The Life-Saving Power of a … Jump Rope?

The man pictured above is David Fisher, and may not look like it, but he’s at work. He’s a professional rope jumper.

And on the side? He’s a bit of a superhero.

In the 1980s, Fisher was neither of these two things. Like many other people who are now in their early 60s, Fisher was a college student at the time, and not all that interested in jumping rope. But he was interested in volleyball, playing for a team at Emory University. And he wanted to become a better volleyball player, so, as the Washington Post reported, he “started seriously jumping rope to leap higher,” and fell in love with the exercise. Per the Post, “Fisher was so enamored of his rope-jumping that he kept it up after leaving Emory. He volunteered with the American Heart Association by jumping rope at schools, and when he learned people made a living performing at assemblies, he was all in.” David Fisher became the “Rope Warrior,” his stage name as a jump roping pro for hire.

Over the course of his career, Fisher has delighted crowds of all ages and all over the world. As the Indianapolis Star reported in 2016, at his peak, Fisher “Fisher performed about 15 shows a week all across the country,” appearing at everything from Boy Scout events and school assemblies to special events for world leaders: “he has performed in front of Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton as well as Russian President Boris Yeltsin.” His routine features all sorts of neat rope jumping tricks, including one (pictured above) that got him in the record books. In the words of the Washington Post: “He broke the Guinness World Record for doing the most jumps while on his backside — an activity the premier keeper of world records described as ‘rump jumps’ but Fisher prefers to call ‘tush ups.’”

As jobs go, this one is very cool. And you don’t take my word for it — you can watch highlights from his routines here or in a nearly 13-minute documentary on Fisher, here, if you’re so inclined. But, perhaps more importantly for our purposes today, it also gave Fisher the opportunity to become a local hero in his small hometown of Westfield, Indiana.

Fisher’s house is across the street from a pond, and in December 2024, that pond had frozen over and started to thaw. A neighbor’s dog had run onto the ice and fallen into the freezing cold water, and then the teenage owner of the dog chased after his pet — and fell in the water, too. Felix Fisher, David’s 19-year-old son, called 911 and got his father there to help. That’s where the power of a lifetime of jumping rope came in.

As the New York Times reported, “Mr. Fisher instinctively reached for his prized possessions: two 16-foot-long cloth jump ropes, each nearly a half-inch in diameter, and knotted at both ends. Then he raced out to the pond.” The dog was able to free itself from the pond but the kid was still stuck, believing he was going to drown. And drowning wasn’t the only risk; as the Washington Post explained in the above-linked article, “The situation was now dire. Cold water can cause shock in a minute, inducing dramatic changes in breathing and heart rate. It can cause loss of muscle control in 10 minutes and hypothermia in 20.”

Enter the rope and the rope warrior. Fisher splayed his body across the ice, distributing his weight in a way to lessen the chance of the ice cracking beneath him, and crawled out toward the boy, rope in hand. He then tossed his rope to the kid, who, after the second attempt, was able to climb out of the water and — mimicking Fisher’s body posture — shuffle to safety. David Fisher had saved the boy’s life.

The town of Westfield honored Fisher and his son with its first-ever “Lifesaving Citizen Award” the following February. For his part, David Fisher was humble — but accurate — about his efforts. Per the CBC, he said “I’m just very thankful that my son was outside because I’m not sure anybody else would have heard anything. And that, you know, I happened to have the perfect tool for getting him out of the water and the background to be able to use it.”

Bonus fact: If David Fisher ever wants to stop performing — and if a side gig as a superhero doesn’t pan out — he can probably go to China to pick up some extra cash. According to the Wall Street Journal, “in 2014, Chinese authorities introduced physical-education requirements that included a national jump-rope exam for boys and girls from first through sixth grades.” And it’s no joke — “to pass, students must complete minimum numbers of skips a minute, and failure can trip up an otherwise promising academic trajectory.” So some parents are investing in rope jumping tutors to help their kids not only meet the minimum skipping rate but to shine in the activity. Jump rope teachers can make as much as $50/hour helping kids in this effort. (There is no reported bonus if they also teach the kids how to do “rump jumps” or “tush ups.”)

From the Archives: Stamping Out Danger: Why a series of US Postal stamps featuring kids jumping rope (among other things) were printed — and then destroyed.