#GDTBATH: Sarah Paschal
Sarah Paschal has spent the past two years training and performing with 卡罗莱纳跳绳. The group competes against other universities and jump rope clubs from around the country and dazzles crowds with spins and flips.
来到像卡罗莱纳这样的大校园, 在荒无人烟的地方长大,这对莎拉·帕斯卡尔来说有点震惊. Her first-year intro to biology course alone had more students in it than her entire high school did.
她说:“这是一次非常难忘的经历。. “It was definitely a bit overwhelming to come to such a big area like this. But it was also kind of nice because I was breaking out of my comfort zone. 这是我以前从未经历过的.”
Though acclimating to such a different environment was a daunting task, 去伍伦健身馆参加开幕式 卡罗莱纳跳绳 practice helped Paschal find her place on campus and make Chapel Hill home.
“It’s great that UNC has all these clubs and all these things that you can go out and try. 我想，‘你知道吗? 我去试试.’ After a couple of weeks, I was hooked, and I’ve been doing it ever since,她说。. “Although UNC is absolutely huge and bit overwhelming, this is one of the things that has helped it feel a bit smaller and comfortable to me.”
Now a rising junior and the communications chair of the club, Paschal has spent the past two years training and performing with dozens of other Tar Heels. The group competes against other universities and jump rope clubs from around the country and dazzles crowds with spins and flips.
When she first saw the skill of the club members, Paschal was captivated and dove right in.
“The extent of my jump rope experience prior to coming to UNC was Jump Rope for Heart in elementary school and jumping on the playground,帕斯卡尔说, who is majoring in statistics and analytics and computer science in the College of 艺术 & 科学. “I was immediately blown away because I was not entirely sure how in the world they were manipulating these ropes to do all these tricks and fancy things. It was absolutely insane to see what they could do.”
帕斯卡尔和这群人一起训练, practicing in-person two times a week during her first several months with the club. 她童年的大部分时间都是舞者, 她很快学会了这些技能, and the more experienced club members brought her up to speed for solo 表演 and double-Dutch routines.
“Jump rope is all about progression,” Paschal says. “There are constantly new skills you can learn and new ways you can improve. 这绝对是一个挑战, 我以前从未做过这种事, 但我不是船上唯一的人. The people who have been doing this for most of their lives were so willing to help all the time.”
没过多久, Paschal began performing with the club around campus and at its annual Jump Rope Summit — a national competition held at Carolina in the spring. 在竞争中, the jumpers compete in speed and freestyle routines, 包括独奏和双荷兰语.
It was the 表演 — and the lead-up of creating and practicing the routine with teammates — that Paschal enjoyed the most.
“我非常喜欢它，”她说. “Being able to go out there in front of these people who really have no idea what kind of jump rope we actually do and show them what we’re able to do is so fun. 观众总是那么投入，那么开心. 这是一种很棒的感觉.”
Though the pandemic put a pause on the 表演 and competitions, Paschal and 卡罗莱纳跳绳 have continued to train and stay connected. They conducted their practices over Zoom and safely off-campus when they could in the fall and returned to in-person practice this spring.
“Doing college in your childhood bedroom definitely is not the ideal situation,她说。. “Jump rope was one of those things that got me up, got me active and gave me that social opportunity to be able to talk and see my friends.”
秋季学期就要到了, Paschal is eager to get back to more in-person practices, 表演, competitions and “all the things that make us a team.”
“It’s so nice to have the opportunity twice a week to just escape from the academic aspect of being at college,她说。. “It’s really easy to get caught up in things you have to do and not things that you just want to do for fun. It’s one of those things that I can always look forward to during the week, where I can just let loose and go get some exercise and socialize with my friends.”
