How To NOT Suck At Double Unders

Well…

…I can’t promise you that, but I can point you in a better direction. And if you ONLY watch this vid and read this blog post, you’ll still suck. Gotta take action afterwards obviously.

The vid that really got me going was Jon Gilson’s Again Faster Mic’d Instructor video on double unders with James Hobart:

Jon pretty much has covered what you need to know…get your singles down, start with progressions like single-single-single-double, etc. Now it’s really up to you on practicing. For some of you, it might just come naturally. For others, you’ll have to work your ass off for them.

Try to figure out what variable you need to work on. Change only one variable at a time – keep the jump/rhythm constant and adjust your wrist speed, vice versa. As I said, practice.

Also, it’s important you get your own rope. The rope mechanics will stay the same then, so the only variables to fix involve YOU. I wouldn’t start off with an RX Jump Rope, as they’re for the more advanced. Your cheap, typical ultra speed rope should be fine.

When I started, I wanted a cable that was a little bit heavier, although not beastly like your old school, playground ropes. I used the Again Faster Revolution Rope to learn my dubs, and the rest was history.

Dubs Are Fuckin Frustrating

I seriously feel your pain. Shit, I still get frustrated by dubs. There are those days where I can string 60+ unbroken no issue, while there are other days where getting an unbroken streak seems impossible. It just happens.

If you really want to learn your dubs, you really gotta work for them. And it won’t happen overnight like with all the good things in life.

Not sure if I’ve mentioned this on here, but when I started my one-on-one on-ramp sessions (my schedule at the time was ridiculous so I couldn’t go to the normal month-long class), going over the jump rope work was pretty damn embarrassing.

My coach is a sarcastic ball-buster at times, although he was obviously pretty tame at the time since I was new and I barely knew the guy. Man…I was strugglingggg with singles. Coach would give me some tips on getting it down. Still…I kept tripping over the rope, and I believe I fell at some point…

…eventually, after noticing I was just laughing it off and getting nowhere with the rope, coach just had this funny look on his face, and said, “Ummmmmm…let’s move onto something else…”

Yeah, I was that bad.

So What Did I Do?

I would throw in singles every time the WOD called for dubs. Coach would always give me some time limit on the singles, such as :30 or :45 before moving onto the next movement in the WOD. It was pretty annoying, but I knew I had to go through all this shit to get somewhere with the dubs.

Right before the 2011 sectionals, I was starting to get my dubs in the single-single-single-double and single-double-single progressions. I was feeling pretty damn good about myself, even though my jumps would require a pike to get the two rope spins.

What up, Buddy Lee?

Then workout 11.1 was revealed…10 minute AMRAP of 15 ground to overhead/power snatches and 30 double unders.

FUCK.

My morale went flaccid.

Something In Me Kicked In

I signed up for the opens, and I wasn’t backing out just because of double unders. So that week, I did some runthroughs of 11.1 with some other people at the box. Everything I’ve been practicing until that point just started coming together that week. Those progressions then turned into unbroken dubs.

At the time, I just started hitting around 10-15 unbroken. WTF happened?

Sure, I was using that pike described in the video, but it was just good enough for me with that first Sectional WOD. Ended up getting 6 rounds plus 7 dubs if I remember correctly. Not bad for learn dubs that week.

After that WOD though, I had to work on my form. It’s easy to keep using a donkey kick or pike in your dubs, so it’s best to eliminate that garbage early on. Your body will thank you for your eventual efficiency.

It’s Cliche…

…but TAKE ACTION and practice. Use your double under practice sessions as a warmup when you get to the gym if you want. Hell, I practiced a bit in my living room thanks to the ceiling just being the right height.

Making mistakes was part of the process. It sucked knowing that I sucked and that the whole process of learning dubs sucked. Oh well. What was I supposed to do? Do singles or 200m runs for the rest of my life?

I just wanted to succeed. Bad.

How bad do you want it?