Super Tips to Master your Double Unders
Top Tips to Master your Double Under’s
They come up in a WOD and you curse as you know you are going to end the workout swearing at your rope, throwing the rope down in frustration, and worse of all the sight of the wipe marks across your legs and arms to remind you how painful double unders can be!
Here are some tips and secrets on how to master those double unders, so you can say goodbye to having a higher ratio of leg lashes to double unders in a workout.
Tip 1:
Start with single unders first master jumping with two feet over a single rope turn before progressing to double unders
Tip 2:
Get a rope the right size for you, we order from RX Smart ropes. This way you have a rope that suits your height, it is well worth the investment.
Tip 3:
Don’t use your whole arm to move the rope the movement comes from a flick of the wrist. You need to hear the rope moving quicker when doing a double under this is initiated from the wrist flick. We use the balls on a rope tool (looks like a cat toy) to practice getting used to the flick of the wrist you must keep the balls moving at the same time when doing the double under wrist flick.
Tip 4:
Keep your arms and shoulders relaxed the tighter and more tense you become the shorter the rope will become with your shoulders ending up around your ears! Make sure your arms are relaxed down by your side and not getting further away from you again this will shorten the rope, you can take a pull up band and loop it around your arms at your elbows to help cue keeping your arms in by your side. Arms should sit slightly forward of your torso
Tip 5:
Practice jumping up straight not kicking legs out in front like a dolphin kick or doing a donkey kick behind you (bending at your knees) this will make stringing double unders together harder, you need to be bouncey on your mid foot without your heel touching the ground, you should stay in a straight line with your body and land lightly not thumping into the ground killing all momentum
Tip 6:
Look up get tall don’t stare at the floor this can make you crumble in your core and bend forward
Tip 7:
Practice makes perfect don’t opt out of doing double unders in a WOD if you are only getting a couple talk to the coach and let them know you are wanting to do double unders but can’t do many they will be more than happy to negotiate a number of reps for you. Whilst learning it is ok to do single skips in between but once you get better try only doing 1 single skip between each double and then work on stringing more double unders together. Use your double unders as your warm up before a WOD so you get your practice in.