Jai Chavan's "Dance-Sport" Email : [email protected] Or General Mailer

Skipping

Skipping skipping (with a rope)? Will any sports coach allow?

This is a very important exercise that has no alternative. It is a good warm up exercise used for almost all the sports, such as boxing, athletics, lawn tennis, table tennis, football, hockey, wrestling, and many others. Majority of the times it starts right from the childhood.

It strengthens the small muscles of the feet (the ones between the toes and the heel, and the calf muscles).

It develops a good sense of rhythm and the co-ordination of the mind and body. Helps visualisation and concentration.

Exercise
Length of the rope
Hold the rope in both the hands and place the hands against the top of the hipbone. The rope should loop from under the toes (ball) of both the feet. This is the ideal length.

The actual length required for comfortable skipping varies slightly by about two or three inches.

Technique
The technique required here is one jump and one go of the rope.
The count is when one lands on the floor. Thus if one has jumped ten times, then the rope has strictly passed from under the feet ten times.
Also the rope should pass from the front and down, and from the back and the rope swings upwards.

The body movements occurring here are very complicated. When landing on the floor the toes should touch first, and as one descends the shock of landing is absorbed in all the joints sequentially, from the toes to the back, by flexing them under control. Next natural reaction of the joints is to straighten up. This is again a very controlled release of the pressures in a sequential manner, which should help one to go for the next skip.

Aim
1.
To be able to skip with the dancing shoes on a hard floor so softly that any one sleeping on the bare floor is undisturbed. The rope "whining" or the noise when the rope hits the floor is all right, but the noise of one landing on the floor should not be there at all as far as possible. The gentleness should be as such that even at the age of eighty years, when the osteoporosis (depletion of calcium from the bones resulting in very brittle bones) has set in, yet one is able to do the exercise with ease.

Beginners however should practice on a soft floor to avoid injury.

2.
It is important to use the dancing shoes when exercising or dancing, as this results in the "wearing in" of the shoes. Thus the innersole of the shoes get the right shape of ones foot, and gives a firm and comfortable footing when stepping. The ideal shoes are the ones that fit like a surgical glove, and at the same time keep the toes comfortably together for strong positive movements.

3.
Breathing has to be rhythmic, and its consistency should remain till the end of the exercise.

4.
One should aim for consistency first. Then later for the speed A good speed is 200 skips per minute by the watch when skips are repeated 1000 times. Thus the total time for 1000 skips should be exactly five minutes.

If one is doing more than 1000, then the time rate for the rest of the skips can be more. However all the rest of the skips should have the same stable rate.

Beginners can start with 100 skips. Initially the main aim is consistency. The next step is to time the skips and then to make an effort to reduce the time duration, without sacrificing the consistency.

5.
One needs to count the exact number of skip. A good method is to count in slabs of 100s. And to be able to visualise large size numbers that keeps a tab on the number of slabs.

6.
The visualisation is as such that one sees them in some colour, and it remains through out the exercise as if it were on a screen. Yet this screen should be translucent such that one can still see through it.

7.
One should be able to punish ones self for losing concentration, such as break in rhythm, losing the count, losing the screen, etc. The ideal punishment is to increase the number of skips by 10 for every mistake. This will make one even more mentally alert.

8.
Mental Alertness is very essential. If one finds it difficult to retain it even after some tries, then its best to leave the exercise for some time later.

9.
Lag and lead The wrist rotates ahead and the rope follows. So when the jump/skip occurs the hand has already moved back. This is important as it helps in light hand movements that give advance intimation to the partner of the movement to follow. This guiding is just as subtle as it occurs in skipping, and is not noticeable, however it is felt very distinctly. Thus when skipping it is very necessary to feel this part very consciously.

10.
Body Movement. The up and down movement of the whole body, coupled with the slight forward and back movement of the chest that occur due to the slight bending at the hips, make the arms rotate very slightly. This in turn makes the wrist "vibrate" in a slightly rotary fashion that swings the rope around. Thus it is the body movement that makes the rope swing.

The beginners can move the arms and the wrist and get the rope to swing. However one should bear in mind that it should occur due to the rhythm of the whole body. Until the rhythm is not achieved the exercise would be very tiring.

11.
Only one foot on the ground, means that only one foot carries the body weight, and the other foot is just millimetres of the ground. However every part of each foot is touching each other as far as possible.

Various Patterns
1. Feet together
The feet remain together and jump/skip is done with both the feet.

2. 123456 LF (left foot)
The counts 1,2 and 5 are on the left foot and the counts 3,4 and 6 come on the right foot. Therefore the two jumps on the left foot, then two jumps on the right foot, next is single jump on the left foot and the last single jump on the right foot. The rope passes from underneath the feet six times before repeating the part again. This gives a better understanding of the slows and the quicks in the dance. Also the rhythm for Rock 'N' Roll is slow, slow, quick, quick which is same as 12, 34, 5, 6. Here the counts of 1,2 always come on the left foot.

3. 123456 RF (right foot)
This is similar to above, however 1,2, always come on the right foot.

4. 12341
In this case 4,1, are taken on the same foot. This will help tremendously for the dances like Rumba, Cha Cha Cha. Also this will help in getting the deliberate delays in Tango.

This following part should be attempted only if you have got the rhythm and the speed and a bit of experience in skipping.
One should also try to relax the hip to the side of the foot on which the weight is taken. Remember to relax the hip only after the body weight is taken on the foot. When doing this additional movement, the speed drops slightly.

It should take about 5 minutes by the watch, or less to do about 1000 skips with the feet together pattern. And about 15 minutes or less to do 500 skips each for the rest of the three patterns.