Skipping

Start out with the basic moves, then graduate to Double-Dutch and musical skipping games for larger groups of kids.

What’s in it for your child?

• Skipping is great physical exercise for both athletic and non-athletic kids
• It can be done anywhere, all you need are a rope and a little bit of space
• Group games help develop teamwork skills and coordination

Get started

• Start with the basic jump: stand with the feet slightly apart, grasp an end of the rope in each hand,  bring the rope over the head and jump over it with both feet
• Once you’ve mastered the basic jump, gather some speed by using alternate feet to jump off the ground — you can double your skips per minute this way

Tips and tricks

• Criss-cross: do the basic jump, but mid-jump cross your wrists in front of you so your left hand goes to the right side of your body, and your right hand to your left side
• Double under: jump up a little bit higher than usual and make two revolutions with the rope instead of one, so it passes under your feet twice before they touch the ground again
• The toad: this is a complicated trick where the jumper performs the cross manoeuvre but with one arm crossing under the opposite leg from the inside
• Triples, quads and quins: it is possible to have the rope swing three times under the feet (triple under); in competitive jump rope you may even see quadruples (quads) and quintuples (quins)

This extract is part of a larger article “Skipping” from Wikipedia.

It is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0