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