Richard Head Returns! Beaded Jump Ropes & Mic Release Glory (Ep. 28)

Dizzy Skips (00:31)

Richard Head, my buddy, I’m so glad you’re back on the podcast. I know you’ve been on by yourself and also in groups, but it’s nice to get a chance to just chat you and I again, because we keep in touch, you know.

pretty regularly through Instagram, direct messages and send each other inspirational videos or music recommendations, but we don’t get long form chats so much. So it’s nice to be able to do that again.

Richard Head (00:57)

Well, I’m super stoked and I may be the first one to say this and I was excited to say it, like, I was on when it was still Skip Squad Chronicles. So I just wanted to say like, you know, that makes me cool. yeah, super, super, super stoked to be back on. Appreciate you having me back.

Dizzy Skips (01:04)

Hell yeah you were!

Yeah, it does.

That’s funny that you said the Skip Squad Chronicles, cause I actually looked, I was at the park the other day and taking a break in between jumping and I looked back, I was curious, all right, when did I come up with the idea for Skip Squad Chronicles? Like what was the actual date?

And it was September 22nd because I sat down at, you know, all sweaty after jumping and like made a couple of videos and sent them to people saying, Hey, I had this idea. What, what do you think? And would you be part of it? And

Richard Head (01:29)

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Dizzy Skips (01:44)

So tomorrow will be seven months, I think, if I do my math correctly, since I came up with the idea and.

Richard Head (01:51)

Yeah, no, sounds right.

Because I think it’s been like maybe four since we talked, since we did the last one. I want to say it was in like December we did that group chat.

Dizzy Skips (01:58)

He

Right, yeah, and I think you were on like episode four or something like that. You were early on as well. So actually, my point is that we’ve been doing this for over half a year now, like seven months since the idea came up and it launched not too long after that. so we got almost half a year of episodes in the can. This is gonna be episode, what, 27 or 28?

Richard Head (02:06)

Yeah. Hell yeah.

Well, and I said it before, man, but just what a cool idea. What a cool idea. Yeah. Yeah, because it’s fun to be here too, but it’s even better to like, Papa Joe and @kathyjumps and Patty and Aaron and you know, can keep going. @doc.jumps was another really good one. That was super fun to listen to. Yeah. And Sarah.

Dizzy Skips (02:29)

Yeah, it’s so fun, isn’t it? Yeah.

Yeah.

my God, I love her so much. Yeah,

she’s so thoughtful about jump rope and movement and efficiency and stuff. you can even, like, talking to her, it was so fun to nerd out about that. But then you watch her jump and flow and you’re like, of course, like, yeah, this lady knows what she’s talking about.

Richard Head (03:02)

Mm-hmm. Well,

she had made a comment about the EBs being not a side-to-side thing, but like a forward motion. like, can do the EBs, but I feel like when I do them, look like somebody’s trying to smuggle electric eels through customs and not doing a very good job. You know what I mean?

Dizzy Skips (03:11)

Right.

Richard Head (03:25)

But her mentioning that it’s a forward motion and not a side to side, they’re starting to tighten up a little bit. Yeah, totally. Totally. I’m all smooth with my crosses and then the EBs come and it’s all over, dude. I’m gummy.

Dizzy Skips (03:30)

Yeah. Like Grover from Sesame Street. I’m not very strong, but I’m worried. Yeah.

It’s funny that you

say that because I have thought about that over and over time. Like every time I practice EBs, I think about him saying that like it’s a foot. It’s a forward folding motion. It’s not like people think of it as this over the head thing. And I was watching reels the other day and saw this guy doing EBs and his was really like this over the head kind of almost dancy thing. But I’m trying to learn to keep it tight. And sometimes that results in a high speed whack to the back of my noggin.

Richard Head (03:50)

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Mm-hmm.

like it’ll feel good when I’m doing them and then I watch, I go back and watch it and I’m like, what the hell is wrong with this guy? Like just, just so side to side, but just bringing that wrist more forward, it feels a little bit sharper. So that’s something that I’ve been kind of thinking about as I go.

Dizzy Skips (04:19)

Yeah.

Yeah, do you do the same thing I do where you’re like working on something like that and you feel like, man, this just sucks. It’s just totally not working. And it’s it’s actually set like I was doing this earlier where I was trying to do the mamba. Right. And and I could get it to the other side and I could spin it a few times, but I wasn’t catching it. And sometimes it was just kind of spazzing out and.

Richard Head (04:41)

Mm-hmm.

Dizzy Skips (04:49)

this totally sucks. And then I stop and I pay attention to my wrist and what am I doing? Am I keeping it tight or am I like freaking out when I get it on the other side? And once I start like paying close attention, that’s totally what I’m doing. I’m acting like a freaking muppet. And that’s why I’m losing it. I’m curious, Richard, since you were last on which

Richard Head (05:00)

Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (05:10)

like you said, was at the end of December. I asked people at the time, like, what were you working on for the New Year? And I think, I think if I remember right, you had an answer around consistency or kind of getting better at the stuff that you were already doing But it seems like you’ve just made tons of progress since the beginning of the year. I mean, that doesn’t seem like it. I watch you. You’ve made tons of progress since the beginning of the year.

Richard Head (05:23)

Yeah, I…

Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (05:32)

And I’m curious.

Richard Head (05:33)

Well, I think

what you’re talking about is I sort of instead of, just wanted to smooth out the skills that I already had. We talked about consistency and all that and one of my bad habits is trying to just do too much. Just because I’m excitable and all let’s do this and let’s do this and let’s do this. I just really specifically over the last couple of months, I’ve been sort of intentionally not trying to.

Dizzy Skips (05:40)

Yeah.

Richard Head (05:59)

do new stuff, just try to, you know, like the EBs we were just talking about. And honestly, I’ve been doing a lot more, just going out with my jumper, I’ve been putting on some music and just playing around, you know, just, I know a lot of people are into their like, I got to get this combo or whatever, but the second I start trying to do that, it’s, I don’t know, it’s just less fun. It’s more fun to just put on your tunes and just let it go, you know, and that’s kind of what I’ve.

Dizzy Skips (06:16)

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Richard Head (06:24)

I’ve been doing that as opposed to, you’ve got to get out. You got to learn this and you got to like, did that with my, with my mic release and that’s the other, that’s the other thing I wanted to say. So on that, on that group podcast that we did, we were saying, Mike release as like kind of a joke and a ha ha. And at that, at that point, I had not spun and caught a mic release. So I thought it was funny, but now, now that I’ve done that.

Dizzy Skips (06:31)

Mm-hmm

I know.

Richard Head (06:51)

It’s a, it’s a mic release, dude. I want to put some respect on it. You know what I mean? Like I got there. I grabbed it. I caught it. I did it. And guess what? It’s a, it’s, it’s, let’s put some respect on the name. It’s the mic release. No, no, let’s, let’s get serious. Yeah. Now that I can catch one, I’m like, yeah, no, let’s, let’s be respectful. Everybody. Let’s not make a joke about this because it’s serious.

Dizzy Skips (07:03)

So you’re no longer making fun of it because now you’ve nailed that motherfucker. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, not only

can you catch one, but you can catch it and jump it gracefully, Richard. And I like that. Yeah.

Richard Head (07:16)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I just,

wanted to make sure that no, it’s not funny. It’s not, you know, we’re going to be respectful when it comes to the, the mic release from now on.

Dizzy Skips (07:26)

All right, that’s cool. Yeah, I remember the episode where I told you that I saw your your jump rope task list and on there was like be dog shit at releases and you’ve definitely graduated from being dog shit, my friend.

Richard Head (07:35)

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, and you know, let’s I realized too, it’s you know, we joked about that whole thing. But it’s you know, it’s it’s part of it. Like if you go out to be, you know, like we talked about to go out to be awesome, then you’re going to disappoint yourself. But if you know, you have you have to take that pill. So it’s like, yeah, I’m going to go out and I’m going to be shitty at this and then I’ll finish up and I’ll come back in. And that’s just the least the last time I have to do it next time. You know, I think about the

the mic release is like, there’s a certain number of times you have to miss and everyone has a different number. But once you get to that number, then you’re good. You know what I mean? Like, so all you have to do is go out there and fail and fail and fail and fail and fail and fail. And the quicker you can get through that, then you’ll get it, you know.

Dizzy Skips (08:12)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think if you can have the paradigm shift that, I’m not shooting to be dog shit, you know? I understand your reasoning. Like, hey, if I shoot low, then I can’t disappoint myself But I think if you can sort of shift it in your head to, hey, I’m gonna go out and I’m gonna make 100 mistakes before breakfast. And those are notches on the belt that show that I’m putting in the work and I’m gonna get this done.

Richard Head (08:41)

Yo, yo.

Yeah, 1000%.

Dizzy Skips (08:58)

then it feels less emotional when you go out and you have that day where you just can’t catch anything or you catch it with the back of your head like I did earlier today. Anyway, you mentioned being able to catch the mic release and I mentioned you can jump it. What are some of the other things that you’ve kind of put in the bag since the beginning of the year or you’ve been working on?

Richard Head (09:09)

Hahaha!

