
Sarah Marshall – @strongerwithsare
Summary
Warning: This episode contains contagious laughter and mild profanity, dammit. 😅
In Episode 15 of The Jump Rope Podcast, Dizzy welcomes the fabulous Sarah Marshall (@strongerwithsare) to talk all things jump rope, fitness, and mental health.
Sarah shares her journey from weightlifting therapy to finding joy and healing in jump rope. 🏋️♀️➡️🪢

We chat about the emotional release that comes with skipping, the support of the jump rope community, and the importance of humor in fitness. 😂
There are tips on improving your technique, funny wipeout stories, and even a discussion about jumping to Pantera and Slipknot. 🎸
This isn’t just a fitness podcast — it’s a reminder to embrace imperfection, laugh at yourself, and keep going no matter what.
🏆 Episode Highlights:
- Jump rope as a form of therapy
- The mental clarity from weightlifting
- How music transforms your skipping sessions
- Why coaching and community are so helpful
- Learning to laugh at your mistakes
- Overcoming depression through fitness
💡 Takeaway:
Fitness isn’t just about muscles; it’s about mental health, connection, and finding joy in movement. Skipping rope is more than a workout — it’s a way to free your mind and build lasting bonds. 💚
⚡ Is jumping your therapist too? Let us know in the comments! 🤘
🌟 Don’t miss out!
🎧 Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Audible, or wherever you get your podcasts!
👉🏽 You can help:
Subscribe, rate, and leave a comment. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Transcript
Read full transcript
Dizzy Skips (00:45)
Sarah Marshall, welcome to The Jump Rope Podcast. I’m so happy to have you here.
Sare (00:49)
Thank you for having me, it’s a pleasure.
Dizzy Skips (00:51)
Yes. I noticed your shirt. Is that Pantera? Dimebag Darryl, dude.
Sare (00:54)
Yeah baby!
Yes, very much a massive Pantera fan. The Cure! I see, I see. I already noted that one.
Dizzy Skips (01:00)
Yeah, I’m representing for the UK with The Cure. yeah.
Dates me a little bit, but I love The Cure. In fact, last night I was trying to do a little release practice and stuff and I was gonna try and skip to, after I was done with my practice, I was gonna try and skip to some Cure songs and so I decided I was gonna goth it up, you know, and I put on black lipstick and eye makeup and stuff like that and.
Sare (01:18)
yeah.
Nice.
Dizzy Skips (01:24)
And I never really get, actually I got to the point where I was doing my, know, skip dancing and stuff like that and then went to the phone afterwards and got the message like iPhone storage full and it stopped recording a while back. And so like, all right, it’s, you know, like five in the morning, I’m gonna go to bed. So I did and then, yeah, and then I woke up and I took the dog outside and I realized as I’m outside, my God, I probably still have.
Sare (01:39)
Yes, it’s time to call it.
Dizzy Skips (01:48)
like black makeup just on my face and had this crazy black lipstick or whatever. was like, I hope the neighbors don’t see me.
Sare (01:54)
You
Dizzy Skips (01:55)
Anyway…
Sare (01:56)
Many times I’ve gone out with like purple or black lipstick still on my lips from a gig or something the night before so don’t worry it happens. Yeah, it happens.
Dizzy Skips (02:02)
Yeah, yeah. So
I’m happy to have you back. were on the last episode, which was our group episode, which was a lot of fun. But we had plenty of people there and I didn’t get to talk to you as much as I would have liked. So I’m so glad you’re back so that we can dig into your story a little bit more. So first of all, can you tell me like where you are in the world?
Sare (02:11)
Yes.
I am in Nottinghamshire in the UK.
Dizzy Skips (02:26)
Robin Hood territory.
Sare (02:27)
Robin
Hood Territory, not too far away from Sherwood Forest actually, so yeah. Yeah, we go on adventures around there.
Dizzy Skips (02:31)
No kidding, really. my God, I’m
such an Anglophile when I was like starting in junior high, just, maybe even earlier than that, I was a big reader, and so I read all the Robin Hood books, and I read all sorts of British stuff, and I just wanted to be Robin Hood so bad. Even back when I was a kid, like the cartoon, what’s that?
Sare (02:50)
Oh my god, you do it? You need to do a dress up as him.
You need to do a dress up as him and skip as Robin Hood. That can be in homage to me, yeah. Green types.
Dizzy Skips (02:58)
Yeah, that’s right. I gotta get some green tight pants.
Yeah, right now I’ve just got like black and red and a few other ridiculous ones.
Sare (03:08)
Brilliant.
Dizzy Skips (03:10)
So I remember from our talk last week, I think you have been skipping for what, between four and five years, is that right?
Sare (03:18)
Yeah, I said five like a dope, but it’s not. I got myself confused. No, no, no, no, it’s four. It’s coming up on four. So I thought it was, I thought I started in COVID, you know, listening to everyone’s stories. I was like, did I start in COVID? I’m sure I did. And actually I didn’t. I started the year after. So I started in 2021. Yeah. So four years in February, just coming.
Dizzy Skips (03:22)
It’s coming up on five though, right?
Okay.
Okay.
And another thing about your profile, so you skip but you’re also a weightlifter. Yeah.
Sare (03:47)
Yeah, weightlifting
is my therapy, if that makes sense.
Dizzy Skips (03:54)
When you say it’s your therapy, how does what you get from weightlifting differ from what you get from jumping rope?
Sare (03:59)
Okay, so like my kind of thing of picking up a rope. I know it’s not my thing, but I’ve always weight lifted. So I’ve weight lifted for around eight years now. I went on a huge weight loss transformation, lost seven and a half stone and then did all that weight loss. And then it was like, want to lift weights. So I started lifting with my husband and then went and did that.
So in the theory of weightlifting, that’s my therapy is in my mind. It’s like a, I don’t know, it’s an endorphin that I can’t get from anything else. It’s just like a release. If I’m stressed, I go and lift heavy. I go do something that makes me feel amazing. Now my jump rope is lets out my crazy. It releases my crazy, like my thousands of thoughts. I was gonna say on the hang when we did it.
Dizzy Skips (04:32)
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
Sare (04:48)
but I don’t know if anyone else feels like it. You know, when you’re in your rope and it’s spinning around you, I just feel like I’m in my little own force field and nothing can affect me. I don’t know if anyone else feels like that and maybe they might want to comment on this, but I just feel like I’m in my own little orb and I’m just happy and I’m just crazy and nothing could affect me. I do it in the back garden at like 5 a.m. in the morning in the summer and spring and people must think I’m absolutely batshit.
Dizzy Skips (05:00)
totally. I totally feel it.
Sare (05:17)
Sorry, but I am, I love it. I just love laughing at myself. It’s that’s where my little crazy comes out of. So that’s the difference. Like it’s where I get all my 10,000 tabs in my head out, if that makes sense.
Dizzy Skips (05:24)
Mm-hmm.
It makes perfect sense. it’s one of the
things I’ve noticed about your reels that I really love is that you laugh at yourself quite a bit. And I do that. I constantly laugh at myself. I’m just such a goofball and like a preposterous person. And,
Sare (05:36)
God, I laugh so much.
Yeah.
I think,
yeah, I think when I started my page, I was all about the, I need to get this right, I need to nail this. And I was like, you know what, it’s not a hundred percent anytime. Like I’m always like a 40 percenter. I will always do a hundred percent, but 40 percent of it’s probably right. And the rest of it’s just nuts going crazy. So I was like, I’ll start to post that. And people start to go, God, that’s quite real actually. So like behind the scenes kind of stuff. And I quite liked it. It was quite funny.
Dizzy Skips (05:53)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Sare (06:13)
I don’t always take the mick out of myself and I don’t do it to take the mick out of myself. It’s just I do genuinely laugh that much all the time when I’m doing my jump rope. It’s just crazy. But that’s it. get it out.
Dizzy Skips (06:22)
Yeah, me too. Do you find, so
when you say the thing about the, you mentioned tabs, like it reduces the tabs or something, I forget exactly how you put it, but do you find that jump rope gives you like a mental focus that is different than what you get with lifting?
Sare (06:31)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. get a stress relief out of lifting, but I get a focus of like, not a hyper focus type thing. I think I’m undiagnosed with ADHD. I don’t know. This discovery plan I’m going on down the line of, but I just feel like my tabs, I’ve got so many things whirling around in my little brain. And then once I go, I’m going to go get this and I go and get it and I go and get it done. And
Dizzy Skips (06:49)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Sare (07:06)
Even in the frustration if I don’t get it done, I know I’ve applied myself and I’ve focused for 20, 30 minutes, 40 minutes to get it done and attempted it. So that’s that. Yeah, I do. I kind of like focus on one thing at a time sometimes. Sometimes I do just go out and go when I’m jumping at full performance, I just go and do put a combo together. But I’m terrible for not remembering combos. So you’ll never see me remix because I can’t do them.
Dizzy Skips (07:14)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Mmm.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Sare (07:34)
I
try and do it and I write it down and I’m like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, go and do something else. Completely do something else.
Dizzy Skips (07:41)
Yeah, I’m always impressed
with people who could pull off those remixes like, you know, so well.
Sare (07:47)
Timing and everything is mad. Yeah.
Dizzy Skips (07:49)
Yeah,
I’ve not tried that yet, but I’m working with a friend of mine now. We’re gonna do a little collaboration and she’s in a different state than I am, so we’re gonna see how that works. I think it’ll be fun. Yeah.
Sare (07:55)
No!
Oh that would be exciting. Yeah collabs
are fun. I like doing them. When I’ve done meetups and things like that and we’ve had to learn a combo, flip me. Honest to god it’s always me going wrong and I’m like stop, stop, stop and I have to keep putting my hand up. like I just did something completely different to everyone else or I landed at a different time and I release it a different time. I’m like ah.
Dizzy Skips (08:13)
I would to-
Hahaha
That’s totally what I would do too. Especially if I, like even if I knew all of the moves, like if it wasn’t a challenge to do all the moves, it’s just the pressure of people like, all right, now we’re all gonna do it. Like, okay now, and then my, yeah, I think I’ve said several times on the podcast, like my nirvana is when I can kind of shut off my brain and I don’t think and I just kind of flow. And so, like I don’t really ever, you know, choreograph anything. Part of it is probably I.
Sare (08:38)
3, 2, 1, go! Ah! Yeah.
flow.
Amen.
Dizzy Skips (08:56)
couldn’t retain it that much, I guess. If I did a 15 second thing.
Sare (08:58)
Yeah, do
you ever do a move where you go, that was nice. let’s try and do that again. And then you go, shit, it’s gone. Yeah, I always do that. Yeah.
Dizzy Skips (09:07)
Yeah. Yeah.
Or just like you luck into the move and then can’t quite figure out how like the flow that got you there. Like I can do the move again, but I did it after I did that other thing and that was really cool. But what was that?
Sare (09:25)
Yeah, it ends up becoming a little mini combo and you go, that was nice. Even though you’re recording it, can you try and do it again? No, I get frustrated at my own little self at that. I think that’s just the joy of jump rope because there’s so many ways to enter into a cross and there’s so many ways to enter into a release or a toad or a Kruger and all those types of things. So, yeah, it’s definitely, that’s the thing that I don’t think there’s ever a finale of learning. Do you know what I mean? Like there’s no ending.
Dizzy Skips (09:29)
Yeah.
Right.
Sare (09:53)
You can always do different things and different entries and different exits. Yeah, that’s the fun thing about it.
Dizzy Skips (09:54)
Yeah.
Yeah.
And there’s always a different song to jump to as well. that, yeah. Speaking of music, so do you jump to music?
