The beautiful thing about jump rope is how much creativity there is in all the possible skills and styles that exist. It’s truly endless. However, for someone whose trying to learn jump rope, this can be intimidating and leave them feeling overwhelmed. Rest assured, all skills can be grouped into eight simple categories. These eight categories help us make sense of the vast universe of possibilities in jump rope. Let’s look at them.

All beaded ropes from Coach Chris are fully adjustable. The length can be adjusted as you progress, or to suit different styles.

Like most sports, jump rope is fraught with myths about both its benefits and risks. Often these myths are baseless misconceptions, ignorant of the nuance and caveats the truth behind them always includes. Let’s look at five of the biggest myths that plague jump rope.

Each type of jump rope has its purpose. No one jump rope is objectively the best. It is all about context and application. Let’s look at a few key types and compare the benefits of each.

A jump rope is a pretty simple workout tool in and of itself. Yet, there exists a number of variations on the age-old design. No one jump rope is objectively better than another, they all have a purpose. Deciding which is best to buy is all about context and application.

As simple of a workout tool as a jump rope is, there exist a few variations on the age-old design. Each type of jump rope has its own purpose. No one jump rope is objectively better or the best, it’s all about context and application.

One of the best aspects of jump rope is how diverse it is as an exercise tool. In freestyle, there is a whole branch of skills which don’t include jumping whatsoever. These non-jumping skills include step-throughs, wraps, and releases. For those looking for something to do on a rest day to keep active, a a non-jumping freestyle jump rope is a great option! Let’s look at a few of these skills.

One of the most common reasons people struggle when learning to jump rope is using a rope that is too long for them. Your rope size is no different to your shoe size, it depends on your body and it should fit you appropriately.

There are many styles of jump rope, from traditional competition freestyle to the minimalist boxer style. In recent years, thanks in part to the explosion in jump rope’s popularity on TikTok and Instagram due to the global pandemic, a style of jump rope has emerged called Dance Rope. Similar to the boxer style, dance rope prioritises footwork, but with some more complex movement patterns and a lot more arm work.

The main reason people invest in a beaded rope for freestyle is the added weight of the beads. Hard beads have historically been the default for 20+ years. Soft beads are a newer invention. The main ‘selling point’ of soft beads is that they’re quieter when they hit the ground. But what’s the real difference? Is one better than the other?

Jump rope can be a very effective tool in weight loss due to how efficiently it burns calories, but is it safe? Can I jump rope if I’m overweight without injuring myself? Rest assured, the answer is yes, you can! But there are some things you should consider first.

It’s a common phrase that’s thrown around when promoting the sport; “jumping rope is great for fat loss.” Sadly, it’s just not that simple. Although jump rope burns a lot of calories per hour compared to other forms of cardiovascular training, this is not what really matters when push comes to shove. The only thing that matters when losing fat is achieving a caloric deficit over a sustained period of time. This means consistently burning more calories than you eat.

Jump rope is commonly promoted as a ‘full-body workout’ that targets all the muscles in your body. However, sadly, this is not true. Jump rope is not a full-body workout. Suppose you look at the biomechanics of how a person jumps rope. In that case, it’s clear that jump rope is predominantly a lower-body workout which targets both the anterior and posterior chain musculature.

Most people spend the majority of their lives in shoes or trainers, and with this comes a lot of padding and comfort. Very few spend significant amounts of time barefoot, let alone exercising this way. A simple question to should ask yourself is - would you go running without shoes? If not, why not? It’s the same for jumping rope.

‘Toning’ is a buzzword in the fitness industry that is used to mean increasing the visibility of muscle definition by either, or both increasing muscle size itself and reducing the fat on and around it. In this sense, jump rope will help tone your legs, but it might not be the most effective way to achieve that goal.

Jump rope is a cardiovascular exercise which primarily targets the cardiovascular system through low-intensity extended periods of movement. But is it aerobic or anaerobic? The short answer is, it depends. If you’re jumping rope for any length of time over 15 seconds then you’ll be performing aerobic exercise which utilises oxygen to provide energy to muscles for movement.

In jump rope, a jumper can move the rope fast enough such that it completes more than one rotation around its body in a single jump. Quadruple unders, often simply called ‘quads’, are multiple unders where the rope completes four rotations around the jumper’s body before they land.

Jump rope doesn’t have to be a workout in and of itself. For some, jump rope is purely an exercise tool used for the warm-up before their main exercise program. The goal with any warm-up is to gradually build up the intensity to help physically and mentally prepare yourself for the main workout.

It might surprise you to hear but jumping rope can be an incredibly good exercise choice for older folk. The reason is because of one of its unique features that aren’t present in cycling, swimming or even running. It’s the impact intensity.

The short answer is no. Jump rope will not make you lose weight in a specific area. Spot reduction, which is the name for the idea that certain exercises can reduce or burn fat in targeted areas, has no basis in science and no peer-reviewed evidence to support it.