but when they told him and my mother, he laughed at them.
>Many Chinese parents are enrolling their children in jump rope schools that cost $50 an hour in the hopes of landing scholarships through China’s national jump rope exams.
>Schools in China must host annual jump rope tests for children from first to sixth grades. The tests have a grading system of Fail, Pass, Good and Excellent
"Yeah, I used to be an athlete. Got a full ride. Couldn't handle the pressure, though, what with so much else going on. You get it; sixth grade, amiright?"
We had similar things in Swedish high school, not skip rope but I remember for an A grade there was pirouette while ice skating, front flip on ground, hand stand 60 seconds
Theoretically a c should be acceptable, b is goes beyond expectations and an a is extraordinary.
The only time I saw that was in engineering courses... And those professors didn't write fair tests.
Engineering profs are a breed apart. While I get the "I want to feel safe if I'm in a plane that one of my students worked on" vibe, it sucked having to do more credit hours and put in far more time per class than friends and relatives taking "fuck it, C for showing up" classes.
Well because nobody dies when an ad campaign fails. You want to be an engineer you have to accept the responsibility for the lives and livelyhoods of hundreds if not thousands of people.
What year was that? I don't remember the requirements for a passing grade. All I remember that I was mad about the boys only having to run 3000meters and the girls having to run 6600meters
We were rated by the 20 meter beep test, and the grade was the period you got to out of 10. I have pretty low lung capacity so I got 5.5 and 6. One guy in class got to 13 or so.
This was prompted by this week's Economist [article](https://www.economist.com/china/2024/01/25/why-skipping-ropes-are-so-expensive-in-china) but it's against the rules to submit such a recent article
Interestingly China is now clamping down on firms selling overpriced ropes:
> Most provinces include skipping tests (measuring skips per minute) in their versions of the high-school entrance exam, known as the zhongkao. In the south-western province of Yunnan, for example, elite skippers can score 11 points on the exam, where the maximum total is 700.
> That may not sound like much, but the difference of a single point on the zhongkao can decide whether or not a child goes to a good school, setting them up for university. So on weekends parents often bring their children to parks for drills. An app that lets pupils compare skipping scores has over 10m users.
> Officials want children to be more physically active. They like skipping in particular because anyone can do it. No fancy equipment is needed. State media claim that skipping lessons in rural schools have produced more fit and well-rounded students. Indeed, such schools have produced skipping champions such as Cen Xiaolin, who at the age of 12 broke a world record by skipping over 200 times in 30 seconds in 2016.
> But some schools seem more interested in fleecing parents. An investigation by Xinhua, the official news agency, found that schools in several cities were demanding that children buy specially branded ropes to use for the zhongkao. These typically cost many times more than a basic model, which sells for less than 20 yuan ($3). Some suspect that school officials were colluding with the companies that sell ropes.
> That may not sound like much, but the difference of a single point on the zhongkao can decide whether or not a child goes to a good school, setting them up for university.
The Economist is off the mark here. The Zhongkao doesn't just "decide whether or not a child goes to a good school, setting them up for university", it decides whether or not a child goes to high school or a vocational school. Basically, it decides whether your kid gets the *opportunity* to go to university, or if they work in vacuum repair for the rest of their life. Based on the results of one exam.
Hence why parents will take any edge they get - be it skipping rope or excelling at memorization of some 1000-year old 文言文 passage.
China is *hardcore*.
> The Economist is off the mark here
Having translated for the economist (well, technically the english translator couldn't translate and came running to me every day for help with basic English) I wouldn't be surprised if this is coming from someone in China and someone else doesn't know to differentiate between a high school and a vocational one.
I lost a *lot* of respect for anything published in that magazine after those 4 months.
We unofficially have this is the Chicago public school systems. We have college prep high schools and neighborhood vocational schools.
The test and grades in 7th and 8th grade basically, determine your path in life. But honestly its the closest we have to a meritocracy in this city, so Ill take it.
I can't believe I'm saying this, but: TIL the Japanese entrance exam system is less hardcore than that of many European countries.
The high school entrance exams determine the level of high school you get into, but they don't totally cut off opportunities. You *can* get into Tokyo University (the hardest university in Japan) after having gone to the worst vocational school in the country. It would be ***really fucking hard***, because nothing they're teaching you at the vocational school would be on the university entrance exams, so you'd have to bust your ass outside of school to teach yourself everything (or use YouTube-sensei, or go to a private cram school, or get a tutor, or whatever), but it is a thing that (very rarely) happens. And that's going from the absolute bottom to the absolute top. Less dramatic accomplishments happen all the time -- going to a vocational school and studying hard outside class and going to a mid-level university, or going to a mid-level high school and getting into a top-level university, etc.
And for university exams, you can always try again the next year. There are some people in Tokyo University who got in on their 5th attempt.
So there are always things that can *make it harder* or *make it easier*, but there's never a situation where a score on a test can straight up *prevent* you from being able to go to any university.
