From Cringe to Cool: Em Foley Jumps Rope & Flows (Ep. 22)

Dizzy Skips (01:03)
Em Foley, thank you so much for being willing to come on the podcast. It’s so nice to have you on the Jump Rope Podcast.

Em Foley (01:08)
Thank you for having me and thank you also for running this podcast. It’s such a great way to bring the whole community together. I love it.

Dizzy Skips (01:16)
I’m so glad to hear you say that. Yeah, I’m having so much fun with it. it’s, as you know, like this morning I released the episode with your friend, Kathy, Kathy Zetelski @kathyjumps – amazing woman. And, so much fun to talk to her.

Em Foley (01:29)
I listened to it in the gym and it was so great to have Kathy’s voice in my ear and your voice too. You have such an amazing broadcast voice. Can I tell you that? Has anybody told you that? But it was, it was just a real joy to listen to. Kathy’s a great person and an inspiration to all of us in the Jump Rope community. Yeah, kind. All the good things.

Dizzy Skips (01:39)
that’s so nice of you. Thank you.

my gosh. Yes. Yeah. And so down to earth. Yeah. I posted a little reel today

of her with the bears cause she mentioned the bears, you just so funny.

Em Foley (01:58)
Kathy and I have that

in common actually because I live in rural Australia and while I don’t have bears, I do have a possum that lives in my gym and we’re always sharing videos back and forth of random animals that interfere with our exercise.

Dizzy Skips (02:18)
That’s hilarious. That’s so funny. So does the possum just like cross the yard as you’re skipping or flowing?

Em Foley (02:21)
you

It lives in a kayak, like it sleeps inside my kayak and it’s a cute, it’s a cute brush tail possum. I know American possums are kind of gross, Australian possums are very cute. And it just had a baby and I keep trying to capture the little baby in its pouch because it’s so gorgeous. it, yeah, we communicate, we talk, I feed it, we have the, you know, animal connection. Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (02:36)
to me.

That’s amazing. That’s great. So you’re in rural Australia. Are you close at all to some of our other Australian friends?

Em Foley (02:54)
you

I am not Australia is a very, very large country. So I live about three hours south of Sydney near the nation’s capital, Canberra. But I work in Sydney. So I’m driving up and down that highway three hours. I stay over in the city two or three nights a week. there are some jumpers in the Sydney area, but like Peta’s down near Melbourne and

Dizzy Skips (03:07)
Yeah.

Okay.

wow.

Mm-hmm.

Em Foley (03:27)
Yeah, I’m on my own here in rural Australia.

Dizzy Skips (03:31)
Yeah,

yeah. And so you, sorry, I get to edit this. So when I sound like a bonehead, I edit it out.

Em Foley (03:36)
I know, that’s fine.

We can keep that in, that’s fine. It’s humanizing.

Dizzy Skips (03:41)
Yeah, so what

about, right. So what about your work? You said you commute. What kind of work do you do?

Em Foley (03:48)
Yeah, so I am a university lecturer. So I’m an academic. I work at a large public university in Sydney. I’m a social scientist. I’m not the kind of doctor you want if you have a heart attack on an airplane. But my husband actually gave me my handle because he calls me Doc as a joke. And so I was like, what should I be on Instagram? He’s like Doc Jumps. I was like, okay, here it is. And you know, if I had my time again, I’d probably go back and change it.

Dizzy Skips (04:07)
Yeah.

Hahaha

Em Foley (04:16)
because I sometimes worry that people think it’s serious, but it’s not. And I do get DMs being like, are you a medical doctor? I’m like, no, no, no. I can analyze your social science data exceptionally, but I cannot cure whatever is ailing you sorry.

Dizzy Skips (04:20)
Right.

That’s funny, when I was driving around yesterday and thinking about our conversation, I was wondering like, how many times has it happened when she’s gone to a meetup and someone has said, you know, I’ve got this thing on my shoulder here.

Em Foley (04:44)
I do, get messages which is like, how do you handle calcineal pain? And I’m like, Googling calcineal. Like, what is that even? I don’t know. Sorry, can’t help you.

Dizzy Skips (04:54)
Yeah, that’s hilarious.

Brandi Brown was one of the ladies that I interviewed recently and on one of her reels that I think I put out where she was giving props to mothers. She was talking about how she wished that she could have,

taken a jump rope when she was at her kid’s sports events and like just jump roped on the sidelines because there was so much time spent doing that. And I think you made a comment about how you had done something similar at the edge of skate parks or climbing gyms and that your kids thought it was a little cringe until they got a little older and now it’s cool. And I thought there we’ve got our episode title, you know, “Em Foley – Jumping From Cringe to Cool!”

Em Foley (05:26)
Yeah.

I think they still find it a little cringe sometimes if I am too kind of public about whipping it out. like, you know, I mean, there’s what we post on Instagram, which is kind of the finished product, you know, which looks amazing. But behind that, of course, is hundreds of hours of just tripping, failing, looking awkward, you know, so.

Dizzy Skips (05:34)
Okay.

Hahaha

Yeah. Sure.

Right.

Mm-hmm.

Em Foley (05:58)
And but you have to put those reps in to get good, right? You have to there. It’s like playing the guitar. Like you don’t pick up a guitar and jam like Jimi Hendrix without like working some scales. That’s what I always tell people and the failing. It looks a little cringe. you know, fair enough, right? so I do, but I, but I refuse to have dead time. Like I, if I’m at the climbing gym and one of them’s doing lessons, if we’re at the

Dizzy Skips (06:02)
Right?

That’s right.

Yeah.

Em Foley (06:27)
skate park and I have to be there supervising. I’m going to be working my double rotation mic release over and over and over and over again. The adults usually think it’s pretty cool. And you know what? Most of the other teenagers do too. But I get it’s your mom. It’s boring. It’s weird.

Dizzy Skips (06:37)
Hahaha.

Yeah.

Yeah, right.

That’s so funny. Yeah, I am no stranger to jumping in public and I find that when I watch videos of myself after where I’m trying to like, you know, figure out what song I was listening to when I was jumping so I can make a reel or something like that, there is so much time that I spend whacking myself and laughing out loud. I’m sure I just look like a lunatic to all the other people in the park, but I really don’t care so much. You know, you get to a certain age and you’re like,

This is what you got, you know, use it.

Em Foley (07:14)
100 % 100 % and I think I don’t know I was telling someone at work about this who was interested is interested in learning to colleagues who’ve just ordered jump ropes and they’re like, please give us lessons and

You know, I said, look, how much do you really want to do this? I actually make people ask me like two or three times before I’ll give them the link to how to buy a rope. Cause I’m like, are you actually interested in this or are you just being kind? Yeah. And then they came back and we were like, we’re really, really interested. And I said, you know, the failing is kind of a metaphor for life. Like,

we work in a profession where, you know, to get your work published sometimes has like a 5 % success rate or to get grants to fund your research is like 5 % success rate. And it comes with a lot of negative feedback. Like

Dizzy Skips (08:03)
Ugh.

Em Foley (08:09)
rejection, criticism, it can be hard. Yeah. So I think jump rope is perfect because if you practice every day, like I fail a hundred times before breakfast, before I even sit down to actually do my work. it’s like each fail is not

Dizzy Skips (08:11)
Mm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Em Foley (08:30)
the end of the world. It’s just one more set of feedback in like this progression to get better. And when you talk to people in the jump rope community, I think we all understand that. So you become less thingy about your fails. You’re like, everyone’s failing all the time. Why hide it? Just be out there, be out, be proud. Own your fails. Yeah, that’s part of it.

Dizzy Skips (08:35)
Yeah.

right.

Yeah, that’s right. if

you, yeah, totally. If you can make that little paradigm shift in your head where, hey, this is part of the process and I have to do it and I can do it. That’s part of what I try to tell myself is I can fail because there was a time when I was sick or I couldn’t walk and I couldn’t jump. I couldn’t fail, you know?

And that sucked. so now when I go out there and I whip myself in the shin so hard that it takes my breath away, I laugh and I sometimes swear and then I say, yep, all right, I needed that.

Em Foley (09:24)
It’s such a gift just to be able to move and do the things that we can do and to have the time and the capability and the capacity to even try. Right? So every fail is like, okay, just take it on the chin or laugh at it. Or, you know, it’s probably a big ask to be like, every fail is a gift. know, certainly I’m not out there being like, thank you Rope for whipping me into submit. No.

Dizzy Skips (09:28)
Right?

Yeah.

I know, right?

Em Foley (09:52)
I can swear,

Dizzy Skips (09:52)
One more welt please.

Em Foley (09:54)
I swear with the best of them, but I’m with you. I’m in the laugh at myself camp or dance it out or just don’t take it too seriously. Come back tomorrow. Tomorrow’s another day. It’ll be fine. Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (09:58)
me too.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. A couple of things I wanted to mention that I really love about you, one is that you’re jumping in public. I already mentioned that, but you and I have the same physician. On your profile, you mentioned the Rope is your doctor, and she’s my doctor too. I think mine might look a little different than yours, but I’m curious when you say the Rope is your doctor, how…

What do you get from rope? That-

Em Foley (10:36)
Yeah, okay. Well, I put that on my profile first to stop the medical questions from coming in because I was like, that’s okay. that so that but I mean it truly. So and a lot of it has to come I think from my origin story as a jumper. So I’ve always

Dizzy Skips (10:42)
Yeah, I suspected.

