From Dogsh*t to Dope: A Jump Rope Roundtable 🪢 (Ep. 17)

Dizzy Skips (00:26)
You’re just so soft and you know, I can kind of jack your volume in post-production, but if there’s a way that you can be a little louder.

So, not in the slightest.

Aaron Fleming (00:37)
Is that better?

I could turn noise suppression off, but that’s just gonna go on.

Dizzy Skips (00:48)
Well, we’ll do our best here. You can just shout at us. All right. So welcome to the newly renamed Jump Rope Podcast, guys. You have all been on before as Skip Squad Chronicles and as you know, we rebranded the podcast recently. And so I thought this was such a great idea to have the three other guys that have been on the podcast so far.

come back and just shoot the breeze. So Richard, @richardheadjumps thank you for joining and Aaron Fleming, @aaronjumps.365 I think you’ve been the most mentioned person on the podcast and you’ve been on more than anyone else. And then @seeseanskip Sean Hargis. So nice to have you back too.

Aaron Fleming (01:28)
it.

Sean Hargis (01:32)
Thanks, I’m glad to be here.

Dizzy Skips (01:34)
So I want to know what everybody’s been working on. Richard, I know I’ve seen you talking and working on release stuff, well, actually I should start by having us kind of say where we’re located because some people may not have heard previous podcasts. And so I am Dizzy and I am out in Minnesota where it is very cold now. And so I’m learning to jump indoors and be satisfied with that. Richard.

Richard Head (01:58)
Yeah, I’m @richardheadjumps I’m in the Seattle area. What else are we talking about? What we’re working on? I think I’ve just been kind of moving into 2025. I think I’m focused a lot more on just my consistency overall versus learning any one trick or learning anything. I started a journal in mid-December and just trying to stay strong to like…

Dizzy Skips (02:07)
Yeah.

Richard Head (02:25)
a full strong workout on Monday, on Wednesdays and one over the weekend. that’s been my main, main focus above kind all.

Dizzy Skips (02:36)
So when you say consistency, you mean consistency of like the days of the week that you’re working out or more, is it more about the actual workout or a bit of both?

Richard Head (02:45)
Well, think

it’s more scheduling ahead of time. I was actually listening to Sean’s podcast this morning and he had talked about he’s got two kids and a wife and a job and stuff. So it’s very difficult to plan things out. I think I just try to, I can set so many goals and program stuff on my phone and then I don’t do it all. So I tried to really like, leg focus workout on Mondays.

Sean Hargis (02:48)
you

Richard Head (03:15)
core focused workout on Wednesdays and then get my weighted ropes out on the weekends. So again, like with the dog shit release goal, trying to set not a crazy high goal that I can’t do, but just plan things ahead of time and follow through with those plans. That’s been my kind of number one goal for this year and so far so good.

Dizzy Skips (03:25)
you

That’s great. For those who don’t understand what Richard means when he says the dog shit release goal on a previous podcast, I was razzing Richard because he had a note in one of his reels that showed his to-do list and it was like, be dog shit at releases. And I was giving him a hard time saying, that positive self-talk? know, like, do you know what manifesting is Richard? But he was saying, hey, if I set the goal to be dog shit, I can’t be disappointed.

Richard Head (03:52)
Third.

Sean Hargis (03:56)
I listened to that one,

Richard Head (04:07)
Well, and I will say that I don’t go out to be dog shit anymore. Now I go out to practice. Like I have leveled up, so.

Sean Hargis (04:07)
Okay.

Dizzy Skips (04:12)
Nice.

That’s a good level up.

Sean Hargis (04:14)
that’s

how we all get better, right? We all start at that level. So I get it.

Richard Head (04:17)
Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (04:18)
Yeah.

Richard Head (04:20)
Well, and to put it in kitchen terms, thought about, you hear about these high end like sushi places in Japan and a lot of those guys that do that stuff at such a high level, they’ll tell you like the first, you know, year or two years or whatever, they just washed the rice. That’s it. You’re the guy who just washes that rice all day long. And so that’s kind of what I’d compared it to is, you know, if I want to be a master sushi maker, I got to put in my time just washing the rice. So just thinking about it like that.

Dizzy Skips (04:46)
Yeah, you gotta be thankful for all of

those leg slaps and yeah, all of the missed releases, the handles to the forehead. Aaron, how about you?

Aaron Fleming (04:56)
So I’m @aaronjumps.365 from Yorkshire. My goals this year have sort of changed because going into the year I was like, I’m going to smash every single day and then realised that that’s an unachievable goal. So my new goal is to now survive the year with the 3-6-5 calisthenics.

Dizzy Skips (05:18)
leveling it down a little bit.

Aaron Fleming (05:19)
Yeah,

level it down just a little bit. Like I’ll smash it when I can, but then the next day I might have to survive a little bit and get through it.

Dizzy Skips (05:29)
How about you, Sean?

Sean Hargis (05:30)
I’m Sean Hargis. I’m C Sean skip. I’m in Suwanee, Georgia. It’s a little suburb just northeast of Atlanta. Surprisingly cold here. I jump predominantly outside. It’s been a little bit difficult admittedly with the weather But it’s probably nothing you guys are not used to My jumping goals are kind of matched up in my health goals The three big things I’m trying to to work on and I don’t do New Year’s resolutions because I never I never

I never make them, but I’ll do something like March 7th and I’ll stick to it or like February 8th I’ll stick to it. It’s just it’s weird. It’s a still figure out when I’m gonna pull the trigger on a few things, but I’m trying to practice wraps more. It’s always been kind of a brain twist for me to understand that and I’m starting to kind of get it. So I’m trying to incorporate more body and like wraps. I’ve been practicing those pretty heavy. I probably do those for about an hour every other day.

Dizzy Skips (06:13)
Mm-hmm.

Sean Hargis (06:30)
And then if I get something that works out all right, then I’ll video it and post it. I haven’t posted it in a bit. I’m also trying to get better at footwork and shuffling because I just suck at it. I’m in my dog shit area, I guess, with that. So trying to get that going. then also the other thing that I’ve neglected for a while, and I want to get back to it, are double unders and double under variations.

Dizzy Skips (06:43)
Mm.

Mm.

Sean Hargis (06:59)
you know, switch crosses, double under switch crosses, double under crosses and mixing those together fluidly. And that’s something I haven’t done in a bit. And I used to be pretty good at it, but I started trying it again here recently and I’m like, man, I need to practice this again. It’s kind of left. So those are my things that I’m trying to work on for the year, I think.

Dizzy Skips (07:05)
Mm-hmm.

Cool. Yeah, I’ve been trying to work on releases, not trying to, I have been working on releases and making progress and it feels so good to make progress. Like those snappy catches, you know, like I see these, there’s several jumpers, including you Sean, that just have these super crisp releases and catches and it just, I don’t know, it hits me in a deep level, you know, like that is the coolest sound. Whap! You know.

Richard Head (07:46)
you.

Dizzy Skips (07:46)
So

Sean Hargis (07:47)
yeah it is.

Dizzy Skips (07:48)
every once in a I pull those off and it just makes me jump for joy. I’m like a little teenager. Woo, look what I did. Anyway.

Richard Head (07:51)
you

Sean Hargis (07:54)
Yes.

But I mean, I know I get excited when something lands pretty solid or I get a couple of moves strung together that I didn’t even have to look at it. Just my hand just went where it should be. And it doesn’t happen a whole lot. I get a lot of failures, but occasionally you get one that sticks and it’s pretty fun.

Dizzy Skips (08:06)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, when Sarah was on a few weeks ago, she was talking about, I think it’s called the Tomahawk release, and I’ve seen you do that one. Is that where you release on one side, but you don’t return your hand to pocket? You kind of…

Sean Hargis (08:22)
Yeah

the

Dizzy Skips (08:32)
It just looks

so freaking cool. I just love.

Sean Hargis (08:35)
and

it looks cooler. It’s a lot easier than you think it is. I don’t know why. Maybe because your hand’s there, you’ve got more of a space that if you can just get some part of the handle to hit it, you could grab it. It’s easier than you think it is. I think it’s easier than just straight trying to catch a mic, to be honest with you.

Dizzy Skips (08:41)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

When Jenny was on, she was talking about how when she learned the mic release, someone wrote her and said, hey, how did you learn the double mic? And that she didn’t realize there was a double versus a single So what do you do, Sean? All of them? Like, you do, like a single, like, so she was saying that what

apparently was standard was a single where you kind of… Yeah. Yeah.