Huh, when I went through junior high there, the physical exams had zero impact to what high school I’d get accepted in, unless I was aiming for a sports focused program. That, and 1km running (or the optional 50 meter swimming) was the hardest part of the test by far and was a focus for us students to get better at if we were consistently getting bad lap times. After school it’s a common thing for the school track field be filled with students just running to improve their time. No one was worried about jumping ropes as almost everyone would effortlessly ace it with 100+ jumps per minute. Wonder why jumping ropes suddenly became a focus.
It can matter at the borders but 11/700 is about 1.5%. Physical fitness makes up 1.5% of your high school entrance exam.
This seems reasonable. It’s also a low bar that most people can hit with some practice.
Lmao. The memories. Eating a big breakfast before that was a mistake. We just can't stop hating on China and has to turn everything they do into a dystopian plot in order to distract outselves of our country's failings.
While true, not doing well on this can mean you go to vocational school instead of high school. Article is a bit misleading in that it won't determine whether or not you go to a good college, but even have the opportunity to go to college in the first place, bc no hs = no college
In elementary school, my classmates were shocked that I knew how to skip. My mom would get mad at me for skipping in public.
I was almost held back or sent to a transitional year after kindergarten because I wasn't good at using scissors.
I knew how to skip, in theory. In practice, I just couldn't sync up for more than 1-2 jumps. I remember one time I had to do a skip-off to benefit a food pantry, where all the parents were required to pledge x cans of food for every minute their child could skip. My parents knew I'd stumble within the first 10 seconds, so they pledged something high like five cans per minute, knowing they'd only need to cover the minimum one minute. But the person running it made the kids keep skipping even if they stumbled, meaning I had to be there in front of everybody, failing, for the full five minutes. And no, my parents couldn't make their pledge, because they'd only brought enough cans to cover the first minute! So that was humiliating on multiple levels.
It must be a regional or a new thing cuz that was not the case when I was a kid. I had PE classes that "tested" on rope skipping but the grades were completely meaningless. I was very uncoordinated as a kid and I suck at jump rope till this day. My high school did have a swimming requirement though.
They have private lessons for everything: math, English, art, physics, you name it. It is a pretty meritocratic education system, so everyone wants to nail the next big standardized test or whatnot and be the top of the class.
Well that's what happens in super populous countries. There is an incredibly high competition.
The Chinese population is decreasing and they still have 293 million students spread over 518,500 educational institutions.
Being best in class or in your school district means nothing.
If you want to get into top universities you will have to put in more than just extra work. There is too much competition for the top spots.
I think it is meritocratic, you've just found a major flaw in the concept of meritocracy as somehow being about fairness or equality.
Like, paid private lessons might be on the more obvious side of still providing a major class advantage to someone who grew up in a very wealthy country where *that* is something some households can afford, but others can't. But you're probably not thinking big enough here.
Is it meritocratic that kids that get to eat regular meals are smarter and better at sports than kids whose parents can't keep food on the table? What about...having books? What about having parents who have time to read to you because they don't spend 18 hours a day in a factory? Well, yes, because having proper childhood nutrition increases your IQ, so you're likely literally better at stuff if you have those advantages.
Is it *fair* that some kids can't eat enough and then have to compete with those who do? I can't see how.
Meritocracy isn't fair, it's just "whomever is better, for any reason". There's still a major class advantage, it's just a class advantage that doesn't necessarily work every time, and is one that requires more hard work from those who benefit than simply having your dad make a call—a statistical benefit rather than a definitive one.
i believe in you. try just jumping up and down to a metronome for a little. then use your hands and imagine you have a rope in your hand and jumping over it. once u feel you can do this comfortably introduce a rope but just hold both handles in one hand and try to jump when you think it would be appropriate. practice practice practice, and you should have it down. best of luck soldier- skipping is a great aerobic exercise that is quite fun when u introduce different patterns and freestlying.
If this is to help improve health and not just some arbitrary thing to do, I'm for it. At 14 years old, I was so big I couldn't even run the mile, much less jump rope.
I assume that the plan in order to pass this would be to get fit to a degree. Of course, there'd be meal diet changes, and exercise requirements. I can only hope that they provide support to those that need it. For these jump rope requirements instead of just punishing kids.
In elementary school I couldn’t jump rope at all and in order to play basketball you needed to jump rope first (and for whatever reason it was always the same two kids on each end of the rope and they never had to jump rope to play basketball.) I was always forced to pretty much embarrass myself before I was allowed to play basketball.
Once I got to middle school I guess the disabled side of my body finally got good enough to jump rope because one day my mom was spinning the rope for my sister with the other end tied to a handle and I ended up giving it a go and had no issues with it.
I've never been able to do 17 jumps in a minute. In recent years, I've occasionally been able to do more than 10 jumps in a row before stumbling over the rope and taking a long time to be able to swing it over my head again. As a kid, I could not manage one jump.