Em Foley (10:59)
I’ve always used exercise to primarily to manage my mental health like other people, you know, if I don’t move I can be prone to catastrophic thinking, anxiety, little bit of depression.

Dizzy Skips (11:12)
Mm-hmm.

Em Foley (11:15)
And I’ve always used kind of running as a way of doing that or yoga as a way of doing that. But all of those in swimming, but all of those exercises, even though I feel better afterwards, I can still be very much in my head. can, I can run, you know, 20 Ks and be ruminating about work the entire time. Right. It’s just, so even though you feel better afterwards, you don’t, it’s not the same. And for me,

Dizzy Skips (11:34)
Mm-hmm.

Right.

Em Foley (11:42)
We had, it feels like ancient history now, but in 2019-2020 we had these massive wildfires in Australia and our farm and our farm business were destroyed in those fires and we were actually there. And then immediately after that we had COVID.

Dizzy Skips (11:50)
Mm-hmm.

Mm.

Right.

Em Foley (12:03)
If you remember that period, it was like what is happening, the world is ending. Again, it feels like a million years ago, but I would say I spent about 18 months to two years just in a complete fight or flight mode. And during COVID, our lockdowns here in Australia were really quite tight. And I got quite panicky being like, if I can’t leave the premises to go running.

Dizzy Skips (12:17)
Yeah.

Em Foley (12:28)
in the state that I’m in, things are going to get real bad, real fast. And I was like, what can I do that’s just going to get my heart rate up to that level where I feel better? And I was like, jump rope. So I ordered the jump rope online and I think I win the prize for the weirdest, worst, it is leather with wooden handles.

Dizzy Skips (12:33)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Is it leather? Nice. My dad had one of those

back in the 70s. Like, seriously.

Em Foley (12:54)
Yeah.

So I ordered it from this Mixed Martial Arts website and it came, I think it was in this kind of like cellophane, like I actually think it’s from the 70s. Like it came in a bag that was like, this is like pre-plastic, covered in dust. I don’t even know. And I jumped with this thing for a good like six months.

Dizzy Skips (13:00)
Yeah.

Hahaha

Yeah?

Em Foley (13:22)
And look, anyway, I’m getting to your question. What I discovered quickly about jump rope is I can’t think. It is the only activity I’ve ever found where my brain just goes quiet the minute I pick up the rope. And people have remarked after I started doing it, like, what are you on anyway? You always seem so up, like you always seem so like joyful or whatever. And I’m like, I do an hour.

of moving meditation every day. That is the medicine for me. And as a benefit, you get, you know, totally like the fitness is like this amazing kind of secondary bonus that comes with it. But for me, it’s the joy, it’s the flow state, it’s the joy, it’s the quieting of my mind and then, and all the physical benefits after that.

Dizzy Skips (13:51)
Mm.

Mm-hmm.

Right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Em Foley (14:16)
you

know, I’m getting stronger. I’m like, feel like I’m aging in reverse. It’s just, it’s the magic sauce for me. So it’s the medicine in every way. Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (14:24)
It’s so amazing.

Right, yeah, so amazing. And you couldn’t state that better. I have the same exact thing, the quieting of the mind, it is my happy place. And I say that without reservation, like just being able to put some music on and bounce and lose myself. Like I do not think about finances. I do not think about work. I don’t think about all the stuff that I need to do or things I’m upset about. I just flow. it…

And there are days in the summertime where I’ve gone out and do that for four or five hours in a row, you know, it’s not like I’m just jumping constantly, you know, I’m whacking myself in the shins and getting a drink of water or whatever, futzing around.

Em Foley (15:03)
and then you just

break yourself. So what brought you to jump rope then?

Dizzy Skips (15:08)
What brought me to Jump Rope? So, years ago, almost 20 years ago, I started doing karate. I decided I needed to do something, you know, physical. And so I joined this karate gym and it was hilarious because I was like one of three adults and then there was a whole bunch of teenagers. And so it just looked like Michael Scott in the middle of, you know, but.

But I had a lot of fun with it and that sort of got me into kickboxing and some other martial arts. And one of the warmups for kickboxing was just jump rope. But it was never like fun jump rope. It was just, you know, straight ahead boxer skip or basic bounce most of the time. And I really enjoyed it. I loved that as a warmup. But the only thing I ever attempted to really do was like a cross as far as a trick goes. I was thinking about it earlier today and there was one,

friend of mine who was training to do a mixed martial arts fight in Washington and he and I trained together and so we went to this boxing gym and we were going to you know practice in the ring actually but the warm-up for it with the people who owned the gym was 15 minutes of jump rope and it was 15 minutes in a row it was one 15 minute jump and I got through it but I don’t think I walked for a few days after that that was brutal

Em Foley (16:22)
That was my experience when I started jumping. Like I said, I’ve always been an active person. And I was like, yeah, I’m pretty fit. I’m pretty fit. And then I picked up the rope. was like, okay, this is a humbling tool. You are not as fit and coordinated as you think you are. And then it sets you on that path of like…

Dizzy Skips (16:39)
Yeah, totally.

Em Foley (16:42)
can I do 100 jumps without tripping? You know, just even starting from that basic bounce, just like, can I do this for 30 seconds without being doubled over and winded? And then 30 seconds becomes a minute becomes, you know, can I do a crossover? Can I do two in a row? Can I, and that never ends like,

Dizzy Skips (16:46)
Mm-hmm.

Right?

Yeah.

Em Foley (17:03)
you can, it never ends, you know, even if you’ve been doing it for years, you still look and they’re like, well, I can’t do whatever, a quadruple TJ, so that’s still, it’s still ahead of me.

Dizzy Skips (17:03)
Yeah.

Quadruple TJ. Yeah.

Yeah, exactly. There’s literally an infinite number of combinations that you could do with jump rope. And there’s so many things to learn. It makes it such an amazing, fun sport. I know, you know, I’ll always have something new to learn, something new to engage me. And it doesn’t mean I always have to like, I’m happy with what I know. I go out and flow with what I know. And I don’t feel like, “oh my God, I gotta learn something else.”

Em Foley (17:31)
100%.

No, no, and I think I actually think that way of thinking is the key to having an enduring long term practice. Because, you know, I think when you start

Dizzy Skips (17:53)
Mm-hmm.

Em Foley (17:57)
For many of us, it’s like, got to rush through, I got to learn all the skills and you know, probably aren’t, mean, I can only speak for myself. Like you do it that way. You’re not executing any of them particularly well. Like you might get injured as well. But also what is the point of that? Like, are you going to get to the end of the catalog of skills and be like, well, jump rope, that’s it. I’ve learned all that I’m done. For me, I’m like, I want to be doing this until I can’t walk anymore.

Dizzy Skips (18:02)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Em Foley (18:26)
I want to be like the 90 year old jumper on Instagram who’s still or whatever platform we’re all on in that time, right? Like I want to be doing this forever. And so there’s no rush. There’s no like I have to learn all the skills.

Dizzy Skips (18:29)
That’s right.

Yeah.

Right.

Em Foley (18:43)
I think Instagram can make people feel like that sometimes because maybe they’re watching other people and they’re thinking, this person learned so fast or they’ve unlocked that trick, but I haven’t. But when you actually start talking to people, which I think is again, what the such a great thing about podcasts like this is that people will tell you like, I’m really good at this, but I’m really not good at that.

Dizzy Skips (18:47)
Sure.

Mm-hmm.

Em Foley (19:05)
Right? Like you can, you can, when you’re watching Instagram, you can be like, all the people have all the skills that I don’t have. you’d be like, well, that person like really is really good at footwork. But if you sort of ask them to do something else, they’d be like, I don’t do those. okay. Then right now suddenly you realize that people have areas that they specialize in and it’s not a race like.

Dizzy Skips (19:07)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Right.

Yeah. Yeah, that’s right. Like this is a toad

free zone right here.

Em Foley (19:33)
But can I tell you, I was also, I also, you had, if we had done this interview like 18 months ago, I would have told you, cause I know Kathy said this too, I don’t do to toads, I’m not into leg crosses. I also was in that position. I’ll be totally honest when I first saw them, I was like impressive, but they look a little weird, right? And sure, like impressive, but they look a little weird. But then.

Dizzy Skips (19:40)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Right, right.

Right.

Yeah.

Em Foley (19:59)
my own personal journey, I kind of got to a place where I was like, I need a new challenge. And actually, physically, one of the things that I’ve really enjoyed about aging while doing jump rope, because I turned 50 this year, is watching myself get stronger and having whole new areas of skills open for me that I had kind of written off for myself being like, I’m too old to be jumping on one leg.

Dizzy Skips (20:04)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Em Foley (20:25)
over and over and over again, it’s too hard on my hips, blah, blah, all that kind of self talk. But I started lifting weights, I started doing squats, I started doing plyometric training only so I could do more jump rope, like wholly to be stronger for jump rope. And now I’m like, right. Okay, can,

Dizzy Skips (20:25)
Yep.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Em Foley (20:46)
I can do this and now I can do this and it’s kind of interesting and it’s kind of fun and they’re not my favorite tricks. They’re rough on your body. I don’t do them every day because if I did I couldn’t jump every day. I feel the same way about multiples by the way. Like I can do double unders. I just don’t do them very often because I’m too sore the next day to jump the way I want to jump.

Dizzy Skips (20:56)
Mm.

Yeah, yeah.