Sare (10:03)
Always a different song. my god. I don’t know what I’d
do. Yeah, I can’t listen to the steps or the rope or anything. I’m constantly tuned in. Always tuned in. Yeah, and it doesn’t matter what music either. people go to me. How do you jump to that? if I’m in a… It depends where my head space is at. If my head space is in a point where it needs to get some frustration or anger or…
Dizzy Skips (10:14)
Yeah.
really?
Sare (10:28)
Just something if I can’t go weight lift that time, I’ll go and do, but I’ll jump to something heavy like Manson or Slipknot or Korn or, know, some, yeah, Pantera and just get it out of me. And I just, I just flow. And they’re like, how do you jump to that? But I jump quite speedy. People don’t understand why I jump so fast. I can’t jump slow. I’ve tried to jump slow with other people and it’s just labored. doesn’t, it doesn’t flow. So I flow to music.
Dizzy Skips (10:36)
Pantera.
Sare (10:57)
I do struggle sometimes, you know, if I go to meetups and things and there isn’t music and I’m like, I just need something to vibe. I just got a vibe and I just go and it just comes out of me. And I think that’s… No. I really wish I could, but no, I just sound like I’m having an asthma attack. Yeah.
Dizzy Skips (11:02)
Mm.
Yeah. You start beatboxing.
Yeah, I’ve seen
a few of those reels that are super funny where it’s like, this is what you see and it’s like, know, dizzy jumping with music and jumping coordinated to the music or whatever. And then this is what it’s really like. And then there’s no music and it’s just, you know.
Sare (11:33)
I’d love to try
and do one of those but I’m just too embarrassed of how asthmatic I would sound.
Dizzy Skips (11:40)
I know, I probably sound terrible. And then also I sing along inadvertently sometimes, so I’m warbling to the music, you know. And of course, with the headset on, I feel like I’m totally in tune with what’s going on. And then I watch the video back later and I’m like, my God, somebody put that horse down.
Sare (11:45)
Me too.
Yeah.
When I used to do it early mornings on the back garden, my God. And I was a bit fitter then, so I was all right, because I was doing it most mornings at 5 a.m. I was listening back to one, and honest to God, the curse words that were coming out my mouth at 5 a.m. in the morning as I’m there whipping myself or kicking myself or I fell off the platform or something. But also asthmatic and the noise of the ropes going around.
Dizzy Skips (12:14)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Sare (12:22)
I’m surprised
I haven’t been told me to move out.
Dizzy Skips (12:25)
Do you have neighbors really close to you?
Sare (12:26)
It’s so bad.
Yeah, they’re literally all sides of me and all on the back of me as well. So our garden, I don’t know how big it is in terms of feet or meters. I’ve got no idea. But it’s a right size garden. like we’re in a whole hundred percent. Yeah. So I need to I do need to like beat myself out. I do try and refrain. But when you’ve got your headset on, you just don’t know what you like. You don’t know what you sound like, do you?
Dizzy Skips (12:36)
Mm-hmm.
but they could potentially hear you in your colorful metaphor. Yeah.
Sare (12:55)
So, and I giggle as well. obviously it’s like, whip, whip, giggle. damn.
Dizzy Skips (12:56)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, I know what you mean. I’ve got neighbors right next door to me and I like to jump at night sometimes and I worry about the slap of the beads on the mat or the ground or whatever. So sometimes I’ll go down to this park where there’s this thing called the band shell It’s like a little outdoor area where, yeah, it is cute. But there’s nobody that lives right next to there. There’s people within eyesight but they can’t really hear me. But even then,
Sare (13:01)
Yeah, but.
Yeah, I’ve seen it, it’s cute.
Yeah.
Dizzy Skips (13:24)
it’s shaped like a cone, kind of, so bands that are in there, they can project out into the field or whatever, and so I’m in there and I’m jumping or whatever, and then I slap myself with the rope and yell out a swear word, and it’s, you know, 10.30 p.m., and there’s some old man walking his dog, and like, what is that freak doing over there?
Sare (13:26)
Yeah.
It’s just got a
just got a foghorn of dizzy’s like, woo! Do you ever hear a song when you’re out and about or wherever you are and go, I could, I want to jump to that. Do you ever do that? Like, God, I do it so much. I’m like, that’s a tune, right? It’s going on the playlist and then I go run off and like go and just vibe to it that night. Yeah, I love that.
Dizzy Skips (13:47)
I know. Son of a… Yeah, I know.
yeah, totally.
Totally. Yeah, and
I also have discovered so much from just watching other people’s reels. Like several of the reels that I have that have songs that I really flowed to and went back and looked at and was like, I like what I did there. Where songs where I just stumbled on somebody else’s reel and I was like, whoa, Katy Perry, I’ve not really listened to her that much. What’s this? my God, this is a banging song. And then go out and skip to it. yeah.
Sare (14:11)
Yes, me too.
Mm-hmm.
Hehehehehe
Dizzy Skips (14:31)
I use Spotify and Apple Music and so I make little playlists, know, like when I hear those things, yeah. So I’m interested in your gear. mean, I’m interested in all sorts of things, but so are you a beaded rope person or a PVC person or are you equal opportunity jumper?
Sare (14:34)
Yeah, me too. Yeah, massively.
So I started, I’m
a bit of a, yeah, two handed. I am beaded now when I first started, was PVC. So when I first started, well actually when I first started, I had one of those crappy counterweight ones from Amazon that everyone starts out in, just trying to jump on that. And then I found a PVC one. And then I was like, I quite like this. This feels a little bit better and it doesn’t like curl up and crumble up, you type thing.
And I jumped inside for like 18 months, like literally inside with a really low ceiling with a beam, just for fitness. So I never tried any tricks for like 18 months. And then when I got out, yeah, I know. Then I got maybe like a cross or something, kind of double under. If you’ll ever see my, I’ll have to share it when you share this. But when I did my first ever double under, I cried. Like I cried with so much happiness.
Dizzy Skips (15:18)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
wow.
Sare (15:45)
I couldn’t believe that I did it. So, PVC to start with. And then when I went outside, when we made the little platform at the top of the garden, like the little dedicated area, I was like, PVC is not going to work, I need beaded. So I got beaded. And then I’ve been beaded ever since. I love to go back to the PVC for speed. And I like to test myself. So if I learn a new release, I’ll do it with the PVC so I can do it with both.
Dizzy Skips (15:57)
Hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Sare (16:11)
If I learn
the Mamba or if I do things on the left hand side, my non-dom, I’m right handed predominantly, left hand, I’ll do it with the PVC as well just to make sure the efficiency is there. So yeah, like to, people say that you can’t do everything with the PVC. kind of, I kind of say you can. It’s just, it’s just your determination to not let the whips hurt you. Yeah, it’s just knowing, it’s just knowing the difference and it’s just going, it’s not going to be as tamed.
Dizzy Skips (16:22)
Mm-hmm.
It’s different, isn’t it?
Sare (16:38)
I actually, I like the mic releases with the PVC. They’re snappier, they’re faster, they’re really, really, they cut through. my God, they sound so good. I might have to do an ASMR one just with the PVC now, because now I want to just do it, but just spin it really fast. But yeah.
Dizzy Skips (16:45)
They sound wicked too.
my gosh, yeah.
I’d put it on repeat and go to sleep to it. It gets
my blood going, actually. That noise is just, I don’t know.
Sare (17:04)
What do you mainly skip with? Do you skip mainly with beaded?
Dizzy Skips (17:08)
Yeah, predominant. I mean, I have a ridiculous number of ropes, like an embarrassing number of ropes. And so I do have several PVC ropes, but I tend, like the frustrating thing here in Minnesota is this time of year when it’s cold, PVC just doesn’t work outside and I really like to jump outside and it just gets all stiff and unwieldy. So.
Sare (17:12)
Me too.
Dizzy Skips (17:27)
So when I’m jumping outside, it’s almost always beaded unless it’s summertime and then I’ll use PVC as well. But I just heard early on from, know, coaches that I really respected that Beaded gave you more feedback and so it could make it easier to learn, you know, some things or whatever. And so I’ve really tried to focus on beaded. I also just love the, you know, the noise. But like I’ve mentioned before, one of the fun things is like
Sare (17:41)
Yeah.
Dizzy Skips (17:52)
taking I have that what is it called from Wate Rope from Mira she’s got that world’s heaviest beaded rope you know which is like it’s like a quarter pound or whatever
Sare (18:01)
I tried it from
Aaron Jumps 365. I tried it when I met up with him and oh my god the mic release with that was heaven. He was scared to do it and I was like don’t be so stupid just yeah I told him off but yeah that’s a good weighted rope.
Dizzy Skips (18:05)
yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, I’ve actually, I was scared of it before I started landing the mic release more routinely. Like, because it’s got those wooden handles that are like this and when, yeah, they do. In fact, I’ve got a little mark on the side of my face from catching one of the handles in my face while I, it wasn’t one of those, it was a plastic handle. But yeah, the extra weight of that heavy rope just makes it so much easier to know where the rope is. I, like, once I started jumping with that, there were,
Sare (18:24)
Yes, yeah, They hurt, yeah.
Dizzy Skips (18:44)
You know, I watch Aaron and he’s just like the cross king. He’s tying himself in knots and he’s just one after the other trick, trick, trick. and once I started with that heavy beaded rope, like there were times where I was able to do more crosses in a row than I’d ever done before. And I just attribute it to the extra, you know, feedback that I get. then taking that and then dropping to one of my normal beaded ropes, which I, my beaded ropes tend to be a little heavier anyway, cause I have a thicker cord and stuff in there.
Sare (18:59)
Nice. Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Dizzy Skips (19:12)
Then you speed up a little bit, you still get good feedback, and then you drop to a speed rope and it’s like, you might as well be Superman, you just can fly, you know? Yeah.
Sare (19:19)
You just fly with it, don’t you? And you go, how
has the speed come out of nowhere? But it’s because your arms, your arms are just beast mode from the beads, aren’t they? Yeah, it’s hilarious.
Dizzy Skips (19:29)
Yeah, and also
like it makes a difference or it made a difference to me once my form and not that my form is perfect at all by any stretch, but once I was able to kind of keep my hands in closer and you know, rotate with my wrists rather than trying to do this with my arms rotating, you can get so much faster. It’s just so much more efficient. And when you do that with a speed rope, my gosh, Sean Hargis, who was on one of the early episodes, I think he was on.
Sare (19:38)
Whose is?
Yeah.
Yeah
Dizzy Skips (19:55)
like episode four or five or something, he mentioned to me that he had started using a six mil PVC rope, like a heavier PVC rope. Do you? I just bought a couple from Urope and yeah, he said it’s kind of like a happy medium between a normal PVC and a beaded rope. Totally, like I get that feedback from that one. I’m excited to jump with it.
Sare (19:57)
be honest.
Yeah, I’ve got one of those. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
TVC and the Bee did, yeah, 100%.
Yeah,
they are fun. That one tires me out on my shoulders. But I think now I’ve started to train a lot more. Because obviously doing the mic releases, doing the mambas and stuff, it just strains your shoulders so much. And you just feel it in your arms. I think I probably haven’t tried it in a while. So actually, might get that one out as well. Once I’m back to full capacity of jumping, I can’t go back to normal beaded ropes. So I, like you, have the thickened cords.
Dizzy Skips (20:24)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Sare (20:43)
So I first started out with a Dope Ropes one and I’ve actually gifted that away now to someone else who was really interested because I was like, I can’t jump with it. It’s just too light. Like I can’t, I can’t, can’t mic release can mic release with it, but it’s not the same feedback that I want from the thickened. So yeah, I’m stuck with Chris, Jump Rope Chris forever because I can’t go back. I can’t go back.
Dizzy Skips (20:47)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Interesting.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
so are his
by nature thicker?