Sean Hargis (09:21)
Like a single mic or a double mic? I do both.

Occasionally I’ve done a triple. Not too often, but I do both. depends. Usually like with a finish, if I’m going to do a toe catch, I try to get a double toe catch. But if I’m incorporating it into a routine with some other moves on the front end or back end, I usually just try to do a single. Because I think it spends too much time in the air. And it looks off.

Dizzy Skips (09:29)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Mm.

Sean Hargis (09:51)
Yeah, I’ll do a single or double and occasionally a triple just to see if I can do it

Dizzy Skips (09:56)
Yeah.

Last time you were on, you had mentioned, I was asking you about your gear and you were, you, cause you were a fellow beaded person. Like I jumped with beaded a lot, but you had been working with a six mil PVC rope and I ended up buying a couple of those. And I think you were exactly right. They’re like the perfect balance between that bead weight and then the P you know, like.

Richard Head (10:17)
Ahem.

Sean Hargis (10:18)
Oh, I did hear a podcast

and you did say you got one you seem pretty happy with it. I’m pretty happy with them as well. They’re a little they’re a bit forgiving, I guess they were PVCs can be and they got a bit of longevity to have been flipped up and back between the six millimeter PVC and your standard one inch plastic beads. Just because you know, a beaded rope is just a powerhouse of a rope and it’ll last forever.

Dizzy Skips (10:23)
Yeah, yeah, it’s fun.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Sean Hargis (10:46)
I mean I’ve had two that I’ve beaten to death for years and they’re still going strong so it’s just hard to let that go.

Dizzy Skips (10:46)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. I think you’re right that they’re forgiving, except I hit myself so hard in the ass last night with one while I was flying and it took my breath away. It did not feel forgiving.

Sean Hargis (11:04)
in the winter it

seems like it’s hard it hurts more in the winter time i mean i guess sometimes i’ll hit myself and it’ll bring tears to my eyes i’m like good lord that

Dizzy Skips (11:07)
my god, yes. Yeah, I know. like, hits that nerve where you’re like…

Yeah, like the swear

words don’t even come out right because it’s so painful.

Sean Hargis (11:20)
Yeah.

Yep. I heard that happen.

Dizzy Skips (11:24)
Yeah. So Aaron, I know in a group we were talking about different gear recently. I’m curious, like, what are you jumping with most often now?

Richard Head (11:29)
you

Aaron Fleming (11:33)
So now I’ve gotten to like building my own ropes a lot more. So obviously I like as heavy as a rope as I can get my hands on. So I found these two inch weighted beads, which I like to skip with. They don’t seem to last too long though. Or maybe that’s just nothing if it lasts too long, when I’ve got it in my hands. But yeah, so it’s two inch weighted beads and you like the thicker cord and stuff like that. So longer handles. So I just like.

Dizzy Skips (11:46)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Aaron Fleming (12:02)
as long as it weighs as much as it can, I’m happy.

Dizzy Skips (12:06)
Yeah,

yeah. So when you say the weighted beads, like I know you and I both have jumped with Mira Wate’s that blue rope, the weighted beaded rope. Are you building ropes that are kind of that heavy or as close as possible?

Aaron Fleming (12:20)
Yes, so

with Mira’s one the handles are really heavy. Yeah, it’s like that, the handles are heavy and then obviously the rope everything. Where these ones it’s mainly the rope itself and then I like trick handles, they just weigh the same no matter what. But yeah, I’m just trying to get that rope as heavy as I can.

Dizzy Skips (12:25)
They’re They’re timber.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Do you have fun? Like, are you making designs out of them or are you just, are they pretty plain?

Aaron Fleming (12:47)
At the minute

I’ve just got the white beads and I’m going through them pretty quickly unfortunately. So I’m going to be buying loads of different colours and just experiment a bit more. I might even change the handles. So I use the long ones, which normally would be, you would use a long handle for a TS. I can cross my arms all day behind me, but I probably don’t need them long handles.

Dizzy Skips (12:53)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Sean Hargis (13:09)
Are those the- are those the eight-inch channels?

Aaron Fleming (13:11)
So there, Have I got one? I have one up here, hold on a So the handles are like that one, which isn’t, they’re not as long as like, you know, like you see the super long ones. And then obviously they’re not the same as the short handle. So they’re like somewhere in the middle.

Dizzy Skips (13:19)
Wow.

Sean Hargis (13:20)
yeah, about eight inches.

I’ve got

a bunch of those and I’ve used them so long. You see the blue part in the bottom?

Aaron Fleming (13:34)
I’ve got one like that, yeah. Full crutch up.

Sean Hargis (13:36)
It’s

only like a quarter of that now because it’s been chewed to death by the pavement.

Dizzy Skips (13:41)
by the pavement.

Aaron Fleming (13:42)
And when

you’ve got to try and change the finger, can’t get the string out, probably.

Sean Hargis (13:46)
You can’t even get it out. Yeah, I can’t even

get it out. gotta I’m like I’m waiting for grabs or something.

Aaron Fleming (13:50)
you

Richard Head (13:51)
Hahaha

Dizzy Skips (13:53)
That’s funny. Richard, what are you jumping with most often now? I know you beaded, right? Like you got a beaded one recently.

Richard Head (13:57)
Well, you got me. Yeah, you guys

all got me the beaded rope. had just done my four ounce cross rope was kind of my main workhorse for a long time. And then after that first podcast that we did, I think right after I ordered a beaded one and I like it, but it’s a different thing. For me, it’s like the difference between like a mountain bike and a road bike. it’s still.

There’s still ropes, but it’s a way different thing. Like the cross rope is obviously just set your timer and just go as hard as you can, but the rope’s a lot more like I’ll just set a 20 minute timer and allow myself to stop and scroll songs and just try to do combos and be dog shit at mic releases and all that kind of stuff. So it’s still like what tool do I want for the job if I’m just kind of screwing around. And that’s the other thing that like.

If I’m doing my workout on the weekend and on Wednesday and on Monday, then the rest of the time, like, cool dude, I’ll just put on some tunes and grab my beaded rope out and just play around with it. So that’s kind of, yeah, just that one beaded rope. And then I have another PVC that I got at the same time as my beaded rope.

Dizzy Skips (14:58)
Mm-hmm.

Hmm.

Richard Head (15:09)
I’m not ready to start collecting whip marks from that one just yet.

Dizzy Skips (15:13)
Yeah, yeah, they’re so fun. I was talking to some people about our ropes in this little Instagram group and one thing that a few people said, and I think, I don’t know, Aaron, if you said this, but several of the beaded ropes that I have that I ordered from major companies, companies of which I am an affiliate in some cases, are just…

light enough that they don’t work for me anymore. You know, like I’m going to gift them to people because they just there’s not, especially after jumping with Mira’s rope, that that quarter pound rope or whatever, there’s just so much feedback that like learning tricks and pulling off moves actually seems easier. It does give your arms a workout and your shoulders a workout. But I just love that feedback.

I would go to a light PVC to just go fast and have fun with footwork, you know,

Richard Head (16:03)
Yeah, do you guys feel like you have certain moves that are unlocked but only for specific ropes? Right, like can double under all day long with my four ounce cross rope, but I can get a couple with the beaded, but it’s a lot more dicey just because it’s different thing and the weight’s different. So I feel like I can do certain things with certain ropes and other ones. It’s like, I could try, but it’s a little more risky.

Dizzy Skips (16:20)
Yeah.

Sean Hargis (16:27)
I’d say that’s true. I’ve had that with the beaded rope. know, it’s kind of what they call a slow rope for a reason because it doesn’t move well. But I think my problem is I think it’s a mental thing. think I make it more difficult in my head than it needs to be. So I have that problem with some ropes. I just feel more comfortable with it. And then when I try, I know I can do it. But it’s just I’ve psyched myself out. And then I can’t, I get like three and then I can’t get it anymore.

Dizzy Skips (16:27)
Yeah.

Richard Head (16:33)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (16:42)
Hmm.

Richard Head (16:51)
Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (16:56)
Yeah.

Richard Head (16:56)
Well,

yeah, that’s the funny part, right? Because if you can do it with a heavier rope, you have the physical ability to do it. So it has nothing to do with your muscles, right? It’s all what your brain is capable of doing, right?

Dizzy Skips (17:03)
Mm-hmm.