Em Foley (21:09)
So I kind of have opened my mind to a whole bunch of skills that I think I had formerly kind of written off for myself because… But then now, and this is again, I think one of the cool things about jump rope is like as your skills advance and those things start opening up to you, you’re like, well, why would I ever write off?

Dizzy Skips (21:18)
Sure.

Em Foley (21:31)
any skill for myself. Like maybe I will be 90 and busting out like triple unders. I don’t know but why tell myself I can’t? Like why why why talk to yourself that way? So Toad Free Zone for now, for now.

Dizzy Skips (21:33)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, totally. That’s right. And I should clarify that

when I had the same sort of reaction when I saw them first, like, hmm, that’s a goofy little squatty move, but it looks cool and I respect it. And I’ve, I’ve tried it a few times. I’ve pulled off a couple, but I don’t like when you pull them off, they look smooth and elegant. When I pulled them off, it looks like a muppet, like having a seizure.

Em Foley (22:08)
But okay, how many outtakes do I have? The ones that are on my reels is after like six months of drilling.

Dizzy Skips (22:12)
Right.

Right. Yeah,

yeah.

Em Foley (22:18)
And

like literally sitting in my backyard being like, I’m going to jump on one leg a hundred times just to build up the hip strength to be able to do this. Like I literally cannot overstate how much training has gone in for me personally to be able to do that. And it’s purely because I’m pigheaded and like, okay, like

Dizzy Skips (22:27)
Yeah.

Em Foley (22:42)
I will do this, but also, you know, like everyone, I have the same story of like starting jump rope, getting really super obsessed with it, and then going way over the top, jumping through pain, and then injuring myself to the point where I was out for six months. And that’s when I really went deep into rope flow. And I…

What’s been really eye-opening for me is that you can discover where your weaknesses are. You’re like, okay. Like my left hip was a lot less strong than my right hip. have all these imbalances, but you can work on those if you kind of, if you accept the feedback that jump rope is giving you that you’re like, Hey, your hips are a little weak. Like you might be strong in this area, but you probably need some glute work if you want to actually be able to do some of these things.

Dizzy Skips (23:15)
Mm.

Mm-hmm.

Em Foley (23:32)
you go, okay, that’s feedback. So what do I have to do to get better? And then again, just accept that you fail a little bit better every day. That’s just all jump rope is. And so yeah, my first toads looked horrible. And I was like, well, I’m never going to post one that looks with me all like hunched over and terrible. Although, you know, but you

Dizzy Skips (23:34)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Em Foley (23:55)
You get better, you get better over time and you just stick with it. Yeah, so I can’t wait till I see you post a tone. That’s all I’m gonna say.

Dizzy Skips (23:57)
Yeah, yeah, you just keep showing up and doing it.

Yeah, I’m sure

it’ll happen before too long, but I’m just not rushing into it.

Em Foley (24:08)
No, but even if you don’t

but even if you don’t there’s a whole world of skills Outside of that right who cares?

Dizzy Skips (24:14)
Right? Yeah. Yeah. You know, it’s

funny is like when I started the podcast, I honestly didn’t know and I still don’t know the names of all the moves. So people would come on and they would talk about the toad or the, and at one point I made a joke. was like, yeah, I don’t know. It’s a toad or a frog or an elephant. And there actually is a move called the elephant and I didn’t know it at the time. But, is there a frog too? Are frog and toad friends like they are in the books?

Em Foley (24:36)
and a frog and a frog a toad yeah there’s a toad

I think they’d be kind of similar in the sense that they’re different personalities. They’re like they’re quite different moves. Like the frog is like a, it’s like a handstand where you pull, pull back, right? So I think in that case, the frog is a little more energetic than toad. Maybe a little, it’s maybe a little more optimistic that you can do a handstand and pull back and come, I don’t know.

Dizzy Skips (24:48)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, I know what you’re talking about.

Yeah.

Yeah. I think, I mean, this

goes along with one of the things that you mentioned in your, profile too, which I think you say it’s not about perfection. It’s about the journey. And I, that really resonates with me too, because I have become very comfortable with not comparing myself to other people. I respect other people. want to learn how to be as smooth as you with the toad and with rope flow and stuff, but, but I’m not.

any lesser because I can’t do that. It’s okay, it’s part of the journey and part of the journey for me is that mental health boost that I get from going out and bouncing like, you know, I’m up it.

Em Foley (25:34)
No.

Amen.

100%. And I think having that attitude is kind of key to like…

enduring on Instagram because in this public forum it can be really easy to be like, you’re watching other people, you’re comparing other people, you’re like why can’t I blah blah blah blah all that kind of defeatist self-talk and the reality is it doesn’t matter if all you do is basic bounce and a couple crosses if it’s making you happy you don’t know who you’re inspiring

Dizzy Skips (26:07)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Em Foley (26:21)
there in the real world with what you’re putting out there. And I’ll say this too, like I never in a million thousand a hundred billion years thought I would be recording myself working out and posting it publicly on Instagram. Like never. No way.

Dizzy Skips (26:22)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Right? Yeah. I know.

Em Foley (26:40)
But I started watching people on Instagram. Jumper was what got me into Instagram. And then I was like, well, if I want to be part of this community, I kind of have to be part of this community publicly, which means posting yourself out there, following other people, commenting on their stuff, and just being where I’m comfortable with where I’m at.

Dizzy Skips (26:52)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Em Foley (27:02)
And

you just don’t know, you just don’t know who you’re reaching with whatever it is that you’re doing. And so I kind of have that in my mind. It’s like, I’m just here, I’m just posting for me. It’s my own record of what’s going on. I do do drills and I will sometimes kind of.

Dizzy Skips (27:12)
Mm-hmm.

Em Foley (27:22)
post the drills that I’m working on because I think they might be interesting for other people and I teach a ropeflow class so I sometimes will share some of the drills that I give to that class out but mostly I’m just here for me. What made you decide to post on Instagram by the way?

Dizzy Skips (27:28)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

I think it was like November, it was around Thanksgiving or something like that, end of November of 23, I was sitting here at the house by myself and I was on my phone and I found a Lauren Jumps video and then I was on a tear. I watched for hours and then I found Kaydee Jumps and other people and I was just like, this is unbelievable. Like I cannot stop watching. I want to move like this. How do you do this?

And, and so I decided, that I would get it a jump rope and I did, and I totally overdid it and injured myself to the point where I couldn’t really walk for a couple of months. when it was last March 1st, so a year ago, this last, or at the beginning of the month that I said, I’m going to start an Instagram account and I’m going to just film myself so I can.

get better because I want I wanted to be good you know like I didn’t want to just go out there and flail I wanted to learn how to have fun and and flow to music because I just love music and so I started recording myself and and I have learned a lot from watching my own videos you know so much

Em Foley (28:47)
It is the best teacher.

I think, you know, and I’ll say too, like your joy for the music really comes out in your reels. It’s really clear that you’re a dancer that you love, that you love the dance. So that’s great. But 100%, I mean, recording yourself, it’s the best feedback, both positively and negatively. Like, you know, you can be doing something and be like, I think I look so rad. And then you go back and you look at the video and you’re like,

Dizzy Skips (28:51)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Right.

Em Foley (29:17)
No, like you were in the zone, but not that’s, that’s never that’s

Dizzy Skips (29:18)
Yeah.

Yeah, but your rope wasn’t yet.

Em Foley (29:24)
Yeah, I’m glad you were feeling it on the inside because this video suggests something otherwise, right? So sometimes you look back at the video, you get that response. But actually, I think the most underrated top tip that I give people, and this is especially true with complicated moves and in rope flow is like you fail, fail, fail, fail, fail. Don’t look at the fails. The one time, the one time you did it right, cut that out.

Dizzy Skips (29:28)
Right. Right, right.

Em Foley (29:50)
shorten it right down, put that in slow-mo, watch it like 50 times. Watch yourself doing it right 50 times before you go to bed and the next day almost 100 % guaranteed you’ll get it.

Dizzy Skips (30:00)
Mm-hmm.

Wow.

Em Foley (30:09)
because you have watched yourself execute it. It’s your body, right? I love watching those back. You know, my family will be like, what are you doing? I’m like, this is, I am imprinting on my brain, this skill. Like I can see that I did it right once. So I’m going to watch it, watch it, watch it, watch it. And then, okay.

Dizzy Skips (30:11)
It’s brain training.

Mm-hmm.

I know.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Em Foley (30:33)
And then miraculously, your brain goes, we got this. We know what to do.

Dizzy Skips (30:37)
Yeah, that is such

amazing advice. I love that like your brain gets to chew on it overnight and just process, right?

Em Foley (30:41)
Mm.

process, sleep, sleep on it. You’ve seen yourself do it. You know you can do this, right? So, but again, I think the self consciousness of watching the videos back and being like, I don’t look the way I want to look or whatever. I ate too much pasta last night. My tummy is all bloated, whatever weird defeatist self talk we engage in when we watch our videos back. But just take the positive feedback from those videos and you’ll learn so much.

Dizzy Skips (30:50)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, yeah. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, that’s really amazing feedback. I love that. I’m curious, you rope flow, you teach rope flow and you also jump rope. Can you talk a little bit about the difference between the two? And for those who may be listening who aren’t as familiar with rope flow, what does that mean compared to jump rope?