I mean, just like I say, you know, I was doing those really regimented, you know, like one minute rounds And I’m still doing those, but I’ve just kind of been okay with going out and, know, I’m just going to screw around for half hour. And I mean, the mic release is the big one. Obviously I, I, I’m pretty, stoked on that. I’ve just recently started to try to kind of do it on the other side. Cause I want to, I want to get there.

Dizzy Skips (09:30)

Mm-hmm.

flow.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Richard Head (09:47)

And I think

I’ve got two so far, but it’s again, it’s just, you gotta go out there and grind it. But again, no new stuff, just lots of, you know, enjoying it and getting to that like mental, that mental place that you and I have talked about and just the consistency, you know, every single day I wanted to show this. So I started this for my pushups, but what I did was I got a little monthly planner.

Dizzy Skips (09:58)

Yeah. Yeah.

Richard Head (10:13)

I don’t know if you can see, but I’m literally marking down like every time I do my pushups, when I do my rope, I’m keeping track. I know, you know, let’s see, it’s April. Yeah, so here’s yesterday, I got day 51 there in my pushups and nothing goes in this book until it’s already done. So it also kind of keeps me from making these grandiose I’m going to make, you know, do all this shit, but nothing goes in here until it’s done. And that tool has really helped me kind of, you know, stay consistent.

Dizzy Skips (10:15)

Mm-hmm.

That’s awesome.

Mm.

Yeah, you’re running on a cash basis.

Richard Head (10:44)

Yeah,

yeah, yeah, because that’s, mean, that’s a bad habit I have is I can make all like, make all these grandiose plans. And I’ll, I’ll put more food on my plate than I can eat. And then I fail. But with that, at least I can see, it’s been a, there’s a couple, you know, days of, of blank stuff, because I have the monthly where I can write down the, you know, push ups and days of rope. But then there’s also you can write down like your full days exercise in there too. So I can kind of skip through that and

Dizzy Skips (10:48)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Richard Head (11:11)

and look for like,

there’s two or three blank days now. Now I got to get back out and do some more work. that just having that written down tool has been really, really helpful.

Dizzy Skips (11:16)

Yeah.

That’s cool. I was thinking earlier, the nerd in me was thinking about like automating, basically like making a database, you know, like I like handwriting stuff in the journal, but I don’t, there are times where I’m messy about it or like one day, you know, I’ll go out and like, I went out and exercised earlier and I didn’t write anything down in the journal about what I did, but I was thinking I could make a little database for this in like notion. then

have the AI ask me questions and then answer the questions and have it put it in the database so that I always record like what song I was skipping to and what exercise what I did for warmups and whatever. Be interesting to know. I’d also like to just know the cumulative amount of time I spend warming up versus jumping and, at different parks and stuff like that. I don’t know. I might nerd out and make a database and I know. Yeah.

Richard Head (11:52)

Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

It’d be cool to cross reference all the different stats.

Dizzy Skips (12:12)

I might have to do that. So, um, have you had mental changes since the beginning of the year? Has jump rope affected you mentally in any different way or?

Richard Head (12:22)

I mean, not, I wouldn’t say differently, just, man, just, yeah, just getting in there. And, you know, it’s, I wanted to kind of talk on the, you know, there’s, there’s, there’s the guy who starts like the guy that gets up out of bed and my God, I’m sore and my knees hurt. And you kind of, stretch out and you warm up and you start listening to music and you start jumping and you sort of transform into this different person. And I really have been trying to focus on.

Dizzy Skips (12:26)

More of the same.

Richard Head (12:51)

on that, you know, like when I’m in that, when I’m, when I’m just starting and it’s cold and everything sucks and why am I doing this? And I could be in bed and, all that. And I really try to make a bookmark in my head then. And then it’s like, all right, stupid, let’s, let’s go turn on the music, stretch out. And then, you know, I get my stretches done. I get my warmup done. Now I’m like five, six minutes of rope in and now I’m like,

Dizzy Skips (12:57)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Richard Head (13:15)

You know, like you can’t stop me motherfucker, you know, and just make another bookmark and see like I’ve gone from A to B and it’s possible and you know, I gotta do it again tomorrow but just keeping track of of that sort of transformation in my brain just versus you know, the exercise that’s done and I think that’s that’s if you focus on that one thing, you know, like it’s there you got to trust it.

Dizzy Skips (13:15)

Yeah.

Ha

Yeah.

Mm hmm. No, but I totally appreciate that. Yeah. Like I’ve had those mornings where I roll out of bed and, and I have this thought that goes through my head, like, wait, am I going to get to an age where I’m just too old for this? Like where my joints like are just like, “No effing way. You’re not jumping today, buddy.” And, and I creak around for a few minutes and then I’ll warm up a bit. And I’ll also, I also tell myself, “No,

Richard Head (13:40)

It doesn’t always feel like, okay, I feel so bad and so sore and I…

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yep.

Dizzy Skips (14:06)

you walk like a superhero, you know? Like, buck up, dill weed. And then I just, then I straighten my back and then I try and, you know, like, shake it off, dude. Like, there are people in a lot worse shape.

Richard Head (14:08)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Well, yeah, and there’s that dark spot in your head. go ahead.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, and then it’s like, I don’t, you I think you said before that we were possibly similar ages, but there’s just that fear of like, man, I’m old as today, the day I go out and just something pops or whatever. And there’s another buddy of mine that I talked to, we joke about this of like, you get up and you go and you work out and you lift your weights and you do whatever. And the reason you do that is so that you can be in good shape and feel good. But if you go too hard,

then you hurt yourself and now you have to take it easy. And then you, you’re ending up on the couch, you know, fat, ugly and stupid. like just the same way you would have been if you didn’t do any exercise in the first place. So it’s such a like, my God, you know, nothing knock on wood, nothing too bad has happened. But it’s always that, that thought of, I just tricking myself so I can stay in bed and just saying like, I can’t jump or whatever. But just kind of getting, getting through that whole mental gymnastics

Dizzy Skips (15:15)

Yeah.

Richard Head (15:17)

to out to the point where the sweat starts coming and the music starts flowing and you’re feeling good and you know and then you got to go down into a kitchen with a bunch of 20 year olds and yeah yeah yeah yeah that’s right that’s right

Dizzy Skips (15:23)

Yeah. I think it like.

boss them around. Ask them why they didn’t cook the salmon.

You’ve probably heard me cause I know you listened to that podcast, but you’ve heard, heard me call back to you talking about applying the principles of consistency and persistence in jump rope to things in other areas of your life outside of jump rope. I’m curious, like how is that going? And do you, do you,

Richard Head (15:38)

Well, every single one.

Dizzy Skips (15:54)

Do you kind of consciously catch yourself doing that? Like, hey, yeah, if I’m gonna be my jump rope self, I gotta buckle down and.

Richard Head (16:02)

Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, like, and I showed this book already, but I think just just the mere fact of getting into this book and writing it down consistently. And it’s, you know, just coming back and doing that. guess I don’t have specific examples, but just just in in realizing that if you go and put a drop of water in a bucket every single day, you know, you’re going to fill that bucket up. And so just kind of, you know, communicating with family a little different and just realizing like

a little bit every day, well, you’ll go so far, you know what I mean? And I think I don’t have specific examples of other amazing things I’m doing, but just trying to kind of be confident that if I just touch this one thing every day or, and just.

Dizzy Skips (16:47)

Yeah. Is there some

aspect of your work? like if you think about how you interact with people at work, could you say, Hey, I do this better because I jump rope or because I exercise.

Richard Head (16:58)

Well, think just, you know, as, as, you know, I’m not trying to blow smoke up my own ass or anything like that, but I’m really learning that, you know, to be a leader and to help, you know, other people do well, you have to, you know, there’s guys 10 years younger than me that are coming in every day, like, I’m tired and blah, blah, blah, blah. I’m just trying to go like, no, dude, you’re, you’re alive, man. Come on. We can, we can do this, you know, and just kind of trying to lift people up, even if you don’t necessarily feel like that yourself, but

You know, those those mornings where I come in early and, know, get an hour of rope down, everybody knows. fuck, he’s been jumping his rope again. God damn it. You know what I mean? And I’m all like, yeah, yeah, dude. Yeah, yeah. They’re clocking in and I’m singing Katy Perry songs and they’re like, Jesus Christ. We’re. Yeah, yeah, we’re. Yeah, we’re in trouble today. So that’s I mean, that’s that’s a super fun thing. And.

Dizzy Skips (17:35)

They walk in the door and you’re like, woo, let’s

Family meeting! Family meeting!

Yeah.

Richard Head (17:52)

Yeah,

just trying to show people like I just want to spread the word, man. think I think, you know, people, you know, just the way things are, man, we have to take care of ourselves, you know, and and as we as we get older, you you start to you start to just decline. And so I always think of that like at some point on the day you die, there’s going to be if you looked on a graph, there’d be a certain day or a certain week.

Dizzy Skips (18:02)

Hmm.

Richard Head (18:17)

where you’re in the best shape of your entire life, right? And so we don’t know how long we’re gonna live. We don’t know the future. And so if when we get into our forties and all that, if you do nothing, you’re declining, right? So if you, it’s very possible that if you’re not working to improve, then whatever that high mark on the graph, it could very easily already be behind you, even if you’re in good shape and you are feeling good.