Aaron Fleming (17:10)
I

think sometimes with the heavier ropes, or the ones without the bearings in them, you start to use your arms more and then it starts smacking you the back of the head, is the issue. Especially with like the beaded ropes when you’re trying to go for reps, because there’s only so many you can do for it, it’s just going to start smacking you in the head.

Richard Head (17:19)
Mm-hmm.

Dizzy Skips (17:19)
You

Yeah. You know, when I got that beaded rope from Mira, the heavy one, I was trying to pull off moves that I’ve just seen you do forever, Aaron. Like you do, you’re always doing E.B.’ and I cross it. Like I can’t even name most of the shit you do, but.

Sean Hargis (17:42)
He does that from the

floor to the TS like that and it’s just so wicked and he does that right out of the gate.

Dizzy Skips (17:47)
Yeah.

Yeah.

several of those moves that I was just failing with miserably with PVC or with beaded, which is normally what I jumped with when I got Mira’s rope, I was able to do several in a row. It wasn’t just like, yeah, I pulled off a couple. It was like, I did eight the first time I tried. And it was like, wow, that’s really cool. And then I felt like after I practiced it like that for a while, then I switched to one of my normal beaded ropes, which is a heavier beaded rope, but not as heavy.

and I could pull it off. So I really love the heavier stuff for learning.

Aaron Fleming (18:23)
What I found

Richard Head (18:24)
Well, and-

Aaron Fleming (18:24)
with my style is I need feedback the whole time. So my style is reliant on when the rope’s there, I will do this move. So obviously without that, so when I was trying it with the PVC rope, it’s sort of like I’m just doing the motions, but there’s no feedback at all. So I have to think, right, I’ll do that move, then that move, where with the beaded ropes, when they’re a bit more weighty, I can just think, it’s moving like that, so I’m going to do that move.

Dizzy Skips (18:32)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I think for me one thing that helps is being very conscious of directing things with my wrists. know, like if you are using your wrists to guide things around, then when you’ve got a lighter rope, if you get in the habit of doing that with a heavier rope, then when you’ve got a lighter rope, you pay attention to where your wrists are more. You know what I mean?

Because it’s easy to kind of keep your wrists locked and do the arm thing, but you by nature don’t have as much feedback. But if you’re working on rotating with your wrists, then as you step to different grades of rope, I feel like that’s helped me anyway. I don’t know if that makes any sense, but.

Richard Head (19:26)
Well,

that’s, mean, that’s what I’ve walked into as far as the the mic releases. I literally imagine once that wrist comes out, like arm comes out, I just imagine my arm is now like frozen in time like a wizard spell and only my wrist is doing it. Anytime my arm starts doing anything, it’s just screwed up. So if I come around, just, and now we’re just wrist once around and come back. So, and the other thing I heard Sean talk about wrist versus PVC is

Dizzy Skips (19:41)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Sean Hargis (19:50)
you

Richard Head (19:55)
The beaded ropes are a little bit slower. Another thing, and this is what Sean was commenting on, is with that PVC rope, if you’re doing your crosses or whatever, it allows you to be a lot more sloppy. Like you can pull it through and know, my form wasn’t great, but it’s the PVC rope so I can just pull it through, the beaded rope will not, at least for me, it doesn’t seem to let you get away with that. So if your hand’s not in the right place or you’re not in the right position, you’re not gonna jump it.

Dizzy Skips (20:19)
Hmm.

Sean Hargis (20:21)
you

Richard Head (20:25)
The PVC is a lot more forgiving, but again, like if you’re trying to learn the right form and the right whatever, like that beaded rope seems to be the one that just will be like, no dude, that’s not, it won’t let you get away with any kind of like tomfoolery, right? Like you have to be just so, and so it helps you learn kind of your position and where everything should be. Cause if you’re even slightly off, you’re not going to get away with it, with the beaded rope.

Dizzy Skips (20:36)
Hmm.

I’m curious, when you learned to do releases or when you’re doing releases now, do you count in your head or is it all a feeling thing? For example, Sean, if you’re doing a double mic release, are you actually counting in your head or did you start that way or is it all feeling

Sean Hargis (21:05)
all feeling for me. It’s always kind of been you can just kind of feel where that rope is and you you feel where the rope should be and where your hand should be whether or not it shows up is a different thing but yeah it for me it just seems like it’s a feeling and it’s the same thing with different like mic type moves like you know sometimes I’ve been practicing these behind the back mics and one thing I forget to do when it goes back to what Richard’s talking about I don’t

Dizzy Skips (21:07)
Has it always been or did you start counting?

Mm-hmm.

Right.

Sean Hargis (21:35)
I’m gonna spin my hand and I’ll forget. And then it just flops. I didn’t turn my wrist. I just let my wrist, I got sloppy, got lazy. And that particular move is one that I do it a lot with. And it’s a feeling.

Dizzy Skips (21:37)
Mm. Yep.

Yeah, and I don’t know if you heard that podcast that Sarah was on, but she was talking about wrists too and how, like even with crosses and stuff, it’s easy to just assume that you’re crossing your arms and that the momentum of the rope is gonna carry itself over your head. But you actually, if you’re scooping with your wrists, you can be a lot more consistent and successful with them. And that’s something that…

seemed like a forehead slap for me because I had been doing it wrong for so long and not really using my wrists to carry it through.

Aaron Fleming (22:23)
you.

Sean Hargis (22:23)
the you can get through one or two, maybe, but if you’re consecutive, you’ve gotta get wrists moving.

Dizzy Skips (22:26)
Right.

Yeah. Yeah.

Aaron Fleming (22:30)
I

think the good way to practice that is, you know when you do crosses, if you just hold the cross and then you get used to your arms doing… So when I practice the crosses, that’s what I would do. I would just literally hold the crosses and do about a thousand skips, just literally my arms crossed over. But then when I’m doing the other moves, such as like the EB and stuff, I don’t think about that bit. My arms so used to spinning when I’m crossed.

Richard Head (22:38)
Mmm, yeah.

Dizzy Skips (22:39)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Mmm.

Richard Head (22:56)
that’s really smart.

Aaron Fleming (22:57)
It means

you’re not thinking, I need to swing my arms around because you’re so used to doing it because you’ve stood there for ages swinging across.

Dizzy Skips (23:03)
Mm-hmm.

Sean Hargis (23:05)
Yeah, that’s good drill.

Dizzy Skips (23:06)
Yeah, also when I was talking to Sarah, she said that you gave her a piece of advice, Aaron, when she was trying to do the EB jump, which was having like one hand in front and one hand behind and then jumping. And she was having a mental block with it. And you told her it’s just like a cross, but with one hand behind your back. And that was like a light bulb for her. I thought that was a cool explanation.

Richard Head (23:07)
Okay.

That was a light bulb for me too, I heard that one and I was like, okay. I sort of changed my outlook on it. Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (23:32)
Yeah, makes sense now. Yeah.

Aaron Fleming (23:34)
Yeah, because when you

sort of imagine it, so like when I come from a TS to an EB, that A is literally you’re dragging it across your body, but when it’s forwards, so you go for it, it’s just the same as a cross, isn’t it? You’re just bringing your arm behind you at the same time. So I always say just imagine your body’s not there.

Dizzy Skips (23:48)
Mm-hmm.

Would you

explain what a TS is for people who might not know these initials?

Aaron Fleming (23:57)
the TS is the move I’ve taught everyone. And I will not stop until everyone can do it. Yeah, yeah, I’ll get there. If you can’t do it yet, I will get there. So what it is, it’s literally a crossover behind your back. So it’s like that and then, yeah, you bring it back forward.

Richard Head (24:00)
Ha

Sean Hargis (24:03)
me

Richard Head (24:03)
Almost everyone.

Dizzy Skips (24:20)
So what is the…

Richard Head (24:20)
Hey,

and Aaron, I know your rope seems a little bit longer. Do you think like a little bit more length on the rope for that move in particular? Because I have that, like my beaded rope, I think I cut it down way too short. So I can skip with it, but I feel like I don’t know what your advice would be as far as rope length if we’re focusing more on tricks and TS’s and stuff, maybe a little extra length. mean, we all want a little extra length, right?

Aaron Fleming (24:37)
I

So with my rope, I’ve got like super long arms, so it’s not actually as long as it looks. It literally comes to my hips, but then the handles make it a little bit longer. yeah, my arms are like super long, so it looks really long when it’s above me. But I would say you want it to like for a TS for example, you don’t want a long rope, you want it quite short. like there’s that, you’ll bring it behind you and then you’re not swinging the rope.