Em Foley (31:26)
Okay, so rope flow is a movement practice that is like a very close cousin to jump rope. So the founder of rope flow , David Weck, who is a coach and a sort of movement guru, was actually inspired to invent rope flow after having watched

Buddy Lee, the famous freestyle jump roper doing all these tricks and was like, I want to do all these tricks, but because I can see the amazing coordination that goes into them. But what would happen if I took the jumps out? and so a lot of the movements in rope flow are

Dizzy Skips (31:48)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Em Foley (32:05)
have different names but they’re exactly the same thing in jump rope. So what we would call an overhand matador in rope flow is just a double side swing. What we would call a race and chase in rope flow is just a side swing, right? It would be a side swing. EB swings are called sneaks in rope flow but they’re the same thing but with a slightly different body orientation. But the beauty of course

Dizzy Skips (32:16)
Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Em Foley (32:31)
in rope flow is there are things several things that I think are really beneficial for jumpers. One is you’re not jumping over the rope and typically speaking the ropes that you’re working with are like one pound or heavier so you get that really nice feedback.

Dizzy Skips (32:38)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Sure.

Em Foley (32:50)
Because you’re not jumping over the rope, you can practice for longer, especially when you’re just beginning your journey. But rope flow also has a lot more emphasis on both forward facing skills, so overhand skills and backward facing skills underhand and turning between the two.

Dizzy Skips (32:59)
Right.

Mm-hmm.

Right.

Em Foley (33:13)
So turning forward to backward, turning forward to backward, and also on making sure that you’re never over relying on your dominant hand. So it has a real focus on training both dominant and non-dominant hands. So what that does for a jump roper is it forces you to kind of train out bad habits that you might have in jump rope, where for example, if you’re doing crisscrosses, I always just cross with my dominant hand.

Dizzy Skips (33:24)
Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Em Foley (33:40)
like so it forces

Dizzy Skips (33:41)
Sure.

Em Foley (33:41)
it forces you to train your non-dominant side so you’re not always we all have one side that if we’re doing 180s we always want to we prefer we i only ever turn to one direction right and in rope flow you are constantly training yourself to be able to go both directions and to go forwards and backwards so a lot of jump ropers would just be like i just only train forwards because

Dizzy Skips (33:45)
Mm-hmm.

interesting, yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

Em Foley (34:09)
it’s more comfortable, it feels more natural in jump rope.

And then the whole, all the backwards skills get neglected. But in rope flow, you’ll, you’ll almost never see somebody just doing forward facing. They’re always moving between forwards and backwards, forwards and backwards. So I think training that, you know, creating that balance, it enables you to train a lot of jump rope tricks without injuring yourself. But the benefit that you get is that once you add the jumps back in,

Dizzy Skips (34:16)
Mm-hmm.

Okay. Mm-hmm. Right.

Mm-hmm.

Em Foley (34:40)
all those skills, the swings and the things like that, your hands are trained. They know exactly what they’re supposed to be doing. All you gotta add back in now is the jumps.

Dizzy Skips (34:47)
Right.

Right.

Right. It’s like you’ve created all that muscle memory. Yeah. Yeah.

Em Foley (34:56)
without injuring yourself. So,

so, you know, so I do, I do both every day. I usually start with a rope flow warmup and then will do a little bit of jump rope. If I’m, if I’m tired, you know, had a big weightlifting session or whatever, I might just solely focus on, rope flow, but I do, I do them both and

Dizzy Skips (35:10)
Mm-hmm.

Mm.

Mm-hmm.

Em Foley (35:22)
I think rope flow has given me more because there is that focus, much more intentional focus on like, okay, fine, you can do this with your dominant side, but you don’t really have this skill until you can do it reliably on your non-dominant side. And can you train it to the point where no one can actually tell which side

is your dominant or your non-dominant side. And then again, coming back to the rope is my doctor. I have noticed the most incredible flow on benefits from rope flow in terms of like that niggling back soreness I used to have or one side shoulder being sore or gone, never.

Dizzy Skips (35:43)
is dominant. Yeah.

You’re just

more in balance, aren’t you? Yeah.

Em Foley (36:02)
You’re in balance. You realize

how much pain arises from just the fact that we’re so one side dominant. And rope flow has a much more intentional focus on like training that out of you a little bit. And you can, can train it out. And then you just move better in everything that you do. Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (36:13)
Yeah.

That’s so cool.

Right? Yeah, I noticed with jumping rope and I mentioned this on recent podcasts, just some of the early videos I watched of myself jumping, like, wow, that guy stands up really straight. Like I didn’t used to do that, you know? And like just developing the muscles on your back and your spine and your core. I do some calisthenic stuff as well, but just that feeling of being more in balance. The other thing that I’m sure, well, you were kind of hinting at, but

training both sides of the brain to be more ambidextrous. Like I walk through the park and I’ve got a thing of juice and I fling it up in the air and catch it with my left hand, you know, without even really having to look. I know where it’s going to be. And I have, you know, I don’t know, just my coordination and self-awareness of where things are at is so much better.

Em Foley (37:16)
I think stuff like that is really addictive. Like I now, if I go for walks, I take my jump rope and I just walk down the street throwing mic releases while I’m walking, right?

Dizzy Skips (37:27)
You’re the coolest mom ever. Just mic releasing down the street. Pet possum in tow.

Em Foley (37:29)
Just like, yeah, just like, can I walk down the street? Like, can

I do this mamba like while I’m walking? Can I do them backwards? Can I, whatever. But I think, you know, all that kind of coordination training, it’s like, cause I also use rope clubs, which are like.

Dizzy Skips (37:39)
Yeah.

Em Foley (37:48)
to individual ropes, like a flow rope cut in half. And that again was another kind of training mechanism for like, am I actually when I’m jumping rope or when I’m doing flow rope, like how much am I actually secretly just relying on my dominant hand?

Dizzy Skips (37:51)
Right.

Right.

was going to ask you about that because I watched some of your videos working with those and I thought you are keeping them in rhythm really well so you can’t like fall back to having a really strong right hand and just kind of going with the flow like you’re actively moving those things exactly the same force right? Right? That’s right.

Em Foley (38:24)
there’s nowhere to hide when that rope is cut in half, right?

and I mean, even, you know, when I first started doing that, I was like, okay, like my, my dominant side, my right side, that rope is super vertical, but on the non-dominant side, it’s just like, what is going on? The rope is going in all these different, okay, okay. So we need to work on that a little bit, work on getting that. But those rope clubs are also amazing for like backwards footwork, for example.

Dizzy Skips (38:41)
Yeah

Em Foley (38:54)
because when you’re trying to move the rope backwards, but your feet are doing forwards footwork and you try to add the rope in, it’s gonna be trip city from, like you’ll barely be able to get through the footwork because you’re tripping all the time. You can’t get through the like six counts of the footwork because you’re tripping. But when you have the rope clubs, you can actually kind of train the,

Dizzy Skips (38:58)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Right.

Yeah, yeah.

Em Foley (39:22)
like rhythm and the footwork without the tripping.

Dizzy Skips (39:24)
Yeah.

Yeah, without the stress of whacking yourself.

Em Foley (39:30)
or just not even being able to complete the footwork. I mean, those rub clubs, when that knot hits you in the face, you know about it. But they’re really useful for… Yeah, I’m always kind of playing games like that, the way you mentioned about throwing something up in the air. I’m always kind of like, how can I…

Dizzy Skips (39:33)
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Em Foley (39:50)
you know, I said in one of the reels I was like trying to divide my brain in half like a dolphin, like can I can I can I completely create different hemispheres where it’s like one hand’s doing one thing the other hand’s doing the other and my feet are doing something else so I’m just always in my backyard

Dizzy Skips (39:56)
Yeah, I saw that. It’s a great.

Yeah.

Yeah, wasn’t your comment

like, wouldn’t it be great to jump rope and sleep at night? Like have half of you jumping rope? my gosh. Right.

Em Foley (40:13)
Like the way dolphins sleep and swim at the same time.

yeah, then we’d never have to stop. We could just keep going 24 hours a day.

Dizzy Skips (40:22)
my gosh, I would be a human

injury. I just would never stop. Like, would just be one big injury.

Em Foley (40:29)
I think we all would. But again, a big push for trying rope flow is that it enables you to kind of practice for longer and build that muscle memory and kind of, yeah, and so many of the skills are transferable. So like what we would call a cheetah tail in…

Dizzy Skips (40:38)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Em Foley (40:50)
rope flow,

they’re just like backward, backward side swings essentially. And you know, once you’ve got the swing down, then you can start to jump it and it looks super cool.

Dizzy Skips (40:55)
Yep.

Sure.

It does look super cool. And when I watch you jump, I think your rope flow experience comes through very clearly in several ways, like in how precise you are with what you do. You’re obviously very conscious about paying attention to the mechanics of things and getting it right. But also just some of the moves that you do.

I don’t even know how to explain it, but they feel like they’re very Rope Flow influenced, you know? And I’ve seen people comment that as well. And actually today you made me decide, all right, I gotta get a Flow Rope. I talked to Kathy about that. She was showing me your homemade one from Rope.com or whatever, but I need that for my, you know, rest days because I need to keep up the arms and I wanna develop that kind of ambidexterity that you have and seems like…

Em Foley (41:31)
They are. Yeah.

Yeah.

So anyone, mean,

you can do all the rope flow moves with a jump rope and definitely my jump rope style, I do not have like a strict formal jump rope style. It’s definitely a kind of mashup Frankenstein’s monster hybrid of rope flow and jump rope.