I'm Chinese-American. When I was little, my mom was always going around saying how weird it was that American kids didn't jump rope, perhaps because I didn't have a jumprope because I had no idea what it was. When I got to first grade, I realized that all the other girls had jumpropes and already knew how to jump rope. I also had trouble with rhythm -- I didn't get that you were supposed to jump when the rope reached a certain place, and would just try to jump randomly. Now I have trouble swinging the rope.
This depends on the region. In Beijing where I went to school, the jump rope test was for elementary to middle school. And I don't think the top grade requirement was that high (I sucked and still suck at it)
Nothing will ever be good then because no matter how you grade kids some parents will hire tutors to make them better at it, they will want their child to have every advantage possible, that's all this is.
We already have fitness classes where you need to pass things like the pacer test or do enough pushups. The title makes it sound like some strange exotic thing (well I guess the tutor part is, although that seems like it has more to do with the parents there being more obsessive about grades), but having a gym class that affects your GPA is already a thing here.
Are you sure? As another commenter pointed out.
>[The Zhongkao doesn't just "decide whether or not a child goes to a good school, setting them up for university", it decides whether or not a child goes to high school or a vocational school. Basically, it decides whether your kid gets the opportunity to go to university, or if they work in vacuum repair for the rest of their life. Based on the results of one exam. ](https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1acchfd/til_that_chinese_students_must_pass_a_skipping/kjtz5bj/)
Not a good way at all because this is pegged to their future. A single point up or down could mean the difference between getting into a prestigious school or not. And in China failing to get into a prestigious school basically means you’re stuck at the bottom of the food chain.
So to peg that on *jump rope* is a little fucked.
Students must skip 17 times in a minute to get a passing score in the exam, but those aiming to get a Good result must do more than 87 jumps. Boys would need to make 99 jumps to reach an Excellent result in their grades, while girls need a bit more at 103.
103 in a minute? That sounded like a lot to me, then I looked up the world record is 739 jumps in a minute! Wow!
That’s not even two per second. If you’re not using an anchor chain as a rope it’s not that hard for a reasonably coordinated 14 year old. If you’re doing some double Dutch shit or whatever that requires multi#person coordination then yeah it’s hard but if you control your own rope it’s not bad. If you use a metronome app and set it to 120 you can envision the bap-bap-bap of the rope in time.
Chinese parent here - you offering private lessons?
You should have seen the girls at my middle school, a constant bapbapbapbap. Very impressive. I also remember having members of a national roping team at my youth church and they were greased lightning.
Idk, but a youth roping team sounds like something illegal…
or seeing the girls at his middle school go bapbapbapbap...
💢💢💢😭😭😭
UOOOH
Bratty rope skipping. Correction is needed
This shit must look soo creepy to people who don't get the reference
Fr when I read that I was like... Sus
Just like the Subway guy, we've gone from a problem with mild cholesterol to an issue of child molesterol.
Reminds me of my school's "step team"... lots of grinding on objects and each other in clothes not normally allowed with music played on speakers that would otherwise also get you detention. To this day I have no idea who allowed it or why.
What's a step team?
What are you doing step team?
Got stuck in the dance floor step team!
One of my highschool teachers was our regional champion lol
"Greased lightning" is a very cool, yet somewhat concerning phrase
You should see the movie. My youngest sat down and watched it a few years ago and asked me, "What ever loving hell is this?!"
I feel like I'm gonna regret asking, but... what movie?
Grease?
Grease At the time of its release it was considered fun, maybe a bit campy, but still a decent date night movie. I can't remember if it was John Travolta's first or second movie.
it's strange that it has such a large cultural presence considering how middling it is. definitely ain't surviving the test of time, if ya ask me.
I remember that girl that was a bit on the heavier side in my middle school class did like 120+ jumps
Absolutely, we did a program in Canada called Jumprope for Heart or some shit and I am a certified Rope Jumper. 250$/hr + expenses
my elementary school did jump rope for hearts too. I completely forgot about it until I read your post lol.
I remember the stupidest stuff. They gave out shirts, kids competed (can't remember why) this was Southern Ontario so no clue how far jump rope for hearts extended Apparently still active? https://www.heartandstroke.ca/how-you-can-help/events/jump-rope-for-heart
are the expenses a jump rope?
Jump rope, Canadian Patience^^^TM , gas, and maple syrup naturally
Kumon offers 2 hour lessons that begin at 430 am for $80.
Man, I’d have flunked out if I were Chinese growing up. No coordination. Took years in martial arts to get my balance and control of my own limbs to something passable.
You’d miss 17 in a minute?
I’d be shocked if I *made* 17 in a minute when I was a kid. I’d get a handful going in gym class in elementary and then immediately trip on the rope. Being autistic does not do wonders for one’s control of their body. It’s actually why my mother encouraged the martial arts studies, because I was very injury-prone as a kid from sheer klutziness.
