The BASIC BOUNCE is the two-foot jump everything else in jump rope builds on: feet together, one small hop per swing of the rope, landing lightly on the balls of your feet. It's also the gentler of the basic steps: in a study of trained teenage jumpers, the two-foot bounce produced lower peak landing force than the alternate-foot step, and skilled jumpers move their arms and legs less than novices do. From the side, the app reads your jump height, your landing (balls of the feet vs. flat), your posture and your rhythm.
Set your base
Size the rope. Stand on the middle of it and pull the handles up: they should reach your armpits. If it's longer, shorten it so it doesn't tangle or slow your turns.
Stand upright with your head over your shoulders and your eyes looking ahead. Keep your shoulders back and your chest lifted.
tall and balanced, not hunched over watching your feet.
Keep your arms close to your body with your elbows slightly bent. The hands make small circles to turn the rope; the upper arms stay quiet.
The low hop
Put your feet together. Both feet leave and land at the same time.
Push off the balls of your feet with a slight knee bend and a flex of the ankles. Jump only high enough to clear the rope: no more than about 3/4 inch (2 cm) off the floor.
barely leaving the floor, a small spring from the ankles.
Land lightly on the balls of your feet and stay there for the next jump. Your heels don't settle to the floor between bounces.
light, quiet landings on the front of the foot.
Keep your legs quiet in the air. Don't tuck your knees or kick your feet up to make room for the rope; novices lift their feet higher with extra knee and hip bend, while skilled jumpers keep that movement small.
Time it to the rope
Start each jump as the rope reaches the top of your head.
Bounce once per swing of the rope. No extra little hop between turns (a double bounce).
one swing, one bounce, an even beat.
Land in the same spot every time. Skilled jumpers keep their landing point almost still from jump to jump; novices' landing point varies more from jump to jump.
Feel it
Light little jumps, soft landings on the balls of your feet, heels staying off the floor, and an even beat of one bounce per swing. Your body stays tall, your arms stay close, and you land on the same spot. If you feel yourself hopping high, tucking your knees or making big arm circles, make everything smaller.
Fix-its
- You jump too high or tuck your knees Clear the rope by no more than about 3/4 inch (2 cm). Push from the ankles and keep your feet under you instead of lifting them with your knees and hips.
- You land flat-footed or settle onto your heels Land lightly on the balls of your feet and stay on them between jumps.
- You add a double bounce between turns Bounce once per swing. Go back to single jumps (one swing, one bounce, stop), then build to sets of 5.
- Your arms swing in big circles Keep your arms close to your body with elbows slightly bent, and make the hand circles small.
- Your legs are stiff and landings feel jarring Keep a slight knee bend and let the ankles flex on every push and landing.
Drill
- Warm up first. Jumping rope is high-impact and can be hard on the joints, so build up gradually.
- Single jumps: turn the rope once, bounce once, stop. Repeat until the timing feels automatic.
- Sets of 5: five bounces in a row, then stop and reset. Reset after any trip.
- Intervals: start with 15-second bouts of bouncing with equal rest, building toward 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off, then lengthen the work gradually. Doing too much too soon raises the risk of overuse injuries.
- Film from the side and check: low bounce, heels staying up, the same landing spot, and one bounce per swing.
Sources
- Buddy Lee — Jump Rope Training, 2nd ed. (Human Kinetics excerpt: basic jump rope techniques)
- ACE — Mollie Martin, Calorie-Burning Jump Rope Workout (2015)
- HSS — 10 Benefits of Jumping Rope (Nwachukwu, 2021)
- Lin et al. — Rope jumping methods and adolescents' lower-limb biomechanics, Children (2022)
- Gowitzke & Brown — Kinematic and Kinetic Components of Rope Skipping: A Pilot Study, ISBS (1989)
Last checked 2026-10-26.