jumping rope

We ended up going to TKD mid-day on Friday instead of our usual weekday night routine.   What's cool about this is that the class size is significantly smaller and you get a lot more individual attention and the chance to ask questions way more readily.    Not that we don't receive enough attention during a normal class.  It's just what comes with the territory with smaller class sizes. 

Part of the warm up routine during the mid-day classes is jumping rope for 4-5 minutes.   We don't do this in the evening classes probably due to lack of space.  Back when I was a kid, I used to do that Jump Rope For Heart fundraiser and I could jump rope for minutes on end w/o missing a single beat.  Apparently it isn't just like riding a bike because I have difficulties and end up catching the rope in my toes.  We use those plastic speed jumping ropes in class that don't seem to have much weight to them.  I never jumped rope in bare feet when I was a kid either. 

We've gone to these mid-day classes several times before.  Apparently my frustration with the jump rope was starting to show because the instructor actually stopped us all and gave us a few pointers.  The idea is to move ONLY your wrists instead of your whole arm or even just from your elbows.  By moving only your wrists, the rope has a tendency to hit the ground about 6-8 inches in front of your feet instead of further out.  When it hits the ground further out, it has a tendency to bounce up and catch your feet and/or toes.  When I specifically concentrated on this aspect of the rope jumping, I kept way better rhythm and had fewer "toe catches".   

Who knew that jumping rope could actually have a technique to it that I would have to concentrate on in order to do better.   Crazy.