Long Rope Skipping Techniques

The following information may seem, at first, to be excessive, bearing in mind it is all about the fundementals of running under or over a moving long rope, but the whole cornerstone of skipping is based on being in the air at the very moment the long rope hits the floor or being in the right place in order to not get hit by it. This can often be a small mountain for some people to overcome and will be as natural as breathing to a skipper once the penny has dropped.

For children up to the age of seven or eight, I suggest using a 4.5m Double Dutch rope. Older children and adults can, of course, use the same length long rope but for big group skipping and the challenge of having to run further to reach the middle of the long rope, a 7.5m long rope is recommended.

It is worth taking the time to read all the following information on how to get started with a long rope, especially the benefits associated with "Under the Moon and Over the Stars".

Basic Guidelines
Skippers run in when the long rope hits the ground and they must queue next to the turners and not at right-angles to the long rope.

They must also exit the long rope by the turners, running as close as possible. Please note: Skippers are free to enter a long rope from wherever they feel confident and many skippers can work out when to jump into a moving long rope from many angles. Very good skippers can enter a long rope from any angle including leapfrogging a turner and landing in front of them. But without doubt, the easiest way to get into a moving long rope is from a position next to the turners. The only time children or any novice skipper should be actively encouraged to run at a long rope from a right-angled position to the turners is when they are doing "Under the Moon and Over the Stars" (Long Rope Skips - Skipping Technique 1, below) which is not only an exceptional confidence-building excercise, but good fun for all.

I suggest that long rope games are performed by no more than 15 children/adults to one long rope. This is in order to maintain a healthy ratio of "watching" and "doing". As you can probably workout for yourself, too much "watching" and not enough "doing" can result in a loss of attention for some children and they become bored. Boredom can result in anti-social behaviour and so on. During PE lessons, workshops and skip-hop sessions, I suggest you have two or more long ropes on the go and divide the class into two or three equal groups, letting each of the participants take have a go at turning the long ropes.

On the subject of inexperienced children and long ropes, in order to get them confident about running into a turning long rope which, for them (and adults!), can be a daunting thing to do, playing the game "Under the Moon and Over the Stars" is perfect.

Long Rope Skipping Technique 1) Under the Moon and Over the Stars - This game is divided into two parts - the Under the Moon part and the Over the Stars part. (Doh!)

Under the Moon - Skippers line up at right angles to the long rope and turners, (please read the "Basic Guidelines" section above, in particular, the bit about the angle to run into the turning long rope) far enough away to not get hit, of course, but close enough to minimise the distance needed to run under it. The long rope needs to be turned in a direction which means the skippers are running with the long rope, not against it. To check this, if the turners stand with their arms out straight and parallel to the floor and are both pointing in the skippers' direction, if their arms move down towards the floor to begin the turning process, this will send the long rope in the correct direction ie, away from the skippers towards the floor, not away from the skippers towards the sky which is the result of moving the arms up. Once the long rope is in motion, one of the turners says "ready" as the long rope hits the floor. On the next hit of the floor they say "in you go" with the emphasis on the word "in", and finally "now" as it hits the floor for the third time - "ready, in you go, NOW!". The skipper runs under the long rope and out the other side and stops when they are far enough away not to get hit. When skippers are confident about doing this, let them do it without counting them in. They will very quickly be able to work out when to run.

Skipping technique tip If a child is nervous about doing this move, start by getting a confident child to hold the hand of the less confident one so they can run in together. This never fails to get a child running under the long rope as they are almost dragged in at the right time by the one who can do it. This method of buddying up is also very effective when working with children and adults with special needs. Or indeed, ANYONE who needs a little help from a friend to get their confidence.

Over the Stars - To complete the skip, the skipper runs back at the long rope and tries to jump it, having run under the long rope already. As the long rope is still travelling in the same direction and hasn't stopped since the skipper went underneath it, timing of the run is even more essential than before as the skipper is running at the long rope. The best point at which to begin the return is when the long rope is level with the skipper's nose and on its way up.

Here's an idea to vary the game and make it even more exciting: Have skippers run into the rope in pairs, threes, fours or more, all holding hands and running under the long rope together. With a 4.5m long rope, you can get up to six or seven small children (or two large dinner ladies) running under the long rope at the same time.

Skipping technique tip Remember, skippers, the closer you stand to the long rope, the less distance you have to run. If you begin your run as the long rope passes your nose on it's way up, you will have the maximum amount of time to make your move!

Notes to the teacher and a bit more
This is the perfect way to introduce young skippers to the idea of running into a turning long rope. It develops their confidence, timing, spatial skills and sense of rhythm. It is great fun (believe me, I've done it a hundred times with adults and they laugh like five year old children) and is a great leveller. What I mean by this, is that it doesn't matter if someone is a competent skipper or a complete novice, everyone is on the same footing and it's about having the guts to run at the right time, not about the marrying up in perfect harmony of arms, hands, feet and long rope at one critical moment to produce that thing this whole business is based on - THE SKIP! On a personal note, I have seen, on a daily basis for nearly 10 years, children who cannot skip with their own rope, run confidently and successfully under a turning long rope whilst the child who is streets head in ability stands and watches the long rope turn, unable, either through fear, confusion or over-analysing (usually the first) to get successfully through without getting hit. How nice for the weaker child who manages it without fear or trepidation, especially when the one who is so good at single rope tricks (and we all know which ones they are) can't quite work out when to run and consequently gets it wrong. (Not that I like to see any child get anything WRONG but you know what I mean.) I use this technique every day with four year old children and on the odd occasion, with three year olds. The difference in their confidence after their first successful "Under the Moon" is incredible. I also use this method to introduce long ropes into the sessions when working with special needs children/adults, and novice skippers in general, be they children, adults or a professional rugby team.

