There’s nothing quite as painful as the whip lashing of an uncompleted double under. As the cable cord comes rocketing around your body and slashes into your shins, you get the overwhelming urge to scream out expletives…and you do. Sometimes a good whipping deserves the f-bomb. 

A lot of people struggle with double unders and curse under their breathe when they see it in the WOD. But what if I told you that I had 5 simple tricks that could help you dominate double unders in no time?

#1 – It’s all in the wrist

A lot of people tend to whip their arms around, but the movement should be much more subtle than that. In fact, all you need is a quick flick of the wrist to propel the rope around you. First try this with your single revolutions, then once you’re become more comfortable start flicking your wrist faster, jumping a little higher and completing a double under.

#2 – Keep your feet hip width apart

We have a tendency to bring our feet closer together when we jump, but this just throws off our balance. Try your best to maintain you feet at hip width distance and you’ll be able to support a more controlled and coordinated jump.

#3 – Jump straight up and down

One of the biggest mistakes (and most obvious) we see made is people jumping in a pike or dolphin kick – aka, kicking your feet forward or backwards. What this does is cause you to land heavier, take more time to recover and lose valuable time needed to rebound into the next jump.

Try to imagine that you are encased between two walls and there’s no where to go up straight up. Land softly on the balls of your feet and slightly bend your knees to absorb the shock. Try practicing this in front of a mirror so you can see if you’re kicking your feet.

#4 – Keep your elbows in

Since your wrists should be doing all the work, your arms should be relatively motionless most of the time. Unfortunately, we often forget about our arms because we’re too busy focusing on completing the motion, and sometimes they start to float away from our body. This causes us to get out of sync and deliver a serious lashing to our shins.

The solution is simple, keep them tight to your body and avoid whiplash!

#5 – You’ve got the wrong rope

Many things in this world are not created equal and the same goes for your skipping rope. The size and weight of your jump rope force you to adapt your tempo and ultimately affect your progress. If you’re constantly using the beat up, cheap jump ropes in your box or gym and swapping between ropes, then every time you attempt double unders you need to teach your body to adjust to a new rope.

So what’s the fix? First of all, get yourself a rope to call your own and then size it to fit. Not sure how to size your rope? Watch this video and let Coach Barry show you how.