Introduction To Jump-Rope Fundamentals

Hello! Welcome to Jump Rope Fundamentals! Jump-Rope (or "Skipping Rope in some regions) is a fantastic conditioning skill. It can help improve bone density, joint stability, balance, coordination, muscular stamina, and of course, cardio-vascular endurance! It can be combined with other exercises as part of a High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) session, or done solo as a stand-alone workout. It's also accessible to many people for minimal investment and the equipment (a Jumprope) can travel easily. In short, the benefits are massive and the investment is minimal! Oh- and it's fun! In this course, we'll be covering basic skills and drills for learning to jump rope efficiently and safely. Expect to learn: The Basic Single Jump Boxing Shuffle Alternating Feet/High Knees Cross-Overs and of course, Double-Unders! In addition to these Basic Skills, you'll also learn: Variations of Jump Ropes (with some specific recommendations) Mobility and Recovery and Safe Progressions for continuing progress beyond this course! Each segment includes at least one coaching video for you to review so you can see the movements and get clear coaching instructions. Over the course of the next 12 weeks, you'll have a practice that you can implement in just a few minutes each day to build confidence, endurance, stamina, and have a blast doing it! Watch this short clip for Best Practices for building on your new skills: https://youtu.be/Uu3wuv0lJnU This day one session is one you may return to from time to time as it is is a complete, two-hour workshop. Coaching videos and written descriptions are thorough! In the days that follow, you'll be given very short, 5-day per week practices. Keeping your daily practice short and accessible will allow you to make steady progress while minimizing injury risk. We want to make your practice easy to stick with and fun! Try to avoid long-slog sessions of frustration and fatigue for these initial 12 weeks! Thank you for being here! This is going to be a good time! Let's Jump In! Coach Cody (You can always return here to reference this material, but for now, mark this section as complete!)

Jump Rope Selection

When selecting a Jump Rope, you'll find thousands of options. Let's simplify this decision: We have two brands we love the most: RX Smart Gear *found here: https://amzn.to/42YUSmT Buddy Lee Jump Rope Systems *found here: https://amzn.to/4hDui7m These two companies offer a wide variety of Jump Rope styles, customizations, and replacement parts. They also provide economy ropes for beginners/intermediate as well as higher-end quality ropes for advanced jump roping lifestyles! When choosing your jump rope, here are a few things to consider: Adjustable Length: A shorter rope is a faster rope! When you're first learning, you'll want to err on the longer side. If you step on the center of the rope with one foot and bring the ends of the handles together up to your side, a beginner rope should come up to between your arm-pit and the top of your shoulder. As you advance, you may want a shorter rope, so having an adjustable length rope is a great way to shorten it up over time. (on the other hand, I like to use a longer rope to learn new skills from time to time, so having more than one can be handy!) Weight: A lighter rope is a faster rope! I keep a longer beaded rope on hand for learning new skills because the weight of the beads helps train your brain as to where the rope is as it turns. Then, when I've gotten the new technique figured out, I can switch to a lighter rope to add speed. A heavier rope can also be a great option for building muscle stamina and cardiovascular endurance, as it takes more energy to turn a heavier rope. If you just choose one rope to begin with, I recommend a mid-weight, longer rope that can be adjusted as you improve. Here are a couple of options: *Buddy Lee Aero Speed Rope 2.0: https://amzn.to/3Qi0ml9 * RX Smart Gear Flex Jump Rope: https://amzn.to/4aVEiq9 Whatever rope you choose, you'll likely get used to the feel of it and have a hard time switching to another rope at first. These two are great options for just about any style of Jumping Rope you want to do! * Full disclosure: These are Amazon affiliate links. You pay nothing extra, but we make a small commission.

Warm-up For Jump-Rope

Reps can add up quickly when practicing Jump Rope- so take a couple of minutes to warm-up your joints and prepare your tissues. Follow along with the video below: Heel-To-Toes Foot Circles Knee Orbits Knee Circles Shoulder Circles Elbow Circles Wrist Circles Basic Jumps Jogging In Place Jumping Jacks

Foundational Skills: The Basic Jump

Tall Posture Eyes on the horizon Shoulders relaxed Fingers slightly in front of the body- visible in your peripheral vision Soft, quiet, ball of the foot landing Just high enough to slide a magazine under the feet. Handles of the rope should stick out beyond your thumb- light grip! Watch the videos for a complete tutorial!