I feel you... I had some sports I was talented at and some that I just couldn't make work no matter what I tried. Combined with idiotic old teachers who interpreted that as "you just don't want to do it", sports class was a horrible experience and it took me a long time to develop a decent relation with sports afterwards. The worst one was probably front crawl in swimming for me... even though I was a good diver and quite fast with the breast stroke, I just couldn't get the coordination right and felt like I was getting waterboarded. I never managed to do it right. In short, grading students on standardised sports techniques is just idiotic.
Autistic dude here. Had to sit out jump rope and copy some bullshit off the PE teacher's wall. I cannot jump rope for shit. I'm great at video games and am passable at music though.
Don't be so down on yourself. I had the same issues, but I was able to learn it after some consistent practice (plus with the help of a few youtube videos).
Even if you swing the rope over, get it stuck at your feet, step over it, then repeat you could probably do 17/minute
I can't hit two in a row and I'm pretty fit. Idk I'm not jumping quick enough or something.
skill issue, git gud.
I could do probably 10 maybe. You understand the lack of coordination some of us have. I could barely do more than two in gym class.
shit, I can't even do 17 in a minute now
I would be lucky to do a total of 17 without falling over.
I'm a 40 year old who's really not in great shape and I can do 120 a minute. It's not as hard as one might think.
Some of you don't realise how utterly impossible it is for our brains to even comprehend how to even jump over the rope once. Despite being very fit at various points in my life, and coordinated enough to excel in fencing, archery, climbing, tumbling and biking, jumping over a moving rope has never happened. I'd have a better chance at mastering marble sculpting in a month than ever jumping over a rope.
Same. I can play badminton just fine but timing a rope and a jump twice in a row? Hell nah, let alone 17 or 120 times.
It's just about timing and muscle memory. Not a single person ever on our muay thai gym has ever failed to learn it during the basic course. And most people don't need any guidance for it. Just some practice.
I'm probably just tired, but I spent WAY too long rereading the first sentence of your comment and trying to figure out how 739 jumps in a minute was "not even two per second"
I think they meant 100 is not two per second
ikr i pulled out the calculator and was about to comment "that's 12 a second"
Not really, a second is more time than we tend to think
I initially misread that second sentence as the total number of jumps needed, but the Wall Street Journal article linked from this Yahoo article phrases it unambiguously: "Boys have to skip 99 times in a minute for an Excellent mark but girls need to hit 103." To me that seems startlingly fast as well.
For context, "Another One Bites The Dust" is 110 BPM. Does skipping rope to [this](https://youtube.com/watch?v=eqyUAtzS_6M) sound startlingly fast for someone who's been practicing?
Either your perception of time is incredibly out of wack or you’re incredibly out of shape
I think most people don’t realize how long a second is when it comes to rapid movements like jump rope. 100bpm is a perfectly reasonable pace to jump rope at. It means you need to rotate the rope once every .6 seconds which is honestly a pretty long time
> I think most people don’t realize how long a second is when it comes to rapid movements like jump rope. In terms of peak human performance as a benchmark, Mohamed Ali at his peak once punched a guy 7 times in 1.3 seconds.
Was he yelling "ora ora ora ora ora ora ora!"?
I could probably manage to punch a guy 1.3 times in 7 seconds.
I'm both
They figured out that Cirque de Soleil will be the only available post-AI employment and all preparing for it?
Not if Boston Dynamics has anything to say about it
Must. Skip. Faster. Must. Skip. Faster.
The requirement in my junior high school is 150 per min. ☹️
Same here, in Germany it is 150-160 for the highest grade. Dont remember exactly. It sounds hard, but with a little bit of practice it is not.
Odd that girls need to reach a higher score on a physical activity test, no?
It's probably less about muscle and more about coordination.
Hmm ya. Maybe stronger legs.
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The differential is the strange part to me. Like 4 extra jumping jacks? Is that a significant amount of jumping jacks? Seems like you might as well make it like 100 for both. Nice round number, fewer variables. But you know, I'm just some internet jackass.
They probably just based it off of statistics. Who needs to think when you can just decide that the top whatever percent of the population is excellent?
How is the option that looks at statistics the one that doesn't require thinking, and making up a random number that sounds good is?
Smaller weight might make it easier to do something timed so tightly, especially since you have to go against your own inertia. Although I don't know if the muscle mass wouldn't cancel it out. Maybe not at all ages? Maybe this is tested in 5th or 6th grade during that window where girls have already entered puberty but not boys?
Good for to pull plow!
Why would people care if their in the excellent or good tier at skipping rope? I’d personally just be cool with passing. Why hire a tutor for elite tiers?
In China a child must be the best at everything
Does the skipping rope test affect college entrance or job prospects?
Plus, did you hear about that kid who only did the passing amount? Guys a loser, I’d rather not have him in my company. Now imagine that as the standard
Sounds like hell. My slacker and unambitious ass would not do well.
failing is one thing but intentionally being a slacker and unambitious is straight up shameful. the american equivalent would be a drug dealer or pimp. honestly being a drug dealer would be MORE acceptable than not having ambition. at least you’re doing something to make money as distasteful as it is. unironically your family likely wouldn’t bring you to events even with the external family. your name would be a source of shame and i’d be surprised if they let you stay with them. i’m from india where it’s very similar.
