Who created National Skipping Day?

Skipping itself has a well documented modern history, from the New York detectives who turned Double Dutch into a scored sport to the Milwaukee teacher who invented the school jump-a-thon. The day is a different matter: no founder, no founding year and no establishing document has been traced for it.

Is jumping rope better exercise than running?

For energy burned it beats a slow jog, with Harvard Health putting fast rope jumping at 421 calories per 30 minutes against 288 for running at 5 mph. It is not a shortcut, though, and a six-week trial found ten minutes of skipping did not match thirty minutes of jogging.

National Skipping Day

Next celebratedSaturday, April 24, 2027

Skipping was sold for years as thirty minutes of jogging packed into ten, until a 1986 trial ran the claim through six weeks and the joggers came out ahead. The day hands you the rope anyway.

See how to celebrate

Countdown to the day

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Last updated August 30, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?

YEARLY DATEApril 24

OBSERVED INUnited States

CATEGORYFun

SUBCATEGORYSilly

ORIGIN

Community Origin

FOUNDING ENTITY

Not documented

FIRST OBSERVED

Not documented

HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

The name is in wide use; the April 24 origin is not.

The name National Skipping Day is in wide circulation, and Skipping Workshops has run events under it, reporting a nineteenth annual edition by 2021. No founder, founding year, proclamation or launch announcement was found for the April 24 observance.

+ Know the story? Submit a founder Help us complete this holiday

INTRO

A six-week trial that undid skipping's best sales pitch

National Skipping Day hands you a rope and asks you to use it. The most repeated argument for doing so does not hold up.

For years the selling point was a shortcut. Ten minutes on a rope, it was said, equalled thirty minutes of jogging. In 1986 a team writing in The Physician and Sportsmedicine called that an untested suggestion and put it through six weeks of training.

The joggers improved more. Their VO2 max rose 13 percent. The skippers gained 7 percent, and their group logged more injuries and more dropouts.

On that evidence the rope is not the shortcut it was sold as. It is a rope, and what it gives you it gives you honestly, which is a better reason to pick one up than the one it was sold with.

ORIGINS

Skipping Day history

INTRODUCTION

Double Dutch was a street game before it was a sport. It was played in the street for its own sake, and nobody kept a score.

That changed in New York in 1973, and it changed because two policemen decided it should.

CHAPTER 01

Two detectives wrote the rules

David A. Walker was an NYPD Community Affairs detective. With his partner, Detective Ulysses Williams, he set about turning the street game of Double Dutch into a scored team sport.

The first tournament came in February 1974. Nearly 600 fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth graders turned out for it. Walker founded the American Double Dutch League that year and led it for eighteen years.

CHAPTER 02

A teacher turned a rope into a fundraiser

Jean Barkow taught physical education at Riverside University High School in Milwaukee. She wanted her students to combine exercise with raising money for the American Heart Association, so in 1978 she staged a Jump-Rope-a-Thon. It drew 127 students.

The idea travelled fast. By 1981 a squad of Boulder Valley schoolchildren, coached by Richard Cendali, was serving as the national demonstration team for the programme Barkow had started.

National Skipping Day sits at the end of that long line, and its own beginning is the part nobody wrote down. No founder, no founding year and no establishing record has been documented for it.

The one organisation documented running an event under the name is Skipping Workshops, a British company whose free schools skipping day had reached its nineteenth edition by 2021, with no entry fee, no fundraising and no prizes attached. Schools that sign up are sent ropes free of charge, paid for by a rope manufacturer that sponsors the day. It is a commercial arrangement holding up something deliberately free.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love National Skipping Day

BONE

Ten jumps a day, three times a week, moved bone.

A 2006 trial asked 36 female college students to do ten maximum vertical jumps a day, three times a week. After six months, bone density at the femoral neck had risen significantly against a control group.

EFFORT

It outruns a slow run

Harvard Health puts fast rope jumping at 421 calories per 30 minutes for a 155-pound person. The same table gives 288 for running at 5 mph.

SPORT

The rope has a federation

The International Jump Rope Union holds observer status with the Global Association of International Sports Federations. Its two predecessor federations had produced 21 world championships between them.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Skipping Day by the Numbers

408: Most skips in one minute
61,800+: Children at a Skipping Workshops event
100,000: Peak turnout, Skipping Workshops event
$1.8B: Raised by US school heart challenges

TIMELINE

Timeline

Two detectives take up Double Dutch

New York police detectives David A. Walker and Ulysses Williams set out to turn the street game into a scored team sport.

First Double Dutch tournament

Nearly 600 schoolchildren competed in February, and Walker founded the American Double Dutch League the same year.

A teacher invents the jump-a-thon

Jean Barkow staged the first Jump-Rope-a-Thon in Milwaukee, pairing physical activity with fundraising for the American Heart Association.

The Skip-Its tour nationally

A Boulder Valley squad coached by Richard Cendali became the national demonstration team for the school jump rope programme.

One federation for the sport

Two older international bodies merged into the International Jump Rope Union, consolidating competitive skipping under a single governing body.

A schools event reaches nineteen

Skipping Workshops numbered that year's free schools skipping day as its nineteenth annual edition.

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate National Skipping Day

Start with the two-foot bounce

A 2022 study of adolescent skippers found the alternating-foot jump drives more force through the legs than the two-foot bounce. Its authors recommended the bounce for teenagers, so start there and add tricks later.

SET

Set up a playground skipping session

The schools model is deliberately cheap: a few long ropes, a guide to playground games, and a set break in the day. Nothing about it needs a gym, a fee or a prize table.

LEARN

Learn double dutch from a handbook

The most recent schools package from Skipping Workshops included a Double Dutch handbook written by a physical education teacher. It came with video clips demonstrating a range of skipping games.

TIME

Time a single minute of skipping

One minute is the format the world record is contested over, which makes it a clean way to measure yourself. Count only the clean passes, write the number down, and try it again next year.

TURN

Turn a skip into a fundraiser

School jump rope challenges have been raising money for the American Heart Association since the late 1970s. Pick a cause, set a target, and count jumps instead of selling raffle tickets.

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