The One-to-Ten Drill: Basic Jump

This drill is a great warm-up, but also reinforces timing, rope awareness, and control. Begin with tall posture and the rope in "Home" position, resting on your calves- hands out in front. (Watch a demo of Home Position and helpful tips here: https://youtu.be/VKuLHOR4mkA ) Start with one Basic Jump, turning the rope for a single successful jump. This is a good opportunity to practice the "toe catch". After your jumps, rock back on your heels to catch the rope under your feet intentionally. If successful, re-set your start position and perform 2 consecutive Basic Jumps. If successful, re-set and go for 3, etc... Work up to 10 successful consecutive jumps, re-setting your start position each time you add a rep. As a fun "game", keep working at this so that all of the consecutive jumps are performed with no misses. If you miss a jump- start back at 1 and work your way back up the ladder! Coaching Notes: - Try to avoid extra hops in-between your Basic Jumps. If you find yourself jumping twice for every turn of the rope, focus on turning the rope faster. - Try to make the Basic Jump as quiet as possible! - If your jumps are noisy, you're likely pulling your heels up when you jump (Donkey Kicking). To fix this, try to point your toes to the floor when you jump. Sometimes squeezing your feet together when jumping can help cure this as well. If you have a hard time breaking this movement pattern, try practicing without the rope between each attempt at the Basic Jump. - The first Basic Jump in each attempt will get the rope started with your shoulders, but try to settle into a relaxed posture and focus on turning the rope with your wrists! Congratulations! If you were successful at completing the One-to-Ten Drill, you can now jump rope!

Foundational Skills: Alternating Feet

Learning to alternate feet while jumping rope opens the door to variety in your practice! It helps to strengthen your feet and ankles, teaches coordination, improves bone density (all of your weight is landing on one foot at a time so the "load" is twice what it would be with both feet), and it can even be used as a skill transfer exercise to improve your running form! Plus- having a variety of skills makes your rope practice fun! To begin, we'll practice without the rope. Stand on one foot with the other lifted just slightly up- soft ankle, soft knee, in a "figure-4" position. Now we'll "jog" in place with that light subtle lift of alternating feet. Again- we want gentle ball-of-the-foot, quiet landings. To begin to add the rope, we'll try the 1-10 drill again, but with alternating feet. Start by standing on one foot in the figure-4 position and switch feet as you turn the rope!

The One-to-Ten Drill: Alternating Feet

To begin The One-to-Ten drill with alternating feet, start by standing on one foot. As you turn the rope, wait for the rope to be down in front of you, then lightly switch feet as the rope passes under you. If you were successful, begin the same way but switch feet twice, ending up back where you started after two successful jumps. Continue to add one at a time until you're successful at getting 10 consecutive alternating foot jumps!

Combining Skills: Basic Jump, Alternating Foot

If you are still working on getting your One-To-Ten Drill completed without any misses for either the Basic Jump or the Alternating Jump, continue to practice until you feel smooth and are successful at getting all the way to 10 on both skills. Once you've achieved 10 consecutive jumps of both variations, it's time to put them together! For this drill, we'll start high and work our way down! Meaning, the transition between the jump styles is the part that trips most of us up. So we'll minimize the transitions to start, then add them in more frequently as we develop the skill. Begin by completing 10 Basic Jumps, then, without stopping the rope, try to transitions to alternating feet. If successful, complete 10 Alternating Feet Jumps and transition back to the Basic Jump. If that went well, you'll try to start with 8 Basic Jumps, 8 Alternating Feet, then back to Basic Jumps and stop. Once you're successful with 8, try 6 and stop. Once you're successful with 6, try 4 sets of 4 WITHOUT STOPPING THE ROPE!: 4 Basic Jumps 4 Alternating Feet 4 Basic Jumps 4 Alternating Feet 4 Basic Jumps 4 Alternating Feet 4 Basic Jumps 4 Alternating Feet Once you've mastered this, you can try 3 and 3, then 2 and 2, and finally, 1+2 (1 Basic Jump + 2 Alternating Feet) back and forth in a smooth rhythm. Watch this video for some Rope Awareness Tips: https://youtu.be/c3wNDC2U40M As well as the video in the thumbnail for a complete tutorial.