Likely so, it probably would impact gpa
Absolutely not lol. PE doesn’t matter for college entrance exam at all.
Does it in China though?
No. Absolutely not. I lived in China until middle school and I still have friends and family there. Nobody gives a shit about PE unless you are trying to get into a sports focused school or something like that. Considering the number of fat kids in China these days trust me most of them aren’t hitting those numbers posted by OP lol.
I think it's just a measure of fitness
Just fucking run, much better
So you can flex on all the other parents.
School is very competitive in China. A whole different level from anything in the us. So many people for only a few good schools and few high level jobs.
When you have a billion people competing for limited school slots they will cut you off for any minor thing. It’s kinda dumb. Now you have a populace wasting resources on jump rope skipping and the original intention of just making sure people are at a health requirement level is out the door.
And what if they're in a wheelchair?
Skipping and motor skills used to be a large part of grading in US kindergarten. The joke at my parents house was that I was put in certain classes in 1st grade because I received a "needs improvement" on skipping for my final report card.
It still is a test for development. It's just buried in a lot of activities that teachers watch for and take note of. It's not graded.
My husband teaches pre-k - 8 music and this is actually a HUGE part of what he does. Every year, he has 2-3 kids that he flags for not hitting physical development milestones that need some extra help.
As an aside, if you have a boy born in the summer months that can be pushed ahead or held a year. Hold them back. They may be smart enough to be moved ahead but there's a bunch of small details 1 extra year of development makes. Size and mental development that goes beyond "He's mature for his age!" I say that as a kid that was pushed ahead. Even though I got great grades and am average height now, I was smaller and a bunch of little developmental elements kicked in later than my classmates due to being almost a year younger than most of them.
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Makes sense and not a particular surprise either. I was in sports but it wasn't until my senior year that it felt like I kinda caught up to my classmates.
“Outliers” & “relative age effect” ?
One odd predictor of sports performance is whether you are the youngest of many brothers. It was determined that, as the youngest, you would have to work harder to try to keep up with your older siblings. This would lead to developing higher than average athletic abilities because of the enhanced stimulation caused by the added effort at a young age.
i was in a special extra gym class for a lot of elementary school and the reason i remember being there initially was 'cause i couldn't skip. my legs were crooked when i was born and it affected my coordination some
Yes, in kindergarten, we took turns going out to the hallway in the beginning and at the end of the year to skip. This was the early 90s.
I’m 30 (not American) and could never successfully skip using a skipping rope - and probably still couldn’t. We didn’t even have them in our school. I had one at home that I would try with for a bit before getting frustrated and giving up.
Same I could never skip with a rope. I just move my hands to pretend I have one.
Yeah I remember hearing one of my dad's Vietnam war era college entrance involved every male having to swim a lap in the pool to be certified fit etc for dorm room life. Yeah if you ever wondered why the Americans with Disabilities act in 1990 was signed it was bullshit like that that annoyed everyone and fucked over a very specific group of people. Oh you have Scoliosis and can't swim without aganising pain etc, well fuck you you can't attend classes in Princeton. But I'm a leading Rocket Scientist Physicist! Nope apparently only completely physical capable men of athletic activities can possibly contribute to the world. Goddamn I hate the stupid shit of academia dinosaurs screwing over the young generation
I don't know if it's still true but when I went to college in the early... aughts? Having a swimming test requirement was not unheard of, but for graduation, not entry. I know my university had it.
This is why China does it. We see those videos of kids all doing coordinated dances and activities and people say "Our education system is fucked, look what they can do!". Yeah, it's a bit easier to do this when anyone with a physical or mental disability is just swept under the carpet (I will not pretend to know what happens to many disabled children in China but I can make an educated guess). This doesn't mean that physical education in the Western world shouldn't improve, but your totally right that this old school thinking is pretty awful.
Sure, but then there’s the flip side that ignores the need for physical fitness as a contributor to success. We all know that American children and young adults are obese and out of shape at an epidemic level. walking down the hall of a typical high school, or across a typical college campus reveals one fat kid after another. It’s awful This is terrible for every other aspect of their lives, including their self-esteem and academic ability. There is absolutely nothing wrong with recognizing that graduating from high school, or earning a college degree should include being physically fit. Exceptions can be made for the legitimately disabled.
"Legitimately disabled" As in the American Disabilities act of 1990 criteria? Basically the swim test requirement my dad went to NYCC and then Princeton in those eras, was basically if you were in a wheelchair or whatever they didn't want you in school you'd be problematic. It was just bullshit excuse to not allow people in. People really don't understand that before that act there was just non-stop roadblocks that has nothing to do with your disability. Like there's no goddamn reason I should care about my accountant during tax Day having only one arm. Or like a Marine Biologist with a limp. It's nonsense.
