Algonquin Grad Invites People to Jump into Fun with His New Exercise Enterprise
July 7, 2021
Jumpology is LeCoure’s bid to get a post-COVID-19 population active and fit again jumping rope. The recent graduate from the Recreation and Leisure program has been teaching jump rope for about eight years and participating in competitions for 13 years. Transforming his favourite form of fun and exercise into a business is his bid for a share of the post-pandemic recreation market.
Although he’s been involved with jump rope for more than half his life, LeCoure, 22, didn’t initially consider it or recreation as a future occupation. He began his post-secondary studies at the University of Ottawa in the human kinetics program. “I didn’t do so well there,” he says. “But while I was in the program, I took a lot of leisure study classes and that piqued my interest in recreation. I figured that was the program I was really meant to be in.”
He knew people who had studied at Algonquin and recommended it, so he made the leap to a new school and its Recreation and Leisure Services program. He says he has never regretted the choice.
“The teachers were very responsive and they got to know us on a personal level,” he says. “We weren’t just another number. All my teachers knew me by name, knew a bit about my background. We created these awesome connections with our teachers that I just didn’t have at the university.”
LeCoure highlights Professor Kevin Lee as just one of the instructors who made a difference to his studies and his professional goals.
“He’s a great example of someone who helped me to fully realize myself as a recreation professional. As one of my academic advisors, he’s been there to generate conversations and create connections that will help me build up my business.”
Initially, he had doubts about starting a business. The pandemic is still very much with us and he was uncertain how to proceed. But he was encouraged by everyone around him to take that leap of faith and just see how it played out.
The idea was initially presented in a financial management class, where one of the projects required him to develop a business idea and develop a two-year business plan. Whatever its merits, he decided at the time it wasn’t “super-viable” and let it drop.
He reconsidered the idea while taking an entrepreneurship class. “It was like, ‘You know maybe I can actually do this jump rope thing.’ Then I rejected it again, and just through this back and forth process finally figured it was worth trying out.”
One of the major attractions of jump rope classes for adults is their simplicity. They involve minimal equipment – a skipping rope – and at its most basic level jump rope is an easy exercise option that can be done at home, benefiting people who are feeling sedentary after the lengthy shutdowns.
LeCoure notes that 10 minutes of basic jump rope is equivalent in burning calories and building endurance to 30 minutes of running – and it’s less hard on the body when done right. More advanced jump rope routines ramp up the skill levels required, testing the mind and body in an energizing and entertaining fashion.
Many people have become accustomed to fitness classes online, and all of Jumpology’s classes are virtual for now. But there are plans to conduct in-person classes when this becomes possible. Adults are his main market but he will be starting a small neighbourhood children’s program outdoors this summer and hopes to be teaching school workshops, in person or virtually, in the fall. His 10-year goal is to have his own gymnasium or a space to run in-person classes.
LeCoure has been working to develop a steady clientele, and a recent appearance on CTV News certainly helped spread the word. He says after that spot aired many people reached out to him, attracted to an exercise that is fun, inexpensive and portable – a skipping rope will fit easily in a suitcase when we can all travel again. “Thankfully, all my efforts have been super-successful so far.”