Question on jump roping and the results of it

Fiendlover

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First I would like to apologize if this question was already addressed somewhere else.

Last night one of my instructors wanted to have a jump roping drill which is perfectly fine with me because I know there are great benefits from doing it. But as I was jump roping he told everyone to stop and for me to continue as he explained that the way I was jump roping was not the correct way to jump rope.

He said that one should not have heavy feet when jump roping or jump with rotating feet which I was doing neither of the two.

Instead he pointed out that I continued to jump even when the rope was not near my feet. He said that to continuing to jump that way lead to an up and down movement when sparring. That if I continued that drill that way, it would lead me to being easily read in sparring due to indicating what moves I would execute.

He then explained that the correct way to jump rope was only to jump when the rope was near my feet which would be one jump per loop and to just continue to build speed so there is little resting time between loops.

I tried to do it that way and I instantly became frustrated but I kept in mind that it would take practice.

Later that night, at home, I was watching the Ultimate Fighter with my brother and I paid close attention to how they jumped roped. One fighter jumped with alternating feet, which is usually what I do, but as I watched I noticed that other fighters were either doing that or continued to jump even when the rope was not at there feet.

So my question is, is there really a proper way to jump rope and do the results of doing different methods of jump roping affect how you perform techniques differently?

I know that there will be differences in performance if one continuously practices but if one does different methods of the same thing, how much will te differences be?

Maybe my instructor was telling us this because maybe it pertained to our particular style (Soo Bahk Do) and not to the Ultimate Fighter. But if that was the case, I would think that overall, jump roping would lead to better performance not only in sparring but for overall health and better self defense and that is what the Ultimate fighter is trying to achieve as well, right?
 

InkedT

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I'm not an expert on this by any stretch of the imagination and I have only just begun to jump rope (which I don't do very well as it is right now). But from what I understand from looking at boxing websites and talking with a friend who does MMA it's encouraged to change your jumping style while jumping rope. I've read about changing feet you jump with, essentially simulating running in place, double skipping (where the rope does 2 rotations for every jump, and crisscross etc... So with boxing trainers telling their boxers to do that I don't see how it could affect your sparring. It may be different for your MA but I don't see how that would make you automatically project your moves in sparring or anything else.
 

Tez3

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Had to think what you were meaning then it dawned on me, you mean skipping!! :)

In MMA we train the same as boxers usually in things like this so try this, has some good shadow sparring and bag work hints as well. it's not used for sparring use, its a fitness tool in a lot of different styles. We use it in TSD, close enough to what you do, how you skip has no bearing on how you spar other than increasing your stamina and fitness.


http://www.talkboxing.co.uk/guides/boxers_training_regime.html

"Jump rope training or skipping is a common part of a boxer’s training regime, used to improve agility, footwork, coordination, speed and endurance. For jump rope training, boxers use a rope of approximately 8-10 feet long, holding one end in each hand and jumping over the rope for several 3-minute ‘rounds’, in order to get used to the endurance required in each round of a fight. There are three main ways of using the jump rope for training:
  • Running in place - The easiest way to use the rope, this requires the boxer to run on the spot, moving the rope over their head and lifting their feet over the rope as it comes down in front of the body.
  • Double unders - A more advanced and strenuous way of using the rope, this requires the boxer to keep their feet together and jump with both feet at a time, jumping once for every two turns of the rope.
  • Criss cross - The criss cross can be applied to either of the above styles of using the jump rope, adding a more challenging dimension to the basic skipping steps. To perform the criss cross, the boxer is required to cross their arms (and the rope) as the rope passes down in front of the body, jumping through the loop that is formed and uncrossing the arms during the next rotation."
 
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Fiendlover

Fiendlover

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I'm not an expert on this by any stretch of the imagination and I have only just begun to jump rope (which I don't do very well as it is right now). But from what I understand from looking at boxing websites and talking with a friend who does MMA it's encouraged to change your jumping style while jumping rope. I've read about changing feet you jump with, essentially simulating running in place, double skipping (where the rope does 2 rotations for every jump, and crisscross etc... So with boxing trainers telling their boxers to do that I don't see how it could affect your sparring. It may be different for your MA but I don't see how that would make you automatically project your moves in sparring or anything else.