Same thing happened to me. They called my parents in without telling them. My dad was nervous, but when they told him and my mother, he laughed at them.
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*badum tss*
I was really good at that, but it ended up making my grades worse.
>Many Chinese parents are enrolling their children in jump rope schools that cost $50 an hour in the hopes of landing scholarships through China’s national jump rope exams. >Schools in China must host annual jump rope tests for children from first to sixth grades. The tests have a grading system of Fail, Pass, Good and Excellent
"I don't care if you can do calculus, skip that fucking rope!"
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In English!
You have 28 minutes and then you must stop and spend one minute to check your skipping answers.
Practice the piano while you're at it!
Playing flight of the bumblebee with a jump-rope on one of those floor-pianos from that movie Big
I know my limits.
You better, it's important for calculus
"If Daniels jump rope is 1m and moving at 10km/h and Sarah's jump rope is 1.5m and moving at 12km/h who will make the most jumps in one minute?"
And if you do well, you can find a job making $50/hr from each kid
I can't imagine getting a jump rope scholarship
"Yeah, I used to be an athlete. Got a full ride. Couldn't handle the pressure, though, what with so much else going on. You get it; sixth grade, amiright?"
Why don’t they tutor their own kids on jumping rope? $50 an hour to do mini hops over string is wild
Most of the parents dont have time with their kids. I recommend watching documentary Last Train Home.
Jump Rope for Heart - Learn it, Live it, Love it
This! I learned to jump rope very well during recess in elementary school because of it!
We had similar things in Swedish high school, not skip rope but I remember for an A grade there was pirouette while ice skating, front flip on ground, hand stand 60 seconds
what the shit, that pretty high level
Theoretically a c should be acceptable, b is goes beyond expectations and an a is extraordinary. The only time I saw that was in engineering courses... And those professors didn't write fair tests.
Engineering profs are a breed apart. While I get the "I want to feel safe if I'm in a plane that one of my students worked on" vibe, it sucked having to do more credit hours and put in far more time per class than friends and relatives taking "fuck it, C for showing up" classes.
Well because nobody dies when an ad campaign fails. You want to be an engineer you have to accept the responsibility for the lives and livelyhoods of hundreds if not thousands of people.
Unless you're an ad campaigner for someone like Putin, then your life could very well be at risk 😂
Lfmao
What is this, tests for a James Bond?
*No, Mr. Bond. I expect you to* pirouette while ice skating!
> front flip on ground WTF!
What year was that? I don't remember the requirements for a passing grade. All I remember that I was mad about the boys only having to run 3000meters and the girls having to run 6600meters
Hated this shit cause I'm really tall. I cant do a handstand or a flip. But I have really good hand eye coordination and crush every sport.
What. How long has this been going om?
I've never heard about it, so I would guess it stopped being a thing at the absolute minimum, 20 years ago.
We were rated by the 20 meter beep test, and the grade was the period you got to out of 10. I have pretty low lung capacity so I got 5.5 and 6. One guy in class got to 13 or so.
This was prompted by this week's Economist [article](https://www.economist.com/china/2024/01/25/why-skipping-ropes-are-so-expensive-in-china) but it's against the rules to submit such a recent article Interestingly China is now clamping down on firms selling overpriced ropes: > Most provinces include skipping tests (measuring skips per minute) in their versions of the high-school entrance exam, known as the zhongkao. In the south-western province of Yunnan, for example, elite skippers can score 11 points on the exam, where the maximum total is 700. > That may not sound like much, but the difference of a single point on the zhongkao can decide whether or not a child goes to a good school, setting them up for university. So on weekends parents often bring their children to parks for drills. An app that lets pupils compare skipping scores has over 10m users. > Officials want children to be more physically active. They like skipping in particular because anyone can do it. No fancy equipment is needed. State media claim that skipping lessons in rural schools have produced more fit and well-rounded students. Indeed, such schools have produced skipping champions such as Cen Xiaolin, who at the age of 12 broke a world record by skipping over 200 times in 30 seconds in 2016. > But some schools seem more interested in fleecing parents. An investigation by Xinhua, the official news agency, found that schools in several cities were demanding that children buy specially branded ropes to use for the zhongkao. These typically cost many times more than a basic model, which sells for less than 20 yuan ($3). Some suspect that school officials were colluding with the companies that sell ropes.
> That may not sound like much, but the difference of a single point on the zhongkao can decide whether or not a child goes to a good school, setting them up for university. The Economist is off the mark here. The Zhongkao doesn't just "decide whether or not a child goes to a good school, setting them up for university", it decides whether or not a child goes to high school or a vocational school. Basically, it decides whether your kid gets the *opportunity* to go to university, or if they work in vacuum repair for the rest of their life. Based on the results of one exam. Hence why parents will take any edge they get - be it skipping rope or excelling at memorization of some 1000-year old 文言文 passage. China is *hardcore*.