Dizzy Skips (18:21)

Yeah.

Mm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Richard Head (18:47)

whatever, so I’m just realizing, you know, all the people out there and the government and all those guys, don’t necessarily want us to be taking care of ourselves and feeling good, because then we’re going to need to buy into their system and go to their doctors and do all that stuff. So they don’t really push that message of like, dude, go out there and, you know, drink less booze and do some exercise and, you know, eat good because they can’t make money off that.

Dizzy Skips (19:04)

Yeah.

Richard Head (19:12)

I want to spread that, whether it’s in, whether it’s at work or whether it’s talking to you or whatever. I want to spread that message

of like, it may not be easy, but it’s better than the alternative. If you don’t make a little space to make yourself better, you’re going to have to have a little space to be sick and need help from somebody else. So the further you can, do, the better. So that’s definitely something I want to let people know.

Dizzy Skips (19:32)

Yeah.

Yeah.

It’s hard to say this but I believe that you know jump rope isn’t for everybody and it’s not gonna make it’s not as fun for everybody as it is for me, know, like and in fact, sometimes it’s kind of bewildering to me because it’s so Mystically fun to me that when people don’t stop and just go my god, that is the coolest thing I’m like wait, what’s wrong with you? This is like fucking jump rope but

Richard Head (20:01)

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, just the other day I was at my daughter’s softball game and sometimes I’ll bring my rope and just kind of rope between rope between innings and so I was jump roping and this little kid walked by with his mom and he grabbed his mom and mom, what is that? And the lady goes, it’s just a jump rope and just kept walking. And in my head, I was like, shut up, lady. It’s not just a jump rope.

Dizzy Skips (20:08)

Yeah.

This is my mental health!

Richard Head (20:25)

That’s

the most awesome thing I’ve ever come across my desk. That’s just a jump rope. Yeah, yeah. The kid was so like, my god, mom, what is that? it’s just a jump rope. Don’t worry about that. Yeah, lady, you don’t know. Yeah, that’s what I’m

Dizzy Skips (20:31)

It’s my superpower.

Yeah, just chill bro. Womp womp. Yeah.

Richard Head (20:43)

love you. You guys go on? Yeah. Okay. I love you. I love you. Sorry. I’m here.

Dizzy Skips (20:47)

What is the most unexpected way that jump rope has affected your life?

Richard Head (20:51)

I think it’s been a good replacement for bad habits.

Dizzy Skips (20:54)

Bad habits like.

Richard Head (20:55)

Like,

like…

I know you’re goading me into saying pot, but it’s not it’s not that No, just I don’t know dude just like wasting my life away like I would I would I would come you know I’m not that I don’t play video games anymore, but I’d come home and I’ve worked all day so I’m tired so I’m just gonna sit on my ass and and play video games and Yeah, yeah, and so I think I think that if it’s anything it’s that because

Dizzy Skips (20:59)

No, no, I just had a vape in my mouth.

Call of Duty.

Richard Head (21:23)

Yeah, if I’m jump roping, I’m not making money and I’m not doing all this stuff, but it’s better for my health and it’s good for my mental health, better than certain other habits that I had before. So I think that’s what it is. think now if I look at my overall scrolling time or video game time or any of that stuff, I think that it’s gone down and my jump rope time has gone up. So I think over the course of

Dizzy Skips (21:35)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Richard Head (21:51)

you know, the next 10 years of my life, that can make a pretty big difference. And I also think that if I’m, you know, I’m 45 now, if I’m 50 or 60 and I can still get out there and jump rope for 10 minutes straight, then I’m doing better than 90 % of the people that are in my same age group, you know. And if I can jump rope, that means I can pick up grandchildren and I can go hiking and I can take my dogs on walks and I can sweep my wife off her feet and like all that kind of stuff that, you know, there’s

Dizzy Skips (22:08)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Richard Head (22:21)

All the things I want to be able to do for the rest of my life, if I can jump rope, that’s a guarantee that I can do those other things.

Dizzy Skips (22:26)

Yeah, yeah, I’m totally with you. Like if you can maintain that, you’re not going to end up being one of those people that’s bent over and just can’t straighten their spine, you know.

Richard Head (22:29)

Yeah.

Yeah. I’m bent over. My

posture is, I’m sure you guys can see it, but my posture is messed up. That’s another, that’s another thing we’re going to work on. Sure. Sure.

Dizzy Skips (22:41)

But I think jump rope helps that, right?

so, let’s talk about beads because I think when you were on originally, you were like an all Crossrope guy. Like that was basically your thing. In fact, I went back and watched part of it and I think you had a Crossrope that you had duct taped or you had electrical tape or something down, down at the bottom. Cause it had worn.

Richard Head (22:53)

Yep. Yep.

Yeah, yeah, it had

wore down to the wire and actually if you if you look if you get on my page and you scroll all the way back all the way to the very beginning I think I think it’s the first There’s a couple pictures, but I think the first actual reel where I’m jumping rope my my Crossrope handle had actually worn through the metal had worn through and I couldn’t use it anymore and it was

Dizzy Skips (23:07)

Right.

Richard Head (23:30)

I had started @richardheadjumps and put a couple of pictures, but I didn’t do anything with it other than that. And then my rope had, had broke and crossroads. Awesome. I sent them one email and they sent me free replacement handles right away. But I had this like four or five day period where I didn’t have any ropes at all. And I think because of that downtime, I ended up like, okay, well fuck it. I’m going to start, I’m going to start this @richardheadjumps things. And I’m going to start, you know, so I’ve been posting on my private.

Dizzy Skips (23:57)

Right.

Richard Head (23:57)

Instagram

and just bothering I just felt like I was bothering everyone with that shit. So I was like, cool, well, just make a, you know, you guys don’t have to follow me or whatever. And it was because my because my rope had broken if you I think it’s that first reel you watch that it was like, hey, I got my new handles. Let’s go, you know.

Dizzy Skips (24:05)

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think we also had a little bit of a conversation about beads and at the time you hadn’t really used much of a beaded rope, right? And you now you’ve got one hanging around your neck and I was going to ask like, nice. Yeah. Kathy, isn’t she a gem? So how many beaded ropes do you have?

Richard Head (24:17)

Yeah, yeah. See, you gotta keep me

Yeah, I got my Kathy Jumps.

Just this one.

Dizzy Skips (24:31)

And how do you find it? Like how, how is using it different than using the Crossrope?

Richard Head (24:36)

so if we put it in cycling terms, think Crossrope, Crossrope’s more like a, like a road bike. Like you can get that Crossrope on and just and go. And I think I’ve heard a few other people talk about it, but with the beaded rope, it goes a little bit slower. And if your position is not right, like the beads can kind of catch on each other. So it’s a lot less forgiving as far as your form goes. And I didn’t realize that at the time. And,

Dizzy Skips (25:01)

Mm-hmm.

Richard Head (25:05)

Yeah, once I started with that and started doing tricks and started, you know, it’s just a different feedback. It’s like the difference between like a road bike and a mountain bike or, you know, something like that. Like they’re both ropes, but it’s a whole different thing. Like, do I want to get on my Harley and get out on Route 66 and just cruise? If that’s how I’m feeling, that’s the Crossrope for sure. But if I want to do tricks and I want to whatever, then that’s the beaded rope. And so it’s kind of, it’s given me like a…

Dizzy Skips (25:10)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Richard Head (25:31)

Choice a or choice B like I can still jump rope but it’s like hey Do you want to just put on your tunes and cross and flow and EB and mic rel… MIC! release Or do you just want to get in there and do your you know, like with the cross ropes I’ll do like a minute round and 10 second rest and just see how how far I can go with that and That’s a whole different thing. I’m just like, yeah, I’m not really worried about tricks But I’m just gonna see how far I can push it and how long I could go

Dizzy Skips (25:35)

Yeah Absolutely

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah, don’t have a Crossrope, but I did get one from Herorope that’s, similar to a Crossrope. It’s a quarter pound and it’s got the, you know, pivot or the metal ball bearing handle thing. Yeah.

Richard Head (26:05)

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, they the bearings.

Yeah, that four ounce crossroads my bread and butter baby. God damn it. I love it.

Dizzy Skips (26:17)

Yeah,

it’s fun. And it’s fun. Like when you get it moving, that you get so much feedback from the extra weight and get it moving and go so fast that you barely even have to pick your feet up. You know, like it feels like you’re just kind of floating. That’s a that’s a fun feeling. Yeah. Yeah, I love that.

Richard Head (26:24)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, just like you’re levitating a quarter inch above the ground.

That’s a cool feeling.

Dizzy Skips (26:37)

So how much of the time are you jumping with your beaded versus your Crossrope?

Richard Head (26:41)

Well, it’s been way more beaded lately, to be honest. I’ll get, like if I’m gonna go, like if I’m gonna do my workout and I’m dead hanging and planking and all that stuff, definitely the cross ropes are coming out. But like the days when I’m, you know, I’ll do a stretch, I’ll do a warmup and then yeah, if I wanna like just do 20 minutes or just work on tricks, then it’s gonna be the beaded rope. And I still think that, we talked about this the last time, but I think.