Richard Head (24:52)
Mm-hmm.

Well, and then you’re like nine feet tall too, so…

Dizzy Skips (24:56)
Yeah,

he’s Godzilla.

Richard Head (24:59)
Yeah.

Aaron Fleming (25:13)
from that point it will just come round by itself. No, no, you see, literally just bring your arms behind you and then the momentum will carry it around. You can then obviously keep it going by swinging the wrists after that, but it’s mostly momentum and all shoulder mobility to make that

Dizzy Skips (25:16)
Are you scooping with your wrists?

Richard Head (25:32)
so I had a great excuse as to why I couldn’t do a TS and now Aaron has just taken that excuse away from me. Thank you.

Dizzy Skips (25:37)
Right, right. Yeah.

Aaron Fleming (25:39)
It’s

all about, so when I was showing Sean it for example, it’s when people go into it they’re trying to whip it behind them and it goes way too fast and there’s no time to react to them jumping in. So it’s actually like quite a slow movement, you’ll do it and then it’ll come round at your normal speed and then you just jump again.

Dizzy Skips (26:01)
So you lead into it with a jump. You’re jumping it and then crossing after you jump it and then it comes back around over the top of you.

Aaron Fleming (26:08)
So, yeah,

as it’s coming around, you’re then crossing your arms. So then it will go around once and then it goes around again. And then that’s like the TS. Or it can just go around.

Dizzy Skips (26:19)
So was

there a trick, pardon the pun, for you learning that? Like, was there a light bulb moment for you when you were trying to learn to do the TS?

Aaron Fleming (26:28)
Well,

what happened with that move? I thought I invented it. was like, oh, yes. finally invented a move, the TS. And then, so I was kept practicing it over and over again. And then someone was like, it’s called a TS, not a behind the back cross. And I was like, no, no. Yeah, so yeah, with a lot of my moves, I’ve learned them by mistake. So like, you know, go for a cross and then I’m tired and I’m like, what happened there? Oh, I’ll practice that move. yeah, so I’ll a lot of them. That’s why.

Richard Head (26:33)
Hahaha!

Sean Hargis (26:55)
Nothing there.

Aaron Fleming (26:58)
I can do them from move to move to move because I accidentally knocked him doing the wrong move.

Richard Head (27:02)
How about this? Can you guys, since you guys are my male release heroes, if we’re practicing our mics, so when I first started, I was just doing like side swings and then release without the jump, and then I started to get that, and then now we’re releasing and jumping over it. I mean, can you guys speak on the benefits of like when you first were practicing, were you doing it without the jump or were you always

incorporating the jump into it. Because once I started incorporating the jump to it, I’m realizing like, I almost have to start jumping before my hand makes the catch and just trying to calculate that all together in my brain. was wondering if you guys could speak about that a little bit, just practicing with the jump versus without.

Dizzy Skips (27:51)
I have so much video of me trying to jump and doing releases at the same time. And actually, surprisingly, I catch it a lot of the time, but I don’t get over the rope much. And like the three times that I’ve done it, I’ve been throwing the horns and so happy and then, you know, I can’t pull it off again. Anyway.

Aaron Fleming (28:10)
With the mic release I would teach it a tiny bit different. You know, like so normally they’ll like you’ll do it, whip it really quick and then it’s Where for me, because obviously I like to go to a cross or to a T.S. or something, I will whip it but go high, catch it high and then I can go into any move from that. So that’s when like if you go into a jump and you’ve caught it and it’s so quickly by your side, you’ve got no time to get that jump in.

sometimes it’s better just to do it a little bit higher and then get used to doing it. So now if I do it short, I know I can jump that, but like just if you literally all you have to do is bring your arm a little bit higher and then catch it.

Sean Hargis (28:51)
For me, I practiced without the jump, just learning the mic on the sides and then letting it fall to the ground or trying to catch it. for a single mic, I was doing a little bit different. I was trying to catch it in the pocket position so my hands were near my hips. But when I started doing doubles, that didn’t work for the very reason Aaron’s talking about. I don’t have time to react. So you have to take it a bit higher. It doubles or triples.

Richard Head (29:09)
Mm-hmm.

Sean Hargis (29:20)
to have it time to spin down to either pocket position or like Aaron said, a little bit higher so you can bring it in to do something different with it. But for me, when I started, it was just getting familiar with the movement and getting familiar with that feel, I guess. For me, everything’s been a feel. I don’t count. I’ve never counted. I listen to music quite a bit, but I don’t listen.

Richard Head (29:35)
Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (29:39)
Yeah.

Sean Hargis (29:48)
when I do double unders because I like to hear and feel the pavement hit for doubles or even sometimes triples to do those. Yeah, it’s just been mostly been a feeling for me.

Dizzy Skips (29:51)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

So Sean, with the feeling stuff in releases, you mentioned that you sometimes do triples. Could you spin the rope just, you know, eight times or whatever and just catch it? Like, can you feel it to that degree where you can just kind of at some point, you know, just reach in and catch it? Do you have that muscle memory? Okay.

Sean Hargis (30:22)
the

Dizzy Skips (30:27)
Yeah.

What part

of the reason that I asked the question is that I feel like in order for me to actually start nailing them I first of all I had to slow down because everything I want to do is fast right so I had to slow down and then second of all I had to count and my coach is a double guy you know that’s how he taught and I think it looks really cool I love the double the look of the double of when it whips around really quick but yeah I would get it

Sean Hargis (30:55)
Absolutely.

Dizzy Skips (31:11)
go in and then try and do the pocket thing, you know, and catch it low. But I did, when trying to see if I could jump it, realized that that didn’t work. And so I was trying to catch it higher, but Nico from URope

@nicojumpsrope, she had a little dance rope video that I bought and one of her tricks was release higher. And I know I had heard my coach say that before too, but for some reason the way that she showed it, I tried it and that really made a difference. I’m curious for you guys with the…

with the catches on releases, like Aaron, you mentioned catching up higher. I’ve seen some tutorials from a few different coaches who talk about the necessity of like returning your leading hand to the pocket position as a way of sort of whipping the loose handle back into your other hand. that?

Richard Head (32:00)
you

Aaron Fleming (32:05)
You don’t need to move that hand well. I say this, if you’re it from new, then yes, do what they say. So I can do the release and then catch the handle there to then cross. So it doesn’t have to come back down. But again, that’s to do with feeling, which you get used to doing the mic, you know that you don’t have to bring your hand back down. But there’s different ways of doing it as well, isn’t there? There’s like a wrist pop. I do a side swing before it.

Richard Head (32:18)
Thank

Dizzy Skips (32:20)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Aaron Fleming (32:36)
then there’s the normal one. There’s loads of different ways of doing it. And then obviously the more confident you get with it, the longer you can leave it there. So there were a lot of people that like, they’ll teach the mic release and then you’ve got to spin your wrist really quick. I know I will just do it really slowly and then capture it. So there’s loads of ways of doing it. And obviously if you teach, if you learn it from someone, you’re learning the way that they do it and it will look like their one, not necessarily look like my one or.

Dizzy Skips (32:38)
Mm-hmm.

sure.

Aaron Fleming (33:05)
Sean’s one. It all depends on how you learn it.

Dizzy Skips (33:09)
Yeah.

So the next step of a release for me is the Mamba, I guess, which is the release where you go on one side and then whip it to the other side and kind of go back and forth. Have you nailed that one yet, Richard? No?

Richard Head (33:27)
No. No.

Dizzy Skips (33:31)
Sean, you do it pretty fluidly.

Sean Hargis (33:34)
that

Dizzy Skips (33:41)
That one looks really cool.

yeah, cool. with the Mamba, was it just natural to catch it because you had worked on releases so much

Sean Hargis (34:05)
You know, that one was a tough one for me to get. And I think it was, again, I think a lot of his mental, this one was definitely a mental trick that I just had trouble with. I really had trouble understanding where the rope is from place. And once I understood, I guess the mechanics better, then it becomes almost, you know, just reach your hand up and grab it eventually. But it’s a tough one to wrap your head around. Same thing with like a

Dizzy Skips (34:18)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Sean Hargis (34:33)
you another move that I struggled with was a switch cross. It was just, it was a mental thing. just struggled, couldn’t get it. And, uh, you know, I saw folks doing it. I’m like, just, ah, how did do it? Eventually it’ll click, but it’s yeah, mental mostly.