Intermission and Mobility For Jump-Rope

Time to take a break! Lets' be preemptive with taking good care of our feet and calves. Foam Roll Calves: Heel-to-Knee Think 3D Find a hot spot? Stay on it! Complete 3 Foot Circles in each direction while holding on the hot spot. Have a seat, rest, and re-hydrate! Watch the video for a demonstration of the Calf Recovery Sequence

Foundational Skills: Boxing Shuffle

For the Boxing Shuffle, the idea is to have a weight shift from one foot to the other, while maintaining a light, ball of foot landing from side to side and an alternating heel tap out front on every other jump. (Styles may vary!) No Rope: Two, Single-foot Jumps, alternating feet. Weight Shift with light heel tap. two each foot. Heel Pull to Swing Heel Tap (Slow Pause) Alternating Feet Boxer Shuffle Turn rope in one hand With Rope: 2 Single Foot Basic Jumps each side Heel Pull Swing to Heel Tap (Slow Rope, Pause) Boxer Shuffle Watch the video for a complete tutorial!

Foundational Skills: Cross-Overs

Cross-Overs are a crowd pleaser! But, to be honest, they aren't as difficult as they look! The main thing is to REACH DOWN when crossing and un-crossing. The most common mistake is reaching out too far to the sides in either the initial cross-over, or the un-cross. From Home Position: Cross-Over in front to Toe Catch Cross-Over Basic Jump to Un-Cross Toe Catch (REACH DOWN) Cross-Over in two Basic Jumps Cross-Over revert to Basic Jumps, then work in on a count of every 3rd or 4th Jump Reduce Frequency until you're getting consecutive Cross-Overs In the future, you can add Cross-Overs to ALL of the jump variations we're working on in this course!

Foundational Skills: Double-Unders

Double-Unders are the go-to conditioning skill for HIIT training circuits like CrossFit and Tabata Intervals. When you want a short intense burst for conditioning, especially on the go- this is a great skill to have! Basic Jump Vs. Power Jump Power Jump with Slow Rope Rope in one hand, WHIP! Heart Beat, not double-time. Penguin Taps. Getting your first (even if ugly) Double-Under: Wait for rope to almost hit the ground, JUMP and Whip x 2! When successful with first D.U., practice rebounding into singles. When successful at rebounding into singles, find a frequency of 4-1 (4 Singles and 1 D.U.), then 3-1, then 2-1. Then...Consecutive Double-Unders! Don't be discouraged if this takes weeks! As long as your practice is consistent (but not too much!), you WILL get there!

RPP Jump Rope Common Faults and fixes

The following is a list of the most common faults we see with beginners. Assess your own jumping by filming yourself, then read through this list and see if you are doing any of the below faults. Along with each one, I've provided a "fix" in the form of a practice drill that will help you eliminate the bad habit. Each is explained in the accompanying video. Turning the rope with Arms: FIX: Elbows back and flexed. Hold paper in arm pits. Arms out the side/"Flying": FIX: Elbows back and flexed. Hold paper in arm pits. Timing: FIX: Flick wrists down as you jump (dribble a ball) Pulling Heals/Hard Landings (a.k.a. Donkey Kicking): FIX: Point toes to floor. Squeeze feet together. Practice no rope. Feet leaving ground at different times or one foot trailing: FIX: Squeeze feet together. Think single pogo stick. Practice 1-10 no rope. Piking, Breaking at hips: FIX: Practice Power Jump with hands clasped in back. Pause landing/ No Rebound: FIX: Practice rebound with no rope. Focus on turning the rope faster. Hop between jumps: FIX: Focus on turning rope faster Posture/Floor Gazing: FIX: Find a focal point in the distance. Feel the rope don't look for the rope (juggling analogy) also, the rope will be too fast to see anyway!

Jump Rope Mobility and Recovery

Mobility: Lacrosse Ball Feet and Heels Foam Roll Calves AND Shins Toe Yoga Wall Calf (arch stretch too!) Ankle CARs Couch Stretch

Jump-Rope Practice Plan

Congratulations! You now have all of the Skills, Drills, and Fault Fixes to continue your Jump Rope Practice to whatever level you want to take it to! In the coming weeks, you'll have practice sessions to follow here in the app so that you can reinforce what you've learned today! The weeks will progress gradually in volume and complexity. You only need to set aside 5-10 minutes per day (even if you just commit to ONE minute per day, you'll make progress!) In fact, I urge you to make your practice sessions very short and focused. By keeping your practice short, you'll be less likely to develop over-use injuries and you'll actually make faster progress. Information overload is a real phenomena. You will develop skills and retain more from one session to the next by focusing on only one or two movements at a time. I like to warm up with familiar skills first, then choose ONE new or challenging skill to work on for just 1-3 minutes. Stick with that one new skill for as many days as it takes for it to be a familiar and successful skill before moving on to another. At the end of this course on week 12- Video yourself! I want to see your progress! Upload your video here to Train Heroic or send it to me directly at RubyPeakPerformance.com Thank you for participating in this Jump-Rope Fundamentals Course! I hope this is the beginning of a powerful chapter of your fitness journey! Happy Jumping! Sincerely, Coach Cody, Ruby Peak Performance

