Jump Rope Skills Tutorials for Beginners: Alternating Foot

If you made it this far, you know how to do the basic bounce and the boxer step. This skill is deceptively hard. When you first try to learn it you will find the rope keeps catching on your foot that’s in the air.

This skill is harder than the boxer step because your feet are moving more. I kept putting the foot in the air behind me, like when you run in place. The trick to learning this skill is NOT to push your foot behind you. Instead, pull your knee forward and bring your foot up along your leg.

Once you figure it out, you are going to ask yourself, why was that so hard? It’s a skill where suddenly you get the feeling and then you can always do it like riding a bike. I don’t know what it is but if you struggle with this one you will just get it all of the sudden.

Facts About Alternating Food Jump Rope

Difficulty – The alternating foot skill (or running in place) ranks a 2 out of 5. It’s trickier than the boxer step.

Best Rope – The best jump rope to learn this skill is a beaded rope. A beaded rope gives you a little more feedback so you can feel where it is in the air. This makes it easier to go a little slower than with a PVC rope.

Prerequisites – Basic bounce and boxer step. The boxer step is ALMOST the same, but this is a tiny bit harder.

Tips And Drills For Alternate Foot Jump Rope

Tips: Start with no rope. Get the rhythm and weight transfer down before you try with a rope.

Tip: Pull Your Foot Forward. When you start learning this you will be tempted to push your foot behind you. Focus on pulling your foot up in the front instead of the back. Once you can do it this way you will be able to start to kick your foot back.

Tip: Weight Forward. Keep the weight on the front half of your foot.

Tip: Keep Elbows In. If your arms start to drift out away from your body you are more likely to get tripped up. You might find as you learn that one arm is better at staying tucked in than the other. I notice this every day. My right arm is always farther out.

Drill: Do five 4 basic bounce jumps before you try alternating your feet. If you trip up, go back to 4 more basic bounces again.

Drill: Work up to more by counting the number that you can do consecutively. This helps you to maintain your concentration.

Once you have these three jumps down, 1.) the basic bounce, 2.) the boxer step and 3.) the alternating foot, play around with them. Get to where you can go between them without even thinking. Many of the other skills require you to think about using your arms in a different way. It’s easier once you have a solid foundation with these/