Criterion A

1. Is Rope skipping a sport? Justify your answer.

The Oxford Dictionary of English defines sport as an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for
entertainment. Rope skipping involves physical exertion such as jumping, and requires skills such as body co-ordination and reaction time. Although rope skipping was
not first intended to be a competitive activity, nowadays, rope skipping competitions are held all around the world. Therefore, modern rope skipping is a sport.
2. Is Rope skipping more popular in the USA high schools amongst students than in Hong Kong schools? List 2 reasons to support your answer.
Rope skipping is more popular in USA high schools, because firstly, USA is where the International Rope Skipping Federation (FISAC-IRSF) and the World Jump Rope
Federation (WJRF), international organisations which host international rope skipping competitions, are founded. Secondly, USA has a more major rope skipping
organisation called the United States Amateur Jump Rope Federation (USAJRF), which is founded during the 1970s by Richard Cendali. The organisation still holds
many competitions each year. Meanwhile, the major rope skipping organisation in HK only started holding competitions since 2010. Therefore, rope skipping is more
popular amongst students in USA high schools than in Hong Kong schools.
3. What are the benefits of rope skipping? Give 3 reasons from physical aspect and 3 from mental (psychological) and social aspect.
Physical Aspect: 1) Since rope skipping is a cardiovascular exercise, meaning an exercise which raises your heart beat, it can improve your heart circulation and
cardiovascular endurance. Due to that, professional athletes and boxers use rope skipping to train their cardiovascular endurance. In fact, when foot-baller Richard
Cendali invented the modern rope skipping, he first used it as a way to increase his cardiovascular endurance. 2) Rope skipping uses the muscles from both your upper
and lower body, so it strengthens your upper and lower body. 3) Rope skipping can improve your agility, speed, co-ordination, balance and reaction time, since when you
jump over the rope, you need to co-ordinate your mind and body to react quickly without losing balance so that the rope will not hit you.
Mental (psychological) Aspect: 1) It is proven by many research around the world that exercise can improve your mental health by helping you relief stress and improve
your mood. As rope skipping is an exercise, it has the same benefits as well. 2) Rope skipping has the ability to improve your intelligence. According to the Jump Rope
Institute, jumping benefits the development of the right and left hemisphere of the brain, which can further improve literacy skills, increase memory and special
awareness.
Social Aspect: Rope skipping only requires a rope, while other exercises such as soccer and cycling require specific locations and equipment. Since only a rope is
required, rope skipping can be done in many places, at any time and does not cost very much, making it an affordable and flexible exercise for many people. People who
cant afford other exercises can play this sport.
4. What have you learnt after conducting this research? Has it changed your attitude towards this sport / physical activity?
After conducting this research, I learnt three major pieces of information about rope skipping. Firstly, there are actually many rope skipping organisations both
international and local all around the world, such as the FISAC-IRSF, WJSF, USAJRF and HKRSA. Secondly, I learned that rope skipping or jump rope was first just
people jumping over a long rope, which was evolved into Double Dutch by the Dutch and finally Rope Skipping by Richard Cendali, who added techniques such as
Criss-Crosses, Side Swings, Double and Multiple Unders into rope skipping. Thirdly, I learned that rope skipping has many benefits physically, mentally and socially.
The knowledge I gained from my research changed my attitude to this sport. Before this, I thought that rope skipping was simply just a sport involving people jumping
over a rope. However, after my research I realised that there is a lot more to rope skipping than I once thought. Now, I think that rope skipping is actually a serious sport
with great benefits.
5. The FISAR-IRSF World Rope Skipping Championships 2014 was held in Hong Kong from 27th July 2014 - 5th August 2014; but the media coverage was
far less than FIFA World Cup 2014 or FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix (Hong Kong station) 2014.
i. Discuss the reasons for the lack of popularity & media coverage in rope skipping championships.
To most Hong Kong people, rope skipping is not as important as a sport than football or volleyball, most people treat rope skipping as a game that primary students
play during recess time, but not really a sport. Furthermore, their knowledge about rope skipping is very shallow, unlike their knowledge about football and