Dizzy Skips (41:56)
Right.

Mm-hmm.

Em Foley (42:12)
But so you know I think for anybody watching this who’s like well I can’t afford to buy another rope like you can make your own ropes. This was my my first rope flow was made out of an old climbing rope that was in my garage that I just there’s a in my stories there’s instructions on how to tie off the handle but if you have a slightly heavier

Dizzy Skips (42:32)
Cool.

Em Foley (42:35)
jump rope, you can start with some of the rope flow moves and yeah and just get better in that way. But definitely having it as another tool is a great way to like extend your streak, not get injured, practice your skills when you’re like well I already jumped for half an hour this morning. Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (42:36)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

It’s also very dancy. mean, like, there are a lot of your reels where you’re flowing and it looks so dancy and peaceful and like you’re just, you know, like you’re zoned. Like you’re just having a good time.

Em Foley (43:00)
Yeah.

Yeah,

the dance element of it for me and and and rope flow has a million different styles. There are some that you watch and you’ll be like, that’s very martial artsy. That’s, you know, my style is more of a kind of dancer, dancery style is for me. It’s a it’s a way to just be in tune with the music and move the rope in these, you know, interesting creative combinations. just about self-expression, but it’s great because

Dizzy Skips (43:19)
Mm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Em Foley (43:38)
you can have like an hour long jump rope session and be completely smashed and then still go out in the afternoon and be like well I’m just gonna have a nice light 30 minutes with my rope flow rope and it actually helps kind of loosen up the fascia things like that it’s actually like a it’s like a counter practice to the very kind of intense it’s just great

Dizzy Skips (43:56)
Sure.

Mm-hmm.

Em Foley (44:04)
Everyone should do it.

Dizzy Skips (44:04)
Yeah. So,

and where do you teach or how do you teach?

Em Foley (44:09)
So I live in a really small community of about 2,000 people and I often, you know, people see me doing out and about. There’s a lot of older people in our community and a lot of them sort of saw me doing rope flow and were like,

Dizzy Skips (44:13)
Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Em Foley (44:26)
that looks like it would probably be really good for me. I doing it, all the things I’ve talked about, proprioception, knowing where you are in space and time, building coordination, building balance, the fascial release that you get from it. I just think it is the magic sauce for healthy aging.

Dizzy Skips (44:49)
Mm.

Em Foley (44:49)
So

again, because we’re all a little culty in this ropeflow community and I wanted to give back, I was like, I will run a free class for anyone who wants to learn. Like I don’t

Dizzy Skips (44:59)
Mm-hmm.

Em Foley (45:00)
want to get paid. I’m not a licensed trainer or whatever. don’t want to get insurance involved in this business. But like if you buy a rope and I make them and sell them to people at cost, like if you show up at this place on Sunday morning at 10 a.m., like I will teach you how to do this. So I’ve been doing that now for about two years. And like one of my oldest students is like 94 years old and

Dizzy Skips (45:24)
wow.

Em Foley (45:30)
It’s great, it’s amazing. Some people come and they like, they’re like, okay, this is really difficult. They come for a few lessons and they leave. But then I have other people who are like, yeah, I see that I have to practice this outside of hours if I actually want to improve week on week.

Dizzy Skips (45:39)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Em Foley (45:50)
None of them are particularly advanced or whatever, but everyone is like, this is amazing. The way I feel when I do this, the benefits that I get are so great. It’s really rewarding to me.

Dizzy Skips (46:03)
That’s so cool.

Em Foley (46:04)
Yeah, so for the same reason, you know, I post on Instagram, it’s the same reason I run this class, is just to share the love of it and hopefully inspire someone to move in a way that they never thought they could. Make people feel better.

Dizzy Skips (46:11)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

It’s kind of hard when you get such insane benefits from jumping rope and rope flow not to want to share it, right? when it changes, when it helps personally, the mental health benefits are like the flagship, you know, like I’ve, I’ve a joke, I’ve lost three dress sizes. I’m so much healthier, whatever, but really just being able to cope with life and stuff that happens and whatever, and, the stress relief and

The peace of it is just unbelievable. And it’s hard not to want to share that.

Em Foley (46:50)
Yeah.

Do you find when stuff is happening for you that you’re like, I can’t wait to just jump this out? Is that

Dizzy Skips (46:59)
almost every single day. Almost every single day. Yeah. And, they’re like last Friday, I was working, I work from home and so I was working and I, it was so nice outside. The sun was shining and I’m in Minnesota where it gets cold in the winter time. so snow was melting and I just like, my jump rope was calling to me or jump ropes were calling to me. They were singing a choir downstairs and I was like, all right guys, I gotta go.

I’m going to take off a little early this afternoon. went straight to the park and yeah, and jumped it out. And then I couldn’t wait to be back at it. First thing in the morning, the weekends, I kind of go hard, you know, like I. I’m out there first thing in the morning or as soon as I’m presentable or actually I don’t care if I’m presentable as soon as I’m awake and caffeinated enough to drive a car.

Em Foley (47:37)
Yeah.

you’re out there. And do you ever find you like think about how your jump rope self would handle things out in the real world? Do you ever go that way?

Dizzy Skips (47:57)
How do I think about how my jump rope self would handle things in the real world?

I don’t know that I, so I, I think that my jump rope self handles things differently than, than I used to. So I joke that I have like water off a duck’s back syndrome where there are things that used to like consume my day, you know, something bad would happen and it would just, I could not get it out of my head. I could not stop focusing on this particular piece of stress. And, and after jumping rope,

consistently and some of the other fitness stuff that I do. Now when those things happen, I am more likely to say, that really sucks, but there’s nothing I can do about it right now, so I can’t wait to go bounce.

Em Foley (48:38)
Yeah, yeah. I think it’s so powerful that way. I think for me, when I started, it was like one directional, like there would be stress in the real world and then I would think, okay, I’m gonna go and jump this out and feel better afterwards. And then maybe after a couple of years, I often now go to work and I think, how would…

Dizzy Skips (48:55)
Mm-hmm.

Em Foley (49:02)
How would my jump rope persona handle this? I would trip and I would dance it off. I would laugh it off and say, no big deal, I’ll come back to this tomorrow. None of this matters. Like today is just another day. I’ll watch the footage back and tomorrow I’ll wake up and I’ll be able to do this thing I couldn’t do. Or today’s series of fails didn’t matter. And at one point I think I woke up and was like, how do I take more of what happens on my mat?

Dizzy Skips (49:05)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Em Foley (49:30)
out there and have more of this all the time or bring that same energy into other things that I do and I think that again is just one of the huge gifts of this practice.

Dizzy Skips (49:30)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

I think you’re so right.

My friend, Richard, I think you’ve seen Richard Head Jumps on a podcast before, but he has talked a few different times about how applying the lessons that he’s learned from jump rope to the rest of his life has made a big difference. You know, just like learning to do a mic release. That is a huge undertaking. mean, like when I started, it’s complete magic. I’m never going to get that. You know, I’m just, this is

Something like that. And you learn that you show up, you keep putting in the work and you’ll get it. You know, if you put in the work, you’ll get it at some point and you can apply that to, that business idea that I have, or that podcast or whatever it might be, you know, I can, I can eat an elephant. Just it’s one bite at a time and it’s showing up every day and digesting, right?

Em Foley (50:31)
Totally, totally, and maybe one day you might even be able to do an elephant or a frog or a toad Or a possum

Dizzy Skips (50:36)
Right? Or a toad. Or a possum. So, right.

So let’s talk about your jump rope gear a little bit. So you showed us your flow ropes. Are you a beaded jumper? A PVC jumper? What are your favorite ropes?

Em Foley (50:44)
Mm.

I have all of them, so I have…

Dizzy Skips (50:55)
Me too.

Em Foley (50:58)
So many, I thought you might ask me how many and I’m like, I think it’s kind of now at least pushing like 70 different ropes, I don’t even know. It depends is the answer. So I have Crossropes I have other weighted ropes by an Australian fitness company, like CrossFit company. I like beaded ropes, you know, when I’m…

Dizzy Skips (51:06)
Yeah.

Em Foley (51:20)
tricking, right, doing tricks and things like that. I like PVC rope. The truth is, is that most days I’ll use them all, like depending on what it is that I’m doing. Am I just doing intervals for fitness? You know, then I’ll kind of rotate between them if I’m just, it depends, it depends. And I don’t.

Dizzy Skips (51:29)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Em Foley (51:41)
have a favorite. It truly, I mean look, if I had to put them in a PVC and beaded, the weighted ropes, you know, I don’t rush out the door and be like, I can’t wait to slam this one pound rope around. I kind of have to psych myself up.

Dizzy Skips (51:43)
Okay.

Em Foley (51:58)
It’s hard, it’s hard and not fun,

Dizzy Skips (51:59)
Yeah, right. You this work.

Em Foley (52:02)
right? It was one of those things where it’s like taking your medicine. It’s like, I know this is going to be good for me, but it’s going to hurt while I’m doing it. But great for grip strength, great for rope controls, great for all those things. So I’d probably use the beaded most followed by the PVC and then the

Dizzy Skips (52:08)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Em Foley (52:25)
weighted ropes and I have different beaded ropes for different things different lengths different handles. Yeah. Yeah, so

Dizzy Skips (52:30)
really? So how

do they differ? like, how does the application of your beaded ropes differ?