Dizzy Skips (26:43)

Really?

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Richard Head (27:07)

before I thought, the beaded rope, if I’m doing tricks, then I’m going to miss skips and I’m not going to get as much physical workout as I would from the cross ropes because I’m going more. But I actually find that with the beaded rope, I’m a lot more beat up afterwards than I am with the Crossrope. And I think it’s because, you know, the Crossrope, like you said, I just got to like float above the ground and that’s it. And I think I get a lot more upper body workout from that than anything else. But with the beaded one,

Dizzy Skips (27:22)

Hahaha.

Mm.

Richard Head (27:34)

I’m shifting my weight and I’m going backwards and I’m swinging my arms around like a maniac. so, half hour of beaded rope, I’ll feel pretty winded, and pretty much equal to if I get my Crossrope out. I sort of have been able to push that idea out of my head and like, yeah, either way it’s good.

Dizzy Skips (27:38)

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, it feels to me like if you can get your rhythm going, it almost doesn’t matter the weight of the rope, you know, like if if if it floats your boat. Like I have a friend who has one of those @kathyjumps ropes and and I didn’t use it, but I did look at it and it’s a lighter beaded rope like and not not that it’s super light, but it’s.

Richard Head (28:00)

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (28:15)

lighter, whereas like this one that I have from URope is one of their pro ones and it’s got a thicker cable and it’s just a little bit heavier. And I like that for feedback and learning stuff, but you can actually do releases with those four millimeter PVC things that are flimsy. just, got to learn the technique and you got to adapt it a little bit, right?

Richard Head (28:33)

Mm-hmm. It’s a different, yeah, it’s a different spin for sure.

Yeah, I doing, I tried to do some Nick releases with my, I have a PVC also. Like the third one, I broke the handle on it and I was like, okay. Yeah, I mean, got, this little kid was there, I was at my daughter’s trapeze thing and he came and brought me the piece and so I can glue it back in and it should be fine. But yeah, just nothing hits like my beaded rope, man. It’s just so good.

Dizzy Skips (28:43)

Yeah.

did you?

Yeah, I got

Yeah, for those releases and stuff, that’s the best, I think. I got cocky with the Herope, the one that’s kind of like the Crossrope with the big clunky handles. And I was in the park and I was like, all right, I can do a release. I did a release and I caught it. And then I did another one and I took it in the knee. And those handles are substantial. It’s not like the plastic beaded rope handles. It’s like chunk. OK, maybe I should shift focus.

Richard Head (29:17)

no. Yeah.

Wack! Shin.

Dizzy Skips (29:27)

I’m curious, do you, have you developed any unique like jump rope combinations or things that you’re doing now that you’re especially proud of or that you find yourself going back to?

Richard Head (29:40)

Dude, I’ve been really stuck on switch cross. Really stuck on it. No, I mean, like I can’t get enough. I just can’t get enough and just the…

Dizzy Skips (29:43)

Yeah, stuck like stuck like having trouble learning or you’re.

Richard Head (29:52)

You know, because I can do, can do the, I think it’s right hand over left and then switch back and cross. And I’ve, I’ve recently been trying to kind of do both because I know a lot of people can just do that infinite switch cross and I can get a few under, but just trying to do like right over left switch cross and then back to open now left over right switch cross back to open trying to train.

Dizzy Skips (30:14)

Right.

Richard Head (30:17)

because I’ve been struggling to do the infinite one. over the last maybe two weeks, I’ve been trying to just very purposefully right over left, switch cross, open. Now left over right, switch cross, open. just loving that, man. It’s so much fun. Because that was one I thought I could never do.

Dizzy Skips (30:32)

So for some,

so for somebody who’s listening in and not seeing your hand motions, which are very elegant by the way, how can you describe the move switch cross? Like what is it?

Richard Head (30:44)

So just think of a straight, so you’re jumping, your hands are, I’m gonna make this just so we can see hands, not because I’m, whatever, but so, you’re opening and then you go into a cross, right? Cross comes over and then you’re back to open. But with the switch cross, you’re gonna go down and cross and then you’re coming up and instead of going to open, you’re gonna actually switch your hands this way and now when you do the next jump, you’re jumping through a cross again, but your hands are switched.

Dizzy Skips (30:51)

Is it? Nora.

Mm-hmm.

Right.

Richard Head (31:12)

So you’re going into your cross, around, then right about here, you like switch your hands, and now you’re still jumping through that cross, but you’ve switched your hands above your head. And it’s something that I saw, like, I could name, you know, million different people that I saw do that, but just like, what? That’s possible? You know what I mean?

Dizzy Skips (31:12)

So.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, it looks really cool when it’s done smoothly. I was kind of messing around with it today and I got it a couple times and also whacked myself quite a few.

Richard Head (31:41)

Well, I love it because if you pull it off right, it’s almost like you have to go, did you guys see what I did? Like you didn’t see how cool I am. You have to check it out. Like here, let me show you again. But actually, here’s what I’m doing there. You know, like you have to kind of like slow it down a little bit, you know, and I’m not nearly as good as a lot of people out there, but just just that like, you don’t even know what I just did, but it’s pretty awesome.

Dizzy Skips (31:48)

Right. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

You know, I, the first time I did that, it was a total accident and @aaronjumps.365 pointed it out to me. He’s like, yeah. I, that’s totally cool. You got a switch cross in there. And I was just goofing around on a bench flowing and my hands did that and it happened to work out that I didn’t trip myself.

Richard Head (32:14)

yeah.

Hahaha

I was trying to make a reel maybe a week ago, and I thought that I was doing it both ways, right? Like right over left and then left over right. And man, I’ve comboed so many of these different ones together. And then when I went back to watch it, I have this very distinct tattoo on my left wrist. And so I can watch that tattoo to see, you know, keep track of right over left and left over right. And I went back and watched it and realized like,

Dizzy Skips (32:36)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Richard Head (32:49)

No, dude, you’re just doing it that one way over and over and over again. I thought I was alternating and I was super cool. And then I went back and watched it and I was like, I slowed it down. Like, no, you’re just, you’re just doing it on that one side over and over and over again, brother. You need to try again. So that was sort of like, okay, okay. It was, was disappointing, but.

Dizzy Skips (33:04)

That’s interesting.

I had the opposite thing happen the other day, in that I was watching a video of myself doing crosses and realized that I was doing it right and I hadn’t thought about it. I was changing my hands the way that I wanted to change my hands rather than just kind of doing it the same way over and over again, which is how I started doing stuff. But was just kind of like, I actually did that without thinking about it. That’s nice.

Richard Head (33:17)

nice.

Dizzy Skips (33:31)

So now that you’ve had this experience with this beaded rope and you’ve had your Crossrope like if you had to design your perfect jump rope Do you have thoughts?

Richard Head (33:40)

Man, I have thoughts, but also like…

I love this rope like a lot. so I don’t, sometimes I feel like it might be a little too short, because I really do struggle with like double unders. always end up, headphones just come off every time. And so I don’t know, maybe a little more length, but I’m also like, I don’t know, dude. It’s just like, don’t want another one.

Dizzy Skips (33:45)

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, it’s fun, isn’t it?

Did you, are you using it like

at the out of the box size or did you resize it and then get it a little? Okay.

Richard Head (34:07)

No, I shortened it up. I shortened it up

for sure, because it was super long when I first got it. They come with like pink and blue beads and I took those off. I’m like 6’1″.

Dizzy Skips (34:12)

So how you’re you’re like six. OK,

yeah. So when you size yours, do you have a specific length you go for or are you stepping on it and trying to get it to your?

Richard Head (34:26)

Like to my armpits ish, I guess. I know you have like 84.92 beads on each rope and I haven’t got that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I haven’t got that scientific, but then I don’t have that many ropes. I just have my Crossrope, which I know that’s probably a size too big and we talked about knots before. So I keep one knot in my Crossrope and then I have this one and then I have one more like a green PVC.

Dizzy Skips (34:28)

Really?

meep, morp …

Mm. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm

Richard Head (34:54)

rope that I’ve been using.

I was talking with, I think his handle is @_onebadleg_ He does all kinds of crazy cool releases and stuff. And I just happened to see that he was trying to do 7,000 double unders by the end of the year. So I texted him, I’m like, yeah, bro, I’m in. So I’m at like 6,100 left or something like that for the end of the year. And that PVC rope I started doing, I learned that I could do the, like the southpaw doubles.

Dizzy Skips (35:08)

Yeah.

Okay.

Richard Head (35:20)

So I think, yeah, I think if anything, if anything new I’m gonna go into, I wanna start learning some more double variations. know See Sean Skip has a bunch of crazy ones and know, fricking Aaron and his, yeah, yeah, Aaron and his craziness and @_onebadleg_. And so I think that’s kind of the direction I might be heading just because I haven’t done much with that PVC. And I sort of just picked it up, never really trying a southpaw, southpaw double. And I was like,

Dizzy Skips (35:32)

Yeah, he’s so fun to watch, isn’t he?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Richard Head (35:51)

One of my reels I did a couple in the morning and just put a video out there like, is this a thing? Am I doing this right? I’ve seen people do what I think this is. Is this it? And just being able to like, shit, I can do this. And so yeah, more double variations I think is what I’m interested in next. At the end. go ahead.