Hmm ok thank you. I didn't see how my method could affect my sparring either.
 

bribrius

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just a guess. it is harder to jump when the rope is near you feet. Requires quicker reflexes and accuracy.


Instead of making the jumping a long movement he is trying to get you to shorten it. To quicken it, while quickening your hand speed and feet speed.

consider it like raising your knee for a kick three seconds ahead of time and then extending it vs. doing the movement in a split second.

The first obvious it is coming, the second less obvious.

would it effect sparring? dont know, i dont see how directly but any activity you do can in theory.

Anything you do should be geared to proper timing and speed and accuracy in execution as a matter of premise. Just a good habit.

I dont think he is actually just using the jumping rope for health reasons but rather speed control and accuracy. The closer the rope is to your feet when you jump the better. The lighter the foot work the better. The faster the movement the better. Jumping higher and longer not the purpose of the drill..

my guess...ask them.
 

Carol

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I think it is crap. Nothing magical happens to your body when you jump rope.

The benefit to your body is aerobic or anaerobic cardio training. That's going to happen whether you are jumping rope this way, that way, some other way, jogging, hiking, swimming, skiing, snowshoeing....as long as you are doing it with enough intensity to get your heart rate up. For that matter, you don't even need a rope. Make the motions with your arms and jump in place and you'll get the same benefit.

Sorry to be so blunt (I suck at being tactful....its nothing personal), but I think calling you out for your alleged lack of jump rope skills and making an example of you is something raises my BS meter quite a bit.
 

jks9199

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Your sensei is your teacher.

Maybe he knows what he's trying to get from the exercise -- and that what you were doing wasn't achieving that goal.

What do you lose by trying his way?
 
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Fiendlover

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I think it is crap. Nothing magical happens to your body when you jump rope.

The benefit to your body is aerobic or anaerobic cardio training. That's going to happen whether you are jumping rope this way, that way, some other way, jogging, hiking, swimming, skiing, snowshoeing....as long as you are doing it with enough intensity to get your heart rate up. For that matter, you don't even need a rope. Make the motions with your arms and jump in place and you'll get the same benefit.

Sorry to be so blunt (I suck at being tactful....its nothing personal), but I think calling you out for your alleged lack of jump rope skills and making an example of you is something raises my BS meter quite a bit.

No that's fine. That's how I was thinking. I'm like oh my God why is he calling me out like this? I didn't know there was a proper way to jump rope. And I did originally think it was a cardio drill up until he called me out and made an example of me. (There was only four students in that class though but I didn't think I was doing it "worse" than anyone else).

Also I don't usually get trained by this sensei. I usually go days that my Sa Bom Nim teaches but due to a sensei leaving to teach at her own school he goes convienantly the days and times I have school. So I won't be seeing him until after my quarter ends unfortunately. Hopefully I don't have this instructor for the majority of my training days.
 

ATC

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Rope jumping not only builds endurance but coordination as well. If you can't skip rope like the boxers do it, and look like a little kid that double bounces on each revolution then you are not very coordinated and I can bet dimes to dollars that your footwork is poor also. (in saying "you", I mean no one in particular. Just using the word "you" as a general term).

No there is no correct way to skip/jump rope but as your coordination progresses so will your rope jumping.

I think your instructor just wanted people to understand what a person with good footwork would look like jumping rope. In the beginning most people double jump per one revolution, even when alternating feet.

Practice practice practice.

I made a bet with one of my teenage students once that he could not jump rope for 3 minutes straight. He thought I was crazy to make the bet. I only bet him a Jamba Juice but I he did it I would do 1000 push ups. He lost after 1 minute.
 