Em Foley (52:37)
So if I’m going for speed and lots of releases and things like that, I’ll use one of my shorter ropes, shorter and slightly lighter beaded ropes. If I’m doing lots of backwards stuff, then I’ll use a longer rope because you do your hands just, you know, when you’re jumping forwards, it’s a downward pressure. When you’re jumping backwards, it’s upward pressure.

Dizzy Skips (52:45)
Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Hmm.

Yeah.

Em Foley (53:03)
It just helps to have just a little bit, we’re talking marginal differences.

Dizzy Skips (53:09)
Sure, yeah, you’re not adding

a foot, you’re adding a few inches. If that…

Em Foley (53:12)
I’m adding, yeah, it’s always still between

the belly button and the chest, but there’s just variations in there. And then I have a long handle beaded that I use for leg crosses because I have very, short arms and a long torso. And I find with the regular rope, it’s just difficult to get the clearance that I need. So yeah, different, they all have, all my ropes have different personalities and they’re…

Dizzy Skips (53:25)
Mm. Okay.

Mm-hmm. Sure.

Do you name them like I do?

Em Foley (53:40)
I name the flow ropes but I don’t name the jump ropes. don’t know why. Yeah. Yeah, I don’t know why. What’s your, do you have a favorite and does it have a name? Shh, I won’t tell.

Dizzy Skips (53:44)
interesting.

Well.

I have all

sorts of favorites, but this one is Punky because she’s pumpkin spice colored and, and I love her. She’s been very good to me. Yeah, this one is great. You know, I was joking that I, I never really thought of ropes as like fashion or anything like that, but, I did once I was jumping on Instagram and taking video, I did realize, certain colors actually show up much better in video. Like white.

Em Foley (54:01)
I love an orange rope.

Dizzy Skips (54:21)
But this orange one I got from URope also shows up really well. but yeah, I have so many videos of me early on, you know, jumping with a like four mil PVC rope or something like that. And it just looks like I’m flapping my hands out there.

Em Foley (54:32)
You can’t see it. know.

Yeah. Orange rope, blue sky, white rope, blue sky, yellow rope, blue sky. You can’t beat it. That’s just like, it looks so good. It looks so good. Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (54:40)
Yeah.

Yeah. Magic. Yeah. Or

a white rope at night. Like I’ve posted a few recently of me jumping at night with a white rope and that looks pretty cool too.

Em Foley (54:54)
Amazing, amazing, yeah.

Dizzy Skips (54:55)
So

when you started Jumping Rope, how did you learn, Like, were you already really connected with the community or did you find a teacher or a coach or an app or?

Em Foley (55:04)
No.

Yeah, okay. So I started with my weird leather and wooden rope and just was kind of randomly jumping badly out, you know, in my driveway. Then I kind of fell down the YouTube rabbit hole first of just trying to figure out like form, how to, there must be some tricks on how

Dizzy Skips (55:14)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Em Foley (55:32)
you know, just basic form tips. So Jump Rope Dudes, I think, was probably the first stuff that I started watching. I was not on Instagram at all. And, you know, then I think I probably first saw a YouTube reel or sorry, whatever you call them on YouTube video of Kathy and was like, okay, right.

Dizzy Skips (55:37)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Em Foley (55:55)
and some of the other freestyle, Tori Boggs and people like Tori, Tori, know, where you’re just like, what am I even looking at right now? This is nuts. And then from that point on, I was like, okay, I can see that the community is mostly over on Instagram at that point. So I lurked, I lurked probably for about four or five months before I…

Dizzy Skips (55:56)
Yeah, I think that was my reaction too. Woo!

Yeah. Yeah.

Em Foley (56:22)
kind of worked up the courage to post my first really bad video, you know, and I think I had, I had been challenging myself privately to do like 30 jumps, 30 days, or I did a 30 day. And then I think I went straight from that into trying to make it a hundred days. And at that point I injured myself really badly. So I only got about halfway through that hundred days and

Dizzy Skips (56:36)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Hmm.

Em Foley (56:50)
like injured myself really badly and then was like well I don’t want to give this up I’m gonna I’ll cut this rope that’s in my garage and see if I can

learn this rope flow business and keep going because I could see actually that like if I keep working on these swings and everything, it’s still going to benefit me over time. I don’t want to just stop and like give this up because the doctor was basically like you’re going to have to like stop jumping on that for like six months or you’re you’re going to be injured for the rest of your life essentially. So then when I came back to jumping, I made a really conscious effort to like slow down and focus on

Dizzy Skips (57:08)
Yeah.

Right.

Hmm.

Em Foley (57:29)
technique and I did get coaching so I did some one-on-one coaching with Coach Chris in the UK and @chris_skips in Canada. Chris Skipps actually taught me to do the mic release so I learned that with him because I was still kind of not really jumping so I spent a lot of time just working on drills to get that right.

Dizzy Skips (57:30)
Mm.

Yeah.

Okay.

Em Foley (57:53)
And then I kind of made a commitment to myself that I wanted to keep going on a streak and I had discovered rope flow. So that has enabled me. I’m on day 925 of my streak. and yeah, thank you. But I, but I, really kind of made myself say, right, just slow down and just don’t move on to another trick until you’ve got the ones you’ve got.

Dizzy Skips (58:08)
Nice! Yay!

Em Foley (58:21)
where you’re doing them, not crashing down uncomfortably, right? Go slowly.

Dizzy Skips (58:28)
Mm-hmm.

Em Foley (58:28)
you’ve got time, right? Like as long as

Dizzy Skips (58:30)
Yeah.

Em Foley (58:30)
you can move, you can still be doing this and like it’s injury that’s actually the enemy to your progress. So just slow down, focus on the skills you have, make them look really nice or smooth, you know, so that they feel smooth when they’re happening and just slowly build up, build up from there. So that that’s been my journey and

Dizzy Skips (58:37)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Em Foley (58:54)
The coaching was really helpful just in terms of correcting some mistakes that I was making or just getting that feedback from somebody who was a little bit more experienced. Who’s like, you know, when you do your crosses, don’t do these massive like, as we all do, right? It’s like, you know, just subtle, more subtle movements.

Dizzy Skips (59:02)
Mm-hmm.

Sure.

Yeah, sure.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, that

instant feedback can be so helpful because it’s like what we were talking about earlier. You watch videos of yourself where you’re thinking, I just killed that. And then you watch the video and you’re flailing around. know, if you’ve got a coach there that can watch and say, hey, you know, maybe bring your arms in.

Em Foley (59:31)
Yeah, or show you back the video. Chris Skips used to do this for me, kind of video the start of my session and then at the back and then be like, okay, let’s watch how you started. And now can you see the difference of what you’re doing?

Dizzy Skips (59:43)
wow.

Yeah.

Em Foley (59:47)
later. You know, like, yes, actually, now I can see that. And that session to required a little bit of faith, particularly when we were working on releases, because he would have me do these crazy drills. And it’s all on zoom. And like, don’t know why you’re making me do this thing that doesn’t seem to have any relationship to the finished product. Like why?

Dizzy Skips (59:50)
Yeah.

Right. Were you standing

there like spinning like this?

Em Foley (1:00:13)
I mean, there was one that we, so this is really helpful with the mic release, right? Like we think in our brains that it is a move that happens off to your side. But actually, if you want to be able to consistently jump over it, it actually kind of has to happen in front of you.

Dizzy Skips (1:00:26)
Mm-hmm.

Em Foley (1:00:35)
So, so, so when, when you do the, so it’s about bringing it kind of in front of you a little bit more in the front of your body, right? So there was one drill that he was having me do where I was like kind of turned sideways and then turning my body. And I was like, I don’t even understand why you’re making me do this.

Dizzy Skips (1:00:35)
Yep.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Em Foley (1:00:54)
And you could have this little bit of frustration where you’re like, this is awkward. We’re on this video. You’re giving me these instructions. I feel like a fool. I don’t know why you’re making me do this. Doesn’t seem to pertain to the finished skill. But then…

Dizzy Skips (1:01:09)
It comes together.

Em Foley (1:01:10)
you go away

and you’re like, no, sorry, I understand. So now I have this sometimes when I’m coaching people in rope flow, like let’s take the EB swing or the sneak, right? Everyone thinks it’s a sideways move that comes like,

Dizzy Skips (1:01:14)
Right.

Em Foley (1:01:29)
but it’s not, it’s actually like it’s a forwards, it’s a forwards move. And what’s happening with this backhand really matters. So when I’m teaching people, I will actually have them hold the rope in one hand and just practice this back part. And…

Dizzy Skips (1:01:44)
Mmm.

Em Foley (1:01:46)
They’ll be like, why are you making me do this? This doesn’t look anything like the finished move, but it is so important. Actually, if you want it is a critical piece of it. And remember how I said you can always over rely on one hand, not the other. And then this week I felt so vindicated because I just randomly looked at Tori Boggs, you know.

Dizzy Skips (1:01:52)
Right.

It’s a critical piece of it.

Yep.

Em Foley (1:02:09)
thousand-time world champion. She has a YouTube tutorial about the EB swing and she’s like I always get people to practice just this one

Dizzy Skips (1:02:18)
Nice.

learned it from you.

Em Foley (1:02:20)
I was like, okay, if Tori says that’s how you should do it, I’m on the right track. But it’s about kind of, for me, teaching other people, being taught in that way, and then teaching other people is kind of like actually getting into the mechanics of what actually makes the physics of this particular pattern work.