Dizzy Skips (35:56)

Right.

Yeah.

Did you watch any?

Oh, I was going to ask, did you watch any of Robz like Robz_360s? Robz underscore 360s. Yep. Watch any of his reels.

Richard Head (36:20)

You know, I listened to the podcast and I really liked it and I haven’t, I have kind of a note of like, dude, I need to bust that guy’s stuff open. Cause I know I’ve seen a few where he’s like, he looks like a goddamn, like a street fighter character or something. He’s like, just the crazy stuff that that guy does. So I do need to bust his page open. haven’t yet, but I, but I do, I do, I intend to.

Dizzy Skips (36:32)

Yeah. Yeah, totally.

Yeah.

Yeah, I was messing around with trying to do some like he’s got some instructional things on how to do the three sixties, you know, like to do a wrap and as you’re going around, you’re unwrapping and here’s the point at which you jump and stuff. I was out in the park. Yeah, yeah. He’s got a few where he’ll go slow mo and kind of show you what he’s doing and and he’s really funny.

Richard Head (36:55)

he’s got some instructional stuff on there? cool.

Dizzy Skips (37:04)

So, I was out at the park today and I started messing around with that. was like, this would be so fun. Of course I’m standing on a limestone bench. That’s two feet off the ground spinning around and wrapping. And then I thought, okay, maybe I’ll just get down off the bench for now while I practice this. Yeah. Yeah. So I wasn’t a complete idiot, just partially. Yeah.

Richard Head (37:16)

Hahaha

Just for a minute, just for a little while.

Dizzy Skips (37:25)

I know you still are oftentimes in your reels posting your workout, like, you know, 60 pushups and that sort of stuff. Do you have a set pre-jump ritual now, or are you still kind of just putting on the timer and you’ve got it programmed in?

Richard Head (37:29)

Mm-hmm.

No, well, so

if I’m, if I’m going to jump, think the one like, oftentimes I’ll stretch out. have like a 15 minute stretch out routine that I do. And oftentimes I’ll do that, but not every time. the thing, the thing I always do just cause just for fear of injury or whatever I programmed this, it’s just called jump rope, a warmup ladder. But what it is, it’s, it’s a pre-programmed 10 second rest and then five seconds of jump rope.

and then a 10 second rest and then 10 seconds of jump rope and then a 10 second rest and then 15 seconds of jump rope. And so it’s 10 second rest and then the rope goes up by five seconds every time. And then it ends at one full minute of jump rope. The whole thing takes about eight, nine minutes, but I always, I always do that before if I’m going to do any kind of significant amount of time of jump rope, just for fear of like.

Dizzy Skips (38:07)

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Right.

Okay.

Richard Head (38:34)

my knee exploding or something like that if I don’t get some kind of warmup. I’m pretty religious about that as far as jump rope, just that kind of jump rope warmup. I should probably be doing my stretch out every time, but definitely the five seconds, 10 seconds, 15 seconds to kind of just build into it a little bit.

Dizzy Skips (38:36)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, that totally makes sense. And I have learned not the hard way. I just learned early on that it makes sense to do the warm up. Like, yeah, it may take me eight minutes to get through my little circuit of things that I do or or longer if I do it multiple times. But but yeah, the benefits. It’s also it’s also like the post jumping thing, you know, like do you have a cool down? And I have not been

Richard Head (38:59)

Hahaha

Mm-hmm.

Dizzy Skips (39:18)

great about cooling down. I’ve been like, okay, well the sun’s set. I’m getting out of the park, you know, and then I, but lately I’ve been taking the time to just stretch, you know, a little bit more and yeah. And I think it makes a difference. Like I’ve, I don’t know if it’s a vitamin thing or just, you know, overuse or whatever, but I’ve had a few times recently where I’ve had like those Charlie horses, like you get when you’re a teenager where it just like doubles you over like, my gosh.

Richard Head (39:29)

after.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Dizzy Skips (39:46)

I’ve had a few of those and so.

Richard Head (39:48)

Yeah, I’ll get those

when I do dead hangs. And when I do the dead hangs, you kind of got to bend your legs so it doesn’t touch the ground. And then with my knee, with my leg bent up like that, sometimes I’ll get that charred horse while I’m just hanging there. And then I was like, God, I got to kick my foot out, but I’m still trying to hang for that 30 seconds. It looks pretty silly, I’m sure.

Dizzy Skips (39:52)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Right.

Yeah, that’s hilarious. When you were first on, I was asking you about like social media and how has being on Instagram sort of changed your jump rope journey. And I think at the time you were still relatively new with things and we had like engaged a bit on Instagram, you know, over the previous few months or whatever, but.

The community has gotten bigger and I know you’re a lot more connected to people. I’m curious, how has the jump rope community shaped what you do or your life?

Richard Head (40:43)

That’s a tricky one. That’s a tricky one because…

Everybody’s so awesome. You know what I mean? Like if I won the lottery tomorrow, I would probably just tell my family like, hey, I’m just going to say nice things to jump rope people for eight hours every day. You know what I mean? Like I could totally, I could do that. You know, if I didn’t have other responsibilities, I would do that. So it’s, it’s really a catch 22 because there’s so many awesome people in there, but

Dizzy Skips (40:49)

Hmm.

Yeah, totally.

Right. Yeah.

Thanks

Richard Head (41:09)

You know, just like everything else, I don’t want to get carried away just scrolling and making comments because there’s just infinity amazing people out there. And, you know, obviously there’s there’s certain people that you kind of end up bonding with, like you and I have kind of made a connection and, you know, you see different people and different things.

Dizzy Skips (41:17)

Mm-hmm.

You and I have made

a connection. We didn’t tell everybody that your daughter was it your daughter or your wife that said that you were going to talk to your jump rope boyfriend?

Richard Head (41:35)

Yeah, before as I was getting ready for this, my I

was told my daughters and they’re like, okay, have fun talking to your jump rope boyfriend. And I told him, yes, he jumps rope. Yes, he is a boy. And yes, he’s my friend. So whatever. Yeah. No, yeah, we don’t. Yeah, I teach the girls to give me a hard time because the world’s going to give them a hard time. So they if they want to use me as a training dummy, that’s fine. That’s totally fine.

Dizzy Skips (41:46)

Yeah

Proud to be your jump rope? Yeah, your side piece.

Yeah. Yeah. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought about that story that you told about you guys being in the airport, getting ready to go. Does it? Oh my God.

Richard Head (42:09)

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Does anyone jump rope? my God. I need help.

Yeah. You never saw Steven Seagal pull out a jump rope. That’s for sure.

Dizzy Skips (42:19)

Yeah.

Richard Head (42:20)

He doesn’t have the balls.

Dizzy Skips (42:22)

Hugh Jackman does though.

Richard Head (42:26)

yeah, he might he might he might yeah, I see it didn’t was it wasn’t there a video of him jumping rope going around that I saw yeah All right, Hugh Jackman if you’re out there good job, buddy Yeah, I think you’re right

Dizzy Skips (42:31)

Yeah, I think there’s a few. Yeah. I think he even does a cross in there as well.

So, the answer to the question is it’s sort of mixed because you would like to be on Instagram all the time, but.

Richard Head (42:46)

yeah, I forgot all about your question. Yeah, so it’s just such an easy road to go down and lose all your time. you have to really, that’s my struggle is because I want to just be fucking around with it all the time, but that’s not necessarily healthy to be having positive communications with other human beings through my phone all day and all night, every day, every night. know what I mean? So it’s sort of like, how much cake should I really be eating? You know what I mean?

Dizzy Skips (42:59)

Mm-hmm.

Right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Richard Head (43:15)

That’s where I’m at with it is I don’t want it to be such a good habit that I’m doing it so much that it becomes a bad habit. know what I mean? Like it can’t be Christmas every day. if there’s any downside to it, that’s what it is. It’s just an infinite number of people that I feel like I have this thing in common with and just the community. And I think the jump roping is cool.

Dizzy Skips (43:28)

Yeah.

Richard Head (43:38)

We talked last time about, know, I used to do a lot of cycling and I loved it and I still love it. I still think it’s amazing, but I never really felt super connected to other cyclists. You know what I mean? Like I would see, never, I never wanted to go really ride with other people. And I, know, when I was out and the type of people that are riding around on those $8,000 bikes and whatever, I never really felt like I had besides the actual act of riding that bike. never really felt like I had a connection.

Dizzy Skips (43:42)

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Richard Head (44:09)

with those

people. And then when I started jumping rope, even if I didn’t, I feel like a lot of the people that I see on there, whether they say it or not, they’re using that jump rope to deal with anxiety or trauma or whatever. And whether they say it or not, and whether they wanna put that out or not, I feel it. And I feel like I’ve

I discovered that this helps me a lot. And I think there’s a lot of, know, not that everyone’s struggling with mental health issues constantly or whatever, but I, I smell, I smell that on a lot of the people in the jump rope community more than, more than other places, you know? yeah. And I could be, I could be way off. I could be way off, but I feel like, you know, and like @kathyjumps was talking about her, her, she lost her brother and that jump rope helps.