Sare (21:09)
Yeah, so they weren’t when they first started and then he progressed it to, I think it’s four mil thickness, four mil thickness rope and then the beads around it obviously. And his bloody handles are indestructible. I have hurt them a lot and they’re still, well I think when I went to one of his workshops once, I kept, so this was when he was teaching me, was it a mic release or a floater? Mic release, so he was teaching me in one of the groups.
Dizzy, I’m not even kidding. Solid metal like balisade or whatever you call them behind me straight back like this and honestly it’s still fine to this day and that was like two years ago. I don’t know how it’s still okay but that took some beatings. And every time they take beatings don’t they? You when you drop on it it just goes and you go, no it’s fine, okay go again.
Dizzy Skips (21:41)
Balistrade
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. Do you… Cool. I’ve never used his ropes. I mean, I’ve heard a lot about him from you and from Becky.
Sare (22:04)
So yeah, I really rate his ropes.
I think he has a US site. I can’t remember. They’re all over the place. I think it’s Canada. can’t remember. US and Canada, they’ve got ones. I know Peta has them because she did like a bulk buy of all of like, like a mass bulk buy of them and she’s still trying to flog them out the back of a car now. Honestly, she’s
Dizzy Skips (22:21)
Okay.
She talked about that when she was on the podcast. That was so hilarious. Like what a great way to
remove objections. You know, like people are like, yeah, I’d like to do that sometime. And she’s like here right now.
Sare (22:44)
pulls out a suitcase like this, flee!
Dizzy Skips (22:46)
I
Just got a trench coat on. How about a rope?
Sare (22:50)
instead of gold chains, it’s actual jump ropes.
Dizzy Skips (22:52)
Right.
Sare (22:53)
Yeah, I could see that actually. I’m really excited to meet her as well this year like that. That is something that I’m trying to rest my foot and things because all that plantar fasciitis which I said on the hat, like it’s just caving me. Everything is just hurting so I’m doing a lot of recovery, a lot of physio with it. So that is one thing I need to make sure that I’m good for when she comes over is that I’m able to jump with her because that is like a lifelong dream even though I’ve only met her three, four months ago.
Dizzy Skips (22:55)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Sare (23:22)
I’m like, you’re my new bestie, you can never leave me.
Dizzy Skips (23:22)
Yeah.
She’s a pretty special person. She did, and I think you took part in it, the 100 skips a day challenge. I think she’s done several of those,
Sare (23:28)
Cheers.
It wasn’t 100 skips a day. was Jump for Joy 100 days. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, I got pulled into that day one actually. I saw someone else, one of my friends posting about it. She’s down in London. And I was like, what you doing? And yeah, so we just, she brought me in and they were, they’re a great group of people, honestly. And I’m still talking to them.
Dizzy Skips (23:36)
no, it’s a hundred… yeah, sorry.
How many,
it was mostly ladies, right, or all ladies?
Sare (24:02)
I think it was all ladies in the end, I think there was some boys there but…
Dizzy Skips (24:04)
and how many were
there.
Sare (24:07)
Active members in the end, maybe only about 24, 25. But I think when the group first started, it was like 50. then, you know, things come up in people’s lives. Yeah, exactly. So they, and it was that free to come and go type thing. And it was free to post. You didn’t have to post every day. There was no pressure. And there was a lot of posts that just went into the actual thing themselves. Like we just posted it into the group instead of making it public.
Dizzy Skips (24:14)
That’s a number.
Life happens.
Mm-hmm.
Sare (24:36)
There was one of the members on the group that really didn’t want to post anything on Instagram at all about her jump rope. And then by the end, by the middle of the group, actually, by the middle of the 100 days, she created her own Instagram for Jumpin’, which I think is amazing. And that inspired her and helped her and we helped her with that anxiety and stuff. So there was a lot of positive stuff that came out of that. And there’s still some people now that are still jumping that only just started because of that 100 days. And that’s what I think is mega.
Dizzy Skips (24:49)
Nice.
That’s cool.
Sare (25:03)
that they were inspired by Peta, they were brought in by Peta or by Laura, @skipping_the_midlifecrisis Yeah, I’ve got to love, she’s amazing. She’s absolutely amazing. And she’s like a mum to all of them as well. Like she’s just brought them in and Peta’s like, it’s just brilliant. It was really nice to be part of that group. And that was the big success out of my year last year was just being.
Dizzy Skips (25:13)
Yeah, she’s lovely. Yeah.
Sare (25:28)
a part of those amazing people and being a part of their journeys. I actually met with one of the girls who joined the group. She joined maybe 30 days in. I think Laura brought her in, which is hilarious. Laura’s in America, obviously, and Rebecca is in like 30 minutes down the road from me. And I didn’t know her, didn’t know her, obviously. And Laura brings her in. I’m like, where are you based? Because she saw that I’d put something about not in it. And she was like, I’m in Loughborough.
Dizzy Skips (25:38)
Okay.
Okay. Yeah.
Sare (25:57)
my god, I’m literally 30 minutes up the road from you. So we ended up doing a little meet before Christmas, which was quite nice. It was near the 100 days. And yeah, helped her with a few things and she’s still progressing really well now. And I think she’s now doing that 100 jumps a day with Peta and Laura. So yeah, really nice. It’s nice how things progress. I think it’s nice how relationships flourish within the jump rope community. I’ve not known anything else like it. Like I’ve been…
Dizzy Skips (26:04)
Cool.
That’s awesome.
Okay. Yeah, that is cool.
Mm-hmm.
Sare (26:25)
Like I said, I’ve been a gym goer for, I don’t know, 10, 12 years now. And then weightlifting in eight years. it’s just, that’s not the same kind of connection that we have with jump rope. It’s different completely.
Dizzy Skips (26:31)
Mm-hmm.
Right.
In the gym, you just go grunt at people, right? It’s just like, huh? Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. There’s a little bit of an edge energy. know, you gotta push that weight up or whatever. Yeah. Beast mode. That’s totally it. I guess I sort of thought that with the, with PETA’s, a hundred day challenge, I had just assumed that most of the participants would have been like,
Sare (26:42)
Headphones on, don’t look at me, I won’t look at you.
Beast mode. Beast mode it out. Yeah.
Dizzy Skips (27:05)
brand new to jump rope and I don’t know why I had that in my head but you had people of all different skill levels kind of go through that, correct?
Sare (27:12)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think that was, I don’t know why it came about, I don’t know the full story why Peta started it. I think it was to give her a boost as well. So she was like, right, me and Laura are gonna do this whole new challenge. And just anyone who wants to join, it’s free, you know, it’s a group you can come and go if you want to, you can stay, whatever. Yeah, and it surprised me with people of all different levels, like.
Dizzy Skips (27:23)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Sare (27:37)
And it was nice. It was nice to have people that were really experienced there because they even helped me as well. Like someone, some that I’d never even spoken to before. well, Peta I’d never come across. It was literally day one that I started to follow her. And I was like, I don’t know who you are. you’re kind of cute. you’ve got really good energy. I like your energy. I’m following. So yeah, and it’s nice to have that. And it was nice to be.
Dizzy Skips (27:40)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. She’s funny.
Sare (28:03)
they kind of took me as someone that was quite experienced. I’m like, I’m really not. I’m technically relearning everything again because I had such a bad injury with a sprain last year. Yeah, so it was quite nice to be known as the like, Peta called me the release queen. I was like, I’m really not. I’m so effing not. I was like, there’s so many people that are way better than me, but okay, thanks. That’s a nice compliment. But yeah, it was nice to be able to.
Dizzy Skips (28:10)
Hmm.
Hmm.
I
Sare (28:31)
do like we sent little videos to each other in the group like if someone was struggling with something I’d try and help them and do like a little like a breakdown and a slow-mo and stuff like that and try and help them out in that way because sometimes it’s hard to ask isn’t it you know if you can’t if you haven’t if you’re a bit not I don’t know not cautious of things but you don’t know how to ask sometimes it’s always it’s really hard I don’t mind if I’ve got something completely ass about face I’ll ask I’m like
Dizzy Skips (28:41)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Sare (28:59)
Anyone
on Instagram know what I’m doing wrong here because it’s frustrating the hell out of me because I know I’ve got people that will come and tell me. So because I had some coaching sessions. I don’t know if you follow her. She’s based in Scotland, Ailey with an E. She’s amazing. And I had coaching sessions with her and she she was I think she was going for a qualification in it. So she did coaching sessions with me. We had like 10 sessions.
Dizzy Skips (29:04)
Mm-hmm.
Sare (29:28)
two years ago now and honest to god the stuff I unlocked with her was mad and it was so fun as well I didn’t know how I’d do well with coaching especially with a Scottish person because the accent is so odd for me yeah I can’t understand Scottish people it’s hilarious I have to deal with them so I knew Ailey from we did a little knot in a meetup
Dizzy Skips (29:33)
Really?
is it?
How did you hook up with her? Or how did you find out about her?
Sare (29:54)
with Flowbro and Stacey Skips. So Stacey is based in Nottingham with me and she’s amazing. If you’ve never followed her, oh my god, Stacey Skips, she’s just absolutely unreal. She’s like the rope wrangler. She can do every trick in the Trixionary book. She’s been skipping for non-stop, like full on. I think her consecutive days is almost near Aaron, like 520 or something.
Dizzy Skips (30:01)
Okay.
Yeah.
Sare (30:21)
consecutive days I’m like, Jesus, she’s like the female version of Aaron. But she can do footwork. Don’t tell him, she’s gonna watch this, isn’t he? Sorry, Aaron. But yeah, so they did a little meetup and Stacey brought me in and Ailey was there and me and her just clicked and we just got on really well. We did, went to Chris’s workshops. We hung out there. We’ve done another Nottingham meetup. She’s come to that.
Dizzy Skips (30:28)
We love you, Aaron.
He’s working on
Sare (30:45)
Ailey honestly travels all over to go to meet up. She’s amazing. And she’s just, she’s like the wrap queen. Like she’s even on Chris’s app now as one of the coaches to teach people apps and raps and things like that. It’s just, she’s mega. She’s such a down to earth. She makes me laugh so much. So, so much. And she’s actually, the reason I realized I hadn’t been jumping for five years is she put her five year anniversary on and I went.
Dizzy Skips (30:51)
wow.
wow.
Sare (31:13)
no, I’m four years. I’m like an imposter. Yeah, so was quite good actually. So yeah, she’s a lovely person and she’s, I think she’s still doing the coaching. keep saying if it wasn’t for my sprain, I would have signed up with her again last year to do some more sessions, but just, sprains completely knocked me out, which is just, but yeah, Scottish accent. Luckily I can understand her. She’s the only one I can.
Dizzy Skips (31:14)
Yeah, yeah.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Mmm.
Yeah. So I’m curious, like, what
are you, what are your coaching sessions like? like, I’ve asked so many people, like, have you had a coach? And so far, almost nobody I’ve interviewed has actually done much with coaches. So I’m curious, are your coaching sessions like?
Sare (31:48)
It was,
they were like an hour long, so they were a good amount of time. And it was, she had a session planned for each one of what she wanted me to kind of tick off in a sense. So, and it was just for her qualification to get it in it. We started from basic. So it was going through everything, can do it on repeat. She showed me, I do it. She showed me, do it. So I had headphones on and we was just chatting like this. So it was out in the garden and it was just chatting like this for an hour.
And it was just brilliant. was, yeah, on Zoom. So there was no communication errors. There was a bit of Wi-Fi trouble, you know how it is type thing. But yeah, and it was just her show, her show, what to do. She watched me do it. If I wasn’t doing it right, she’d show me how to correct it. And it was just really easy and it flowed really nicely. And they always went far too fast than they needed to be. And I always proclaimed that I would never be able to do raps, but because of her, can. And I was like,
Dizzy Skips (32:18)
Were you on Zoom? Okay.
