BREWSTER, Mass. (AP) — Cape Cod may have some of the best beaches in the country, but it could also have the nation’s top jump-rope competitor.

Brewster resident Adam Jernberg, 17, recently won first prize overall, which includes all age groups, in the USA Jump Rope Nationals competition in Long Beach, California.

Adam beat competitors in their 20s with his heavy metal style, which combines gymnastics, power and speed. He may, in fact, be the best in the United States at this point, said Brewster Bayside Skippers coach John Hammond.

A high school junior, Adam started jumping with the celebrated Bayside Skippers in fourth grade.

Back then he and one other boy joined about 70 girls — including Adam’s twin sister, Hannah, also an award-winning skipper — in Brewster’s now 21-year-old jump-rope group.

Adam did it at first only because Hannah got involved. “I do everything she does, so I had to do it,” he said.

But he showed talent, making the competitive team before she did, Hannah said.

By high school, he would carry his rope to school with him and take it out whenever possible, in gym class and even in the hallways, he said.

The routine that won first prize in the grand nationals at Long Beach included a back flip, a back handspring and a front flip or two.

The rope whipped so fast beneath Adam’s airborne legs it sounded like a halyard in a hurricane, Hammond said.

Without pause, he completed 10 “quads,” in which the rope passes under his legs four times in a single jump, Hammond said.

Adam said many of his classmates at Nauset Regional High School don’t consider jumping rope a real sport.

For a while that bothered him and he tried track and field. But he loved jumping and eventually dropped other sports to concentrate on it.

“It’s a friendly sport,” Adam said. “We have a lot of friends from other teams. But there is also a competitive mindset.

“And it’s my creative outlet,” he said.

As for Adam’s original inspiration, his twin moved in her sophomore year to Sweden, where she is now one of the top students at an International Baccalaureate school, Hammond said. Her new address allows her only about two weeks a year to practice with the Bayside Skippers. But with her brother’s rather unforgiving coaching — “I’m so mean,” Adam acknowledges — she’s still tough competition.

Adam and Hannah won first place in the 15- to 17-year-old freestyle pairs category at Long Beach.

You can see the Jernbergs and the other skippers on YouTube by searching for the Brewster Bayside Skippers, Adam said.