Richard Head (34:38)
Yup.

Dizzy Skips (34:49)
Yeah, you mentioned

that on the podcast that you were on was the switch cross and the challenges you were having with it. And, and I did one video a while back and I think Aaron made a comment like, did I see a switch cross in there? And I was thinking if there was, it was a complete mistake because like every time I try to do it, I just whip myself. But yeah.

Richard Head (35:05)
Hahaha

Sean Hargis (35:10)
But yeah, going back

to Mamba, for me it was just understanding the mechanics and where the rope was in space and figuring out where my hand should be. But you’ll get it.

Dizzy Skips (35:17)
Yeah.

How many times have you clocked

yourself in the head when you’ve gone back and forth?

Sean Hargis (35:27)
more than I can count. And it happens all the time. I’ll come in with a, I’ll have, you know, my eye looks black and it looks like I just got beat up in the schoolyard and my wife will be like, what are you doing? You need to stop doing this. I’m like, just, no, I’m not stopping. I’m gonna keep going.

Dizzy Skips (35:29)
Yeah.

That makes me feel better.

Hahaha.

Sean’s

full contact skipping.

Sean Hargis (35:48)
I

look like I got whipped by a cat of nine tails on my back. I just, you know, I look like I was severely punished for something. It’s just ridiculous.

Dizzy Skips (35:52)
you

Yeah.

chewed on by a

junkyard dog. Yeah. That… Yeah.

Sean Hargis (36:02)
Yeah, all the time, man. I get beat up all the time with a

rope and that’s just part of it.

Dizzy Skips (36:07)
I’ve had two times where just as I’m getting ready for a podcast, I go like, you know, check my teeth in the mirror or something like that. And then realize that I’ve got some lump on my cheek from hitting myself with a plastic handle at high speed the day before. Yeah.

Aaron Fleming (36:25)
when you forget that you’ve whipped yourself in the back loads of times and then you’ll get a shower and you’re like, ah, f*** it now! But you’ve broken the skin, you’ve hit yourself in the same spot that many times.

Dizzy Skips (36:30)
Yeah, yeah.

Richard Head (36:30)
Hahaha

Sean Hargis (36:34)
Yep, yep, absolutely.

Dizzy Skips (36:35)
Yeah,

yeah, that’s some fun stuff. So Richard, what are you working on? Like, you have any, aside from the release stuff, do you have any other things that you’re working on? I think you mentioned like Shuffles when you were on before.

Richard Head (36:53)
Yeah, that like backwards shuffle, kinda, I don’t even think I’m ready to incorporate the rope yet. Usually I’ll, like if I’m waiting for my coffee or whatever, I’ll try to do a little bit of that. And I think more than new stuff, I’m really trying to look back at the stuff I already know and either learn it on both sides or tighten it up or a recent one for me is I learned crosses and I realized I was looking at, I think a

Dizzy Skips (37:15)
Mm-hmm.

Richard Head (37:23)
Coach Nate video and he had something of like some other trick coming off a cross and I realized like oh I only know left hand over right when I do my crosses and I’ve been doing that for like a year a year and a half so then I had to go out and go okay here’s this move that I had told myself for years and years that I already know how to do but I only knew it left over right so I had to go back out

Dizzy Skips (37:28)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Sean Hargis (37:36)
Thanks

Richard Head (37:48)
And now I can go back and forth, left over right, right over left, know, back and forth as many times as you want. So I’m kind of trying to go back in the library of stuff I sort of think I already know and looking at it. Another one was, God, I don’t, I can’t think of his handle, but there’s a guy that’s, he’s always doing boxer skip to like techno music. And he’s really good at like, he’ll do the single side swing on both sides. And I had recently kind of seen him and realized, yeah, I can only do

Dizzy Skips (37:51)
That’s great.

Mm-hmm.

Sean Hargis (38:14)
Thank

Richard Head (38:16)
that single side swing on the one side. So now I can do them on both sides and just kind of holding that pattern. So I think I have a bad habit of, I know this, so we’re going to level up and pretty soon I don’t know anything. So I’m trying to really focus on like, okay, learning things on both sides and using that beaded rope to really tighten up the things that I already know before I start going through the internet and biting off.

Sean Hargis (38:24)
you

Dizzy Skips (38:30)
I know what mean.

Totally.

Sean Hargis (38:39)
you

Richard Head (38:41)
way more than I can chew. And then just the

Dizzy Skips (38:42)
Yeah.

Richard Head (38:43)
releases and the general consistency of my life. think that’s where my focus is. And I wanted to ask you guys to, maybe we can all kind of take turns talking about this, but if you’re gonna have a session, how do you guys think about that? Is it just, I’m gonna go jump for an hour and we’re just freestyling? Or do we have, is there certain tricks? I would love it if we can kind of go around the room and say like,

Sean Hargis (39:02)
you

Richard Head (39:09)
I was listening to Sean’s podcast and it really rang true for me because he was saying, you know, I got to drop my daughter off at the bus and then I have this little golden nugget of time, drop her off and like you got to, you know, because once it’s over, now it’s time to be dad. Now it’s time to go to work. Now it’s time to pay bills. Now it’s time to do all that stuff. And so that time that you have is just such a precious little, you know, thing. So I just was wondering what you guys, when you do have that time, like how do you, how do you break it down in your mind? How do you.

Sean Hargis (39:16)
Thank

Richard Head (39:37)
Do you decide beforehand what’s gonna happen? Yeah, who wants to speak about that? Because I’m super curious.

Dizzy Skips (39:47)
Yeah.

Sean Hargis (39:46)
I don’t mind because that’s

exactly what I do. I’ve got about an hour when I wake up, get my dog ready, make a salad for lunch, whatever. I’ll write down the things I want to work on because I know I’m going to do it at like 630 in the morning. So I’ll pick three or four different tricks that I want to practice. I’ll pick footwork that I want to practice. And usually that’ll be the warm up.

Richard Head (40:01)
Mm-hmm.

Sean Hargis (40:12)
I’ll do a warm up with that, then I’ll move to 10 or 15 minutes per trick practicing. And then I go back to footwork, try to tighten it up like you’re talking about. then toward the end, I’m just so, I’m so cashed. I got nothing left, right? I just, I just take my brain and dump it out and I just start skipping and I do freestyle and just whatever comes out, comes out. And I do that at the end for about 20 minutes. So I get anywhere between an hour and an hour and a half in the morning. And that’s kind of the approach that I take.

But usually I want to on the tricks and footwork. I’ll write down practice this practice that you know and just work

Richard Head (40:51)
Okay, so you’re picking two or three items and physically writing it down just so you know, like, okay, that’s the ones that I want to work on this time. What about you, Aaron?

Sean Hargis (40:59)
Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (41:00)
And so footwork is your warmup?

I just wanted to clarify with Sean, footwork is your warmup or do you have a warmup routine before you start with that?

Sean Hargis (41:09)
I have a warm-up routine. do jumping jacks and squats, like air squats, because it’s harder to get the joints going. So yeah, I do that to try to just get some lubrication going. then I get up a good sweaty lather, I guess, and then get to the other stuff.

Dizzy Skips (41:19)
Yeah, I hear you.

Aaron, how about you?

Aaron Fleming (41:31)
Sorry.

Yeah, so I don’t have a plan as such when I go out. I’ve got like a lot, I said to Amy the other day, you know, like when you’re trying to do a new combo, I always go outside first and go, right, the first thing I’m gonna do is record three videos of stuff I know how to do. So then no matter what happens that day, I could post three videos. Obviously I post every day, so it’s a little bit different. So no matter what happens, I could post a video. So that’s my first goal.

Richard Head (41:51)
Ha

Sean Hargis (41:52)
Hahaha

Aaron Fleming (41:57)
And then after that I’ll be like, I’ll try combo with this move or with this move. And then obviously at the end I’m just like, I’ll go through the footage and decide the best one, but there’s not really a plan or such. So I’ll be skipping and then all of sudden my body’s like, ah, it’s time to do squats, do press ups and all that sort of stuff. That’s why my videos are a bit all over the place because literally I’ll just be skipping and then my body’s just like, loads of press ups now and jump in the air and go and grab the weights from there. So yeah.

There’s not really a plan, but obviously I do know once I start to do the skipping, if I do a cross I know I’m going to do all the rest of it based on the way the rope goes and all that sort of stuff. So I have a plan in that sense is every day I’m not going to hit a combo. It just depends on how well that session goes as to what it actually looks like.

