10X Your Footwork With This Underrated Exercise

I jumped rope back in high school.

Didn’t do it much in college… that was a mistake.

In graduate school, I’d regularly see this guy jump rope for 25 minutes… non-stop.

I never talked to him… probably a mistake.

Many years passed and my buddy bought a jump rope.

He never tried it before.

I did a workout with him.

That got me hooked...

That was two years ago, and now it’s a regular component of my workouts.

It’s actually hard to find a good jump rope.

I had to experiment with a bunch before I found reliable ones.

I now use these two…

The Epitomie Fitness rope came with some online training videos.

For the most part, I just go and try to work on the cross.

Overall, I’m decent...

When I go to my boxing workouts, I see some people jumping rope.

I was at Randoph’s Ab class on a Saturday, and I noticed this guy jumping rope for close to 30 minutes.

The following week, I saw him again.

His name is Mo.

I had a specific question for him…

I wanted to know his method for executing the cross.

He said to completely cross your hands while keeping the same cadence with your feet.

It needs to be smooth...

Before my conversation with Mo, my feet would speed up and do awkward things… so I’ve been working on keeping them more smooth.

We started talking more generally about jumping rope.

Mo has a playlist with 10 songs and just goes.

He’s done after the last song.

He said it’s the best cardio workout according to his Whoop fitness tracker.

It’s more intense than running sprints and the Assault Bike.

He tested it.

I was shocked.

Normally, l’d incorporate rounds of jumping rope into my warm-up for lifts.

So I do it for no more than 3-5 minutes each day.

I started bumping it up.

I did a 10 minute session recently.

Next up will be a 20 minute session.

Brad Gilbert talked about the importance of solid warm-up before tennis matches.  

I now jump rope for five minutes before matches… I’ll put on a hoody to really get a sweat.

I recommend you jump rope to warm-up before practices and games.

Just get in the habit of always bringing one.

Most goalies do it anyway.

Good luck and keep me posted!