East Idaho Moms is excited to feature the Proform Airborne Jump Rope Team as our nonprofit for May 2022. Eastern Idaho is fortunate to have a wealth of nonprofit and service organizations. By highlighting some of these groups, we hope to encourage moms and families to get involved and learn about all that our wonderful community has to offer.
Proform Airborne Jump Rope Team, also known as Airborne Elite, is a performance and competitive jump rope team in Eastern Idaho. The organization was formed by Coach Connie Dunn in 1988 at Washington Middle School in Rexburg, Idaho. In 1995, the team changed its name from Jumping Jazz to Proform Airborne Jump Rope Team. The team is currently coached by Monica Foster, Brita Lindstrom, Emily Ward, and Kaitlin Williams, all of whom were former team members of Proform Airborne.
“Proform Airborne provides an environment in which team members can build their confidence, endurance, creativity, and enjoyment for physical health. We encourage responsibility, teamwork and open communication amongst team members and coaches. As a team, athletes improve their skills as performers, instructors, and competitors while sharing their love of jump rope with others. We are creating the leaders of tomorrow today.”
The Proform Airborne Jump Rope Team offers clinics, workshops, and shows. Clinic and team participants generally range in age from 5 to 20. As soon as a child is able to hold and turn their own rope, Proform Airborne Jump Rope Team will begin teaching them. Beginner clinics are offered in the Rigby and Idaho Falls communities throughout the school year. These clinics are taught by skilled members of their Senior team (A Team). Through attending these weekly clinics, kids learn the basics of jump rope and are given the opportunity to join the Junior team (B Team) once they complete the Level 1 clinic. The B Team meets once weekly to work on group routines and learn the fundamentals of competing and performing. They join with the A Team for local community shows and school assemblies. Once a B Team member becomes proficient in group routines and performance, they are offered the opportunity to join the A Team. The A Team meets three times per week with a focus on team competition. They are placed into groups of 3 to 4 members with 15 different competition events throughout the year.
Most of the Proform Airborne Jump Rope Team competitions take place in the spring and summertime. The fall is used for learning new skills and choreographing routines. During the competition season team members perfect their routines. A team provides numerous community shows and school assemblies throughout the year to audiences of all ages. Everyone enjoys a jump rope performance since everyone can relate to jumping rope!
The majority of Proform Airborne Jump Rope Team’s fundraisers come from school assemblies and selling custom jump ropes. The organization has traveled all over Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, and Nevada for school assemblies. They offer workshops to school students and leave schools with high-quality jump ropes to sell to their students. Jump rope is such an easy and fun way to get active and be outside. After having one of the assemblies at a school, the school always sees an increase of students jumping rope outside during recess. An additional fundraising effort includes individual team members making custom beaded ropes to sell throughout the to help fundraise for their next big trip.
Since Proform Airborne was formed, members have traveled to numerous countries including China, Malaysia, Japan, Australia, Russia, Germany, Norway, Czech Republic, Portugal, Bermuda, Mexico, Canada, and Colombia to compete and perform. Nationally, Proform Airborne performed for both President Clinton and President George W Bush’s Inaugurations.
The team has earned several world titles and most recently earned several top finishes at the 2021 Junior Olympics held in Houston, Texas. As the team has developed over the years, they have found that one of their favorite parts of the sport is teaching younger generations. They take what they have learned and share that with other athletes from around the world. Team members have taught at numerous international camps and found that the language of jump rope supersedes any language barriers they encounter.
The team has worked with many excellent schools in the area for practice space as well as rented from some really great dance studios. Proform Airborne Jump Rope Team is in the process of planning for their own facility to be built in Idaho Falls and hopes to be able to offer a facility as a practice space for other sports, especially for those unique sports that oftentimes find it difficult to reserve available space. Once this facility is built, Proform will be able to offer a wider array of classes to the community. They have the land, now all they need is to find the right builder and suppliers. They would appreciate any recommendations.
More information on Proform Airborne can be found at www.proformairborne.org, on Instagram @proformairborne, or on Facebook at ProformAirborne. For direct correspondence, please contact Monica Foster, Head Coach, by email at proformairborne@hotmail.com or by phone at 208-709-0869.
