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JUMP ROPE FUNDAMENTALS, INSTRUCTIONS AND CARE

Here you will find useful information about basic jump rope form, setting up your jump rope and relevant assembly information for each jump rope brand and how to adjust the size of your jump rope.

This page is split out as follows:

Section 1 - General tips on basic jump rope form, conditioning, rope care and storage

Section 2 - Dope Ropes Jump Rope Instructions

 

Some important info before we get into the detail....

I just wanted to add a quick note of warning that as with any fitness tool, improper use of jump ropes can lead to injury, so take care and read the below and make sure you contact us with any concerns. Our ropes are intended for adult use and contain small parts in some cases so please be careful when opening, adjusting and storing your ropes and keep away from small children.  Also inspect your rope before use to make sure any cord ends/knots are tightly fastened. Check your space as well before you start, you don't want to accidentally cause some damage to items or people in your surroundings!

Jump rope is super fun so we are confident you will love it, we hope the below is useful to help you get started on your jump rope journey!

Section 1

Jump Rope Form

With your jump rope purchased you’re now ready to start jumping! The real key to progress is practice, practice, and more practice! However, adopting proper form from the onset will make your jump rope journey more enjoyable, help you to avoid injury and you’ll progress much faster. We recommend focusing on 2 core fundamentals…

  1. Bound height - The first thing to remember is to jump lightly on the balls of both your feet simultaneously. Jump only a couple of inches off the ground, just enough to let the rope pass under you. A common mistake that beginners make is jumping too high and kicking their legs back (see illustrations below)

  2. Arm and hand positioning - The second fundamental is proper arm form. Arms should be kept tight into the side of the body, elbows should point backwards and wrists should be placed at around hip height with the palms facing outwards. Ensure you rotate your wrists, a lot of beginners have stiff wrists but if you set yourself up with the correct arm positioning as mentioned, then the wrist action should come to feel more natural. With this arm and hand positioning, rotate the rope around you by moving the cables in a small circular motion. You should not have to engage your entire arms and shoulders! A common mistake that beginners make is having their arms and hands too wide and far away from their body leading to excess energy being used and generally making learning more difficult (see illustration below)

Check out the video below where we demonstrate these 2 fundamentals of the basic bounce:

 

Also see the stills below illustrating good and bad form:

Good Form
Bad Form

More advanced footwork and tricks like the “boxer skip”, “running in place”, and “crossovers” will come with practice. We recommend that you master basic bounce before moving onto to tricks, you should be able to jump this way for at least 3-5 mins before progressing to more advanced tricks.

Conditioning & Footwear

Jumping rope is super fun, and it's very easy to do too much too early and hurt your progress. I (Kaz) learnt the hard way. When I started jumping rope I was doing 20-30 minute sessions right from the start and wore minimalist running shoes with very little sole cushioning. The result, I had quite severe pain in my feet and ankles, and couldn’t jump for about 2 weeks until I recovered!

It’s important to listen to your body and make sure you’re giving yourself enough time to recover. Start out by jumping for just 5-10 minutes in your first sessions, and see how your muscles respond. Be sure to let yourself recover before jumping again. As the weeks go by and you practice more, your body will become more conditioned for jumping and you will need less time to recover between sessions.

Another thing to remember is to wear appropriate footwear. I’ve tried various different footwear for jumping rope. Many people will have different opinions on this topic….but this advice is just from my personal experiences. You may well find some footwear works great for you, everyone is a unique individual and is different in their own way, so figuring out what is right for you is really the key. For me I have found that I can perform much better and recover far quicker when I wear athletic footwear with ankle support and a well cushioned sole. I am not endorsed by any company but have found the Nike Lunar series and also Basketball shoes to be great for jumping rope. Basketball shoes provide a nice thick sole as well as some good ankle support, making them great for jumping rope.

Rope Care and Storage Tips

The below are general tips, we have more specific tips for the RX Smartgear ropes in section 3.

