Zach Peckman landed 1,050 jumps in three minutes at the 2026 U.S. Jump Rope National Championships at Buffalo State University, setting a national record and defending his Grand National Champion title in the speed endurance event.

The 17-year-old New Hope-Solebury High School senior, who trains with the Zero Gravity Jump Rope Team at the Doylestown YMCA, set three U.S. records and won three Grand National Champion titles at the competition.

Peckman's three-minute speed endurance score of 525 topped his own 2025 record of 515, set at the national championships in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Judges count only each landing of the right foot, meaning his 525 score translates to 1,050 total jumps. He broke that mark twice at this year's event, first scoring 520 in prelims and then 525 in finals.

In the 30-second speed sprint, he scored 104 (208 total jumps), breaking his previous U.S. record in the 18-and-under division of 102. His third record came in the mixed double-under relay alongside partner Erika Ebersole of Maryland, where the pair scored 190 to eclipse the previous mark of 184.

"I think the biggest key to my success this year was probably discipline," Peckman told the New Hope News. "There were days when I woke up tired and didn't really feel like training, but getting myself to push through and do the workout anyway was what made the difference."

Peckman first joined the Zero Gravity team in seventh grade, his introduction to competitive speed jumping. The team practices three times a week, year-round, at the Doylestown YMCA branch in partnership with River Crossing YMCA, preparing athletes for regional qualifiers in spring and nationals each summer. At the height of training season, Peckman ramps up to five or six days per week, supplementing rope work with running, weightlifting and conditioning.

His training approach draws on a concept he picked up at a Chinese National Team camp in Guangzhou during winter 2025-26: rhythmic entrainment, the process by which the brain synchronizes movement with an external rhythm. Peckman jumps to carefully selected music, including a sped-up version of "Footloose," syncing each jump and his breathing to the beat to maintain pace and conserve energy over a grueling three-minute event.

The connection between rhythm and athletics isn't abstract for Peckman. He also serves as concertmaster of the New Hope-Solebury High School Orchestra and earned first chair viola in the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association All-State Orchestra.

Last summer, Peckman represented the United States at the 2025 World Jump Rope Championships in Kawasaki, Japan, competing against athletes from more than 30 countries. His next goal: qualifying for the 2027 World Jump Rope Championships in Norway. He plans to resume high-intensity training in September.