volleyball. As a result of Hong Kong citizens attitude and lack of knowledge on rope skipping, rope skipping is not a popular sport in Hong Kong. The media only
covers sports that interest their audience, if not, no one will pay attention to them and the media will not have any business or audience. Due to the fact that rope
skipping was not as popular as football or volley, the media did not cover as much stories about the World Rope Skipping Championships 2014 as the FIFA World
Cup 2014 or the FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix (Hong Kong station) 2014.
ii. If you are the organizer or sponsor for the Rope skipping championships, what would you do to attract more attention in the society? How would you
promote and market this sports event in the future if HK is going to hold the championship again in 2016?
The easier, faster and more direct method to attract more attention about the Rope Skipping Championships is to advertise the Championship all throughout the city.
Advertisements such as TV commercials, social media advertisements and public transportation advertisements can directly inform HK citizens about the Rope
Skipping Championships. However, this will method of promotion will not create a long-lasting effect. In order to create a long-lasting impact in the society, we
should begin with solving the problem to why people are not attracted to this sport. As one of the reason that people are not interested in rope skipping is due to their
lack of knowledge about the sport, as the organiser for the Rope Skipping Championships, I will try to educate HK people about the sport before the Championships
are held. Public events and exhibitions can be held to educate HK citizens about rope skipping. The organiser can also collaborate with the local rope skipping
organisation HKRSA to organise educational events, school visits and educational programs or courses for children and teenagers to participate. This can make a
more long-lasting effect, because it can solve the source of the problem of peoples lack of interest in rope skipping.
6. Hong Kong team had great results in the Rope skipping Championship in summer 2016 (Sweden). It has finally attracted wider media coverage on the
sport achievements. Discuss (i) from different aspects (social, family, school and government), give 4 reasons for the significant improvement and
achievement of HK rope skipping. (ii) why is there a change in media attitude
(i) Social: After achieving great results in the Rope Skipping Championships 2016 (Sweden), the Hong Kong rope skipping team gained better recognition and was
invited to perform in Ocean Park for a special event to promote rope skipping. This showed social support for the team.
Family: The family members of the HK rope skipping team were very supportive of them. In an interview, one of the team members Lee Sum Wing said that at first rope
skipping was one of her interest, but then she became more and more passionate about it and joined rope skipping competitions, her parents supported her along the way.
School: One of the champion team members, Parco Shum Po-hang, has earned a conditional offer through the Outstanding Sportsmen Recommendation Scheme at
Polytechnic University, which recognised rope skipping as a sport. This showed the growing recognition of the sport.
Government: To celebrate the teams achievement, the Hong Kong government has announced their achievements on the government websites.
(ii) As mentioned before, the media only covers stories that interest their audience. Since the Hong Kong Rope Skipping teams phenomenal achievement in the Rope
Skipping Championship 2016, including taking home 27 golds, they became something Hong Kong is proud of and gained recognition for it. Seeing that people are proud
and interested in this news, the media coverage was significantly increased.

Sources:
http://www.skip-hop.co.uk/history-of-skipping-c28.html
http://www.fisac-irsf.org/fisac-irsf-history.html
http://worldjumprope.org/about/about/#
http://www.usajrf.org/page-20-About.html
http://www.hkrsa.com/index.php/championships-en/local-championships-en/inter-school-competition-en
http://www.erso.info/index.php?page=history
http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/features/skipping-rope-doesnt-skip-workout#1
https://www.buyjumpropes.net/resources/8-jump-rope-benefits-you-didnt-learn-in-pe/
http://www.livestrong.com/article/25493-muscles-used-jump-rope/
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/benefits-jumping-rope-you-probably-dont-know.html
http://english.cctv.com/2016/09/14/VIDEryVES7BHdRrVVD85ukaR160914.shtml
http://topick.hket.com/article/1476323/%E8%B1%81%E5%87%BA%E5%8E%BB%E9%9B%B6%E5%A4%B1%E8%AA%A4%20%E5%91%A8%E6%B0%B8%E6%A8%82%E
8%8A%B1%E5%BC%8F%E8%B7%B3%E7%B9%A9%E5%A5%AA%E5%86%A0
http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/2002509/rope-skipping-hong-kong-youngsters-win-gold-world