Dizzy Skips (42:26)
And you…

And from a previous podcast, you mentioned that your routine is basically you get home from work and then you start jumping almost right away, right? Like before you eat dinner and you get in an hour, hour and a half or more, depending upon your progress. Yeah.

Aaron Fleming (43:05)
Yeah, is literally

entirely dependent. So I think the best one I ever did, I went outside, landed everything instantly. So I did the B combos and I did the A combos, I was like, wow, this is brilliant. And then I was like, yeah, what do I do now? So obviously a lot of your session when you’re skipping is actually failing. That’s such a long chunk of your session. yeah, that out of service went to the gym.

Yeah, so like if I can get it under an hour or an hour-ish, that’s ideal so that I can get in see the kids and such stuff. But when it’s a bad session, I’m not coming in. I’m not coming in until it’s done But again, that’s mainly because I’ve got that day counter and I want to hit every day.

Dizzy Skips (43:39)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah.

Sure. Yeah, I did the Jump Rope Journal thing too, Richard. And I’ve been trying to focus on basically two tricks and then I always like footwork stuff. I’ve said before, I have a warmup routine and then I’ve been trying to do calisthenics, not trying to, I’ve been doing calisthenics as well. So like a jump rope warmup, a couple rounds of calisthenics and then jump rope warmup again

And then I’ve been trying to work on releases and then E.B.’s and just more rope work because I’ve focused so much on footwork, but I love footwork. And the problem that I have is that I put on music, you know, like I’m always listening to music. And there are times where I intend to work on like E.B. swings or something, but the tune is too banging and I just can’t stop moving. I post a lot of videos of me just spazzing out on the floor anyway.

Richard Head (44:31)
Mm-hmm.

Sean Hargis (44:44)
You’re in good company. I’m sure we’ve all done that.

Dizzy Skips (44:47)
Yeah,

Yeah, I had intentions on working on a very specific song last night because I’m trying to do a collaboration with someone and I just, my playlist was rolling over to these other great songs and I was like, I gotta jump to that one and now I gotta jump to this one. Anyway.

Aaron Fleming (45:05)
Do you,

um… So you know when a song’s on? I’m guessing you would just put it on and then… Do you just then skip to it and then that’s it done or do you… Like, so with mine when I was trying a bit of music, I would try it, trip, and then try it, and then trip, and then of course we’d play that same bit of song over and over again, I was like, fuck this song, and then I would listen to that song over again. So, um, that’s the reason I can’t listen to music, because I would want to hit a trick at a certain point and then I would never get it.

Richard Head (45:27)
Yeah.

Aaron Fleming (45:35)
You

Dizzy Skips (45:36)
Yeah, think for me, you know, for the most part, I don’t choreograph stuff. I may, I may.

because of a certain song feel like there’s a certain piece of footwork that might fit in there really cool or hey, when the drums do this, it’d be cool if I could double time my feet or something like that. But I’m not choreographing that stuff. So most of the time it’s just me flowing and I feel like it’s, I think of it as channeling the music. I just get into it and just see what comes out. But I have had situations where I’ve had a song that I wanted to skip to.

And just seems like I have two left feet. I just, for whatever reason, I don’t know if it’s the pace of the song or just the day or my nutrition or whatever, but can’t seem to hit it. And then I’ve been like, all right, yeah, hell with this song, let’s move on. And then put on a different song and been fine. know, like absolutely fine or pulled off something I really liked. So the music makes a big difference to me. Sean, when you freestyle at the end of yours, are you doing it to music?

Sean Hargis (46:33)
We can’t

Yeah, mm-hmm. And it’s the same thing. Music can affect what you do and how you do it. I’ve noticed that. I’m guilty of the same thing. Sometimes you hit on something that just seems to mesh and it’s great, but more often than not, particularly toward the end, I’m just kind of floating around. I mean, I’ll still get, if nothing else, at least we’re still getting good exercise, right?

Dizzy Skips (46:47)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Richard Head (46:58)
Mm-hmm.

Dizzy Skips (47:02)
That’s right. I was driving home today from running errands and I hadn’t heard this Marilyn Manson song, Beautiful People, in a long time. And so I told Siri to play Beautiful People and I was thumping it in the car. Yeah, exactly. And I was like, all right, I’m gonna have to goth it up and dance to Beautiful People with the rope and see what comes out. So be prepared. You might see a freak in black lipstick again.

Sean Hargis (47:11)
yeah, that’s good one.

I may be searching up some goth playlists tomorrow, who knows?

Dizzy Skips (47:32)
Nice.

Yeah. Richard, I’m curious as far as your other warmup stuff, the stuff that you do that’s non-jump rope warmup, you’re doing calisthenics. I think we talked at the end of last year when we did that group hang about kind of things we were doing for the new year and it seemed like both you and Aaron had calisthenics on the docket.

Richard Head (47:53)
Well, I started with the three weekly workouts. The other thing that I started was just 60 push-ups in the morning. So that’s not necessarily a warm-up for jump rope, that’s every single day I haven’t missed one. And so it’s get straight out of bed, do 15, start the water for coffee, do 15. And that’s been really helpful. And then the other…

Dizzy Skips (48:07)
Mm-hmm.

Sean Hargis (48:15)
Impressive.

Richard Head (48:22)
I have a kind of a set of stretches and things. have about a 15 minute program of like hamstrings and you know, because I had I had that injury with my leg and so just kind of stretching out but I struggle with that too because I feel like you know, we just have that amount of time and for me it’s I get up, I do my push ups, I get my shit ready and then I get to work and then I’ll do my workout there because I can shower and everything but there’s only

Dizzy Skips (48:29)
Mm-hmm.

Richard Head (48:50)
so much time and so I know I need to stretch out but then that’s time taken away from my jump time so it’s you know I know I need to get those stretches in there for sure because I don’t you know with my cycling I just I bike so much and never stretched and never warmed up and never and it ended really badly for me so yeah

Dizzy Skips (48:53)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

How do you stretch your hamstrings?

Like when you mentioned you have a stretch routine.

Richard Head (49:12)
I’ll just stand straight

up and like, you know, toes to the floor, do that. And then I have, there’s another one where I’ll do like a figure four leg and kind of come back this way, do that on both sides, pull it up to my chest. And then I’ll do that same thing, but I’ll lie face down. And now I got one foot crossed over my chest and the other foot back and stretch it that way, both sides. And then, you know, grab the foot and pull it up for a quad stretch.

Dizzy Skips (49:15)
Fold in half, kind of.

yeah,

Yep.

Okay.

Yeah.

Richard Head (49:42)
And then the other one that I’ve incorporated is like a down, one minute downward dog. So, you know, that’ll do your hamstrings and helps with your shoulders. And then I don’t know what the reverse of that is, but I have a minute of the other way where you’re, you know, you’re bent out that way. So just a couple of rounds of that. And then there’s another one where you like sit on your feet and your toes, your toes point backwards and you’re sitting on your feet. So your feet are kind of stretched out.

Dizzy Skips (49:46)
Mm-hmm.

Yep.

Mm-hmm.

Richard Head (50:09)
and then I’ll do that same one but back up on my toes and now I’m sitting on my heels and let that kind of stretch for a little bit. But yeah, I just have all that stuff programmed into this app and I’ll just hit go and then I don’t even have to think about it, just do what it tells me and then before you know it, 15 minutes is gone and it’s time to start jumping rope.

Sean Hargis (50:11)
.

It’s probably good for all of us to do some of that. Be honest with you, I do stretch in the evenings, but you’ve hit on some that I probably want to try, so I think we’ll give it a shot.

Richard Head (50:30)
Yeah.

Aaron Fleming (50:37)
thinking of.

Richard Head (50:37)
Well,

I feel like we’re getting older and so it’s this weird thing where we wanna, if you work out so hard that you hurt yourself and then you can’t work out anymore and while you’re healing from your injury, you just get fat again and you’re sitting there eating Cheetos and whatever because you can’t work out, like, is that better than if you just never worked out in the first place? It’s this weird kind of cycle of.

craziness that I know me as like an older guy kind of deal with because I want to push myself harder, but I don’t want to push myself so hard that I’m throwing all that work out the window because now I got to wait and heal up. So I don’t know if you guys have ever kind of come across that, but.

Dizzy Skips (51:07)
Hmm.

Yeah.

Sean Hargis (51:16)
Yeah.

Aaron Fleming (51:17)
I’m bad with that.