That’s great.
Sare (32:45)
there’s no way my arm’s gonna manipulate like that and do that around my body and she taught me and I was like, Jesus, there’s still things that now that I remember that she taught me and I’m like, I still always give her credit because if it wasn’t for her, there is no way I would have had the patience to stick to doing it. But she was, she’s.
Dizzy Skips (33:04)
Yeah. Isn’t it amazing?
go ahead.
Sare (33:08)
She was always my little cheerleader. She’s always my cheerleader and she’s always there to, the first one to congratulate me on something. You know, like when you said about Jenny, was like the first one to comment on yours. I’ll always remember that Ailey is always the one that, she either sends me a little private message going, great, Unlark or she’s just such, she’s always in my background and I love her for that. But yeah, yeah.
Dizzy Skips (33:17)
Mm-hmm.
Nice. Yeah. Yeah.
That’s a wonderful thing about coaching. I have a coach as well, always Hadi, and he is also just a fantastic cheerleader. Yeah.
Sare (33:35)
yeah? You do not have him as your coach.
that’s kind of cool.
Dizzy Skips (33:41)
Yeah, he’s an amazing person. He’s just such a positive person and such a wonderful cheerleader. And one of the things that I just love about the coaching, I mean, it’s not like, it’s really that expensive, you know, it’s less than a gym membership basically, but just being able to get that feedback so quickly, you know, like he hosts these master classes, you know, where it’s just over Zoom, it’s like for a half hour and then peep.
Sare (33:43)
Yeah.
Dizzy Skips (34:06)
people who are students get together on Zoom and then it’s like, all right, today we’re gonna work on releases or we’re gonna work on like, hey, show us what footwork you’ve been working on and then I’ll do something and then everybody tries to do it and then somebody else demonstrates something. But just being able to get that feedback like, you’re letting go of the rope too quickly. need to, you know, like, or let it go higher, you know, or something like that. Just that, you know, immediate feedback can make all the difference in.
Sare (34:09)
Not nice.
Mm-hmm.
Dizzy Skips (34:31)
you know, rather than me toiling with it for days and then trying to slow down videos and watch other people do it, just have somebody say, okay, I see what you’re doing. You know, do it this way.
Sare (34:39)
Have you ever jumped
in front of a mirror before? I can’t do it. Yeah, I can’t watch myself and see what’s going wrong. So like what you were just saying about that instant feedback, it’s just so connective and you go, oh, okay, I did it that way. Oh, okay, I’ll do it that way now. like, but if some people I know can jump in front of a mirror or in front of a window and see exactly what they’re doing wrong. And I’m like, I can’t do that. I don’t know why, I’ve got no idea.
Dizzy Skips (34:43)
Yeah, totally. Really?
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Sare (35:09)
I’ve done it in the gym, so where you see most of my post on now I jump in the gym. In the little room, like a little spin studio. And there’s mirrors in there, I’m never facing them because I can’t watch myself.
Dizzy Skips (35:13)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Do you find like when you’re watching or when you see the mirror, are you paying too close attention and then you’re kind of getting in your head and then messing up? Or is it that you just can’t see what you’re doing?
Sare (35:23)
That’s weird.
Yeah, I think so.
can see perfect. Like, I just don’t know. can’t, like you say, can’t concentrate because there’s so many things and attributes going on. And if I’m jumping in the mirror, like jumping in the mirror, man in the mirror, like jumping, facing the mirror, there’s just something that’s not connecting with what I’m doing. You know what I think it is? And I’ve just clicked now. You know, like if you ever, if you ever done a aerobics class or something like that, and the person’s facing you and you’re meant to be mirroring them.
Dizzy Skips (35:38)
Mm. Mm-hmm.
Alice in Wonderland.
Hmm.
Yep.
Sare (36:02)
I can’t effing do it. I like go all over the place. I go jambily and like they have to be facing the same way and I can do it perfectly. I’m brilliant. But if they’re facing me, I go completely all the way different. I think that’s what it is. That’s just clicked to me. There you go. You’ve just completely sorted out my head. That’s why I can’t do it because I’m trying to look, but it’s not it’s a mirror version. It’s not me stood in front of me.
Dizzy Skips (36:04)
Hahaha
Right, right.
Interesting.
Can you?
Yeah, I have a weird question. Can you read upside down? Like if you turn a book upside down, can you read pretty quickly?
Sare (36:32)
Yes. Yeah.
And quickly, probably not, but yeah, I can read. So like when my daughter’s reading to me, I’ve got, obviously the book’s facing her and I’m like this. Yeah, I can read that. So I can read that. Yeah, that’s weird.
Dizzy Skips (36:42)
Yep. Okay. Yeah. I
wondered if it was like, I can read upside down very quickly and it’s just, it works for me. But I know some people who they have to process each letter. It’s like they don’t see the words. They’re looking at the letters and trying to like construct the word. You know, it’s weird.
Sare (37:04)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I get what you mean.
Dizzy Skips (37:05)
So I wondered if
Sare (37:06)
I stru-
Dizzy Skips (37:06)
there was a component of that when you’re watching yourself in the mirror where it’s like you’re, you get, I know what you mean though, like I’ve been in those kind of classes where the martial arts instructor’s saying, all right, I want you to do this and he’s doing it this way and I’m supposed to be doing it this way and every once in while I get a little in my head.
Sare (37:19)
Yeah, yeah, I can
follow stuff like that, but as long as they’re facing the same way as me and my arms will do exactly what they’re doing. They’re looking at me, there’s not a chuffing chance. There’s no chuffing chance at me doing that. They have to be facing the way. It’s just the way you wired up though, I suppose. can’t read… Wait, that sounds wrong. I can read. I can’t read a book. So if you put a book in front of me, I will jump five lines down.
Dizzy Skips (37:32)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Sare (37:47)
before I’ve even read that first sentence. Like I just, I have no attention span for it. I just don’t have that attention span. I try, I really do try. And it’s just hard for me. Like even before your podcasts, I couldn’t listen to podcasts. I just couldn’t do it because I’d be going off on 500 different avenues down my brain. It’s just the way that I’m wired, I think. So I work with it it works fine, but your podcasts are interesting enough to stay with.
Dizzy Skips (37:50)
Okay.
Mm-hmm. Sure.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Well, thank you. That’s so sweet of you.
Sare (38:19)
I stick with them because I’m like, yeah, I really want to hear what was going on next.
Dizzy Skips (38:22)
And I just think it’s so fun to hear from people who are like-minded and doing the same sort of thing. What got you to pick up a rope at first, Sarah?
Sare (38:27)
Yeah. Yeah.
I got stuck in a rut, not stuck in a rut, stuck in a kind of funk, I suppose. So I suffered with, so I’ve got a five year old turning six in March and I got stuck in a rut with postnatal depression. So I stopped going to the gym. I stopped doing all the things that I liked and I can’t remember, probably saw Lauren, but I also saw someone else who used to skip with Lauren, she’s on.
Dizzy Skips (38:45)
Mm-hmm.
Sare (38:56)
Reels, many, far, far, far down in her thing called Sarah. She was based in London and she was, not to say it in a bad way, she was a heavier set girl. And I looked at her and I thought, she’s got big boobs, she’s got big bum, she can skip, let’s try it. And honestly, that was it, that was it. I was like, there’s no way. I used to be able to run and stuff like that. I used to love running, but I never thought about skipping. And I thought,
Dizzy Skips (39:05)
Mm-hmm.
Sare (39:21)
that looks kind of cool let’s see let’s give it a go it was kind of one of those see you see a video and then i got into @kathyjumps and i was just like oh my god i’m gonna try all of this crazy stuff so that was it i saw that i kind of wanted wanted to try something new something that i could do at home so i wasn’t away from home going to a gym away from my daughter because 2021 she was just turning two
Dizzy Skips (39:38)
Mm-hmm.
Okay, yeah.
Sare (39:44)
So she was just
in in two at that point. And yeah, I didn’t want to be away from home. I didn’t want to travel anywhere. I just wanted to stay. I had postnatal depression and postnatal anxiety. So it was just, there was loads of things going on in my head if I went away from the house. So jump rope, I can’t run on the spot. That’d be ridiculous. I had a bike, but I hated like a static bike. God, I hated that thing. I so glad when that got sold, I hated it. So I thought, so I went jump.
Dizzy Skips (40:05)
Mmm. Mmm.
Feels like you’re going nowhere, right? You just get on there.
Sare (40:14)
Yeah, there was a point where I did start to like it, but no, no, it wasn’t for me. So I picked up a rope because I could do that outside. Then we just like had a slab patio and it was easy to do on there. And I did it with that cheap rope. And then stupidly, we ended up getting like a band stage wooden patio built over it. And I was like, well, that’s my skipping place gone. So we had to bring it inside.
And that’s when I got the PVC and I shortened it down so it didn’t hit the light or the roof, know, whack out things. And I just did it like 5 a.m. when Ada was asleep. So I did it at like 5 a.m. in the morning. So like quietly jumping, you know, quite happy, do about half an hour in the front room. And I ended up losing a load of weight from it. I really enjoyed it again. And I started to get really into a good groove and good routine.
Dizzy Skips (40:54)
Mm-hmm.
Sare (41:06)
I’m very much the, I used to be very much like the 5am club. I still am now. I don’t get up and exercise because now I’m starting to go at night because I don’t need to be always here for my daughter. Like my husband’s here and things. So it’s just, it’s just how your life evolves with kids. I suppose you start to work around them instead of against them, you know, and putting, putting yourself last, which ended up, what was the way I was going? So that’s why I picked up a rope to do it here.
Dizzy Skips (41:25)
Sure.
Sare (41:33)
and now I’ve got back into the whole world of the gym again. So yeah, it’s just quite nice.
Dizzy Skips (41:37)
So can I ask,
I’m curious, by the way, depression sucks, and I’m sorry you went through that, because I have struggled with depression for much of my life, and I know that feeling where you kind of don’t know if you’ll ever be happy again, or what am I for, and it’s just miserable. And I think it’s so amazing that something like Jump Rope can help so much with that. You hear people like,
Sare (41:47)
Yeah.
Meh.
Dizzy Skips (42:01)
I don’t know if you had this experience, I had times where I was very depressed and talking to doctors and stuff and like, well, what are you doing to exercise? And my reaction was like, I can barely get off my, I can barely get out of bed. You want me to exercise? I can’t even think of a reason to keep going. But having gone to the place where, all right, I’m gonna do something different and then skipping and then starting to feel
Sare (42:13)
Yeah.
Dizzy Skips (42:27)
benefits of that. guess I’m wondering for you, how long after you started skipping did you start to realize the benefits or did it start to affect your depression or start to help?
Sare (42:37)
I would say, because I’m very competitive, it pretty much started straight away because I luckily, well I did go out and do 20 minutes, because you do, because you’re a prat. Like the first jump rope I did was maybe 15 minutes and I went straight back in with shin splints, I had them for a week. But I still got on and carried on, because everyone does when they start, no one knows any better. But when I started to get…
Dizzy Skips (42:59)
Yeah.
Right.
Sare (43:06)
longer skipping or doing more skips in a continuous row without tripping up. And then I was like, oh, this is quite, this is quite fun. is. And so then the competitive side started to kick in and then I was like, okay, I’m my own little competition here. And there’s been no point at all through my four year journey where jump rope has made me feel sad. And I can honestly say that not sadness in any shape or form.
Dizzy Skips (43:20)
Mm-hmm.