Dizzy Skips (44:39)

Yeah.

Thank

That’s an interesting way to phrase it, but yeah, I think that it’s easy to pers-

Richard Head (45:06)

with that and so I just, don’t know. can’t, I couldn’t write it down and I couldn’t show you who is and who isn’t, but I feel like there’s a lot more of people dealing with, you know, just mental health, whatever, have, you know, that jump rope helps them, helps them with that. And then also like, I think, you know, I don’t have, I have a couple people that I know jump rope, but I don’t go to a physical place and jump rope with other people really at all.

Dizzy Skips (45:19)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Richard Head (45:35)

And I’m kind of, I sort of enjoy being that lone wolf and like, I’m just out here doing my own thing. And so I think there’s that component too. Like the jump room community is like, Hey, hey, look at me, but like, stay over there. Don’t come, you know, I don’t, I don’t need you in my space, but watch this, but yeah, go over there. And once you’re far enough away, okay, now watch this, watch this, but don’t, you know what I mean? Like, I feel like there’s some of that too.

Dizzy Skips (45:48)

Through the internet. Yeah.

Sure. That said though, like I can’t wait to do some meetup stuff. I, and the lot, the more episodes that I’ve had where I’ve talked to people who’ve gone to meetups, the more I’m convinced like, yeah, that it’s, that’s where my peeps are. Like, you know, I can totally imagine.

Richard Head (46:06)

yeah. me too. I would love to.

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I would never,

I would never want to go to some like, there’s all these guys going to ride their bikes around. like, you know, yeah, you would me a big stuff with the jump ropers. Hell yeah, I would go for sure.

Dizzy Skips (46:26)

Right.

Yeah.

Yeah, I’ve heard, I don’t know that there’s anything confirmed yet, but you know, rumors of potentially a meetup on the East coast sometime in the fall. And I was thinking, all right, well maybe I could get Richard to fly to Minnesota and then we’ll get, then we’ll a road trip it in my car. We’ll get a Papa Joe to fly over from Australia. We’ll all meet in Minneapolis and then we’ll road trip it out there and meet in New York or something.

Richard Head (46:40)

Vida.

Ha ha ha ha!

And I don’t know how realistic that is, but I would love to.

Dizzy Skips (47:04)

I’ll tell you what, if there is a meetup that happens in the fall in New York, I am going to, I will sell my left leg to go. I

Richard Head (47:12)

You’re

gonna have a hard time jumping if you do that. Yeah, you make it happen.

Dizzy Skips (47:15)

I can figure it out.

I could skip on one leg quite a bit, yeah.

Richard Head (47:20)

Okay, all

right. Well, that’s a skill.

Dizzy Skips (47:22)

But I do think, yeah, we’ve got it. And at some point, I do plan to come back out to the Seattle area because you know I’ve got some family out there and.

Richard Head (47:30)

That’s what I’m saying, dudes. Seattle

West Coast jump rope meetup, dude. Come on. Let’s meet in a place I don’t have to fly to.

Dizzy Skips (47:35)

Yeah, totally. Yeah.

Yeah, I would like to do that. Of course, I’ve got family in the area and there’s so many cool places around Seattle that I would love to jump. yeah.

Richard Head (47:46)

for sure. And

we’re all, everyone’s a maniac out here. So if you’re out there jumping rope, no one will even look twice at you.

Dizzy Skips (47:53)

Yeah.

Richard Head (47:54)

You know what mean? Because we’re all freaks out here.

Dizzy Skips (47:56)

Yeah. I was curious, you know, when talking about the jump rope community,

how big that connection is. So how many different countries do you think you get comments from on an average Instagram reel post?

Richard Head (48:08)

on an average post. mean, I know I get a lot from the UK and from Australia. And I’ll get a ton. I don’t know where they come from. mean, countries, that’s a tough one. I really don’t know. But yeah, I’d say five or six on average per reel, maybe. Because I know Peta is in there. I think Laura’s from Canada. And then Aaron’s from UK, right?

Dizzy Skips (48:14)

Yeah. Yeah.

Right, right.

Yeah.

Yeah, I-

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah. That a friend of mine, the photographer who did some photo shoot stuff with me, she posted a reel, and I think we were collaborators on it And before eight, there were comments from, like six or eight different countries. And it’s like, this is so crazy. And

Richard Head (48:38)

Then there’s a bunch I don’t know.

Mm-hmm.

Dizzy Skips (48:57)

And there are people that I follow and I love, know, like, it’s just, it’s so crazy to feel so connected, you know, through such, it’s such a cool side effect of jumping rope, you know? And I totally agree with you. I could get lost in it. I’ve had those days, like on a Saturday where I go out jumping in the morning and then I come back and I am gonna take a break, you know, eat something, watch a little TV or something like that. And I sit there for two hours just doing.

Richard Head (49:05)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (49:25)

Great job, Richard. You know, love that double under, whatever.

Richard Head (49:27)

Yeah.

Yeah, and think that’s, I think that’s the reason why a lot of my reels are, you know, some people put out these reels that are super snappy and whatever. And I think the way I do it is I want to get out there and get sweaty and do whatever I’ve decided to do. And then once that’s done, whatever it is, then I’ll turn on that camera and kind of just give it five or 10 minutes just to see what I can come up with rather than making the final video, like the focus of my whole activity. Like I don’t.

Dizzy Skips (49:43)

Mm-hmm.

Easy.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Richard Head (49:58)

I don’t want it to turn out to just, I’m just out there to make this awesome reel. And that’s the point of the exercise is to create this reel for Instagram. I really try to, and you know, to be, I mean, to be fair, sometimes I do go out and like, just want to, got this reel inside me and I want to get it done. But I do try to prioritize, you know, the activity itself. So I’m not just, I’m just doing it for the ‘gram, you know, because I don’t want it to be about that. want it to be about.

Dizzy Skips (50:25)

Yeah

Richard Head (50:27)

You know, me getting out there and moving my ass around instead of sitting and just getting old and dead and smelly.

Dizzy Skips (50:34)

Yeah. Yeah, it’s funny. I was thinking about what you said earlier about sometimes, rather than just putting on the timer and making yourself do things, you’re just kind of flowing more basically, like just putting on the music and stuff. And it made me think about this, book by this lady, Betty Edwards called Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. Like I was learning how to draw and the whole thing in this book is like learning how to

Richard Head (50:44)

Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (51:00)

shift so that when you’re drawing, you are being more analytical and seeing the shapes and stuff. Like if I were to try and draw your face, there’s emotion, there’s stuff that is hard to capture. I don’t see it as lions on a grid, you know? And so this book is about sort of shifting from left to right brain. and I think about that with jump rope as well, like that whole idea of, Hey, I gotta do this eight move combo and I gotta pull this off or whatever that

I’m okay, now I’ve got to do this and then I’ve got to do that or whatever. And I like to be in that flow state so much. I will say that there have been times recently where I’ve been jumping to a specific song and there’s a bridge or there’s some part in the song where I feel like, yeah, this footwork would totally go great there. Or when I do this, it feels right or whatever. And then I will try and replicate that. But,

Richard Head (51:28)

Totally. Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (51:56)

but I like to get to the point where I’m not thinking about it. I still don’t really choreograph stuff, but I have caught myself several times going, yeah, like this, know, today I was jumping to “Jump” by Van Halen. There’s certain things you kind of have to do when you’re listening to David Lee Roth, right?

Richard Head (51:59)

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, Yeah, you’re right though. And I think that’s also why I haven’t not to make excuses, but I haven’t been taking on a ton of new tricks and whatever because it’s sort of, you know, we talked about this before, like you can go and practice something new and then you’re skip, skip, stop, skip, skip, stop. And it doesn’t really feel cool. Or you can just go like, hey, man, I can E.B. I can switch cross. I can, you know, do these things. I can do my crosses and just crank that music and just.

Dizzy Skips (52:31)

Mm-hmm.

Richard Head (52:42)

just go to town, know, and it’s just something magical about that, you know, just something super duper magical about that. I think I’d rather, half the time I’d rather just get in and just flow and do my crosses and whatever. And if I don’t have a new trick each week, I really don’t care because I’m, I can feel it. I can feel the magic, you know, and that’s what it’s about.

Dizzy Skips (52:44)

Yeah.

Yeah, totally.

Yeah.

Yeah, it makes me think of that episode with @kathyjumps where she talked about how she did like basic bounce and like a boxer skip for like a year or a year and a half before she really like tried to learn other tricks and how she credited that. Just crediting that for having that, you know, base understanding and that base flow with those moves so that adding on to it, you know, things were more graceful.

Richard Head (53:16)

Yeah, was so, was so, oh God.

Well,

and it was amazing to hear her tell that story. that, mean, it’s same for me, dude. You know, I started with, talked about my 30-second round and just basic bounce and I didn’t even really know there was anything else other than that. And so yeah, I went for like a year, year and a half, just basic bounce and stuff. And the funny thing, the mind blower about hearing her tell that story is that she was the one that when I found her,

Dizzy Skips (53:37)

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Richard Head (54:01)

She was the one that made me realize like, no, dude, this is a Mortal Kombat game. There’s combos and there’s, you can do this and you can do that. And so to hear her tell the story of like a similar background to me, but like she was the one that, you know, I saw Lauren Jumps, and whatever, and she’s doing her dance moves to the songs and hey, that’s fine. But that didn’t, I didn’t go like, hey, I want to put on a short skirt and dance around to these songs. That wasn’t really something for me. when I saw Kathy,

Dizzy Skips (54:05)

Yeah.