Jenna

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Jump rope I have found is one of the singlemost efficient cardio workouts you can give yourself. It takes little time, little space, little equipment and just a little practice. In your Soo Bahk Do, jumprope will give you an awesome sense of timing and coordination, it will enable you in any kind of sparring to become light and highly agile on your feet [fast in/strike/fast out]. And as I say the cardio benefits are intense particularly once you can speed up to a cadence of 120-180 with some of your favourite cool music too. There are various muscular gains to be made on your core/abs, your calves, your shoulders, your chest [particularly with crossover-type jumping]. Please take it slow to begin with and but I would urge you to stick at it even though it might be frustrating initially it is more than worth the effort! :) Compared to many of your own Soo Bahk Do techniques you will find it takes no time at all to master. Sure it is not fancy like the latest piece of QVC home-gym equipment yet the benefits to any martial artist are huge :)

The internet is full of resources and but maybe these might help too?


Lots of wonderful wishes, Jenna xo
 

Phenix_Rider

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I can't picture jumping more than once per revolution. Unless you swing the rope very slowly, and from your elbows or shoulders. If you feel you have to do it that way, maybe you need a longer rope. I don't see how it would affect your aprring though- except to improve your stamina and possibly speed/coordination.

Try moving the rope from your wrists, and seeing how fast you can knock out 100 revolutions/jumps. You should bounce from your ankles, not jump from your knees. Then keep it going from the wrists and alternate 25 on the left foot, 25 on the right foot and 25 on both feet. After you do a few minutes- around 500 total jumps, your calfs should really feel it :ultracool

If that gets old, throw in 30 or so situps after 100 jumps, then 30 pushups after another 100, alternating sides and centers for situps and diamonds/wide/narrow/knuckles for pushups. That used to be my standard warmup on off days, and I'm working back up to it. (100 jumps, 30 center situps, 30 normal pushups, 100 jumps, 30 left situps, 30 right situps, wide pushups, 100 jumps...) good times.

Another good drill is to alternate rounds punching the heavy bag, jumping rope, and working the speed bag or focus mitts.
 

Bill Mattocks

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I totally jump rope in a weird way. I can't do it the way other people do it in my dojo; they jump up in the air with both feet each time the rope comes by. I didn't learn that way. I think I learned it from my younger sisters, so I'm probably doing it a 'girl way'. I have no idea.

I flip the rope over my head, then simply step up with my right foot as the rope comes to it. Then I land on my right foot and lift my left foot as the rope passes by my right foot. Sort of a skipping/rocking motion. I don't hop into the air, and I have very little up-and-down motion. I kind of rock back and forth, like I was walking forward but always stepping with the right foot first. I don't know any other way to do it!

It takes the steam out of me anyway, though. I can only do it for a couple minutes at a time.
 

Stac3y

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I think the instructor was trying to get you not to double bounce, or waste energy by jumping high into the air, and he chose sparring footwork as an incentive to get you to change your jumping.

You really shouldn't double bounce, or fling yourself high into the air, when jumping rope. The motion is more of a flexing/unflexing of the ankles--this minimizes impact while still giving you the cardio benefits of jumping rope.

When I started karate, I was phenomenally uncoordinated. I hit other students with my jump rope, I hit spectators, I got tangled up in the damned thing...it truly sucked. Once I learned to just flex/unflex, bringing my feet off the ground just high enough to clear the rope, it got a lot better. I was jumping 6 minutes straight or more when preparing for my black belt test. Not without misses, I'll admit.

I still can't do the boxer's skip, though. I don't think I'll ever manage that one.
 

Blade96

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I think it is crap. Nothing magical happens to your body when you jump rope.

The benefit to your body is aerobic or anaerobic cardio training. That's going to happen whether you are jumping rope this way, that way, some other way, jogging, hiking, swimming, skiing, snowshoeing....as long as you are doing it with enough intensity to get your heart rate up. For that matter, you don't even need a rope. Make the motions with your arms and jump in place and you'll get the same benefit.

Sorry to be so blunt (I suck at being tactful....its nothing personal), but I think calling you out for your alleged lack of jump rope skills and making an example of you is something raises my BS meter quite a bit.