When you first try this in a lesson, you will immeditely notice how different each child is. You will have children in your class that run too early, too late, too fast, too slow and who stop after running a metre and duck only to get hit in the head or legs by the long rope. In order to make this learning process and their first experience of running into a turning long rope a pleasant and exciting one, the long rope turners ie. you and your fellow turner (a class assistant in the case of younger classes or a pupil in the older classes) HAVE TO learn to adjust the long rope accordingly depending on the child. Whether you are turning the long rope for someone else or yourself, the burden of responsibility is always on the long rope turners to adjust the position and speed of the long rope dependending on the cicumstances in order to avoid any form of contact between the long rope and the skipper. As skippers get better and more confident, there is less adjusting to do and finally there is no adjusting to do at all. Below are listed a few things that can happen and the best way to deal with it.

The skipper runs too early.
Possible outcome: skipper gets hit on the head.
Remedy: speed the long rope up a fraction to get it past the skippers nose before it hits them whilst at the same time, moving your arms away from them. Once the long rope has safely passed the skipper face and they are no longer in danger of getting hit, slow the long rope back to the original rhythm. (Please read the section on the relationship between skipping and rhythm in music and how the brain processes the information to deal with both as this will help in understanding the enormous importance of rhythm in skipping. The rhythm of the long rope hitting the floor and your voice reacting to it along with the movement of your arms, is not only being observed by the one about to run under the long rope but by everyone else queuing up behind him or her and, indeed, everyone else in the room. As a musician in a former profession, I strongly believe that skipping and a developed sense of rhythm are inextricably linked.  Understanding the relationship between them is of paramount importance to anyone who teaches skipping, whether the skipper themselves is aware or not).

The skipper runs too late.
Possible outcome: skipper gets tripped up by the long rope as it completes its revolution.
Remedy: slow the long rope down by stalling it in the air to give the child time to get out of the way of the long rope as it comes back round. This is most effectively done stretching the arm slightly more so that it goes above the head, thus making a bigger circle. The best way to think of this is that the bigger the circle your arms make, the longer it will take to complete a full revolution providing the speed of you arm is not increased. If necessary, as the long rope comes back round and is at the point when, if it carries on moving, it will catch the feet of the skipper, do the following: stop the long rope completely from moving as it hits the floor, wait for the skipper to exit the long rope and then carry on turning the long rope and pick up the rhythm that you had before.

The skipper ducks and stops running at the same time halfway through, cowering like a frightened animal about to meet its maker.
Possible outcome: laughs all round.
Remedy: send them back and make them do it again.

The following notes are a guide to enabling a non-skipper to jump inside a long rope. I have regularly used this method over the last 10 years with anyone who hasn’t skipped before, whether they are four or 40 years old. It will seem incredibly obvious once you’ve tried it but the majority of people use a method which so often doesn’t work. So, try this:

Two turners stand in position with a 4.5m rope. It will obviously make sense if you are one of the turners. At least a metre of rope must be touching the ground. As you will discover, novice skippers have a tendency to move around whilst jumping a long rope and having a decent amount of rope touching the floor will decrease the chances of feet and rope colliding. Mark the ground with chalk or tape so the skipper can focus on the middle. This also means that when the child moves off the centre spot, the turners can see how far they have moved and either move with them or ask them to bounce back to the middle. Remember, the closer the skipper is to the turners, the higher off the floor the rope is until finally it is the height of the turner's hands.

The person jumping the rope, in this case I want you to imagine, is a 4 year old child. Place the child in the middle of the rope on the marked spot. Ask the child to start jumping. They will need to do a slow, regular single bounce. Look for children who are jumping to high or too heavily and not landing on their toes. (See the page labelled “safety”). When the skipper has established a fairly regular rhythm, the turners now introduce the rope. The aim is to turn the rope once for every two bounces the skipper does. This will result in the skipper doing a double bounce whether they like it or not. Being in charge of the rope mean you dictate the rhythm of the skip i.e. double bounce or single bounce. The reasoning behind this is that a child who has no concept of double or single (it is a four year old, after all) will be shoe-horned into doing a double bounce. In the case of most children, they almost immediately figure out themselves that a proper double bounce (big jump when the rope is travelling underneath, little jump while the rope is above) is easier and more comfortable than an erratic single bounce. It’s a penny-dropping moment and a skill that they never lose. Doing it this way can really make a difference to their progress with a single rope as they now have a self-discovered ability to do a double bounce.

Be prepared to speed the rope up or slow it down if the skipper changes rhythm or speed. Also, be prepared to move around the playground or hall if the skipper moves off the centre spot. Children and adults do this because they are concentrating so much on jumping they are unaware of their position in relation to the turners. Children also have a habit of gravitating towards whoever they are looking at. So, if they get too close or simply begin to move off the spot, you have two choices in order to keep the skipping going:

This information is downloadable in PDF format to all registered users of this site. To download please log in or register here you will then find the file at the bottom of this page and in our skipping resource download centre