Easy.

I did.

Yeah.

Richard Head (54:28)

Just, yeah,

you’re such a cutie pie by the way. But when I saw her, she was like, you can do this combo and you can do this. And the way she explained it was the same way my fucked up brain works of like, here’s this and here’s this and this and this and this all together. And you can do it all or you can just do one piece and whatever. And so was cool to hear her tell that story. And with her being the one that made me go like, shit, we can do all this other stuff. So that was super, super neat to hear that from her.

Dizzy Skips (54:32)

Thank you.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah, I really like that.

Richard Head (54:59)

And she was

even saying that that Seconds app, she uses that same app that I’ve been using.

Dizzy Skips (55:03)

Yeah, it’s funny.

I didn’t realize that it’s the one that you’ve been using, but I did. I did buy the pro version of that and I’ve been using it as well. I programmed in a few different interval things, which is nice.

Richard Head (55:15)

Yeah. And it’s cool because

you could like, program in your stretch and you could program in your warm up and you can program in, you know, different pieces of it. And so then like, if you just want to stretch out, you can just stretch out or if you want to stretch out and jump rope warm up, then you can put those two together. And so you can really mix and match different, you know, pieces like pizza toppings. You know what I mean? Like, I only have 10 minutes. I’ll just do this one piece or

Dizzy Skips (55:24)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Richard Head (55:40)

I have

a joint and two hours, so let’s put all this stuff together and just see, you know, see all what we can do, you know.

Dizzy Skips (55:47)

Yeah, I got a little bit like over eager when I set up my first one. So my first, interval thing is, 29 minutes and 30 seconds or something. And it it’s cool because I had a whole bunch of stuff set up in there and it might be exactly what I do normally. But the fact that it was one big block of 29 minutes, I was like, I got to break this down into like seven minutes or something and then just do it multiple times because my brain can deal with that.

Richard Head (56:13)

so that’s what I love about that app

too. And then also like, if I’m going to get up early and work out like the night before, I can just sit in there and like, do, do, do program in like, here it is, dude, here’s your chunk. And it’s funny because at night I’ll be like, Oh, I’m going to do this and I’m going to do this and I’m going to plank for this much time. And then in the morning, I’m looking at it like, who thought this was a good idea? You know I mean? Like what the hell? then I got out. Okay. I to go do it.

Dizzy Skips (56:15)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Hahaha

Richard Head (56:39)

You know, so just following through. That’s the other good thing about that app is you set yourself a goal and then, all right, dude, now you decided this was a good idea. So let’s go, you know.

Dizzy Skips (56:39)

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know what I mentioned that I was gonna do and I have not been good about, going back to that idea of setting up a nerd database, one of the reasons I was thinking about it is that when Coach Nate was on one of his recommendations for learning is, all right, you’re gonna do releases, you do 10 on the right side, you do 10 on the left side, you record how many times you hit, like how many times you catch.

each side and, that’s it. You move on, you know, and like, and he had a couple of points. One was like, you’re not looking to improve your number every day. You’re looking to improve your average week over week or like month over month. and his other point was that

Richard Head (57:23)

Yeah, like over the week.

Dizzy Skips (57:26)

by nature of practicing it on your non-dominant side and feeling really awkward with it, it reinforces it on your dominant side. And I’ve had that happen with the release thing where the first couple of times after I talked to him, I went out and I was practicing releases on my non-dominant side and I caught a couple of them. It was awkward and I probably looked like an albatross crashing into the side of a boat, but.

I caught it and then I missed several and stuff, but then I went back and did it on my dominant side and was like, who got it, you know.

Richard Head (57:58)

Yeah,

no, yeah, with the the mic release for sure. I’m definitely experiencing that. But it’s I was I was excited because when I started to try it on my on my non-dominant side, you know, I had just been through like six weeks of, you know, going out and being dog shit. And so I thought like, OK, if I’m going to do it on the other side, it’s going to take another six weeks. But because I had sort of learned the procedure on that side, you know, I like

Dizzy Skips (58:25)

yet.

Richard Head (58:26)

Probably the first night I tried it, I caught one, I caught and jumped one. And so now it’s just like everything else. Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (58:30)

Right. Yeah. It’s like your body understands the physics of it. It’s like, you gotta

get your left and right side to talk like the same language, right?

Richard Head (58:41)

Yeah. Yeah. So just the fact that like, wow, this, might not take six weeks to get it on this other side was pretty, pretty exciting. But then it’s still again, like I got it good on that one side and I just, love that flow, Dizzy. I love it. Like I don’t want to interrupt it for, for practicing, but I think that’s, I struggle with that. I, cause I love being awesome at jump rope and I fucking hate being bad at jump rope. You know what I mean? So I struggle with that a lot.

Dizzy Skips (58:58)

No, I gotcha. I told it.

Yeah, I was thinking about that too, because we talked,

we talked about like just the joy of getting out and, or, or if for me, sometimes it’s just mental health stuff. all right, nah, I’ve had a rough day. I’m putting up with this other stuff and I want to just get out and flow and turn my brain off. But,

Richard Head (59:17)

Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (59:22)

I guess what I’m telling myself now is if I were to do what Nate sort of recommended and say, all right, I’m going to do 10 on each side, like 10 releases on each side does not take 10 minutes. Like that’s, you know, a matter of a couple minutes, write it down and then do my 10 EBs on each side and then move on, you know, and I’ll pick my two or three things that I’m working on and just do a few of those.

Richard Head (59:30)

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (59:46)

And then it doesn’t feel like a big interruption. It’s like, okay, this is a few minutes that I’m putting toward it every day to get better at it. And I have noticed that I have gotten better at a few of those things because I’m, and I’m not really practicing for like 10 minutes for EBs every day. I’m doing it.

Richard Head (1:00:03)

Yeah.

You’re practicing for like one playlist worth of music or whatever. Like that’s the better metric, I think.

Dizzy Skips (1:00:04)

Yeah.

Yeah, well, yeah, I can’t say I’m actually practicing a skill for an entire playlist. I’m practicing a skill for like a song played twice and then I’m moving on. Yeah.

Richard Head (1:00:15)

Yeah, yeah, no, I get it.

Yeah.

Yeah, no, I get that for sure.

Dizzy Skips (1:00:23)

So any goals for you now, over the summer what do you want to accomplish with Jump Rope?

Richard Head (1:00:29)

I think the doubles like we talked about, I’m interested in that. Maybe I think I want to get some more ropes, some different ropes. I’ve been kind of like, I want to stay in my little comfy place. I think getting a couple more ropes, the doubles. I’m curious how many days in a row I can go beyond the 100 days. I kind of have that in my head.

Dizzy Skips (1:00:32)

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Is it day

51, 52?

Richard Head (1:00:56)

Let’s

see here, it is day…

Dizzy Skips (1:00:59)

My

checklist is downstairs. I’m wearing my shirt.

Richard Head (1:01:01)

What’s today, Monday?

So day 52 on the West Coast. That’s the other thing is like I’m on the West Coast, I’m like, people are like, somehow they’re eight days ahead of me, seems like, know, I have on my phone and happy day 100 everybody. And I’m like, what are you talking about? I’m still behind.

Dizzy Skips (1:01:06)

All right.

I know Papa Joe. I know. Right.

Yeah. Yeah. It is confusing to me when I open up and see like Papa Joe or Peta from Australia, you know, there’s just, I think one time zone before the right, the date line.

Richard Head (1:01:34)

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I think I had, had, what, skipping the midlife crisis had done, like a, you know, however, and I thought I told her like, okay, I’m in, we’re going to do this. And then we got to day 30 and I was thinking it was a hundred day challenge and we got to day 30 and she was telling everybody like, Hey, good job, everybody. And, wait, it’s only 30, 30 days, you know, super stoked to, to, be part of the #JumpForJoy100.

Dizzy Skips (1:01:42)

Yeah, Laura.

Mm-hmm.

Richard Head (1:02:04)

But I don’t know, I want to keep it going, man. I want to get that whole book filled out for a full year and just push-ups and jump rope and all that stuff, man. Just a little bit every day. I was at my daughter’s softball game before we came here and I hadn’t done my push-ups this morning and just, okay, do 10, do 15 and you’re at 60 before you know it. And I could have spent that time scrolling on my phone. I could have spent that time doing something else. And so I think…

Dizzy Skips (1:02:04)

Yeah, me too.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Nice.

Mm.

Richard Head (1:02:32)

you know, the pushups and the jump rope and not necessarily, know, it’s, it’s, with so much stuff going on, you know, you can’t just keep adding things you’re doing. So when you’re adding the exercise, it has to replace something. So as long as it’s replacing something that’s not adding value to your life, then.

Dizzy Skips (1:02:40)

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Richard Head (1:02:47)

It’s positive, you know?

