Jump Rope Skills Tutorials for Beginners: Intro to the basic bounce

If you are new to jumping rope, this is the first step. Don’t be discouraged if you can’t do any skill right away. It takes time. I know I saw lots of people on Instagram just crushing it, but they didn’t start out that way. Especially the ones over 50 who have never picked up a jump rope.

Jump rope is a great skill because it requires coordination, balance and endurance. All things that are even more important as we get older. It’s also good for bone density.

I have a good friend that started jumping rope after she saw how much I liked it. Her Doctor told her that “women our age” should not be jumping rope. What! It might be something you need to build up to, and I’m not a doctor, but that is terrible advice. First, not all women are the same. Second, it’s just bad advice to assume that all high impace exercise is bad once you’re over 50.

Facts About Basic Bounce

Difficulty – The basic bounce ranks a 1 out of 5. It’s the easiest and MOST necessary skill to develop.

Best Rope – The easiest rope to use is whichever one YOU can jump over. I started with a PVC rope and used that exclusively for more than a year. If you are having trouble with the timing, try using a beaded rope, which will give you more feedback. You can feel it going around you. Beaded ropes are thicker so you have to jump a few millimeters higher to clear them.

Prerequisites – None!

Tips and Drills To Learn the Basic Bounce

At the start, you might be used to doing a double jump in between. That’s OK. Just keep jumping.

Tip: Stay on the Balls of Your Feet. You shouldn’t be landing on your entire foot. Landing on the balls of your feet puts less impact on your knees. It can take a while to build up your calf muscles.

Tip: Count. Some people, including me, find it useful to count the jumps. When I first started I would see how many I could do without missing. It’s a good way to maintain focus when you are just learning. I still do this every time I want to master a new skill.

Tip: Stay low. As you get more used to jumping you will find you don’t need to jump very high to clear the rope. You get more efficient with time.

Tip: Keep Your Feet Close Together. If you keep your feet close together you are less likely to get them caught on the rope.

Tip: Keep Elbows Close To Body. You feel at first like you need to swing your arms, but most of the swing action happens through your wrists and not your arms.

You can see a slow motion demo of the basic bounce here and the regular tempo here.

Drill: Do intervals of 20 seconds on 20 seconds off. Intervals are a really great way to build your skill and stamina. If 20 seconds is too short for you, lengthen the time. As your intervals get too easy, increase the length of time you spend in the high portion.

Drill: Counting sets. Build up the number of consecutive jumps you can do by counting. Give yourself a set number of tries each day and watch the number increase.

Drill: Use music to set time and pace. Music is the best part of jumping rope. Find a song that you LOVE and get to the point where you can jump consistently through the entire song. Then build a play list of songs. Eventually, you will find yourself listening to music and thinking “this would be a good jump rope song”. That’s when you know your hooked.

Once you master the basic bounce, I recommend using intervals to build your endurance. Then you can start to mix it up by adding new footwork a little at a time. I hope this helped you to learn the basic bound