Jumping rope has long been famed as a classic activity for boxers looking to increase foot speed as they float around the ring. Sprinters and athletes in team sports apply the same principles as they use jump-rope routines to increase running speed. You can adopt this simplest of training techniques to improve your speed in track events as well as across shorter distances in team sports including soccer, football, basketball, lacrosse and baseball.
Significance
Jumping rope can get you to rates of up to 100 jumps in 30 seconds, notes jump-rope fitness expert Buddy Lee in “Jump Rope Training.” This forces you to turn your wrists more than three times per second, and your feet must move at the same frequency. If you can reach 120 jumps in 30 seconds, you turn your wrists four times a second and also execute four foot touches per second, which can have implications for your running speed.
Expert Insight
Quick foot taps as you jump rope train the your fast-twitch muscle fibers to function at the level expected in high-level sports competitions, Lee writes. Because your feet jump just high enough to clear the rope, you become lighter on your feet. You can move quickly and gracefully and accelerate as needed.
Exercises
Jumping rope also is a tool to increase speed. Exercise researchers and consultants Lee E. Brown and Vance E. Ferrigno, editors of “Training for Speed, Agility and Quickness,” recommend a rope-skipping drill where you jump to designated spots on the floor to improve lower-body quickness. You can add a weighted rope or skipping to the side for added challenge or perform the drill with a single leg. Alternatively, start with a straddle position, with feet hip width apart, and switch to a split-foot position with one foot up and the other back. Go as quickly as you can, the authors advise.
Application
To develop your speed potential, you need to combine jumping rope with brief and intense sprints. Perform speed and rope-jumping workouts when you are fully recovered from a previous workout, Brown and Ferrigno recommend. As for your jump-rope technique, jump just high enough to clear the rope, no more than 3/4 inch from the floor. Push from the balls of your felt while slightly bending your knees, Lee recommends.
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