Sean Hargis (51:17)
Absolutely.

Aaron Fleming (51:18)
I never stretch. I get injured.

Richard Head (51:21)
Yeah, I heard you say that

dude and I was like, Aaron buddy, you’re headed for disaster my friend.

Aaron Fleming (51:26)
I did my hamstring which is, what is it, four to six weeks heal time. I didn’t jump for, so I did like flow moves and a little bit of jumping for a week and then the next week I was like I’m not waiting but I’m doing it again. So yeah, not only do I not stretch I then get injured and then jump anyway. Just smile through the pain.

Dizzy Skips (51:44)
one of the stretches that I do for hamstring that I found really helpful, is kind of like standing splits and then bend at the waist. And so like I kind of do this and then bend at the waist. then, so I try to fold myself in half and then once folded in half, try to move my torso back and forth this way. And you can totally feel the stretch go from one leg to the other.

And then also you can twist, which is good for hips and stuff. So I do that one a couple of times. That’s helpful. yeah, I totally found that I have to warm up. there are so many times where I just want to get in and skip. just because exactly what you said, Richard, like I know what it feels like to be taken out of commission because I was a dumb ass, you know, and I didn’t listen to my body.

Richard Head (52:30)
Mm-hmm.

Dizzy Skips (52:32)
And it sucks because all I want to do is dance and skip. at least now I can work on releases if my legs aren’t working right. But I don’t like taking it too far. And I have had several times where I’ve done all of my warm up stuff and then I get into jumping. And within the first song, I can feel that injury flare. And I’m healed from it now, but I had one in my

calf and it was so depressing. was like, dude, I just want to flow now. I did all that work just to get to this point and now I have to go home. Sucks. But, but I went home and I just worked on releases and I was all right, you know, better than being out of commission.

Richard Head (53:07)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Sean Hargis (53:09)
I’ve done the same thing.

Aaron Fleming (53:16)
ever

overtrain? That’s like the main thing I do like, so like on Monday for example, this Monday just gone, I jump rope when I got in for about an hour-ish, I did calisthenics after that, then I did football and then I did a three mile run after that, then all the rest of the week I’ve been like my god I can barely move and then you know like so I’ll do

Dizzy Skips (53:24)
Yeah.

Aaron Fleming (53:45)
ridiculous amounts of press ups one day and then the next day you would think he’ll do something different no he’s done a ridiculous amount of press ups again so I just keep yeah it’s bad like I’ve had people message me like you’re literally gonna make yourself ill if you keep doing that I was wondering if any of yous have trained? I think because I am a trainer it’s not as effective as if I was to do it properly

Dizzy Skips (53:52)
That sounds like boot camp, Aaron. Like that sounds like…

Richard Head (53:55)
Yeah.

Sean Hargis (53:55)
That’s

tough.

Dizzy Skips (54:00)
Yeah. Well, you’re ripped, I’m sure.

Aaron Fleming (54:12)
So was wondering if any of you get to that, that invested in the training where your body’s just busted all the time.

Dizzy Skips (54:20)
Yeah, I’ve definitely noticed the age thing, Sean, like you mentioned having to stretch, know, like the joints don’t move quite like they do. And it’s amazing the difference. Like, like once I have stretched and once I get in and I’m doing my flow stuff, you know, I can do squats, I can hold it for quite a while. can, but it’s the first couple squats that I do where I’m like, my God, I’m an old man.

Richard Head (54:28)
Mm-hmm.

Sean Hargis (54:44)
Yeah,

yeah. yeah, and I had to change how I do things. I turn 50 in July. So I’m right, know, that’s gonna be a big day for me. But now I go to the gym, you know, Monday, Wednesday, Fridays, and I do big bar exercises to get the mobility and hit the big muscle groups, you know. I don’t do a ton of weight. I’m not a big dude at all,

Dizzy Skips (54:59)
Yeah.

Okay.

Sean Hargis (55:14)
I’m doing deadlifts and doing squats. I’m doing shoulder presses, know, just big things to engage all the muscle groups and then if I get lucky and get some time there I’ll skip but my skip days are Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sundays and I try to at least get somewhere between four and six hours a week skipping if I can. So it pretty much packs my whole week.

Dizzy Skips (55:16)
Mmm.

Sean Hargis (55:40)
But I had to take that approach because of the very things you talked about, the age-related stiffness. And then I stretch in the evenings for about 40 minutes. And a lot of stretches, it’s old karate stretches from 30 years ago that I did. using some of the things that Rich was just talking about, I think I’m going to try some of the moves he discussed today. I’ll give it a shot.

Dizzy Skips (55:55)
Mm-hmm.

I would love to ask technical questions about, don’t know, I’m just fascinated, you know, I make reels like a ridiculous person, like lots of reels. And I’m curious about people’s technical setup. Like, Sean, when you are recording yourself, do you have like a little tripod? Are you using your phone or what’s your?

Sean Hargis (56:26)
I

just got a tripod and I just got my phone attached to it and that’s it pretty much man. It’s nothing fancy. I just want to record just straight jumping, I’ll just use the same phone I’m listening to music on. But if I want to try something else like slow motion, I’ve got an old iPhone, I’ll listen to music on that and record slow motion on another phone. And if I want to try to play with some things and sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t.

Dizzy Skips (56:31)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Sean Hargis (56:55)
It’s not that I’m fancy, I think there’s folks out there who have got way nicer setups than what I got for sure.

Dizzy Skips (57:00)
sure.

Yeah. What in your post production? after you record, are you doing all your reel stuff within the Instagram app or do you use something else to produce your reels?

Sean Hargis (57:10)
I think a lot of folks I use CapCut a lot. I’m pretty happy with that. I understand it. Some of the some of those apps I struggle to figure out, but I think I can figure that one out. And then sometimes I’ll do a little tweaking in the Instagram app, but that’s pretty much it.

Dizzy Skips (57:13)
Okay.

Yeah.

Richard Head (57:27)
What was the name of that one you were using, Sean? What is it called? CapCut?

Dizzy Skips (57:29)
CapCut. Yeah. And there’s a free app, but I think you can, if I remember right, you can upgrade to have CapCut Pro or something, is that right?

Sean Hargis (57:30)
Matt, can cut? Yeah.

Yeah,

yeah.

Dizzy Skips (57:43)
So one of the things I’ve noticed about your video, Sean, is you have like this slide that you show at the end that says @seeseanskip or it’s kind of like a logo kind of thing. Is that something you did in CapCut?

Sean Hargis (57:51)
yeah, yeah.

So yes, I think picked up these little text templates. You can play with different things. Basically, I just had a black picture, and I just put it on a black, and I just stick the text on the same black photo. Or I find a cool wallpaper, and I’ll download that, and I’ll use that. So I’ll just play with that.

Dizzy Skips (57:59)
Okay.

Sure.

So

what else does CapCut do for you that you wouldn’t do in the Instagram app?

Sean Hargis (58:21)
I think it’s easier to splice than it is in the Instagram app because you can get down to like the real detailed minutiae of seconds to try to cut things exactly where you want them. It’s easier to put together, you know, put different pieces together if you want. At least I’ve found it that way.

Richard Head (58:25)
you

Dizzy Skips (58:39)
Okay.

Sean Hargis (58:41)
I had there are some things that about the Instagram app I do like but I mostly start everything in CapCut. I can take out big chunks or bring in big chunks and do it pretty quick.

Dizzy Skips (58:52)
easy to reorder things and

That’s cool. Aaron, how about you? What’s your post-production look like? Or what’s your camera setup look like, first of all?

Aaron Fleming (59:03)
I just use a ring light. It is, yeah, I need to improve it, but it’s just a ring light, it’s just a thin pole with the tiniest tripod on bottom. So any sort of wind or anything like that, not to touch it all over the place. And then I was laughing the other day. So what happens when it’s raining and it’s dark? I bring out an extension lead and a plug and then plug that in, in the rain outside, and then I start jumping in the same water that that light is plugged into.

Dizzy Skips (59:15)
You

Right, brilliant.

Richard Head (59:32)
Hahaha

Sean Hargis (59:33)
Okay.

Dizzy Skips (59:33)
Yeah, that’s called natural selection, Aaron.

Aaron Fleming (59:36)
Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, that’s…

Richard Head (59:37)
Hahaha

That

just means your last reel ever will be the most epic jump rope reel of all time.

Dizzy Skips (59:44)
It will be shocking, yes.

