Hey James, 

I've been going to the local park and doing push pull dip abs legs regularly.  I recently added jumping rope and have found it to be quite enjoyable.  So far it seems like it fills a nice niche being lower impact than jogging and more intense than walking with the added benefit of skill development, timing, footwork etc.  Do you have any tricks, tips, advice, thoughts or stories concerning jumping rope since it has been a mainstay of boxers?  

A long time ago I was speaking with a jiujitsu coach about how sport and exercise affect the body.  He pointed out that the human body will adapt to the type of exercise one does.  For example volleyball and basketball players jump frequently and their bodies seem to drop excess weight to allow them to maximize their ability to lift off.  Contrast that with swimmers that all seem to have a little layer of fat that may aid in buoyancy.  It appears that exercise is not just building and rebuilding muscle and neurological connections but also a communication to the overall body to maximize the physical potentiality in a particular direction (lose weight, put weight on, direct resources to a particular area (for example legs for speed skaters).  With that in mind maybe jumping rope is extra good at signalling the body to stay light and mobile thus causing loss of weight or keeping weight off.  

Take care, 

Banjo

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Thanks, Banjo. I am certain that I could not skip rope withour serious injury. Trying t skip rope after tearing my Achilles at 18 resulted in several ankle sprains and pushing it could have crippled me with a full Achilles rupture.

Rope skipping is a great exercise. Roberto Duran was the best I’ve seen on video. I never have had an option for elective surgery, either being uninsured or insured. I have not been able to support my body weight with my flexed right ankle since age 18 and cannot lunge from a left lead. This is a good illustration of the benefits of the kind of ankle development you can get from rope skipping. I am 20% the knife fighter in the left lead as I am in the right, while most men are 50% the fighter they are in the right lead. The ruining of my dominant ankle at a young age compared to my left ankle is a fair approximation of the difference between the combative ankle function of a boxer who has skipped rope and one who has not.

Due to a rupture of my right Achilles tendon at age 18, I had to stop jumping rope. This was detrimental to my foot work and ankle development and led to ankle injuries and resulted in me taking longer to develop good footwork. It wasn’t until I was 31, too old to box effectively, that my footwork got on track through shadowboxing.

Skipping rope was introduced to boxing after the sport came off the turf and went into the canvas covered ring. Boxing is a good self-defense basis for modern survival fighters primarily because it is an art practice exclusively on hard surfaces of the type that almost all self defense situations occur on, that is surfaces that permit sliding and dragging foot work.

Rope skipping is best the lower impact it is. Develop a method of keeping your skips as low to the ground as possible. The benefits, so far as I know, are:

-Wrist warm up, flexibility and injury resistance for punching,

-Low intensity cardio,

-Promotes relaxation,

-Promotes light-footed mobility,

-Promotes hip-powered use of the feet, maintaining linkage from ankle, to knee, to hip, to shoulder, to elbow, to wrist, using all of these joints that are chained in the punching motion in sync,

-Molds your shoes to your feet for combat motion rather than just walking.

20 minutes per day is a standard baseline for competition boxers.

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Variations on the Plyometric Footwork Theme

-While hitting the speed bag, try bouncing on your feet the same way you do when skipping rope. The only fighter I have seen do this is Tony Cygan.

-For older brittle and injured people, play with foot replacement steps ina constant cycle, such as picking up the left foot slightly just in time to permit the right foot that is already in motion to replace it without stepping on your own foot.

-Use a knotted rope or cord to twirl in your hand as if you were using a jump-rope to get the wrist benefit, for people with ruined ankles and knees for whom skipping rope can be dangerous.

-If you lack the rope, or have space limitations like a low ceiling or a park where packs of Bantus will descend upon your scent to feast on your pale ass, then try continuous light shadow boxing.