Agreed. I hated skipping rope. The sensei of the kenpo school i attended one year ago made us skip rope......i am not any good at it, and i hated it. I never really found it relevant or useful in learning kicky punchy karate. Never felt it helped me with stances, or kicks or sparring or anything. I get much more out of my shotokan classes than i ever got from the kenpo class. Luckily the class i attend now does a little pushups situps jumping jacks but its only a little tiny warmup and the physical fitness is a side effect of the ma. maybe i hated jumping rope because in the kenpo class made up half the class and was included in belt gradings that u had to pass a physical fitness test. I dunno. But it turned me right off.
 
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Bikewr

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I listened to a couple of interviews lately with Andre Aggassi, the tennis player. He talked about his long-time trainer-coach. When they first met, the guy asked Andre what he did in the way of conditioning.

Andre said he was in the habit of running 5-6 miles a day. The guy asked him if he ran five or six miles in a tennis match. "No..." "What do you do when you play tennis?"
"Run fast for a few steps, stop, change direction, run the other way fast for a few steps..."
"Let's work on that."

I agree, skipping rope (or running or whatever) is not magic. It is very traditional, especially for boxers. It lets you get a good aerobic (what they are calling "cardio" now) workout in a limited space.
Working with the rope is more interesting than just jogging in place.

However, it doesn't translate much to fighting. (unless you're in the habit of skipping a lot while you fight) Also, skipping rope is all about timing. Rock-solid constant repetition of exactly the same movement.
Does that sound like something that would be useful for fighting? Isn't fighting about "broken" rhythms and off-tempo moves? It should be...Or your opponent will "time" your attacks.
Nothing "wrong" with rope-skipping; get's your heartrate up and likely is good for your lower legs. It's not magic.
 

Jenna

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I agree, skipping rope (or running or whatever) is not magic. It is very traditional, especially for boxers. It lets you get a good aerobic (what they are calling "cardio" now) workout in a limited space.
Working with the rope is more interesting than just jogging in place.
True :)

However, it doesn't translate much to fighting. (unless you're in the habit of skipping a lot while you fight)
That is precisely what one does when sparring no? One must be light on one's feet in order to engage quickly and retreat quickly. Is this not how you fight?

Also, skipping rope is all about timing. Rock-solid constant repetition of exactly the same movement.
Does that sound like something that would be useful for fighting? Isn't fighting about "broken" rhythms and off-tempo moves? It should be...Or your opponent will "time" your attacks.
Yes and but you cannot break a rhythm if you have no rhythm to break. You cannot possibly hit off-tempo if you cannot ascertain a tempo in the first place no?

I think ropework is highly beneficial to any martial artist :)
Jenna x
 

geezer

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OK, I just can't keep quiet about this anymore. Every time I see this thread I get annoyed. It's not "jump roping". "Roping" is what cowboys do to cattle. You mean "jumping rope" or "skipping rope". Now considering this abuse of the English language, if your sensei made an example of you, good! It sounds like he just wants you to skip more efficiently with less exaggerated, wasted movement. And that is a good quality to cultivate in any martial art.

Anyway, for what it's worth, I'm lousy at jumping rope, so I feel your pain. But I'm worse at roping, though I do have a 62 year old cousin who's a champion roper. He wins saddles, belt buckles, and thousands of dollars every year. On the down side, he probably spends more than that much on his horses, fancy truck, trailer, travel expenses, and entry fees. Now that's a hobby that makes martial arts seem downright cheap!
 
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Fiendlover

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OK, I just can't keep quiet about this anymore. Every time I see this thread I get annoyed. It's not "jump roping". "Roping" is what cowboys do to cattle. You mean "jumping rope" or "skipping rope". Now considering this abuse of the English language, if your sensei made an example of you, good! It sounds like he just wants you to skip more efficiently with less exaggerated, wasted movement. And that is a good quality to cultivate in any martial art.

Anyway, for what it's worth, I'm lousy at jumping rope, so I feel your pain. But I'm worse at roping, though I do have a 62 year old cousin who's a champion roper. He wins saddles, belt buckles, and thousands of dollars every year. On the down side, he probably spends more than that much on his horses, fancy truck, trailer, travel expenses, and entry fees. Now that's a hobby that makes martial arts seem downright cheap!

My apologies. "Skipping rope".
 

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