What”s the Trick to Jump Rope Well?

Last weekend I stayed with an old friend of mine, Tim Hannig. I’ve known him for quite a few years as he does quite a few school assemblies annually. His show incorporates some illusions, magic and audience participation. While we were there, he showed Alicia and I some card tricks and I always find it fascinating how they are done. I met up with master magician Daniel Garcia a couple months ago and I couldn’t help but be impressed as he showed some different illusions to a small group of us. As impressed as I am with how they are done, I know that they are an illusion and are just a trick. I personally don’t care how they do them, I enjoy being fooled, but there’s still a trick to how it’s done. I did learn how one illusion was done and once you know the trick, it loses a certain part of the mystery, which is why I’m happy not knowing.

Over the years I’ve found that most people refer to what I (or others) do with a jump rope as a ‘trick’. Nothing could be further from the truth. There’s no trick to what’s being done, it’s all skill. Almost everything that I’ve learned to do with a jump rope has taken lots of time and practice to do. There’s no back door, no illusion, it’s really being done. In fact, most of the time after I explain how a ‘trick’ is done, people realize that it’s harder than it looks. **Note** I know that doing illusions properly takes a ton of skill and practice and I fully appreciate what goes into doing one.

If you want to jump rope properly, don’t look for the easy way out. Any shortcuts you take in learning to jump will come back to haunt you as you learn more difficult skills. Jump rope is a skill and the neat thing about skills is that you earn each new ‘trick’, nobody is giving it to you, you’re earning it. You now own that skill.

Skill or trick? With jump rope there’s only one option.