Sean Hargis (59:47)
And

if it makes it to Instagram, just means that your wife probably doesn’t back over you.

Dizzy Skips (59:51)
Right?

Aaron Fleming (59:51)
Yeah,

I wouldn’t have it any other way. Yeah, so I do that and then I don’t really have much time between finishing my skipping and then getting it posted. So I’m editing it on Instagram whilst I’m still working out. I’ll write a paragraph quickly and then go back to working out while I look at more. So yeah, it might just all on Instagram. I’ll just squish clips together.

Dizzy Skips (1:00:08)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Richard, what’s your setup?

Richard Head (1:00:18)
My setup, you might as well take notes, but I just throw my backpack down on the ground and then I take my phone and I precariously balance it on my backpack. Done. Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (1:00:29)
Cool. I did that for a long

time this summer. got a, I think it’s a Puma backpack at Costco and it was just rigid enough and it had a handle up at the top and I stuffed it full of clothes and stuff, but I could just prop the phone up. And it worked really well unless it was windy and then it would take a nosedive. But now I have a tripod that’s got a little clip thing in it that’s extendable and that’s really helpful.

Richard Head (1:00:54)
I have one of those little crappy tripods that’s hooked to… When I go out back, I have a plastic rack out there by my 5×5 cement block that I made. yeah, it clips up there. But other than that, I don’t really have… This summer, I think we’re gonna do some more work out there and maybe put up some lights and stuff.

Dizzy Skips (1:01:06)
Yeah.

Cool. Yeah, something that I learned, which I think probably everybody else knows, but it took me a while, was that on my iPhone, if I film with the front-facing camera on where I can see myself, the camera isn’t the same quality as the back-facing camera. So especially in lower light situations, that’s one of the really nice things about the tripod is like I have a

Sean Hargis (1:01:33)
Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (1:01:39)
mat or something that I put out or a place where I know I’m going to jump and then I set it up and aim it at that so I can’t see myself while I’m jumping but the image ends up being or the video ends up being a lot better quality.

Aaron Fleming (1:01:53)
Do you find when you’re doing that, you know, with the back camera, because obviously I’ve started doing that as well, that you actually jump better when you can’t see yourself?

Dizzy Skips (1:02:02)
Yeah, you know, I’ve been doing it long enough that it would be hard for me to say, but I wouldn’t be surprised because it just allows me to focus on my flow and it’s one less potential distraction. I know when I was first starting, I think it was probably not good for me to watch because I was trying to visually kind of process all that stuff while you know, and I could never get more than like, I don’t know.

Sean Hargis (1:02:03)
Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (1:02:30)
a dozen skips in without tripping up, but that was also because my rope was way too long for quite a while

So Richard, you use cross ropes. Someone, we’ve had this discussion about cross ropes on Instagram, but are they not adjustable at all?

Richard Head (1:02:44)
Well, so you can tie knots in them, but no, they’re not, they’re not, because you got your handles and then the joints and then the ropes just plug into that. So yeah, the length of the rope is static. And then when you buy them, I think it’s just like small, medium, large or something like that. They have them just spaced out like that. So yeah, they’re not adjustable.

Dizzy Skips (1:02:46)
Okay.

so weird to me.

Richard Head (1:03:09)
can grab mine, but there’s different knots you can tie, and I learned to tie like this. Let me grab it, actually.

Dizzy Skips (1:03:11)
Mm-hmm.

Sean Hargis (1:03:12)
Thanks.

Dizzy Skips (1:03:16)
I have one from, I’ve got a rope that I got from Buddy Lee and his is, got one of those handles with the ball bearings and stuff on it too, but the way you adjust it is to kind of unscrew. There’s like a little socket that has a threaded core and you just kind of screw it into the PVC. So.

Richard Head (1:03:39)
No, the cross ropes don’t have that, but what I was doing at first is just tying just a regular knot, but then I learned that you can tie them this way. Because if you tie, like if you just tie a knot, like just a straight knot like that, then it kind of puts this bend in the rope a little bit. So, but if you do this other, like once I caught onto this, it’s like a figure eight kind of knot, so then it’s still, your rope is still straight.

Dizzy Skips (1:03:46)
Mmm.

Sean Hargis (1:03:47)
That’s all we have time

you

Dizzy Skips (1:03:56)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Richard Head (1:04:08)
Right? It’s not kind of cocked like that. It’s nice and straight. So mine, have one like figure eight knot on one side and that kind of, and I can, if I do a second one, it’ll still be really tight, but then I can still jump up, but there’s no double unders or no leeway for any kind of bullshit if I put that second knot in there.

Dizzy Skips (1:04:17)
That’s cool.

Yeah.

and it gives you a nice Celtic vibe.

Sean Hargis (1:04:30)
It’s us.

Richard Head (1:04:31)
Yes,

I guess it does.

Dizzy Skips (1:04:36)
Yeah.

Sean Hargis (1:04:36)
to

that with PVCs. And I noticed when I had just the regular knot, if you had some good momentum, it would change the weight of the rope. It would be heavy on one side until it got down, and then it would be a weird weight. So exactly what you were doing is that figure eight knot is the way to do it. I had that same experience.

Richard Head (1:04:47)
Mm-hmm.

Yep.

Dizzy Skips (1:04:58)
So you only have the figure eight on one side of the rope, you said, Richard. Okay.

Richard Head (1:05:01)
Yep, just

on one. And Sean, like you were saying, when I first started, I was using PVC and I tried just using those knots and it bothered me to only have it on one side. I think because the cross-rope’s a little bit heavier, I don’t really notice it just on one side. when with the PVC rope, definitely wanted to have matching knots on both sides because it felt odd if it wasn’t evenly matched.

Sean Hargis (1:05:25)
Great.

Dizzy Skips (1:05:29)
have a couple of those Hereropes, those weighted ropes from here rope. And when I got them, the guy who sent them to me asked me my height and stuff so that he could kind of pre-size them. And then I had to cut them down, but those are adjustable. But I had to use like bolt cutters and not just like wire cutters, like bolt cutters to get, cause there’s a cable that’s like a quarter inch metal braided cable in there. And yeah.

And it was work. It was like 10 minutes to adjust the thing just to kind of wrestle it to the point where I could get it snapped. then I broke the handle.

Sean Hargis (1:06:07)
know, on my ropes.

that money and broke the handle. All my ropes I’ve got I just bought a hundred foot para cable cord from Walmart for like three dollars and everything’s built off those so I made them just dirt cheap and and then the nylon I’ll just burn the nylon with a lighter to get it smaller and I’ve been doing that for years. So far it seems to be working but I’ve kind of taken the cheap way out here recently.

Dizzy Skips (1:06:16)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

I mean, actually, Aaron, you were just asking the other day about using paracord for, and I’ve used it, my nephew and I built some jump ropes and used black paracord and seemed to work really well. He loves his jump rope.

Aaron Fleming (1:06:52)
Yeah, it’s little bit heavier, isn’t it, than normal stuff, I believe.

Sean Hargis (1:06:56)
It

is.

Dizzy Skips (1:06:57)
Is it? Yeah. It’s pretty sturdy stuff too.

Aaron Fleming (1:07:00)
Well, it can hold loads of stuff in it. I think the little nylon cords themselves can hold quite a lot of weight.

Dizzy Skips (1:07:07)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Take lots of abuse. Well, guys, I really appreciate you coming on and spending time talking to me. This has been a lot of fun. And it’s always a pleasure to see you and interact with you all on Instagram. I feel like I’ve learned so much from each one of you, and it’s a pleasure to have you here.

Sean Hargis (1:07:31)
Thanks for having us. Richard, thanks for the stretching tips. I’ll them a shot out tonight. And really just glad to speak with all of you in person. It’s not really just a person, but in the digital world, it’s nice. I like it. I’m getting a chance to talk to Aaron. I’m really happy about that.

Richard Head (1:07:36)
Yeah, sure.

Dizzy Skips (1:07:44)
It is.

Yeah,

yeah, it’s so cool. I just love being able to connect with people in a way that is more than 20 character comments and stuff like that. It’s always fun to interact in Instagram and I can’t stop gushing about how wonderful the community is, but it’s really fun to be able to come and talk shop with people who understand Jump Rope and aren’t like your family members who put up with Jump Rope.

Sean Hargis (1:08:10)
Yeah.

Richard Head (1:08:11)
Hahaha

Dizzy Skips (1:08:13)
Yeah. Well, thanks, guys.