Skipping rope is absolutely the BEST boxing footwork drill for beginner fighters!
There’s no way to get around it. I get beginners trying to argue and reason with me all the damn time, asking if there are other good boxing footwork drills for beginners. NOPE! Sorry. There are no other alternatives. Nothing else comes close. Not running. Not swimming. Not cone drills.
And here’s why…
“Do I really HAVE to do it?” [jumping rope]
Yes, you do.
I’m sorry [not really] that it makes you feel weak and pathetic. Or that you feel emasculated doing “exercises for 6-year-old girls”.
No, “other” footwork drills cannot substitute for it.
I don’t know what it is. The more I tell people to jump rope, they more they argue with me and find excuses for it. And it’s always the most uncoordinated dudes that argue with me the most. They’ll insist on doing anything else but that. They’d rather do flashy ladder drills from soccer/football, or cone drills from basketball, or whatever other silly gimmicky nonsense being shared on Facebook/Instagram these days.
“But WHYYYYYY?!!“
The jump rope teaches you footwork efficiency!
The reality is this: skipping rope teaches you footwork efficiency. And BEGINNERS especially, need this more than anything else. Because beginners have horrible efficiency. They get tired even doing nothing at all. Want proof? Haha…(just ask a beginner to skip rope).
Without learning how to move your body efficiently (even if just simple jumping up-and-down), whatever fancy footwork technique you learn will only make your legs tired as hell and cause you to move SLOWER, not faster.
So don’t argue with me. Get your ass on that jump rope. And if you suck that bad at it, and it hurts that much, and you hate it THAT much…that only goes to show how much you need it.
If you can’t even bounce up and down for 15 minutes, you don’t get to do flashy footwork. You clearly don’t have the energy to keep it up.
If the jump rope is so frustrating physically exhausting to you, I can’t imagine how long you’d last in a real fight. You’ll be exhausted once we add in the punches and the stress of facing a live opponent. Skipping rope is like literally the most basic footwork move ever. If you can’t even do this…what chance do you have doing any other kind of footwork?
And BELIEVE me, I totally understand. It’s so tiring. It’s so mentally defeating. It’s boring. It’s painful. It’s this and that. Guys, c’mon…you wanna be fighters and you’re getting your ego smashed by a jump rope? Just get to work. I didn’t even ask you to be good at it. You just have to do it.
The good news:
Yes! There IS good news.
The good news is that learning how to jump rope takes so much less time than you think.
I recommend you do it for 1-2 hours straight your very first time. Please, just listen to me!!! I know it sounds extreme but believe me, you WILL get it. Don’t quit at the 10-15 minute mark. Go straight for at least an hour. I promise within a few days or even 2 weeks at mots, you will find it so comfortable and natural!
It’s like learning how to ride a bike. You’re freaken awful the first couple times and then suddenly a pro like you’ve been doing it your whole life. It’s not only going to be easy, it’ll actually be FUN. Not only that but your boxing footwork and overall movement ability, rhythm, coordination, and endurance will shoot through the roof. It’s like you leveled up a hundred times and you’ll wonder how you could’ve ever done it without the jump rope. (Next, you’ll become and advocate for the jump rope and tell everybody you know they need to do it!)
Real stories of boxers who finally learned how to jump rope (names have been changed to protect the lazy):
BILL:
- Bill has 6 months of boxing experience training alone in his home. He doesn’t go to any gym but he’s read every boxing book and watched every Youtube boxing tutorial there was.
- Bill kept asking for alternatives to skipping rope and when pressed, he revealed he wasn’t good at it and felt confident other drills could improve his footwork better (and probably faster).
- After I told him that literally all legit gyms make you jump rope, he forced himself to do it and quickly realized how easy it is if you keep doing it everyday. He went from tripping over the rope every other jump to skipping like a pro to the beat of his music. Now he’s a believer.
NATHAN:
- Nathan is overweight and felt he shouldn’t have to jump rope because it’s hard on his knees and joints. Also, it makes him so tired so fast and he can barely do a minute of it.
- I told him to just breathe through his nose, stay calm, and keep jumping (even if it means resetting after every 2-3 jumps).
- Nathan wrote back after month beaming how he went from barely doing 10 jumps in a row without messing up to nearly 10 minutes in a row without messing up. Not only that but everything got so incredibly easy once he “figured out the rhythm”. He now loves skipping rope and thinks it’s much easier on his knees than even other footwork exercises.
ZACK:
- Zack says he’s incredibly athletic but really awkward/uncoordinated at the jump rope. He’s got explosive footwork, speed, and stamina already so he doesn’t see the point of the jump rope anyway.
- I tell him the jump rope really improves your body’s overall coordination, smoothness, and finesse. It’s not only that you have explosive energy and stamina but you can tie in together all so much more effortless. Moving in a more subtle, sneaky way, and with incredible timing on all your movements (whether for footwork or punching).
- Zack was jumping like a pro after a week. He can easily jump for an hour straight and not feel tired at all. Despite already being athletic, he now sees how essential skipping rope is. He also said my tip about going for an hour straight really helps. That your body actually finds the efficient rhythm when you’re tired. It just lets go and does what is natural.
Ready to un-tuck your tail and try the jump-rope again? Read these:
Hi Johnny, thanks for the article- informative and fun to read, as always. I completely agree with all the things you said about the rope, I’m a huge fan. I’d like to ask you for advise how to make skipping sustainable without getting shin splints. I love the rope, used to skip every day as a part of my warmup and/or conditioning but after a few months I started getting shin splints. Now even when I fully recover each time I get back to skipping it takes me only a few days to get shin splints again. And for the record, I stretch, I don’t skip on hard surface like concrete, I wear trainers to minimise the impact on my joints.. it seems like I do all the right things to minimise the risk? I honestly don’t know what to do as I’d love to be able to skip on a daily and get all the benefits that come with it. Your advise will be highly appreciated! Thank you so much!