Sare (43:34)
bit of frustration and a lot of F’s but and a lot of you mother of a like seriously there’s been a lot of that but there’s been no sadness because I like I think I said it on the hang I always end on something that I really love or I’m really good at just to just to go nail it and just like yeah screw it I didn’t do that but I did this ha off and then you just go happy yeah I can’t say I’d say it was near on instant
Dizzy Skips (43:36)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, I really love that point that you made.
Sare (44:01)
It was like a joy that came out of me and that’s what I try and exuberate with other people that try it. I’m like, just spin a rope around you, see how you feel. And yeah, some people go, God, this is really hard work. And yeah, it is hard work. I can’t do some of the things that other people can do. I’ve started doing aerobics classes and they are like torture. And they’re like, you jump and I’m like, yeah, but skipping’s different. I don’t know why skipping is different, but it’s just different. And yeah, I went to the gym today with a friend.
Dizzy Skips (44:07)
Mm-hmm.
Hahaha.
Sare (44:31)
and we started to train together, weight train. And I got to show me something and I went, so do you want to try a jump rope? And she was like, I don’t think I could do it. I was like, just try. She did, she’s gone and bought some today.
Dizzy Skips (44:46)
Nice! Nice. A convert. Cha-ching. Yeah.
Sare (44:48)
I’m like winning, absolutely winning, winning
at life on that one. But yeah, it’s just, I don’t know whether it’s that association that it takes you back to childhood of just being free. And like I say, with that orb that’s around me, like my little force field, nothing can affect me. I’m in, I’m grooving to whatever I’m listening to. And it’s just joy. I couldn’t be without it now. And that’s why when I injure myself, I’m so dang peed off.
Dizzy Skips (45:00)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
I know what mean.
Sare (45:18)
change it. So I changed the narrative. yeah, I don’t have to jump, I can rope wrangle. I can spin it around me. can learn 360s. I can learn wraps. And it’s so versatile with an injury. And that’s what I think I’m quite thankful of that it’s not just a static jump up and down type movement is you do whatever you want with that rope. And I quite like that.
Dizzy Skips (45:30)
Yeah.
Yeah,
yeah, I think that’s pretty amazing. Do you know Helga Morgan? @helgajumpstofitness and she just got a new account, @helgainmotion She’s got a back injury. I think that’s part of the reason she’s got a new account. She’s instructing Zumba classes.
Sare (45:44)
Yeah.
Yeah, I that.
no.
Mm-hmm.
Dizzy Skips (45:58)
but she
does rope dancing as well. And I really respect that, you know, when she got to the point where it’s too painful for her to jump consistently, she gets out there with a rope and she dances and she has fun and she entertains. And I mean, it’s just, and I know it helps her, you know, like it helps me. And when we had that group hang, @laurajayjumps was on there and
Sare (46:09)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Dizzy Skips (46:18)
She had a big injury to her calf and I had a similar sort of, or I have a similar sort of injury now. And one of things I loved about what she did was she just didn’t let that slow her down at all. She just showed up to gym every day and she’s like, all right, I’m gonna get, I’m gonna know releases. And she can release like a queen now, you know? Yeah.
Sare (46:34)
She can release like a queen, yeah. I
can’t believe that, I followed her, but I didn’t actually know it’s only been three months, because you don’t scroll do ya, sometimes. You don’t scroll to see how long someone’s been there. And yeah, I couldn’t believe she’s only been doing it for three months. I was like, dang. Yeah.
Dizzy Skips (46:49)
I know, she totally fell in love. She was like, yeah,
this is awesome, I’m gonna do it.
Sare (46:54)
Yeah,
for sure. that’s thing that I kept telling the girls in the Jump for Joy group was just choose your own lane. Don’t compare yourself to anyone else. Everyone’s journey is different with Rope. yeah, I could, you know, took Laura three months or two months to learn a mic release. Shit, it took me two and a half years almost. Like, but I don’t care about that because I know that what I’ve achieved was my achievement. It wasn’t anyone else’s.
Dizzy Skips (47:04)
Yeah.
I’m sorry.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Sare (47:20)
Yeah, I had so many coaches tell me how to do it and I couldn’t do it. And then that first one landed and then you just never look back. So I, yeah, I always taught the girls just don’t compare yourself. And it’s the only thing that I could ever, it’s the same with gym. It’s the same with anything in life. People only post the shit that they’re happy with. And that’s the thing with social media. If I didn’t have it for an accountability for me,
Dizzy Skips (47:25)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Sare (47:46)
I probably wouldn’t have social media, but then I’d lose all my lovely friends across the pond. Jump for Joy made me go more international with things. And I love that. you know, I just, I don’t know what I’d be without it, but I also know that there is points where I have to go, okay, this is enough now. I’ll not post as much type thing. it’s that because no one needs to see it all the time. Like, but I’m quite happy when I post something that I’m quite proud of or something. There’s an accountability thing.
Dizzy Skips (47:48)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Right.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Sare (48:15)
Like that elephant thing, I don’t know if you saw that reel the other day, my god, that was the worst move I’ve ever tried in my life. I saw Stacey do it and I was like, that didn’t look that hard. And so, and I have attempted it before, but I could never get my arms underneath my leg, it confused me. There was something about that movement. So the elephant is basically your leg goes up in a can-can and your arms go in a cross underneath your leg and then you skip under and then it goes up over your head.
Dizzy Skips (48:21)
Hahaha
Yeah.
Can you describe the move?
Sare (48:43)
So that’s an elephant. So it looks like an elephant. Your legs, the nose, the trunk, and then your arms cross underneath. I can’t show you. I’m in my PJ bottoms, so I’m not showing you that. I’m in an elephant, but I’ve got zebra pants on. Yeah, your leg goes out and then your arms cross underneath and then the rope. So with the rope, obviously, you spin it, go underneath and it goes underneath you and come back over.
Dizzy Skips (48:50)
Mm-hmm.
There you go.
Sare (49:09)
shit, I must have been doing that for 15 minutes. I just did it. I just said, I said to myself, I’m just going to go have a try and see how funny it is. And I did get, I was actually surprised. I got it under the other foot. I think that was the most biggest achievement I did. And then I finally got it up to my shoulders, but the whips at my back were straight lines. I looked like a checkerboard or like a cross, you know, a chess board.
Dizzy Skips (49:12)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah, So
playing tic tac toe on your back.
Sare (49:35)
Oh my god, one of them, I swear to god, I almost, I thought I saw hell. There was something that came out of me that was, I need to listen to the audio actually because I’m pretty sure it was satanic. There was something satanic came out of me. But then by the end, I’d got it up to the demon’s surfaced. I was like Jack Black coming out of a Foo Fighters song. Oh god.
Dizzy Skips (49:50)
Yeah, Yeah. The demon surfaced.
Sare (50:02)
So I’ve got it up and over, so under my leg, up over myself and then the dang thing got stuck in my ponytail, you don’t have this issue, but it got stuck in my ponytail so then I’m head banging to get it off. You just see this rope spinning around. It was honestly, but even that, I didn’t do it, I didn’t successfully do it, but I was damn proud I got it up that far.
Dizzy Skips (50:16)
Yeah.
That’s great.
Sare (50:25)
Just
say, and I was just like, I don’t even care that I haven’t unlocked that. That is, that’s a work in progress and that was a good start in my eyes, but it was so freaking funny. The worst thing was I was doing it to, I didn’t mean to do it. I was doing it, I just put my skipping playlist on. There was no, cause again, I wasn’t filming it in theory to do a combo. I was doing it to Beyonce, break my soul. Cause that’s the first song in the playlist. Cause that was something that we did a combo to.
Dizzy Skips (50:29)
Yeah.
Yeah, that is funny.
Mm-hmm.
Sare (50:53)
And then randomly Rihanna SOS help me came on after it. And that’s what I was, that was, yeah, and every fucking time it did it. And I was like, yeah, help me. Screaming at the thing. Yeah, there’s been a, yeah, that poor gym. I’d love to watch the CCTV back.
Dizzy Skips (50:58)
right after you smacked yourself in the back of the head.
Yeah.
my gosh, it’d be so funny. Yeah, I have been, I told you earlier, I’ve been trying to work on releases myself and I was making myself laugh the other night and last night because I’m landing them a lot more often and I’m hitting myself less. But every once in a while I still catch one and I don’t know if you saw that video, I did that jokey video where I put a big pillow down my pants and said, yeah.
Sare (51:16)
Yeah.
Yes.
Good.
Yes, yeah, yeah,
yeah. Because of, was that Mandy? That was Mandy’s influence, wasn’t it? In the footh, yeah.
Dizzy Skips (51:41)
Yeah, Mandy Shaw was talking about how she got her sons like, yeah,
his pads and put them in her pants so that she wouldn’t smack her bum anymore. Yeah, so but yeah, anyway, I’m practicing releases and I’m hitting them every once in a while. And then every once in a while, I just don’t get it out far enough. And I whack myself. so I so I was saying
Sare (51:52)
Yes.
Dizzy Skips (52:10)
my god, I whacked myself in my @richardheadjumps.
I did it over and over again and then I thought, okay, now I gotta do another reel where I like put pillows all over me and like duct tape them to me so I look like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters, you know?
Sare (52:24)
Don’t
do that because I have nightmares about that guy. I’ll have to blink at myself, I’ll be like this.
Dizzy Skips (52:26)
Okay. Maybe for Halloween,
our next Halloween skip. I could be the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.
Sare (52:32)
Yeah, you’ll be
the state of marshmallow and I’ll be running away. Oh, that’s brilliant. Yeah, I know what you mean about the mic release and the catches. Where do you say you catch it? So like when you say you catch it, do you catch handle or catch rope?
Dizzy Skips (52:36)
Yeah.
I’m trying to catch handle and most often, I have been, the way I’m judging my release catches is that it’s good if I catch it on the handle or within a hand of the handle. That’s what my goal is. So if I’m catching it three feet down, then I’m like, all right, well, it’s kind of a miss. mean, at least I didn’t drop it or whack myself in the Richard Head, but yeah, anyway.
Sare (53:00)
I’m in the hands of the handle, yeah, yeah, yeah, I get that.
I’m still confused
how in the rope of it, how you hit yourself in the Richard Head. But again, it just depends, it’s where the rope goes, isn’t it? It has a mind of its damn own. And that’s the crazy thing about it.
Dizzy Skips (53:16)
it
Yeah, I actually
landed a mamba twice last night and I’ve never, I hadn’t really tried it, but that’s one where it’s easier to hit yourself in the Richard Head because then it’s crossing in front of your body, right?
Sare (53:28)
Good boy!
because it’s crossing many times.
I did myself in my non-Richard Head and yeah, that hurt a lot. Yeah, that wins.
Dizzy Skips (53:37)
Right, right. I’ve watched
coach, my coach, when he does the mama sometimes, he will put his hand up by his ear while he’s doing it so that he’s got some protection for his ear. I think he’s probably smacked himself pretty hard in the past.
Sare (53:54)
That
ear smack is something that’s just unholy. Like it really is. It’s just, I don’t know why. And I’ve done it, I’ve hit that hard. It’s whacked my headphones off, forwards. Jesus Christ, it’s bad. Like it’s just not even needed. But the one that I was doing the other night, so the Tomahawk release, my God, that was so much fun. So you release and you don’t pull back to pocket.
Dizzy Skips (54:05)
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Sare (54:23)
and catch it pocket, you release, keep it there and catch it here. my God. The bruise that I had there was disgusting. Like, I mean, my thumb looked like it had got an infection. It was so black the next day, like purple black. It’s still a bit bruised here, little tiny bit. Yeah, a little discoloured now, but Jesus.
Dizzy Skips (54:28)
Yeah.
I was watching it. Yeah.
Really?
Yeah.
yeah, I can see a little discoloring there.
