Our latest Strong Guide video is all about taking your skipping technique up a notch – by learning the crossover.
You’ve mastered the art of the basic bounce, so you can get the rope over your head without hitting yourself and it’s no longer getting tangled in your feet. But to challenge your stamina and increase the speed (and style) of your skipping, you need to introduce more complex bounces.
The next logical step is learning how to do a crossover. It looks scary, jumping through a twisted rope, and it is a technical bounce that’s pretty tricky. But there are some simple steps to learn. Our latest Strong Guide shows you exactly how.
How to do a crossover bounce
The most important part of a crossover is in the hands, says Sarah Louise of @skippingwithsarah. “It’s important to have the correct hand placement otherwise you will end up shortening the rope,” she says. That’s a recipe for tripping and whipping.
During the complex movement, it’s also essential that you don’t forget the form of your basic bounce, which you can find in our previous Strong Guide. There are eight key steps to then nailing a crossover:
- Proper hand placement involves making a figure of eight motion, scooping in and out of the cross, rather than leading with huge swipes.
- Keep your forearms crossed, so they touch when you cross. A lot of people try to cross with their wrists or elbows, but this pulls the rope to the wrong length.
- Your hands should be at hip height – don’t cross at your chest or waist. The handles should be poking out the side of your body.
- Keep your arms close to the body – almost like you’re hugging yourself.
- Start with toe catches by making a crossover shape but not jumping, so the rope falls to your feet. When you feel confident that you could jump through the rope in the shape you’re making, add a bounce.
- Cross and uncross after the rope has come over your head. If you uncross too late or too early you will get tangled in the rope.
- Use a mirror or video to assist – it’s hard to work out what is going wrong without being able to see your form.
- Keep practising this until it feels natural! It will probably take a few sessions until your body gets used to the movement so keep persevering with it.
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Images: Sarah Louise
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