Dizzy Skips (1:02:49)

Yeah, I’ve totally noticed that the one side effect of getting healthier and seeing the benefits of jump rope is just the the way it affects what I eat you know, like I last night I went to the local grocery store to pick up a few things and.

Richard Head (1:03:00)

Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (1:03:05)

man, they put all of the Entenmann’s cakes right up front and the cupcakes. I know all the stuff that, you know, and I, I hadn’t really eaten that much until dinner time. And so I’m walking through thinking, that looks good. That looks good. But I just walked right by, know, like I don’t stop and indulge myself, but there was a time, you know, when I first moved to Minnesota before I found jump rope and stuff where

Richard Head (1:03:09)

Bastards.

Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (1:03:31)

I’d go to Costco and I’d buy that six pack of those big ass muffins and then are, you know, are, are cake muffins or cakes. They have those like, they’d have that.

Richard Head (1:03:36)

Yeah, yeah, the Costco muffins.

Dude, those are cakes,

man. You can tell me they’re muffins all day long, but those are not. That’s the box of six cakes.

Dizzy Skips (1:03:44)

Yeah, but they, they also had

cupcakes, but the like carrot cake is like, you know, I don’t know a pound and a half with great stuff. But yeah, I, definitely, that’s one of the reasons I lost several dress sizes is cause I no longer eat those things.

Richard Head (1:03:52)

Yeah.

Ahahaha!

Well, and I have a kind of an, you know, I have an added struggle of, you know, my job. I’m working in the kitchen and I have to like, I’ll get in trouble if I don’t, you know, my bosses and my boss’s bosses come around and go, did you taste that? Did you have some of that? What does that taste like? Did you have that? What about this? What do you want? You know what I mean? So it’s like this never ending. So that can be a little tricky to navigate, but I’m, but I’m learning. I’m learning to do it, but yeah, that’s another.

Dizzy Skips (1:04:10)

Yeah.

Taste.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Richard Head (1:04:29)

That, you know, that speaking of little bits at a time, I think that’s where I put on a lot of that weight is just like just all day long, just all day long, just sort of unconsciously just all day long. And when I sort of stopped that cycle is when I dropped all that weight, you know, I dropped 30 pounds, 40 pounds maybe when I kind of got started. So it’s been kind of exciting to kind of keep that going to, know, just because.

Dizzy Skips (1:04:37)

Yeah.

Mmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Richard Head (1:04:58)

You know,

I take the dog out for a walk and when I take her, I’ll put 20 pounds on my back and it sort of hit me on Saturday. Like I used to actually just weigh this much and now I got 25 pounds on my back and I’m running it around like, yeah. And I realized like, wow, dude, I used to weigh actually more than this, you know, now. And so it’s kind of, it’s, it’s pretty, it’s pretty exciting too, you know, but it’s, but that’s the other thing. And I don’t know about how you feel like if you’re getting in good shape and you can jump rope and whatever.

Dizzy Skips (1:05:08)

Yeah, and I could drop it. Yeah.

Yeah.

Richard Head (1:05:26)

And how long did it take you to get there? But we know that if you were to, if you were to fall right back in your old habits tomorrow, in like six days, you’d be back to like your absolute look. You know what I mean? Like it’s, it’s kind of, yeah, no, totally. And I really believe that’s true. You know, it takes so long to get to this good spot and now you’re in this good spot. And it’s almost a little bit like scary because you know, like you could.

Dizzy Skips (1:05:37)

Six days I would gain 30 pounds

Richard Head (1:05:54)

go back the other way and just be back to where you were in 19 hours of just being, you know, doing all that stuff and eating all those Costco cakes and all that kind of stuff. Like you can go back there like that. So it’s, I get some anxiety from kind of thinking about that. Like, man, I’m, you know, I’m a, I’m a week of bad behavior to be back where I was before all this even started, you know? So it’s a little, it’s a little nerve.

Dizzy Skips (1:05:59)

Yeah

Yeah, you’d have to behave really

badly, Richard, right? To be like to gain 30 pounds in a week. That’s so funny. Yeah, I will say I was thinking about this the other day. I’ve had a couple of occasions in the last year where I’ve overdone it and injured myself. And then I’ve had to take a few rest days and the.

Richard Head (1:06:20)

Man, you know, I can do it. I believe in myself.

Yeah.

Yeah.

shit,

Charlie Horse fuck. Okay, I’m good.

Dizzy Skips (1:06:40)

so yeah, speaking of overdoing where I’ve overdone it and I’ve had to take a few rest days and then, on like the third day, say, say I take two rest days and then the third day comes around and my brain is saying, Hmm, maybe you should rest a little more. And then part of my brain is saying, you know, get out there and jump rope. You know, you’ll feel better. And I’ve had a few panicky times where I’ve thought, I don’t ever want, I don’t

Richard Head (1:06:59)

Mm-hmm, yeah.

Dizzy Skips (1:07:06)

want my brain to ever get to the point where it decides no, procrastinate more, you know? And so, so it’s, it’s a weird.

Richard Head (1:07:12)

Yeah. Yeah, because then you’re like,

is my brain doing me a favor or is my brain just want to stay on the couch? You know what I mean?

Dizzy Skips (1:07:19)

Yeah, and I

know I’ve had a lifetime to know that my brain does not always have my best interest in mind, so I need to get off my fucking ass and jump rope. Yeah.

Richard Head (1:07:25)

yeah, no I get that.

Yes,

agree. Agree, man.

Dizzy Skips (1:07:31)

Yeah.

Yeah. Well, Hey Richard, I, I really appreciate your being willing to come on and chat with me again. This is always a blessing, always fun. And, man, anything you want to shout out to the community, anything, any last words, not last words.

Richard Head (1:07:40)

hell yeah, super fun.

yeah,

let’s tell the lumberjack story.

Dizzy Skips (1:07:55)

Yeah, what’s the lumberjack story?

Richard Head (1:07:56)

Okay, so there’s two, there’s two lumberjacks and they work together every day and they’re chopping wood 16 hours a day, every single day. First lumberjack is a young guy. He’s big, he’s strong, he’s tough. The second lumberjack’s a little bit older, he’s a little bit leaner, he’s a little bit slower. But every single day, the older lumberjack

has more wood chopped at the end of the day, every single day. And not only that, but the older lumberjack disappears for an hour in the middle of the day and then he comes back. And for that time, the older lumberjack is gone, the younger lumberjack just chopping wood as fast as he can. But inevitably, every day, the older lumberjack who disappears has more chopped wood at the end of the day.

Dizzy Skips (1:08:36)

You

Hammer in the wave.

Richard Head (1:08:49)

And so this goes on for months. And finally, the younger, younger lumberjack tells the older one like, Hey man, you know, we get along, everything’s good, but there’s no, there’s no possible way you should be able to chop more wood than me. And you disappear for an hour every day and you come back and you still chop more wood than me. What is going on? Where do you go? What is your secret? You know, you disappear for an hour. Where do you go?

Dizzy Skips (1:09:02)

Right.

Richard Head (1:09:16)

And the older lumberjack seems kind of surprised by this question and he just says, well, I go home and I sharpen my axe?

So I heard that somewhere and I really like that, especially for some of us older guys that, you know, if we want to beat those young guys, we got to keep our ass sharp for sure. So I wanted to tell that story.

Dizzy Skips (1:09:32)

Yeah.

So you’re sharpening it with a beaded rope now. Yeah, me too, man.

Richard Head (1:09:36)

Yeah, hell yeah. You know, so

that’s what it is. But yeah, as for us guys, as we’re getting older, man, we got to do something or we’re just gonna dissolve into the couch,

Dizzy Skips (1:09:45)

Yeah.

It’s funny, you know, I’ve asked several people, do you feel like jump rope has made you feel like you’re reverse aging? And so far, everybody that I’ve asked has like not even hesitated, like just like, yes. Yeah, like totally 100%. And I feel the same way. Like I’m in better shape than I’ve ever been. And I used to be like boxing, you know, martial arts kind of stuff.

Richard Head (1:09:59)

Yeah. yeah, me too. Yep. 100%.

Yeah. Yeah.

I can impress a three-year-old at the drop of a hat. You know what I mean? No problem.

Dizzy Skips (1:10:13)

You

Well, good for you, buddy. I’m older than three and you impress me constantly. yeah, right on. Well, thanks again, sir. I hope you have a great rest of your evening and we will do a group podcast before too long and get you back on.

Richard Head (1:10:17)

Yeah!

Nice, nice, nice.

Yeah, man, I hope I’m considered a friend of the show. And like I say, man, I really appreciate it. This whole idea has been so amazing. And just to kind of hear your story and all the stuff that you’ve done to help me behind the scenes is really appreciated. And just thanks to everybody so much for improving yourself every day. I appreciate that shit. Keep it up.

Dizzy Skips (1:10:38)

Of course you are. Yeah. No, you’re my buddy.

Yeah,

yeah, right on. Thanks, Richard. Love you. Have a good one.

Richard Head (1:11:00)

Yeah, no problem, brother.

Yeah, I love you too, brother. I’ll talk to you real soon.

Dizzy Skips (1:11:04)

All right, bye bye.