Sare (54:52)
Like the things that that thing did and I don’t know how I didn’t swear more. I was in the open gym as well when I first started it. when I did it actually. I was in the open gym. I was in the, on the padded area and literally the whole gym is right next to me. I don’t know how I did it, but every time I hit that bit and it was the same dang spot, I don’t know how the rope knows exactly where to hit you, but it’s just got a vendetta for you. So you said that you’ve got rope names, don’t you?
Dizzy Skips (55:03)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Yep.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Yeah.
Sare (55:19)
I only have rope names when they’re being little bitches. Like they get, they get, they get, they get, they little, they get worse names than that. I won’t do it because it’s going to be posted, but yeah, they get worse names than that. Trust me. There is some real devils.
Dizzy Skips (55:20)
yeah.
Yeah. And are they all called little bitches? Stop it, you little bitch.
Yeah.
Right. Yeah. So I’m curious. I saw that
that reel and I and I’ve seen you do that move. I’ve seen Sean do that move. Chris Peterson does that move. I’ve seen Miss Nikki Skips do that. But here’s what I’m curious about. Like, how did you go from doing just like a normal release on one side and catching it at the pocket to like what was the first step you took to to get it so that you can catch it up by your shoulder? Like how did you
Sare (56:00)
I didn’t,
the only thing that I saw, so I saw it on a story of Kathy and I’d seen people do it, so @kathyjumps, I’d seen people do it before. my God, amazing. She’s like mom inspo to the, like I literally follow her like I’m a freak. I’m like, yeah, she’s posted again. Yes, me too. I’m like a psycho. If I ever meet her, I might faint. Like a puddle. I basically,
Dizzy Skips (56:08)
She’s fantastic, by the way. I love her.
Yeah, I’ve got notifications on for all of her stuff now.
Sare (56:29)
So I watched that and watched it on repeat. So I kept just flipping back and forth. So the way I went to the normal mic release. I just realized she kept her hand on the same side. So when you’re doing your normal releases, you spin, spin, pull back.
Dizzy Skips (56:35)
Mm-hmm.
Sare (56:54)
and then that brings that handle back to pocket position. Don’t know why it’s just the physics that Chris taught me. He loves his physics. If you ever get to meet that guy or have a session with him, honest to God, his physics, it just makes sense. And I don’t know why. He’s so good with his physics. It’s just mad. And it really makes sense. so I saw that she kept it on the same side. So was like, all right, keep it on the same side, see where the rope goes. And it just went there. And I was just like, oh shit, okay.
Dizzy Skips (56:59)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, I’m still looking forward to it. Like, I’ve heard so much great stuff.
Sare (57:23)
It kept hitting. didn’t land it. I probably landed it the fourth or fifth time. And I was like, okay, oh, shit. Okay, that actually works. So I just kept doing it. And yeah, it’s just, I’m very much a, I’ll study, not study something. I’ll watch it a few times and I’ll know. I’ll know, but I’ll know how to execute it in a sense. I’ve got the same kind of brain with, is it a kinesthetics learner? So you show me something and I’ll do it.
Dizzy Skips (57:25)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Sare (57:52)
I’m weird like that. Can’t follow someone who’s looking at me. I can’t follow someone who’s looking at me, but I could follow them if they show me the right way. Yeah, I like…
Dizzy Skips (57:55)
That’s cool.
Mm-hmm.
Right. Yeah. You just have to tell them, please
turn around. Don’t face me. Just do it that way. Yeah. Show me your butt. Right.
Sare (58:06)
just don’t look at me, do it that way. Even if I can’t see your hands, I’ll know what you’re doing.
Yeah, just don’t know. Yeah, so I just watched it few times and then I just go and execute it until I either fail or do it, basically. That’s just how I like to learn.
Dizzy Skips (58:21)
Yeah. What are your favorite moves?
Do you have like go-to things that you do? Like if you just go out to skip and just flow like what comes out.
Sare (58:31)
It depends how I’m feeling. It depends what comes out of me. Sometimes I really enjoy crosses. Sometimes I really hate crosses. Sometimes I really like leg overs. I love a toad. I love a toad, but a toad does not love me. I, when I, I don’t know why I can’t correct it either. So many coaches have told me what I do wrong with it. And I do it, it does it, but I do this leg flick at the back and I’m like,
Dizzy Skips (58:32)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mmm.
Sare (59:00)
Why do I not get that leg down? And it’s, you know, when bad habits are taught, I can’t get rid of this bad habit. And I have tried and tried and tried. So a toad is where you cross under one, go under the other and go around and over. And when that one, when your loose leg that you go under goes back down, it flicks. So I don’t, can’t put my legs back together. One flicks up like, yeah, like I’m almost, yeah.
Dizzy Skips (59:04)
Mm-hmm.
Mm.
Okay.
Sare (59:27)
It’s like an almost little leg celebration that I’ve done the toad. Maybe I’m just too hoppy, I don’t know. But yeah, and it’s just a leg flick. Toads I really love, but they don’t love me. I just, I don’t know what I love the most. I’m not like a cross king, I can’t. I enjoy doing the EBs now, so Aaron helped me do that again. Something I’ve unlocked ages ago, but I just couldn’t do it with the way that I’ve been.
Dizzy Skips (59:29)
Uncontrollable joy. Whee!
I’ve been working on those myself
and I wonder, was there… I’ve got that fancy Feeds app and I watched Lauren jumps, you know, do the EB and teach that. like one of the things I love about her app is that she’ll say like, here are the common mistakes that people make. And with the EB, one of the things she points out is like, if you’re doing it on one side and then you go to the other side, don’t whip your arm way out because you’ll wrap the rope around it. You know, like you want to…
Sare (1:00:01)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Okay, yeah
Dizzy Skips (1:00:20)
bring it down low, but
was there something specifically challenging about the EB for you or was there something that you learned where you thought, okay, now it makes sense, now I can do it?
Sare (1:00:33)
So
I was trying to jump the rope while it was like, so try to think of an E.B. and try and explain it. So I was trying to
Dizzy Skips (1:00:41)
I suppose we should probably
or define an EB for people who don’t know what it is actually.
Sare (1:00:46)
God, don’t tell me to do that. So an EB jump is a jump over, your dominant hand goes in front across in a cross position and basically your back arm does a cross position at the back of you and then you jump that. So it’s like your front arm does a cross, your back arm does a backwards cross and somehow you magically jump this rope. So the thing that Aaron helped me with is that
he was basically like, you’re just doing a cross but your body’s in the middle of it. And I was like, why have I not thought of it like that before? So before I was trying to jump, but I was trying to swoop. So like, like a mix swoop. So my arm was already there at the back and I was like, brilliant, this is in the right position. But I was trying to swoop this arm and like scoop up the EB. So I was making the rope shorter than it needed to be. So then I was like,
Dizzy Skips (1:01:17)
Mm-hmm.
Yep.
Sure.
Yep.
Sare (1:01:40)
you prat, just cross but with your body in the middle. And it worked. It honestly unlocked both sides straight away the next time I tried it.
Dizzy Skips (1:01:43)
Mm-hmm.
So
you end up keeping your arms very close to your body.
Sare (1:01:53)
Well, as close as they can be with the frame that I am. But yeah, because I’m a big set girl, like it’s quite hard. But yeah, so I just literally cross.
Dizzy Skips (1:02:00)
But I mean, you’re not like whipping your
arms out. You’re really trying. It’s like if you do a cross, you’re right in front of your body. And the cross with your body in the middle is basically just having one hand behind your back, right?
Sare (1:02:04)
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah,
but like tight, like tight in. So I try and cross it, like say you cross, you obviously it’s the momentum of moving your arm, yeah, your wrists as well. Because everyone always always forgets that is that a lot of it is your wrists. Like a lot of it people think it’s your arms. Actually, yeah, your arms just show the direction of where it’s going. It’s your wrist that manipulate it and make that wrist do the thing. So yeah, so when he said that to me, and it just completely made me go light bulb.
Dizzy Skips (1:02:19)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Such a great point.
Yep.
Sare (1:02:38)
And I just went off and did it and then I did it both sides and I was like you pratt I was like I’ve just wasted so much energy on that and he could have told me that ages ago But now I was really thankful. He sent me like little video clips as well He’s such a sweetheart and he really does help the community. I can see all the people that he helps across the world Yeah, @aaronjumps.365 and he just sends them little videos and he thinks he’s being a dork and I’m like you’re not you’re being so helpful like you you just he just explained things that just made it sense like made sense to me
Dizzy Skips (1:02:52)
Aaron? Yeah.
I know.
Sare (1:03:05)
Yeah, so that really helped and that was the thing that made me unlock it was just that it’s talking about the sense, like actually making sense of it. I don’t know if I’m making sense now, but he just said something and it just made me go light bulb and then I went and did it both sides. So yeah.
Dizzy Skips (1:03:05)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah,
no, that’s a really great way of articulating that. It’s just a cross with your body in the middle. Like, yeah, that makes perfect sense. I love the point you make about the wrists too, because that’s something that I had a lot of trouble with when trying to…
pull off crosses, you know, like I can do crosses, but I would be jumping on a limestone bench and I would do like three crosses and I’d whack myself or something. And sometimes when I’d go back and watch the video, was because after I had done one, I would bring my hands too far out and so I would be shortening the rope and then I’d whack myself. But another thing I noticed was, sometimes I’m just relying on my arms to get that rope around me and I need to, you know, I need to be following through with my wrist and it makes so
Sare (1:03:37)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Dizzy Skips (1:04:03)
much difference. Like once you,
Sare (1:04:04)
Yeah.
Dizzy Skips (1:04:04)
okay I’m turning with my wrist, I’m helping the rope, I’m scooping the rope behind me, then then all of sudden I can do a whole bunch in a row, you know.
Sare (1:04:08)
Yes.
Yeah, it’s mad isn’t it? Like
even see even still now I’ll do something, an Eylee will see it or if I go to Eylee I’ll just send it to her like what am I doing wrong here? So I tried to do a behind the back mamba. flipping hell. I just every time my arm went behind me my wrist just stopped like my hand just stopped rotating she was like you need to rotate it and then bring it back and I was like I don’t know why I’m not.
Dizzy Skips (1:04:24)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Sare (1:04:39)
The brain’s sending
signals but it’s just not, it’s not, it’s not, they’re not working with each other. So I scrapped that off for a little bit but I know I’ll get it but it was just that whole, don’t know why I’m getting this and she was like, you stopped rotating your hand. I was like, yeah, I’ve took it there, the rope’s over there but for some reason I just stopped rotating to bring it back.
Dizzy Skips (1:04:42)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Sare (1:04:59)
It’s purely, it’s the same with releases actually. So I helped Isabelle in Canada, who was talking about in the Jump for Joy, she’s just unlocked the Mamba the best way that she could do. She kept hitting the floor. So she sent me some videos and I was like, right, I can see what’s happening here and try it this way. And the way that I’m probably giving away coaches tips here, sorry if I am, but the way that Chris taught me, so have you ever done a Rice-mic release? So it’s called a Rice.
Dizzy Skips (1:05:04)
Mmm.
I don’t even know what that
is. Rice?
Sare (1:05:28)
No,
I didn’t know until I did this meetup. it’s, I didn’t know what it was. I’d heard it said, but I didn’t know what it was. So it’s where you basically do your mic release, but instead of doing a wrist pop where it flings off your wrist that way, sorry, wrist pop or a tissue box, it’s you keep your arm down and release it at the side of you and your arms over here. So it releases out the back.
Dizzy Skips (1:05:43)
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
Mm-hmm.
Sare (1:05:55)
So that’s
called a ricemic release. So Chris taught us that. And it was only until that point and I was like, he says, you need to release it at like 9pm. So he works on a clock basis. So 12 forward is your 3pm, 6 is down and then 9 is your backwards. So wherever your rope is pointing, let’s say that’s your clock release. So he did that and he says, you’re not releasing it like.