Dizzy Skips (1:02:24)
That’s right.

Em Foley (1:02:42)
and breaking down the movements bit by bit to make sure that like the hand movements are precisely happening the way that they should with minimal effort because the rope, the way the rope moves in jump rope or rope flow is just a reflection of your movement. Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (1:02:53)
Mm-hmm.

Right.

Em Foley (1:03:04)
it’s if that

Dizzy Skips (1:03:04)
Yep, totally.

Em Foley (1:03:05)
rope looks chaotic it’s not because the rope there’s something wrong with your rope right like it’s because you’re doing something that’s making it look that way so it’s kind of about like being coached and now coaching people really helps me to kind of look at what a pattern or what a move or a trick is and be like what

Dizzy Skips (1:03:08)
No, because Dizzy’s chaotic, right? Yeah.

Right.

Em Foley (1:03:28)
precisely makes that thing work. And I love the, I’m a nerd, I’m an academic, I love breaking things down. It’s like, it’s actually kind of like, what is that? What are the actual mechanics that make that thing work and then look effortless because they’re not.

Dizzy Skips (1:03:36)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Right. This

is one of the reasons why you and Kathy Jumps must get along so well, because she breaks things down very mechanically like that too. Like in our conversation, she was saying, you know, she has trouble remembering combos or whatever. And so when she’s learning something, she really breaks it down step by step. And, and once you get those steps and you understand each one and how that informs the next one or how that is part of the whole, then

Em Foley (1:04:04)
Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (1:04:12)
The whole thing can come together and the angels can sing and you can pull off a mic release.

Em Foley (1:04:17)
And she’s so great at explaining, you know, so clearly and so precisely and in the kind of medium that is Instagram, you know, like I would love to do more of that, but the process of making reels and making tutorials and all of that, I’m like, it’s a full-time job. Like I’ve got a job.

Dizzy Skips (1:04:20)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, and you’ve already got one, right?

Yeah.

Em Foley (1:04:39)
got a job and I’ve got two teenagers and I’m driving up and back six hours a week to get to work and like it’s full on. I would love to do more than I currently do but I just I love being part of the community and being invited to come on this podcast is a huge honor. It’s so nice to talk to you about it and really I mean again I’ll thank you for creating this

Dizzy Skips (1:04:45)
Yeah.

Em Foley (1:05:06)
forum because you know, we’re all out here in our own individual lives and pods, you know, me in a tiny community in Australia, you in a small town in the Midwest of the US in Minnesota, it can feel sometimes kind of isolating or you know, you post stuff and you’re like, I don’t know if anybody even watches this or anybody even cares. And then you’re like, well, I’m doing it for me. You have to not care about that side of things.

Dizzy Skips (1:05:16)
Mm-hmm, Minnesota. Yep.

Sure.

Right.

Mm-hmm.

Em Foley (1:05:36)
but I think we’re all like the connection is what’s so important. and I wanted to say one thing too. I think it was your conversation with Aaron. You were talking about being introverts and going to jump rope meetups. Okay. No, no. Okay. So I am, I’m hugely, I’m, hugely introverted.

Dizzy Skips (1:05:42)
Yeah.

Meetups, yeah, and standing up against the wall like, don’t talk to me!

Mm-hmm.

Em Foley (1:06:00)
But you know how introverts get, we get our energy from specific types of interactions, right? So the first meetup I went to was in London and I was there. I just happened to be there for work and there was a meetup going on. And I was like, I’ll go, but I don’t know. I mean, I’m not going to show up like when it starts. I’ll just kind of casually go. And if I don’t like it, I’ll… What I wish I had known how much I was going to love

Dizzy Skips (1:06:06)
Yes.

Em Foley (1:06:28)
the experience. It was like instant connection with your best friends.

Dizzy Skips (1:06:35)
Yeah.

Em Foley (1:06:37)
It is like the ideal kind of interaction for introverts because you’re there with your nerd crew, like everybody gets it, they get how into this thing you are, you don’t have to bother explaining. Most of the interactions are actually channeled through movement, right? So you don’t have to be like…

Dizzy Skips (1:06:55)
Mm-hmm. Right.

Yeah.

Em Foley (1:07:00)
the life

of the party or whatever and I felt so energized at the end of that and then New York happened because I had a conference in the I had a conference on the east coast and so I was like Kathy let’s do something and then I ended up meeting all all these people I’ve been interacting with online for years again like

Dizzy Skips (1:07:03)
Sure.

Right.

Em Foley (1:07:22)
instant connection like these are real friendships that we’re forming like we all have this and it’s not just the passion for jump rope but it’s passion for all kinds of things about like not giving in to narratives about aging, about trying to live joyfully, about trying to stay connected and lifelong learning as an older person and like the satisfaction that comes with learning and growing and like we all

Dizzy Skips (1:07:24)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Em Foley (1:07:50)
Like, say no more. Like, we are all on the same page. So please, if you ever get a chance, don’t let your introvert tell you that this is not gonna be a cool experience, because I’ve done it twice, and highlights of my adult life, both of them.

Dizzy Skips (1:07:54)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah,

I will totally do it. I have no reservations about, I mean, I am an introvert, but I also, as an introvert, an introverted adult that has dealt with that for a long time, I have tactics, you know? So one of my tactics is don’t show up late, show up early because then you don’t walk into a room full of people. You know, you’re the person who gets to watch the other people walk in or whatever. And then I will, I will find somebody.

and then go up and talk to them, know, like just introduce myself. I kind of try to break the ice of the things that are hardest for me to do, like walking into it, because I have gone to nerd meetups where, you know, I am 20 minutes late because I had to drive a few hours and there was traffic and then…

I walk into a room and there’s 50 people and they probably don’t give a rat’s ass about me, but I walk in there thinking like, they’re all judging me. Luckily I lost a lot of my shame. So now I am less concerned about that. And I just love so many people in the jump rope community so much that I just can’t wait to make it to a New York meetup or a London meetup or something like that. It would be magic.

Em Foley (1:09:04)
Yeah.

But now you’ve made yourself famous in the jump rope community, so you won’t, you would not be able to like hang out on the side either. So everybody would be like.

Dizzy Skips (1:09:10)
Hahaha

That’s all right, I’m really good

at decompressing after hours. I can put on a good face and get through stuff and have a lot of fun and then I go home and I watch cartoons and don’t talk to anybody.

Em Foley (1:09:27)
Fabulous. Yeah, so good.

Dizzy Skips (1:09:28)
Yeah.

So do you have any upcoming meetups or things planned?

Em Foley (1:09:33)
I wish to the bottom of my soul that I could go to the London meetup this July but I don’t yeah I don’t think that’s gonna happen. I have another conference on the East Coast next year so I haven’t yet but maybe I’ll reach out again to Kathy and be like should we do this again? Yeah baby!

Dizzy Skips (1:09:38)
July 5th.

Yeah.

I’m in totally. I will pre-sign up. I’ll put down

the deposit.

Em Foley (1:09:59)
2026, 2026 New York meetup, Kathy Jumps, I’m putting this out, it’s a challenge, let’s do this. But it is so much fun and you learn a lot and you just, again, it’s just that really great feeling of like, oh yeah, I’m not out here on my own just learning these skills. These are real flesh and bone humans that I’m interacting with.

Dizzy Skips (1:10:06)
That’s right.

Mm-hmm.

Em Foley (1:10:26)
you

know, on Instagram. And it’s very energizing and just tons of fun. And you might think that you’d be like, I’ll go to the meetup and I’ll just go back to my hotel room and decompress after. You don’t, you end up going out with these jump rope people and they keep you out late. And we had so much fun in New York. It was just a blast. Yeah, such a great time.

Dizzy Skips (1:10:28)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, that’s all right.

Yeah, it sounds like it was amazing.

saw, I’ve seen several videos of like jumping in Times Square and stuff like that. It just seemed amazing.

Em Foley (1:10:56)
Yeah, really, really. And you know, I know you talked about this with Kathy and other people, but we just don’t get enough experiences as grown adults with adult responsibilities to like play just to play to

Dizzy Skips (1:11:12)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Em Foley (1:11:15)
pick up a, you know, a piece of string with some plastic on it and just like, can this thing do? Like if I swing it this way, what happens if I swing it that way? What happens if I put it to music? Look what I can do. Hey, mom, look what I can do. I mean, yeah, like my whole Instagram account is just like, hey, mom, look at me. Right? Am I?

Dizzy Skips (1:11:21)
Yeah.

Right? Look what I can do!

Yeah. Yeah. I’ve actually sent messages, direct messages to my

mom like, Hey mom, look what I did.

Em Foley (1:11:42)
But you know, mean, I think other people have probably had this experience too, like, you know, I have personal

social media accounts and like your like regular community kind of doesn’t want to know like they’re like your regular like connections on Facebook or whatever kind of like okay yeah cool you can do all that all that stuff and it’s like all right I need to find people who like appreciate this who kind of are like that is cool well done you know you’re like okay Instagram’s where it’s at I’m like

Dizzy Skips (1:11:57)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It’s totally where it’s at. Yeah. Yeah. It’s not as rewarding to talk to, you know, your family or friends where you’re like, Hey, guess what? I just pulled off a toad or a TS and they’re like, Hmm, yeah, that’s the crazy jump rope stuff that you do. It all looks the same to me. Like, no, but you don’t understand. It’s my leg and I’ve got it up.