Rope cords are not indestructible and so to help any jump rope last longer, we recommend the following:

  • Shorten your rope! Our ropes come at roughly 10ft as a standard, this is too long for anyone. Many users either don't shorten the rope when it arrives and simply has it too long. Revisit the length and shorten your rope as you gain more experience. Shorter ropes will only brush the surface rather than heavily impact it. 
  • Drape your rope over hooks (such as coat hooks, etc) - This is a great way to help your rope keep shape and helps a bit to remove or reduce kinks that may develop in the cable. This is also a good option if you don't have cable ties/jump rope bag. Note, it is preferable to hang by the handles if you are an RX user.
  • If the above isn't an option, then make sure you wrap your rope neatly, for example in a 6-8 inch diameter circle and where necessary hold in place with cable ties or a jump rope bag. See video below which shows an example of this with the Original RX jump rope which is a particularly good option for storing this jump rope.
  • Avoid just throwing the rope in your bag without neatly placing it in there as this could cause kinks/damage to the cable. 
  • Avoid using on harsh surfaces like concrete, tarmac, dirt, and gravel where possible. Refer to our jump rope product guide as this indicates which ropes have a bit more durability on harsher surfaces. Wire based speed ropes are more harshly affected on surfaces like this.
  • Ideal surfaces to jump rope on are jump rope mats, gym floors, rubber coated or matted floors, and PVC matting.
  • Avoid leaving outside in the cold especially during winter as this may lead to PVC ropes becoming stiff making a snap likely to occur.
  • DO NOT bend or tie your rope in a knot. Doing this will radically decrease its efficiency and life span (unless it's a beaded rope nylon cord!)
  • If a kink develops then remove it by bending the cable in the opposite direction to work the kink out. This is only applicable to wire based speed ropes (our PVC and nylon don't kink!).  Refer to the video in Section 2 - RX Smart Gear on rope care for an illustration of this.

  • For coated wire based cables, inspect your cable rope for tears in the covering before each use. If any tears are noticed and the wire cable is exposed/split, cease use immediately and replace the cable with a new one.

Also see our blog post on rope care for more info and hacks!

Section 2 - Dope Ropes Instructions

How to Adjust PVC ropes like the Cardio 2.0 and size for your experience level

Top Tip - to release the snap lock, hold the cord with thumb and index finger on one hand and hold the snap lock with the thumb and index finger of the other hand.  Then push the cord upwards and snap lock downwards simultaneously and it should come loose.  This is illustrated in the video above. Remember, you only need to open one side to adjust the rope!

Not sure what length your rope should be, then check out our sizing guide!

GENERAL CARE TIPS

  • Keep your rope draped over a hook indoors or in neat loops to maintain rope shape. 
  • Avoid leaving outside in the cold
  • The cord is durable across surface types but to make sure that it lasts, use a mat where possible or softer surfaces. 
  • Make sure the cable isn't too long. Your rope should be brushing the surface you are jumping on and not heavily impacting it which can happen with long cables and excess rope. 

 

How to Adjust Beaded ropes like the Signature Beaded Jump Rope and size for your experience level

Note - any frayed polyester cord after cutting can be tidied up and sealed using the flame from a lighter or match to carefully neaten and give a clean finish. This will also prevent knots from coming loose. 

How to Adjust any other rope!

Long handle beaded ropes and soft beaded ropes are adjusted in the same way as the signature beaded jump rope. You may have a bead instead of a washer on the long handle ropes but the principle is the same.

The Heavy Beaded Fitness Rope is a hybrid of the PVC and the beaded rope and so you can adjust that in the same way too but note that you will be removing the snap lock of a PVC rope rather than the knot on a nylon cord. So watch both the PVC and beaded videos above to help with this. 

Please also note that if you are unable to reveal the snap lock or the knot on a long handle rope, simply cut the cord at the base to free the beads, washer or snap lock. You will lose minimal length and you can simply continue to adjust as illustrated above. The snap lock in the case of the heavy beaded will just need to be removed from the small piece of cut off cord and then reattached to the longer part once adjustments have been made.