Dizzy Skips (1:06:05)
Okay. Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
Sare (1:06:23)
between six and nine, you’re releasing like later. And I was like, okay. So then I did that. And every time I thought, right, okay, about seven and half seven release boom, and I landed it every time. And I was like, my shit, the clock works like the clock works. So I told Isabel this, and I thought about my Mamba releases where I released two. So she was tissue and wrist popping.
Dizzy Skips (1:06:47)
Wrist popping.
Sare (1:06:49)
And I was like, I’ve never tried a wrist pop with a Mamba. Because I’m not a wrist popper girl, I’m a thrower. I like to throw it. But I can, I can wrist pop it, it’s fine. So I was doing all that. And so I did it for her and I did it on mine. I was like, yeah, I tissue box it. I throw it out and I’m generally throwing at 1pm. Between 1 and 2pm. And I throw it and it never hits the floor. And she did it and it worked. So somehow I make sense. Yeah.
Dizzy Skips (1:06:55)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Okay. Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Yeah, that’s a really cool tip. Yeah, I’d never heard
the clock thing used, but that’s a really great way to envision it.
Sare (1:07:23)
Yeah, because it’s just the momentum that it’s been, I think it was Chris that taught it to I can’t remember. I’m pretty sure it was. But I know that it’s one of those things that if you throw it, it doesn’t always necessarily mean that it’s going the right direction. You’ve got to make sure you propel it at the same time with your wrist rotation. And then it’s just gravity takes it. So it’s all about the propulsion of it. It’s weird. It’s a lot of physics. It hurts my head. But it works.
Dizzy Skips (1:07:40)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Sare (1:07:50)
Physics works, obviously it works, it’s worked for years, but it definitely works with the jump rope for sure. It depends how technical you want to get into it.
Dizzy Skips (1:07:55)
Yeah.
I hadn’t,
you know, I had only recently, I guess maybe within the last few months, really understood what people meant when they mentioned like tissue box versus wrist pop. And so for those who are listening who maybe don’t know these terms yet, the wrist pop is like as the rope is coming around your left hand, for example, I’m right-handed. So my right hand goes on top of my left hand and then that.
Sare (1:08:08)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Dizzy Skips (1:08:23)
sort of collision is when you let go of the rope. Yeah.
Sare (1:08:27)
that
yeah you left well wait you know
Dizzy Skips (1:08:30)
No, your left, I’m sorry,
your left is on top of your right, right. I know. I’m looking, I gotta turn around.
Sare (1:08:34)
You’re making me do it wrong now. like, wait, so right hand’s got the…
Your right hand’s holding the rope and it stays with the rope, it stays on the handle. Your left hand goes on top and it pops over and then you spin and then catch it back down. Yeah.
Dizzy Skips (1:08:43)
Right. Yeah.
Yeah, and so
it’s that collision that sort of gets that rope spinning, but the tissue box or the throw, like you’re saying, is instead of colliding with your hand, you’re actually with your left hand just kind of releasing the rope as you’re spinning with your right hand. Tossing it, yeah, yeah.
Sare (1:08:53)
Propose it. Boom. Boom.
Tossing it, as I like to say. Tossing it. Tossing Please
say it your British accent because your British accent makes me laugh. Tossing it.
Dizzy Skips (1:09:13)
I got a little worried because
I used the British accent. I was goofing around last time and Richard said, so offensive or something like that. And I was like, my God, did I really offend them? Bloody hell.
Sare (1:09:20)
No, he’s… no, he wasn’t.
Bugger off Richard Head It’s not offensive at all, I love it. Yeah, so you basically throw in the rope, you’re still holding one handle, you throw the other handle and see what the hell happens with gravity. Basically, you either get smacked, it hits the floor or you catch it. It just depends. What one… when you say you’re…
Dizzy Skips (1:09:26)
Bugger off Richard.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Sare (1:09:46)
learning the mic release and doing the mic release. Are you tissue box or are you wrist puck?
Dizzy Skips (1:09:50)
I’ve tried both of them. My coach really prefers the tissue box and that’s basically what works best for me. I can do it either way but what I find is I don’t need that collision if I’ve got the momentum and I’m using heavier ropes so I’ve got some circular momentum and then I just let go and usually it works out okay, I guess.
Sare (1:09:55)
Nice.
think
Aaron does it with a wrist pop and his wrists are black with that Mira rope. Like from that meetup, he actually couldn’t use his arm. I was actually quite concerned. I was so concerned. I was like, when he was getting back on that train, I was like, are you sure you’re okay? Are we okay to leave you? Luckily his wife was picking it up and I was just like, I’m so glad you don’t have to drive.
Dizzy Skips (1:10:18)
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah, he said both of his wrists were like super swollen and he just powers through all the time.
Sare (1:10:43)
because that would have caved. It would have hurt so much.
Dizzy Skips (1:10:45)
So how did you guys do that meetup?
Sare (1:10:48)
So that
was another one that Chris organised and I don’t know if you know England very well but he said Midlands. So me and Stacey were like, Midlands, like East Midlands, it might be Birmingham, it might be Nottinghamshire. So like we’re right in the East Midlands of the England. And it ended up being in Manchester in the North. You even proclaimed it was the North. I was like, that is the fricking North. But okay. So we ended up going, but it was one of the worst storms that we’d been hit with. so, barely anyone turned up. There was like eight people.
Dizzy Skips (1:11:13)
Mmm.
Sare (1:11:17)
But it was nice because we was able to get so much time with Chris. So it was like, not that, it’s just nice when he organizes them because you get to see him, you get to see all the regulars. But because there was so many, and Lizette, his partner, my God, she’s amazing as well. She’s just lovely. And it’s just nice to get some, like, not one-on-one time with him, but just some time dedicated with him. He learned so much. Stacey has completed.
Dizzy Skips (1:11:27)
Mm-hmm.
Sare (1:11:41)
dictionary like 400 times, 500 times, whatever, since it’s been done like Chris’s app. And she even was a bit worried. She was like, I just, I just, don’t know whether I’ll, you know, what I’ll learn. She learned so much. She ended up doing the push up in, you know, the push, is it push up press in double Dutch. So when you do double Dutch and she went down, press up, push back up and did that. She was like, I didn’t expect to do that today. I was like, well, exactly. So when you do meetups and things, you get to do double Dutch stuff that you.
Dizzy Skips (1:11:46)
Mm-hmm.
yeah.
That’s so cool.
Sare (1:12:09)
I’ve got double dutch rope, I’ve got wheel ropes. So wheel is where you’ve got two ropes and you’re both jumping at the same time connected. Have you seen that before? It’s so fun. A handle. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that’s so fun. It’s so hilarious as well. And it goes wrong so quickly, but it’s so fun to do. I am…
Dizzy Skips (1:12:16)
Right. Like, yeah, where you each have a handle for two ropes, right? Yeah. Yeah, that looks really cool.
You whack
yourself in the ear?
Sare (1:12:36)
you whack yourself in every place with those things, Jesus Christ. But you can do crossovers and switches and you go underneath and it’s so fun. Like that’s what I really love about meetups and that’s why I’m going to try and go to more this year. Even if I am injured, like I was injured when I went to that one, like that plantar had just kicked in. I just iced up and just got through it. I still don’t know how I drove home because it’s like a 60 minute drive home after all the trains as well.
Dizzy Skips (1:12:37)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Mmm.
Sare (1:13:03)
So yeah, it was good. But I just like those. I like the vibes of it. I like meeting with other people. I like meeting new people. met someone new at that Manchester one. Is it Cacus? Cacus? Cacus? I can’t remember how to say her name. But she’s a lovely little pocket rocket. She is kind of like Peta, but like smaller. And she was just, yeah, smaller. I can’t even think she was over four foot. I don’t know. She was amazing. But she was so fiery and she brought her son and her son was amazing.
Dizzy Skips (1:13:12)
cool.
No kidding.
Sare (1:13:32)
He did so many double unders in the double dutch. I can’t even believe how well he did. Was he nine? And he loved it as much. And I’m like, okay, when my daughter’s a bit older, I’ll bring her to the meetups too because she really enjoys it. So it’s cute and it’s nice. And they’re just relaxed. There’s no pressure. And I wasn’t pressured to jump, but I saw what people were doing. I was like, let me go, let me go, let me go, let me go. I just like carried on and did it my own. Sat down when I needed to and all that kind of stuff.
Dizzy Skips (1:13:57)
Yeah.
Sare (1:14:02)
But yeah, that’s.
Dizzy Skips (1:14:02)
So those meetups, when
you do those, how are they organized through like meetup.com or something? Or is this more just like a group you’re part of where Chris says, hey.
Sare (1:14:10)
No,
yeah, Chris just posts them and then we end up kind of like chaining them around to each other. So don’t think Aaron knew about it until I sent it to him and I was like, are you up for coming to a meetup? Your first one, I’ll be there. I’ll see, you know, guide you through it and stuff like, because he suffers with anxiety too. Because like he said on his thing, like his, I don’t know if he suffers with anxiety, I might just let that be an introvert. And I was like, I’ll be your extrovert to your introvert. That’s fine. I was like, I’ll take care of you.
Dizzy Skips (1:14:18)
Okay.
Mm-hmm.
Sare (1:14:38)
Because everyone goes to something for the first time in meetups. There’s always one person that’s gone for their first ever meetup. Excuse me. And then I like, yeah, I know what it’s like to feel that first one. The first one that I ever did was the workshop and there was like maybe a hundred people there. I was like this. Like a deer in the headlights. I didn’t know what the chuff was going on. I didn’t know what was going on at all. And I just thought…
Dizzy Skips (1:14:57)
Yeah.
Sare (1:15:04)
this is going to be brilliant. And I was absolutely cracking it, like bricking it. But, because I had Stacey there and she was the one person that I knew and maybe a few others that I’d seen on Instagram, it was okay. And she guided me through it. And then the next year that we went, there was someone that just saw it on like that thing that you just said, like Meetup, Meetupcom. And she was like, that sounds fun. And she was 58, she was rocked up.
Dizzy Skips (1:15:25)
Meetup.com or something, yeah.
Sare (1:15:32)
paid the fee, came and rocked up. Honest to God, I had so much respect for that woman. I was like, you don’t know what you’re setting yourself in for, but I love you for it. Like people like that. And when we do meetups, you know if they’re out in the public and stuff, people just join in. Like they just go, can I have a try? Yeah, here’s a rope, go for it. And they just love it. And we had one a couple of years back now in Nottingham, right? Just in the city center, in the city center.
Dizzy Skips (1:15:37)
Nice.
Yeah.
Cool.
Mm-hmm.
Sare (1:16:01)
there were skateboarders around us, like skateboarding, and one of them fricking jumped through the jump rope. So we were double-dutching and he jumped through it as a double-dutch. And I just remember going, oh my God, he was a famous skateboarder. We didn’t find out until afterwards, but he was a really famous skateboarder. And I was like, no.
Dizzy Skips (1:16:04)
Nice.
Nice.
Yeah, Tony Hawk doing the…
Sare (1:16:25)
If only. No, someone else. I don’t know what his name was. I’ve got him tagged in the video because I put the video up. It was just amazing. I was like, this is cool how you can incorporate someone else like that. And like, I don’t know if you’ve ever seen Rachel for hula dancer size. So yeah, she’s mad. Like she came to what? Mad. She is mad. She’s amazing though. She came to one of the workshops and she got the hula hoop out and was doing double dutch with the jump rope sisters with the hula hoop. I was like…
Dizzy Skips (1:16:32)
That’s so cool. Yeah.
Yeah.
my God.
