For these jump-ropers, the sky’s their limit

This isn’t the kind of stuff you see on playgrounds.

Competitive jump-roping, practiced by just a few dozen teams across the country — including Extreme Air of New Hampshire, the group assembled here in a fluorescent-lighted Durham gym — is a fusion of performance art, acrobatics, gymnastics, and break dancing.

“It’s really creative, inspiring — you can get a lot out of it, do anything you want,’’ said 11-year-old team member Ashley Berthiaume of Newmarket. “Just get outside, get a rope, start swinging, see what you can get done.’’

In her team’s case, that has been quite a bit.

With roughly 25 boys and girls ages 7 up to college, the seacoast New Hampshire-based troupe has, literally, leapt up the rankings.

In this year’s national competition, held in Texas in June, its members earned silver and bronze medals, and several also placed in the top 10 for various single, paired, and double Dutch events — ultimately leaping and springing to the front of a group of about 1,000 competitors on 68 teams.

Eventually, coaches explained, some Extreme Air members may try to ascend to world championships.

Meanwhile, for jump-roping as a whole, a long-range goal is Olympic recognition.

“That’s something we’re working toward,’’ explained Becky Zelewski of USA Jump Rope, a member organization based in Texas. It’s an intensive process, she noted, as there are specific criteria to be met, such as a universal judging system.

And, yes, it is universal.

Competitive jump-roping is practiced in 48 countries, including many in Europe and Asia, as well as in South Africa, Canada, and Australia, according to the International Rope Skipping Federation. More locally, USA Jump Rope has 135 member teams with about 3,800 jumpers. Of those teams, just 92 compete, Zelewski explained.

Extreme Air, for its part, is one of just a half-dozen teams in New England — along with the Beantown Jumpers, the Chatham Lightfoots, and the South Bristol Spindrifters in Maine, among others.

Clearly, it’s still a niche — although you could say it’s starting to make a slow jump into the mainstream.

Mostly, that’s thanks to high-profile performances at NBA games and on MTV’s “America’s Best Dance Crew,’’ Zelewski explained. Also, many teams, like Extreme Air, do outreach in the way of performances, demonstrations, and workshops.

Still, competitive jump-roping remains in that twilight phase between performance and certified sport — much like cheerleading or skateboarding.

Members of Extreme Air, though, aren’t at all uncertain.

“It really takes a lot — people don’t think it does,’’ said Kelsey Carragher, a Newmarket 15-year-old on the team.

“People underestimate it,’’ agreed her teammate, 12-year-old Evan Gordon of Durham.

As they describe it: grueling, physically exerting, and requiring intense self-discipline, control, synchronicity.

And it’s varied, too. Typically, with jumpers using cable, braided, steel-cored or PVC-coated ropes (based on preference), events include freestyle in singles or pairs; double Dutch with one or two jumpers; and full-on group routines set to music. Then there are pure speed events, which are typically timed and sometimes done in relays.

And the rope swingers — known as “turners’’ — have a part, too; they don’t just stand there twirling their arms. In routines, many will do their own twists and turns, swing a rope underneath a leg, do other acrobatic flairs, or seamlessly switch places with a jumper.

All told, “It’s unbelievable conditioning,’’ said Alan DeMello, one of Extreme Air’s coaches. After all, he pointed out, athletes like boxers use jump roping to train.

“Jumpers have to be in tip-top shape,’’ he said as he oversaw a Friday night practice at the gym at St. Thomas More Parish in Durham.

Out on the floor in front of him, the team was arranged in singles, pairs, and double Dutch groups, dressed in light blue T-shirts and dark blue shorts, the girls’ hair in neat braids.

Over in one corner: A double Dutch team of three.

Standing outside the moving ropes, the jumper watched, gauging the movement of the swirling arcs, the tapping rhythm on the floor.

Then she was in: hopping left-right-left-right, dropping to a push-up position, turning, extending one leg, then the other, and back up again.

As she did, the turners flipped around, swung backward, crouched, then stood once more.

All this while the rope whizzed around and around, never touching, never tapping, never twisting.

Well, at least, that was the goal — the trio hadn’t quite gotten there yet. As they practiced, their ropes sometimes tangled like dueling snakes, or snagged on legs or arms.

Meanwhile, nearby, another jumper worked out a few kinks of his own.

His goal: performing two 360-degree in-air turns while spinning the rope twice around him. So far, he’s mastered one-and-a-half rotations.

“There are only certain people who can do it — I want to be one of them,’’ said the 16-year-old, Nick Rocci of Newmarket.

A jumper for eight years, he’s mastered many tricks — among them, spinning the rope at least five times for one jump (which requires him to scrunch his lanky body into a curled-up ball).

He’s tried other sports, the tall, mop-haired teen explained — baseball, soccer, basketball — but found jumping to be “different, creative,’’ and requiring an unrivaled sort of endurance and strength.

Indeed, as you’d notice if you watched the team line up for a one-minute speed relay — kicking off at the same time, their sneakers bounced in unison, ropes humming through the air. As the time ticked on, marked by a deep recorded voice, the tapping slowed, the jumping became less rhythmic — but, still, they didn’t stop.

“I think it’s about personal drive,’’ said Kristal Kearsey, a slightly out-of-breath, soft-spoken, black-braided 15-year-old from Portsmouth.

With a rope slung around her neck like a boxer’s towel after a match, she added, “You really have to want it.’’

For more, visit www.extremeairnh.com.