While he always keeps an eye out for the latest tricks on the social media accounts of athletes from other countries, Cheung believes in teaching the basics gradually and building up. For instance, when training for Double Dutch speed relays, which require doing 600 jumps within three minutes, Cheung instructs his skippers to start with just 15 seconds of jumping, then 45 seconds, and so on. He then mixes in other disciplines such as gymnastics to improve their strength and jumping ability, which he says is crucial in order to complete tricks in mid-air.

This hard work paid off in 2015, when his team won gold at the Male Double Dutch Speed Relay Asian Rope Skipping Championships. “We were so excited and didn’t even realise that we had broken the world record when they announced the result,” he says with a laugh.

As a schoolboy at Hong Kong Taoist Association Tang Hin Memorial Secondary School in Sheung Shui, Cheung never would have imagined achieving such internationally recognised athletic prowess. “I didn’t use to do much exercise then,” he recalls. In 2009, some senior students invited him to try their hobby, and soon he attracted the attention of the school coach, who saw his potential for competitive rope skipping. In the same year, he was selected to join the Hong Kong team. Two years later, when he was 15, he tagged along with his coach to teach at two other local schools. This youthful desire to introduce others to the sport only increased as he got older; he quit his bachelor’s degree in science at the University of Hong Kong to set up his skipping institute.

“I want to promote this sport to my city,” he says. “It’s fun, challenging and has a wide range of tricks to learn when compared to other types of sports.”

Cheung and his team teach technical rope skipping skills to children, students and adults. The pandemic led to the temporary closure of the studio, so in September 2021, he launched Roju (short for “rope jumping”), a mobile app which offers demonstration videos for 200 jump rope skills.

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Cheung believes his sport not only improves a person’s physicality, but also their attitude to learning. He mentions one student who had been struggling with Chinese history lessons but, after joining after-school skipping sessions, ranked second in his class. When the teacher asked how the student had improved, the teen replied that skipping had trained him to focus on what he needed to do to perfect a new trick—and that he was applying a similar approach to his studies.

Cheung would love to see this sport becoming widely available in and better recognised by the city. “Rope skipping is a great option to get some exercise into your life. You don’t need a big basketball court or good weather for this sport—you can do it anywhere, anytime.” He also hopes that more recognition by The Sports Federation & Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China will help professional skippers financially. Currently the city’s skipping athletes pay for their own training venues and competition fees.

To that end, Cheung is setting up a global coach certification programme, whereby gym coaches and other athletes can train to become certified rope skipping coaches.

As for his own future in the sport, his new year’s resolution is to perfect his latest level-eight trick. As he proves on a daily basis, nothing is impossible if he sets his heart on it.

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