Hi Mal. Really sorry to hear about your shin splints…they hurt like heck. I’m curious, are you able to share a video of your jumping?
Thanks Johnny! I don’t have a video (will try to make one at home over the weekend if I remember as the gym is always too busy to ask anyone to film me skipping) but I believe I’m pretty light and low on my feet, at least the coaches never gave me any negative feedback on my jumping.. which means either it’s alright or nobody cares haha! But yeah, it took me almost a month of daily skipping with various tutorials to get to the point when I felt comfortable with a technique, without getting gassed out and thinking about it too much, it just feels natural if you know what I mean.. anyway, once again, thank you for your caring reply and have a very happy New Year!
Hi Mal.
Just to let you know that I used to have a lot of problems with shin splits too while jumping rope.
It seems that after a few months, I’ve been able to successfuly jump rope twice a week for 30min+ for months now without having problems with my shins.
Here are the things that solved my problems, IMO :
– I run 2 to 4 times a week, so it added to the damage done to my shins. I bought race track shoes to run on the streets. In fact, these shoes don’t have much cushion and are very light. It actually forced me to run much smoother. I now have much better running technique, which lead me to reduce the impact on my shins.
– I changed my jump rope technique. I jump rope like a boxer, meaning that I jump with both feet, but one foot pushes much more one after another. So, first jump, both feet push but left foot will be the one making me jump. And then, second jump will be the right foot doing the same, and left foot pushing only a little bit. This reduces the impact on the shins, because you use both legs but you alternate the pressure put into your shins by giving more strength to one shin after another (sorry, I’m French and I don’t know how to explain it better). It’s basically the common jump rope technique for boxers, so you probably understand what I’m saying.
– I jump as low as I can. I think I used to jump too high, even if I didn’t do it like a beginner who jumps really high. My thought is, try to almost not jump and just make it so that the rope passes under your feet at the exact right moment. This will greatly reduce the pressure in your feet. You can always aim for perfect height, so you probably need to improve on that.
– Change your shoes, and have boxing shoes that have solid protection on the front (Nike HyperKO for example).
– Drink water, massage your legs often and even wear compression stockings after your trainings.
– If you run a lot, try swimming or cycling instead.
Hope it helps. It really annoyed me for a long time, but now it has been much better. I do feel some little pain sometime but it’s nothing compared to before. Anyway, better jump rope technique has been a key factor for me. Good luck !
Benoît, you’re legend!!! Thank you soooooo much for taking your time for such a detailed reply, I really appreciate it!
Super happy for you to overcome the issue, they can be such a pain (just back from the gym, with ice packs here haha).
It’s an interesting suggestion about the race shoes, I’d never thought about it! Also, now when I think of it, nobody has ever shown me how to run properly (and I’ve never been a fan of running so wasn’t bothered to learn from online tutorials) which leads me to the embarrassing conclusion that my technique is, most likely, rubbish! I don’t run very often (usually just sprints 3 times a week) so the main source of shin splints is probably the rope (and bouncing on my toes on a daily) but it definitely doesn’t help!
Re your skipping technique, I know exactly what you mean, I usually use different styles of jumping but when I start feeling the impact then I use the one you described or even kick outs or side kicks to get some rest.
I jump low, wasn’t obvious when I first tried (about 1.5 year ago) but someone pointed it out and for the next month I was practising all the adjustments to get comfortable, low and light on my feet. Thank you though, I think that’s the crucial point and the mistake that pretty much every beginner makes!
Fun fact.. I always jump in my Nike Hyper KOs, black and gold to be precise, haha!
Never tried compression stockings- do you reckon they actually make a difference? I have to admit, I’m probably to lazy to massage my legs (should try and change it though and see what happens) but I do ice baths or at least ice compresses regularly and take magnesium supplements.
Swimming would be quite difficult for me to arrange but cycling is a great idea, thank you, I imagine it should also help with blood circulation so even if replacing running completely may not give me the required level of conditioning I will still add cycling as a bonus and replace 1/3 of my sprint sessions.
Again, thank you so much for being so kind and helpful and hi from rainy England 🙂
No problem Mal, always a pleasure to help !
Regarding the race track shoes, it’s actually quite logical when I think about it : I used to land hard on my heels when I was running, and having running shoes that had a lot of cushion did reduce the impact on my shins, but it didn’t push me to change my technique.
I mistakenly bought race track shoes and it was actually a good mistake : running like I did a few years ago would now tear my shins apart.
Besides that, you’re sprinting, so it means that you are giving even more impact on your shins. I suggest you should maybe reduce to 1 to 2 sprints per week and replace with 40 minutes normal running sessions to work on your technique. This will help you in your sprints too, and it will be quicker to learn because when you sprint, you can’t concentrate on technique as much as slow running.
As far as I understand, your problem is not your jumping rope technique. I think it may be the frequency of your training. Maybe you could reduce the jumping rope sessions a bit in order for your shins to recover.
And also, if you can do cycling as a cardio, it will be great for your shins.
Regarding compression stockings, it’s only something I tried. I don’t pretend it works for everyone, but you can always try. I asked my doctor to prescribe me those so that I didn’t have to pay them. Don’t know if it’s possible in England though.
Also, maybe you’ve heard about the bottle technique, which is to rub a plastic bottle on your shins. It’s very painful but I heard it’s good to reduce split shins on the long term.
Hope you’ll get through that. 😉