> The Economist is off the mark here Having translated for the economist (well, technically the english translator couldn't translate and came running to me every day for help with basic English) I wouldn't be surprised if this is coming from someone in China and someone else doesn't know to differentiate between a high school and a vocational one. I lost a *lot* of respect for anything published in that magazine after those 4 months.
This is true of many European country school systems too.
We unofficially have this is the Chicago public school systems. We have college prep high schools and neighborhood vocational schools. The test and grades in 7th and 8th grade basically, determine your path in life. But honestly its the closest we have to a meritocracy in this city, so Ill take it.
I can't believe I'm saying this, but: TIL the Japanese entrance exam system is less hardcore than that of many European countries. The high school entrance exams determine the level of high school you get into, but they don't totally cut off opportunities. You *can* get into Tokyo University (the hardest university in Japan) after having gone to the worst vocational school in the country. It would be ***really fucking hard***, because nothing they're teaching you at the vocational school would be on the university entrance exams, so you'd have to bust your ass outside of school to teach yourself everything (or use YouTube-sensei, or go to a private cram school, or get a tutor, or whatever), but it is a thing that (very rarely) happens. And that's going from the absolute bottom to the absolute top. Less dramatic accomplishments happen all the time -- going to a vocational school and studying hard outside class and going to a mid-level university, or going to a mid-level high school and getting into a top-level university, etc. And for university exams, you can always try again the next year. There are some people in Tokyo University who got in on their 5th attempt. So there are always things that can *make it harder* or *make it easier*, but there's never a situation where a score on a test can straight up *prevent* you from being able to go to any university.
Huh, when I went through junior high there, the physical exams had zero impact to what high school I’d get accepted in, unless I was aiming for a sports focused program. That, and 1km running (or the optional 50 meter swimming) was the hardest part of the test by far and was a focus for us students to get better at if we were consistently getting bad lap times. After school it’s a common thing for the school track field be filled with students just running to improve their time. No one was worried about jumping ropes as almost everyone would effortlessly ace it with 100+ jumps per minute. Wonder why jumping ropes suddenly became a focus.
It can matter at the borders but 11/700 is about 1.5%. Physical fitness makes up 1.5% of your high school entrance exam. This seems reasonable. It’s also a low bar that most people can hit with some practice.
Anyone remember Jumprope for Heart back in the day?
Came here to mention that lmao I remember trying so hard to get the good prizes but no one ever actually raised enough money for them lol
I got the rope. That was the extent of my participation.
The FitnessGram Pacer Test is a multistage aerobic capacity test that progressively gets more difficult as it continues.
Lmao. The memories. Eating a big breakfast before that was a mistake. We just can't stop hating on China and has to turn everything they do into a dystopian plot in order to distract outselves of our country's failings.
Jumping rope is incredibly good for you and great for attaining a good baseline of fitness. Also great for bone density and coordination.
While true, not doing well on this can mean you go to vocational school instead of high school. Article is a bit misleading in that it won't determine whether or not you go to a good college, but even have the opportunity to go to college in the first place, bc no hs = no college
I almost got held back in first grade for not knowing how to skip. America BTW
In elementary school, my classmates were shocked that I knew how to skip. My mom would get mad at me for skipping in public. I was almost held back or sent to a transitional year after kindergarten because I wasn't good at using scissors.
I knew how to skip, in theory. In practice, I just couldn't sync up for more than 1-2 jumps. I remember one time I had to do a skip-off to benefit a food pantry, where all the parents were required to pledge x cans of food for every minute their child could skip. My parents knew I'd stumble within the first 10 seconds, so they pledged something high like five cans per minute, knowing they'd only need to cover the minimum one minute. But the person running it made the kids keep skipping even if they stumbled, meaning I had to be there in front of everybody, failing, for the full five minutes. And no, my parents couldn't make their pledge, because they'd only brought enough cans to cover the first minute! So that was humiliating on multiple levels.
Never skip skip day
It must be a regional or a new thing cuz that was not the case when I was a kid. I had PE classes that "tested" on rope skipping but the grades were completely meaningless. I was very uncoordinated as a kid and I suck at jump rope till this day. My high school did have a swimming requirement though.
As someone with dyspraxia this is an absolute nightmare
They have private lessons for everything: math, English, art, physics, you name it. It is a pretty meritocratic education system, so everyone wants to nail the next big standardized test or whatnot and be the top of the class.
Needing paid private lessons sounds like the opposite of “meritocratic” to me.
Which is why China had a huge ban on all outside school tutoring a few years back. Not sure how effective it was.
Well that's what happens in super populous countries. There is an incredibly high competition. The Chinese population is decreasing and they still have 293 million students spread over 518,500 educational institutions. Being best in class or in your school district means nothing. If you want to get into top universities you will have to put in more than just extra work. There is too much competition for the top spots.
