Top Ten Tips for Beginners

Jump rope is the most efficient exercise you can do and the perfect choice for strengthening your heart. When you’re a beginner it can seem impossible to jump rope with ease and style; the learning curve can be steep. Try the following ten tips in this guide to make sure you’re learning the right way and you’ll be jumping with style in no time. Dare to jump rope.

10 Jump 1-2” Off the Ground

Jumping too high or aggressively can lead not only to a higher risk of injury but simply to frustration. Beginners should aim to jump 1-2” (roughly 5cm) off the ground, just enough to allow the rope to pass under their feet.

9 Bend Your Knees Slightly

Jump rope is a high impact sport, especially at the more advanced levels. It is good practice to always allow a slight bend in the knees to help absorb this impact when you jump and prevent joint injuries from occurring. As an example, the jumper pictured (right) is bending their knees too much.

8 Jump in One Spot

Try your best to jump straight up and down, maintaining a constant rhythm. Moving around too much can cause you to become off-balanced disrupting this rhythm.

7 Keep Your Heels Up

When you jump rope, you don’t actually ‘jump’. A jump is technically a loaded movement where your feet are flat on the floor and your legs are bent to perform a jump. In jump rope, you should ‘bound’ by keeping their heels off the floor and using the muscle at the back of your lower leg (calf muscle/gastrocnemius) to create the energy required to jump.

6 Use a Beaded Rope

Beaded ropes are heavier than standard 4-5mm licorice ropes. This extra weight provides the jumper with more feedback allowing them to ‘feel’ the rope as they pull it around their body. This feedback is essential to developing good rope control and understanding how to manipulate your jump rope.

5 Keep Your Hands Low

Most jumpers make the mistake of extending their arms either up towards their face or out away from their body. This leads them to believe they need a longer rope to compensate, which only exacerbates the problem further. Keep your hands low to maintain good form and to prevent your shoulders from fatiguing unnecessarily. Doing this also allows you to use a shorter rope which is most efficient and easier to turn.

4 Rotate With Your Wrists

Create the rope’s momentum by rotating with your wrists, not your arms. Avoid using your shoulders too. Imagine you’re holding two magic wands and you’re casting spells in the air by drawing circles. Less is more here.

3 Fix Your Posture

Head up. Shoulders back. Chest out. And relax. There’s no need to hunch over or tense up to jump rope, just relax and focus on efficient movement. There’s a time and a place for putting in maximum effort, and that comes later when you’ve mastered the basics.

2 Shorten Your Rope

The most common reason new jumpers struggle when trying to learn jump rope is using a rope that is too long for them. This usually stems from some of the other steps in this list, and by not realising this key step, countless jumpers have their progress held back even after they’ve moved past the basics. Is your rope the right length?

1 Stay Consistent

Consistency is key. Jump rope - like many other skills - takes five minutes to learn but a lifetime to master. Not only that, but it can have a very steep learning curve at the start. Consistent practice will ensure you develop this skill at a reasonable speed with becoming demotivated during the early stages.

In conclusion…

Always remember that the aim of the game is that discipline is freedom. By paying attention to these top ten tips that add up to ‘good form’ and ‘correct technique’, you’ll set yourself up for success and more freedom in the long run than if you allowed bad habits to creep in unknowingly. Because, in the end, freedom means fun! Need more advice?