Em Foley (1:12:37)
or like, don’t know how long it took me to be able to do this. you know, and I, you know.

Dizzy Skips (1:12:41)
I made my back

bleed with rope welts learning this thing. Yeah.

Em Foley (1:12:46)
Or sometimes people think you’re kind of like showing off and you’re like, but why can you post like your food that you cooked that you’re so proud of or like you’re, yeah, or like here’s a, you know, here’s something I crocheted and everybody’s like, that’s amazing. But if you’re like, here’s this toad cross combo I did, people are like, yeah, yeah, stop showing off. It’s like, but this is the same. It’s the same.

Dizzy Skips (1:12:54)
Right. Look, I bought a burger.

Yeah.

Em Foley (1:13:14)
This took me so much effort!

Dizzy Skips (1:13:15)
I think, right,

yeah, I’m not a parent, but I have the opposite sort of thing. Like if someone posts stuff about their kids or stuff like that, then I’m usually, eh, that’s cool. It’s great that they love their kids, but if they post about jump rope, I’m all in.

Em Foley (1:13:31)
I mean, that again is the beauty of the jump rope community is like, you know, we get it and things that sound totally far out. Like if I say to you, like jump rope changed my life, I don’t have to say anything else.

Dizzy Skips (1:13:36)
Yeah, it’s our shared language.

No, I feel it.

Em Foley (1:13:48)
You know, and we all know.

Dizzy Skips (1:13:49)
No, yeah,

I feel it. I know it. I feel it. It’s done the same for me.

Em Foley (1:13:54)
But when I go and tell a group of people, randos, actual plebians in the outer world, like jump rope changed my life, I sound like I joined a cult, which is really weird, but okay. Which is why now when people are like, yeah, I’d like to know more about that. I’m like, I’ll wait till you’ve asked me about it three times. And then, only then.

Dizzy Skips (1:13:59)
Yeah.

Yeah. Right, right.

Yeah.

Right. Yeah. That’s

such a great, that’s such a great, tactic too. I think when Brandy was on, she was talking about, buying jump ropes and rope flow ropes for Christmas for people. And then having second thoughts like, I really want to give these like, nobody’s going to appreciate these like I do, you know, and

in her gift exchange, some people took them, but

didn’t appreciate him like Brandy.

Em Foley (1:14:38)
in giving classes to people, right? Like I order ropes in bulk and then I’ll sell them to people at cost, as a sort of, cause that’s always going to be the biggest barrier. And the commercial rope flow ropes is like, I’m not going to spend 80 bucks on a piece of rope. Like, so I’m like, here’s one I made. It’s $20. Like that’s how much it actually costs me to buy it and make it for you. It’s free lessons, whatever, just because I really believe in the benefits that

Dizzy Skips (1:14:49)
Right.

Mm-hmm.

Em Foley (1:15:08)
this can give you and I love it and I love having an actual in real life community of people and I learn a lot. I learn a lot by teaching it. It’s my primary means of learning but the number of people who start and they’re like I’m really going to give this a red hot go and then they’re like, is hard actually and I don’t like to practice and you know, it’s like anything else again. I think it’s like you think it’s like coming to a yoga class like I can come week after week and just

Dizzy Skips (1:15:10)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Em Foley (1:15:38)
follow along, but it’s more like learning guitar. It’s like I can show you the chords, but if you don’t practice, you’re never gonna be able to play, right? Like, is it like having a music lesson where you just do nothing week after you come for your class, but you don’t do anything in between. So I’ve had a lot of people pick it up, put it down.

Dizzy Skips (1:15:48)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Em Foley (1:16:01)
I’ve learned not to take it personally. This isn’t about me. It’s just more like here’s a gift that I offer to you that I offer to whoever follows me on the internet who wants to learn. will help you learn. And I hope you might see something in this gift. That is what I got out of it. Right.

Dizzy Skips (1:16:06)
Yep.

Sure.

Em Foley (1:16:23)
But if

it’s not for you, that’s okay too. Go find your own thing. That’s cool. Right? So that’s kind of where I’ve come to in my head, but I now know roughly maybe like 5 % of the people who express interest in it, like who are actually going to go through with it, which is why now when people are like, that’s so cool. I want to learn. I’m like, I’m just going to wait. I’m going to wait a little bit.

Dizzy Skips (1:16:28)
Yep.

Yeah.

I really gonna go through with it.

Yeah.

Yeah,

that’s great. Well, thank you for spending so much time with me. I really appreciate this. I did want to ask you about music because I’d like to know what is the importance of like music in your jumping and flowing? How often are you listening to music?

Em Foley (1:17:02)
I always listen to music. I never don’t listen to music. And the music in my reels is 99 % of the time the music that I was listening to in the actual thing. I don’t do choreography. So I don’t pre-plan what I’m doing. It’s all freestyle. Kathy and I have that in common. We don’t, I can’t learn other people’s choreography well. I look robot.

Dizzy Skips (1:17:05)
I suspect it as much.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, me too.

Em Foley (1:17:32)
when I do it and I also don’t like having now I’m gonna do this now I’m gonna do that now I’m gonna I don’t like having my head occupied that way so I don’t I will sometimes kind of have an idea of a skill that I want to incorporate but that’s about as far as it goes but music I have my kids laugh because my Spotify I have like 80 different jump rope playlists

Dizzy Skips (1:17:32)
Mm. Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Right.

Sure.

Yeah.

Em Foley (1:17:58)
that

are just in different genres, right? So I’ll, you know, I’ll have different genres for different moods depending on what I’ve done. I’ve lived a very international life. I’ve lived on four different continents and three different, four, one, two, three, four, five, five, I think five countries. So that also,

Dizzy Skips (1:18:00)
Okay?

Okay.

Yeah.

Em Foley (1:18:23)
inspires my musical choices.

Dizzy Skips (1:18:26)
You’ve got some great music

on your reels. I think I commented you had one with Ayra Star.

Em Foley (1:18:31)
yeah, that was a great, that was actually a challenge. That was the song I didn’t choose it. That was in the challenge in the rope flow community to flow to that piece of music, but I loved it and I added it to one of my playlists. And I will say this again, it’s all part of the kind of anti-aging aspect of

Dizzy Skips (1:18:36)
Okay.

Yeah, she’s amazing.

Em Foley (1:18:51)
this sport and one of the benefits that I’ve had is it’s connected me to all kinds of music that I never would have listened to before and like I compare I’m often with other parents who are in my sort of age group and I’m in groups of teenagers and they’ll well I’ll be like who’s your jam and they’ll throw out a name and I’ll start singing the song and the other adults are like how do you even know

Dizzy Skips (1:19:01)
Right.

Yeah, right.

Em Foley (1:19:19)
what that is, let alone

like listen to it, you know, and like the, I don’t know, the explicit lyrics and all that stuff that like maybe would have like, you know, shocked me like 15 years ago. I’m like, whatever, I don’t care. It’s got a good beat. It’s good to jump to. I’m listening to it. So I actually feel like the connection to music is one of the most joyful things about Jump Rope.

Dizzy Skips (1:19:36)
Yeah.

Em Foley (1:19:42)
both of them, rope flow and jump rope, the dancerliness of it, there’s something super soothing about the bouncing. I really think it comes back to like us being in the womb or like something really primordial about dance and rhythm that is so soothing to us. And that connection to music, just takes you out of your mind instantly. And it’s such a great like creative

Dizzy Skips (1:19:45)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Em Foley (1:20:10)
personal expression. It’s just a perfect sport in every way. Like, it’s just like…

Dizzy Skips (1:20:14)
I know, right? It really is.

And I respect people who don’t listen to music, but I don’t quite… The people that I’ve talked to who don’t listen to music when they jump, it’s usually because they don’t want the distraction or they want to hear the rope hit or it’s just overwhelming for them. It’s too much going on. But to me, is so integral. is…

Em Foley (1:20:36)
very yeah very occasionally

if I’m trying to learn a new skill I will be like right okay the headphones have to come out but it would be like one in a thousand jumps where I’m not it’s just like nah music always yeah it’s the best part it’s the best part

Dizzy Skips (1:20:47)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, that’s right. That’s right. I’m totally

with you. Well, I want to thank you so much for spending so much time with me. This was just a lovely conversation and I just love watching you skip and I look forward to learning more and hopefully seeing you at an in-person meetup sometime where I’m not just a wallflower.

Em Foley (1:21:17)
We have to make that happen. And thank you for having me on the conversation. I could literally continue this conversation with you all day. So thank you for having me on and for anybody who’s still listening at the end of this podcast, thank you for listening to me blather on about my passion for this sport. It’s just, I love it. And I love everybody in the community too. Just such a great.

Dizzy Skips (1:21:19)
We will.

Nice.

Me too. Me too. It’s just the most amazing portion of the internet, isn’t it?

Em Foley (1:21:45)
You’ve said that before. It is. It is like the happiest corner of the internet. And I’ll say that my son, my teenage son also says that he’s like, you’re in some like parallel universe of Instagram where everybody’s nice to each other. And like, it’s all really supportive and cool and long may that last. Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (1:21:50)
Mm-hmm.

Right.

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Amen.

Em Foley (1:22:08)
We’re all high on life in the jump rope community. yeah, you can’t get to us with your negativity. We’re a positive crew.

Dizzy Skips (1:22:13)
That’s right.

That’s right.

Absolutely. Well, thank you.

Em Foley (1:22:19)
Thank you.