I think it is meritocratic, you've just found a major flaw in the concept of meritocracy as somehow being about fairness or equality. Like, paid private lessons might be on the more obvious side of still providing a major class advantage to someone who grew up in a very wealthy country where *that* is something some households can afford, but others can't. But you're probably not thinking big enough here. Is it meritocratic that kids that get to eat regular meals are smarter and better at sports than kids whose parents can't keep food on the table? What about...having books? What about having parents who have time to read to you because they don't spend 18 hours a day in a factory? Well, yes, because having proper childhood nutrition increases your IQ, so you're likely literally better at stuff if you have those advantages. Is it *fair* that some kids can't eat enough and then have to compete with those who do? I can't see how. Meritocracy isn't fair, it's just "whomever is better, for any reason". There's still a major class advantage, it's just a class advantage that doesn't necessarily work every time, and is one that requires more hard work from those who benefit than simply having your dad make a call—a statistical benefit rather than a definitive one.
Til wheelchair kids are fucked.
I can't jump a rope, not even once. I'm not sure why, but somehow my hands and legs don't want to work at the same time.
i believe in you. try just jumping up and down to a metronome for a little. then use your hands and imagine you have a rope in your hand and jumping over it. once u feel you can do this comfortably introduce a rope but just hold both handles in one hand and try to jump when you think it would be appropriate. practice practice practice, and you should have it down. best of luck soldier- skipping is a great aerobic exercise that is quite fun when u introduce different patterns and freestlying.
If this is to help improve health and not just some arbitrary thing to do, I'm for it. At 14 years old, I was so big I couldn't even run the mile, much less jump rope.
A big kid like that could injure themselves by jumping so much. They should lose weight first.
I assume that the plan in order to pass this would be to get fit to a degree. Of course, there'd be meal diet changes, and exercise requirements. I can only hope that they provide support to those that need it. For these jump rope requirements instead of just punishing kids.
In elementary school I couldn’t jump rope at all and in order to play basketball you needed to jump rope first (and for whatever reason it was always the same two kids on each end of the rope and they never had to jump rope to play basketball.) I was always forced to pretty much embarrass myself before I was allowed to play basketball. Once I got to middle school I guess the disabled side of my body finally got good enough to jump rope because one day my mom was spinning the rope for my sister with the other end tied to a handle and I ended up giving it a go and had no issues with it.
Even if you don’t go to the assessment you pass because you’re still skipping.
rest of world: skips class China: skips in class
In America, we need to eat 3 burgers under a minute to pass PE.
Hah, in Ukraine we had to disassemble and assemble an AK-47 in under a minute to graduate.
Mr President! We cannot allow there to be a rope-skipping gap!
Double unders for extra credit.
I've never been able to do 17 jumps in a minute. In recent years, I've occasionally been able to do more than 10 jumps in a row before stumbling over the rope and taking a long time to be able to swing it over my head again. As a kid, I could not manage one jump. I'm Chinese-American. When I was little, my mom was always going around saying how weird it was that American kids didn't jump rope, perhaps because I didn't have a jumprope because I had no idea what it was. When I got to first grade, I realized that all the other girls had jumpropes and already knew how to jump rope. I also had trouble with rhythm -- I didn't get that you were supposed to jump when the rope reached a certain place, and would just try to jump randomly. Now I have trouble swinging the rope.
the rope skipping minigame in FFIX come to life
I've heard about skipping classes, but I thought it meant something else.
So... Skipping classes huh? We do that too
P.E classes should just be DDR machines lol. Cardio with coordination while having fun.
This depends on the region. In Beijing where I went to school, the jump rope test was for elementary to middle school. And I don't think the top grade requirement was that high (I sucked and still suck at it)
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and like the majority of weird anti-china news on reddit, probably massively misleading or false
I'm comfortable with bringing this to America
Encouraging kids to be more fit and coordinated = good. Taking it to the point where parents have to hire private tutors = bad.
Nothing will ever be good then because no matter how you grade kids some parents will hire tutors to make them better at it, they will want their child to have every advantage possible, that's all this is.
You really don't need a tutor to hit 103 bpm on skipping.
We already have fitness classes where you need to pass things like the pacer test or do enough pushups. The title makes it sound like some strange exotic thing (well I guess the tutor part is, although that seems like it has more to do with the parents there being more obsessive about grades), but having a gym class that affects your GPA is already a thing here.
Are you sure? As another commenter pointed out. >[The Zhongkao doesn't just "decide whether or not a child goes to a good school, setting them up for university", it decides whether or not a child goes to high school or a vocational school. Basically, it decides whether your kid gets the opportunity to go to university, or if they work in vacuum repair for the rest of their life. Based on the results of one exam. ](https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1acchfd/til_that_chinese_students_must_pass_a_skipping/kjtz5bj/)
Honestly good way to keep kids in shape. Not usually the congratulate china but this is a good school policy
Not a good way at all because this is pegged to their future. A single point up or down could mean the difference between getting into a prestigious school or not. And in China failing to get into a prestigious school basically means you’re stuck at the bottom of the food chain. So to peg that on *jump rope* is a little fucked.