Jump Rope Mobility and Recovery

Mobility: Lacrosse Ball Feet and Heels Foam Roll Calves AND Shins Toe Yoga Wall Calf (arch stretch too!) Ankle CARs Couch Stretch

Jump Rope

6 x 0:20

Jump Rope Mobility and Recovery

Mobility: Lacrosse Ball Feet and Heels Foam Roll Calves AND Shins Toe Yoga Wall Calf (arch stretch too!) Ankle CARs Couch Stretch

Warm-up For Jump-Rope

Reps can add up quickly when practicing Jump Rope- so take a couple of minutes to warm-up your joints and prepare your tissues. Follow along with the video below: Heel-To-Toes Foot Circles Knee Orbits Knee Circles Shoulder Circles Elbow Circles Wrist Circles Basic Jumps Jogging In Place Jumping Jacks

The One-to-Ten Drill: Basic Jump

This drill is a great warm-up, but also reinforces timing, rope awareness, and control. Begin with tall posture and the rope in "Home" position, resting on your calves- hands out in front. (Watch a demo of Home Position and helpful tips here: https://youtu.be/VKuLHOR4mkA ) Start with one Basic Jump, turning the rope for a single successful jump. This is a good opportunity to practice the "toe catch". After your jumps, rock back on your heels to catch the rope under your feet intentionally. If successful, re-set your start position and perform 2 consecutive Basic Jumps. If successful, re-set and go for 3, etc... Work up to 10 successful consecutive jumps, re-setting your start position each time you add a rep. As a fun "game", keep working at this so that all of the consecutive jumps are performed with no misses. If you miss a jump- start back at 1 and work your way back up the ladder! Coaching Notes: - Try to avoid extra hops in-between your Basic Jumps. If you find yourself jumping twice for every turn of the rope, focus on turning the rope faster. - Try to make the Basic Jump as quiet as possible! - If your jumps are noisy, you're likely pulling your heels up when you jump (Donkey Kicking). To fix this, try to point your toes to the floor when you jump. Sometimes squeezing your feet together when jumping can help cure this as well. If you have a hard time breaking this movement pattern, try practicing without the rope between each attempt at the Basic Jump. - The first Basic Jump in each attempt will get the rope started with your shoulders, but try to settle into a relaxed posture and focus on turning the rope with your wrists! Congratulations! If you were successful at completing the One-to-Ten Drill, you can now jump rope!

Jump Rope Mobility and Recovery

Mobility: Lacrosse Ball Feet and Heels Foam Roll Calves AND Shins Toe Yoga Wall Calf (arch stretch too!) Ankle CARs Couch Stretch

Warm-up For Jump-Rope

Reps can add up quickly when practicing Jump Rope- so take a couple of minutes to warm-up your joints and prepare your tissues. Follow along with the video below: Heel-To-Toes Foot Circles Knee Orbits Knee Circles Shoulder Circles Elbow Circles Wrist Circles Basic Jumps Jogging In Place Jumping Jacks

Foundational Skills: Alternating Feet

Learning to alternate feet while jumping rope opens the door to variety in your practice! It helps to strengthen your feet and ankles, teaches coordination, improves bone density (all of your weight is landing on one foot at a time so the "load" is twice what it would be with both feet), and it can even be used as a skill transfer exercise to improve your running form! Plus- having a variety of skills makes your rope practice fun! To begin, we'll practice without the rope. Stand on one foot with the other lifted just slightly up- soft ankle, soft knee, in a "figure-4" position. Now we'll "jog" in place with that light subtle lift of alternating feet. Again- we want gentle ball-of-the-foot, quiet landings. To begin to add the rope, we'll try the 1-10 drill again, but with alternating feet. Start by standing on one foot in the figure-4 position and switch feet as you turn the rope!

The One-to-Ten Drill: Alternating Feet

To begin The One-to-Ten drill with alternating feet, start by standing on one foot. As you turn the rope, wait for the rope to be down in front of you, then lightly switch feet as the rope passes under you. If you were successful, begin the same way but switch feet twice, ending up back where you started after two successful jumps. Continue to add one at a time until you're successful at getting 10 consecutive alternating foot jumps!

Jump Rope Mobility and Recovery

Mobility: Lacrosse Ball Feet and Heels Foam Roll Calves AND Shins Toe Yoga Wall Calf (arch stretch too!) Ankle CARs Couch Stretch