Jump Rope, Skipping for Boxing

Importance

If you didn’t already know, the most important and most crucial aspect in all of boxing is footwork. When watching the past legends of the sport, such as Mike Tyson and Muhummad Ali, one consistency you will notice is that the majority of all champions could manipulate balance and footwork. Building endurance and co-ordination in the legs and feet are aspects of your development you must focus on and add to your boxing training if you wish to grow into a champion. Skipping/ jumping rope can be extremely beneficial in achieving these aims, and should be done 3-5 times a week. Personally, I find jumping rope to be one of the more enjoyable exercises in the boxing gym, due to the variability you can add to your skipping.

Benefits

Firstly, skipping (or jumping rope) vastly improves your cardiovascular conditioning and stamina, enhancing the capacity of your heart and lungs, due to the aerobic nature of the activity, which is also useful for shedding unwanted weight. This is important in preventing the effects of fatigue in the latter rounds of the match, even if you are still an amateur fighting just three rounds. Secondly, jumping rope in the boxing gym builds up your muscular endurance and strength, particularly in the calf, shoulder and back areas. This is especially important in increasing your capability of keeping your hands up as a match goes on. The first time I ever started skipping in the gym, it was actually my shoulders that started tiring, and feeling sore, more than my legs, but as time went on I started getting used to it. Thirdly, skipping allows you to improve your timing and co-ordination of the feet. When first skipping, it’ll be difficult to get your movement in sync, but eventually you’ll gradually grow micro-awareness of your feet’s movement.

Jumping rope improved Ali’s footwork

Improvement

It takes patience and practice to get the technique right, however it’s quality over quantity as if it’s not done properly when training, you risk compromising it’s benefits. Initially, start slow and work to get to the point where you can skip for 10 seconds at a time, with no interruption. Gradually, the aim will be to get to skipping for 3 minutes for 6 minutes at a time with a minutes rest in between. As you get better you can increase the speed gradually as you get more comfortable with your training.

Once you start to get the hang of things, you want to start increasing the intensity which will get you in terrific fighting shape. Within the rounds, you want to start adding sprints to the exercise. This just basically means skipping at double speed with each knee going up separately, or you can jump high and  you push the rope twice with each one jump with legs straight or both knees going up while. In a six round skipping session:

Drills

First round: Add 10 second sprints at the one minute mark, two minute mark and the last ten seconds of the round.

Second round: 10 seconds sprints at each 30 second intervals

Third round: 15 second sprints, 15 seconds at regular pace

Fourth round: 10 second sprints at each minute mark

Fifth round: Sprint 5 seconds, regular pace for 5 seconds, continuously until the end of the round

Sixth round – 30 seconds at a fast pace, 30 seconds at regular pace until the end of the round

Variations

Eventually, when your fitness improves, you can add more rounds, and add short exercises in between rounds, such as shadowboxing, squats, press ups, burpees or crunches. Skipping in different forms can be done. Skipping in the forward direction, then skipping backwards, or skipping on one leg with the other knee high up can help build leg strength. You can also skip by jumping with your legs apart and switch them, both to the side and to the front. For example, left foot in front, right foot behind, then jump and simultaneously switch feet positions by placing your right foot behind and your left foot in front. And lastly, my favourite, jumping in a squat position, which is extremely difficult to do at first, but with practice and patience, becomes much easier.

Jumping rope is beneficial for boxers in all weight classes

Final Note – Are They Doing It?

Remember, footwork and leg endurance is especially important in order to not only improve your fatigue threshold, but it helps enhance your technique, which is important for punching power. All great champions have good footwork, and it is evident that they have dedicated time to improving this aspect of their game whilst others did not. This is what it means to be a champion. Champions always do more than their peers in training, so if you want to join the elites, it wouldn’t be wise to neglect your skipping.