I’ve been trying to jump rope for around 10 minutes every morning for the past several weeks. The rope is the right size (when I step on it the rope comes up to my armpits). Some mornings I do OK with close to 300 jumps or even more, but often I find myself tripping over the rope every two or three jumps. Is this an issue of coordination? Stretching? Practice? Am I just born a klutz?
If it’s just an issue of practicing more, I’m willing to try although it’s frustrating. I’m more concerned that perhaps I’m not doing it right, and then each day of practice is simply drilling in further my bad technique.
Hmm, jump-rope lessons over the internet… Al Gore must be spinning in his grave.
My childhood memories of rope-jumping include the following: I was using a full-size ripe that was quite a bit longer than necessary and I found that it would hit the floor a good six inches or more in front of my feet. If the floor was sufficiently hard, this would make an audible slapping sound. This was how I trained myself, by coordinating my jumps with that sound, like using a metronome. After a time, when I learned better coordination between hand and leg movements, I didn’t need the sound and I could use a shorter rope and a faster pace.
Start very slowly. Ridiculously slowly. Think of the sort of speed you could do it underwater, or the sort of speed that will make you laugh due to how pathetically slow it is.
Over time, as you build up a memory of the actions and timing, you will need to rely more on the natural reaction you develop. You’ll find that the more thought you give it, the more you screw up: A mini version of choking under pressure that a real athlete goes through.
Get the timing down and you’ll do it well. Just jump rope without thinking about the mechanics, or wondering how you could develop such deft timing. In such exercises, ‘thinking’ is not beneficial.
Like dialing a number you know…if you hesitate to think about it, you will forget it temporarily or dial it slower than if you just pounded the keypad initially.
The little “hiccups” of thought hurt when timing and memory is more reactionary.
