What I Learned From Jumping Rope for 30 Days

Why did you want to do it?

I was looking for lower impact cardio and more volume for my calves. I loved to play basketball as a kid and cherished the idea to dunk one day. But it never happened. After studying the movement patterns of jumping and landing, it was a good idea to practice that more.  It looked easy enough as children can pick it up pretty quickly and I’m still plenty childish. I didn’t think it was going to be so hard to start.  I just consistently whipped my legs or landed on the rope and it would pull the cord off the handle. Also 5 minutes of jumping was tiresome.  I had no clue my stamina, in jumping, was so poor.  I didn’t know that much about something so simple.  I expected to finish the month working on double unders and it took a month to understand the concept of what a double under was and its mechanics.

What was the goal?

The goal is to get consistency and cadence to perform as many jumps as possible. Started with 1 successful jump and wanted to complete double unders.

What did you hope for?

I was hoping for increased endurance, improving form, and improving timing. Hand-eye coordination has been a moderate strong suit for me. On the other side, I was not as capable with my feet. Never did well in soccer, never ran fast, can’t dance well. So a connection to that part of me was welcomed.

The only jumping I did was in basketball. That wasn’t really jumping anyways.  If you remember Sam Perkins from the Sonics, then a little higher jump than that.  I want to dunk and come down safely. With the extra work on my calves, I hoped to have better control both landing and jumping.

How did you start?

Study time was about 1 hour. I watched about an hour of technique drills, and it was as effective as reading how to swim.  It was nice to hear a few cues, but the task at hand was the best way to think about it. Just jump rope more often. There is a flow almost a dance if you let it happen and learn the pattern. I appreciated others who were really good at it. I set a small goal of 5 minutes of trial and error per day.  I would occasionally miss it on leg days. I wouldn’t be able to jump on those days.

How did it end?

In total, I spent 90 minutes jumping through the month. I increased form 1 skip to 78 over this time. I was plenty proud of the progress. Not many things improve on a scale as such. Taking away from this was a chance to see myself improve, and still be excited about working on something hard.  Regretfully, I did not continue to jump rope, but may bring it back as I practice more jump training in November 2021. Time to jump a little higher.