Isadore Daniels (Izzy) is a star boxer and the son of a golden-glove champion. His eight year old sister, Karen, is crazy about double dutch, and Izzy is asked to take Karen and her friends to a double dutch competition, where Izzy's "girlfriend" and her team is entering. Izzy is always bothering them, and has often seen them double dutch. In the competition, he got up and cheered along with everyone else! This wasn't like Izzy.
Izzy finds he likes Mary, a member of the jump team the Joy Jumpers, who places fourth in the tournament. They make the city finals, but when Yolanda, their Fourth on the team, decides to quit and join their rival team, The Dutch Dragons, they might find themselves forfeiting the tournament Izzy always bothers Mary's team, and after Yolanda quits, they told Izzy that, and, to quote, "Why, did she finally figure out double dutch is lame?". Mary then challenges Izzy to speed jump, and when he does it much better than they expect, they ask him to join the team, but he refuses because of what his friends might think. When the other members of the Joy Jumpers, Keisha and Shauna, ask him to fill in until they find a permanent replacement, he finally relents. His conditions are that they practice before school and in his dad's boxing gym, where no one's going to watch.
Meanwhile, Izzy has a boxing match with Rodney (The school bully) determining who will win the "Golden Gloves" which goes to the best boxer. Izzy beats him, but Rodney doesn't accept it. He claims he just got lucky and pushes Izzy for a rematch. Izzy says no, and walks out of the gym.
Izzy improves tremendously at double dutch, and begins to love the sport. He tells the Joy Jumpers that he'd like to be on their team permanently, and they happily agree. But when Rodney finds Izzy jumping double dutch before class, he snaps some photos, prints them and hangs them all over the school. Rodney laughs at Izzy saying, "So that's why you won't give me a rematch! 'Cuz you're too busy jumping double dutch!" Izzy becomes mad and says he'll do the rematch. But in the middle of the fight, he tells Rodney that he's sick of being mad and that he's not going to let his anger control him. He walks out of the match and Rodney runs after him, intent on beating him up. But he trips on the cords surrounding the ring, giving Izzy a chance to get even. Instead, he just walks out.
The only girl boxers, Tammy, understands how Izzy feels. She gives him a pep talk on how she never quit boxing when the guys teased her, and that he shouldn't quit either, just because they made fun of him.
Meanwhile, Mary, Keisha and Shauna meet up for the city finals, but without Izzy, they feel like giving up. Izzy then walks in and asks, "What, were you really gonna start without me?" He apologizes and Mary smiles and hands him a uniform. They change their name to the Hot Chili Steppers and all is forgiven as the tournament begins. They get first in the compulsory, then second in speed. They are then tied with the Dutch Dragons and the freestyle will determine it all. The Hot Chili Steppers get first, and go on to the State Championship, which they end up winning the following year.