Sare (1:16:54)
I want to grow up and be like you. It’s just, I love how inclusive it is. Anyone can do it. Like literally anyone can do it. Any ability. Even just picking up that rope is just such a nice thing. And I don’t know if you saw the videos of, I don’t think I put them up. I can’t remember if I did, of my mother-in-law. We went on a holiday with them in October last year. 75. She was doing it.
Dizzy Skips (1:16:56)
Yeah, no kidding. That is really cool.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Nice.
Sare (1:17:23)
I was
like, what? Yeah, I don’t know if I did post them. I posted them of my daughter. It was the same holiday. I think I said to her I wasn’t going to do it, but I posted it in the group of Jump for Joy 100. And yeah, 75 year old just picking up a rope and skipping like she’s a five year old. She was so cool. Yeah, it was nice. It’s just it’s inclusive. And I love that about it.
Dizzy Skips (1:17:26)
Yeah.
That’s awesome. That’s so great. Yeah.
So I’m curious, before you did the challenge with PETA, how involved were you in the jump rope community?
Sare (1:17:55)
I don’t know. I mean, I’ve always been around. I wouldn’t say I’ve ever been really involved in it. I think the Jump for Joy thing’s…
Dizzy Skips (1:18:03)
I guess
maybe another way to ask the question is like, when did you start to realize, hey, there really is a supportive community out here that I want to be.
Sare (1:18:12)
God, that must have about three years ago. So yeah, it was a while ago.
Dizzy Skips (1:18:15)
So you were skipping for a
while before you kind of discovered the community.
Sare (1:18:19)
Yeah, long while. Yeah, I didn’t really know anything. I was just doing it for an accountability thing. Followed Lauren and the people that you do. And you know, when you, I don’t know if you’ve ever done it, maybe it’s just a me thing. You just go down a trail and go, she jumps, jump. he jumps. yeah, follow, follow. Just end up following. I’ve probably got far more followers, like following people than I’ve ever needed in my life. But I like to be influenced by loads of different people. I probably knew.
Dizzy Skips (1:18:23)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Sare (1:18:45)
I probably knew quite early on, but to be involved in that community, I don’t know, I suppose it’s only happened in the last year. I’d say like last year, 18 months, I’d assumed that that’s kind of when it kind of kicked in, that I was being more of a cheerleader and people were, I suppose, noticing me a bit more. I don’t know. I don’t really did it for notice, and I don’t really care what happens.
Dizzy Skips (1:18:52)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Sare (1:19:11)
but I like to help people. So I think that’s the thing that’s come out of me now is that I’d never want to be a coach. I’d never be able to be a coach. I can’t explain things on this, let alone explain things to someone else. But do you know what I mean? I like to help people and I like to be that if someone needed, I’ve always been that type of thing, whether it be work or personal, I’m always that kind of mum of the office that I’ll look after someone if they need to be. So I kind of like that if…
Dizzy Skips (1:19:23)
You’re doing great.
True.
Sare (1:19:40)
people have got stuck with things they message me and I’m like, yeah, of course I can, I’ll help. Or if I see someone asking for help, then I’ll go and just send them a little voice note or something and go, look, do want me to give you some help? If I know how to do it or if I can see what’s going not wrong, but where they can improve it, then yeah, I’ll offer as much as help as possible. But I like that people kind of know that of me now are coming to me for help and advice and I quite like that. I’ve always liked to help people.
Dizzy Skips (1:19:44)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
It is nice and it feels good
to help people out, right? Like I just, it costs nothing and it makes you feel better. And I mean, I honestly believe it helps me as much as it helps the other person. If I try to help someone else or just to be encouraging, you know, just that positivity, you know, an old hippie. And so I feel like you put good energy out there. You get good energy back. And so it, yeah. Right. Yeah.
Sare (1:20:11)
Yeah, well it costs nothing, does it? Just to give a bit of…
Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Good karma, a massive good karma. Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Yeah, I’m a completely sentiment, the exact same thing. And I do struggle to articulate sometimes, because I have my own way of thinking it, the same way that Aaron does. And maybe he thinks that the same, that he’s just sending videos and sounding like a dope, but I feel the same. You never truly know if what you’re going to say is going to convey the same way that you’re saying it. Can you do that kind of way?
Dizzy Skips (1:20:53)
Mm-hmm.
Sare (1:20:56)
I do have that anxiety, but if someone nails something that I’ve helped them do, Jesus Christ, I’m like, that is amazing. And I feel good for contributing to that. Not that I’ve done it for them, that I’ve helped them accomplish something like that. Yeah, that’s, it’s a really nice feeling. Like you say, good karma and you give as much as you can. And if you’ve got knowledge of something, why not share it? That type of thing. And that’s why I like the meetups with Chris, cause he just shares.
Dizzy Skips (1:21:07)
No. Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Sare (1:21:24)
He literally downloads it all onto you and you kind of, you come back a bit bedazzled. You’re like, okay, yeah, that was a lot of information, but somewhere there’s processes going and there’s a typewriter type it up and it will save it for later.
Dizzy Skips (1:21:30)
Yeah.
Yeah,
yeah, I was thinking about that earlier when we were talking about going out and practicing something and you like you were talking about trying to nail this trick and how you got it up to your head and got it caught in your ponytail, but you were satisfied that you were making progress and I’ve been thinking about that recently because like I mentioned, I’ve been working on releases and EBs and…
Sare (1:21:55)
yeah.
Dizzy Skips (1:22:01)
And the perfectionist in me wants to stick with it until I have it nailed and wants to be really serious about this. And what I’ve learned is that rather than me laboring for an hour on the same thing and getting frustrated, it’s so much better for me to work on it for 15 minutes and then put it down. And I can put it down for a half hour, I can put it down overnight, but I still make progress. Like the next day,
Sare (1:22:07)
Mm-hmm.
We’ll go ahead.
Dizzy Skips (1:22:25)
rather than catching three out of 10 releases, I catch four out of 10 releases or something like that. Or the rhythm just feels a little bit more natural. so I’ve noticed that over the course of the last two weeks, I’ve been doing that where I don’t beat myself into the ground or get to the point where I get frustrated. I mean, you see my reels, I laugh at myself all the time, but when I get to the point where I’m like, all right, I don’t feel like I’m making progress anymore on this right now,
Sare (1:22:34)
Yeah.
Dizzy Skips (1:22:52)
I’ll switch to something else and then the next day I’m starting to land releases and it makes me so thrilled because that shit looked like magic to me. It still looks like magic to me. Right?
Sare (1:22:53)
Mm-hmm.
It’s wizardry. It’s wizardry. It is still wizardry to me.
It still makes me laugh that I can do it. I’m like me of all people, the dopiest of dopes in the world. I’m taking the class of like, Aaron’s claimed me as a clown of it as well. like, stop calling me a clown, but actually I am a clown. Because I do make a lot of people laugh. Just put the red nose on me, I’ll be sorted. But yeah, to know that I can do it, I know that anyone could do it.
Dizzy Skips (1:23:11)
You are not dopey at all.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Sare (1:23:29)
And I do mean that in the nicest sense. I’m not putting myself down, but shit, that shit was hard for two and a half years. And yeah, some people nail it straight away, but I like the fact that you’ve taken that different path now. And I’m going to say that’s probably since our last chat, since the 28th when we did it for the new year one, because it is just taking those little wins and those little increments each day or each every other day that you just go, shit, that was a bit of a better job today. Good job. Nice job, Dizzy.
Dizzy Skips (1:23:32)
No.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Sare (1:23:58)
And it’s those little like claps that you give yourself and those little claps are really worth a lot and they will make it. it’s not, you could drill it for an hour and your muscles hurt so much that you kind of go, the injuries hurt so much because it’s repetitive whips and whatever. They could hurt so much. It almost puts a negative spin on that mic release, but doing those like 15, 10 minutes, whatever it is, even five minutes.
Dizzy Skips (1:24:02)
Yeah.
Yeah. Right.
Yeah.
Sare (1:24:26)
When I had COVID for that jump for joy, I made sure I span a rope. I didn’t care what it was, but I just moved a rope even though I could barely move myself. Just spun a rope. And it’s all those little things that add up to those big wins. And that’s a big message that I think that’s a really cool thing that you’re doing. I love that you’re doing that as well, that you’ve changed it. I really know it’s a good testament to you because it’s taping a step back, assessing and going, right, I’m doing it. And it’s kind of like what Richard’s done. He was like,
Dizzy Skips (1:24:34)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Thanks.
Sare (1:24:55)
how many 15 minutes it’s worked up to be six hours or whatever it is and then look at that mic release the other day. Shit I almost threw my phone out the bloody car window. I was that excited. That’s where I went oh shit yeah. My husband almost crashed.
Dizzy Skips (1:24:59)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
His video where he’s like, watch
this, watch this, watch this. So proud of himself. It was great. Yeah.
Sare (1:25:15)
Because he tagged me in it as well. I was proud of him. Oh my
God. And then I think I either called him Keith or Kevin. I didn’t even know. I was like, wait, was it Kevin or Keith? And I was like, I’m just going with Keith. I think I’m going with Keith. One of those things that’s just always going to stick and he’s going to hate us for it, but it’s brilliant. But it’s those things. It’s nice to share and it’s nice to be, you know, to see all the people, you know, just…
Dizzy Skips (1:25:21)
I know.
Yeah, yeah, that’s hilarious.
Sare (1:25:42)
celebrate him for that win because that was a damn nice mic release catch and jump that that mic release and jump is so freaking hard to time like mic releases fine I know but mic release and catch I think I did a few reels of it where I did it blindfolded that was fun it was fun
Dizzy Skips (1:25:51)
Mm-hmm.
You know, it’s funny that you mentioned that because the other night I put my hat on down like this and tried to kind of pull it over my eyes and my eyes closed and I was doing mic releases and I found that I could almost catch them, well every bit as consistently as I could with my eyes open. Like I can catch them with my eyes closed as well as I can catch them with my eyes open because now it is the feeling of where the rope’s at and it’s my internal counting of the number of spins and my…
Sare (1:26:27)
you’ve also got bit of Neo off the Matrix going on, you can kind of see the code that’s going around you. Yeah, and it’s just, again, because you’re using a heavier rope as well, if that was the PVC, that should be completely different. But because you’re using the heavier rope, just, it’s not, I say it’s muscle memory a lot, it is, it’s just that if you’re learning a dance, so if you was a salsa dancer or something like that, or you’re doing the bloody
Dizzy Skips (1:26:30)
Right? Doot, doot, doot, doot. Yeah.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Sare (1:26:55)
I know, or the dance Charleston. It’s the same, you do it and it becomes second nature. And that’s very much the same with a mic release or a mamba. I said on the hangout that I did the mamba squeeze so much I forgot how to get past that third rotation. Honest.
Dizzy Skips (1:26:56)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That mamba squeeze looks so cool.
so for people who don’t know what that is, right? That’s where you do the release on one side, you do a mamba, so you take it to the other side, and you kind of go back and forth a few times, and then you, yeah. It looks so tight.
Sare (1:27:20)
Mamba, yeah, back to it. Put your arm up, whoop, yeah. And wrap
it around yourself. is, was, that was hard to get. So to move from the Mamba to Mamba squeeze.
Dizzy Skips (1:27:30)
Yeah, but once you nailed that, then you had trouble not
squeezing, right?
Sare (1:27:36)
All I could ever do was squeeze and it was so frustrating. And I was like, and that’s how I ended up whipping myself up my face, like your mark. my God. The marks of my face I got from just getting it passed. And even now I still, if I my hair down, my hair just goes, and I’m like, that was a bit tight. Because I quite like a tight release. I don’t know if that sounds right. But I don’t like a loose one.
Dizzy Skips (1:27:44)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Right,
Sare (1:28:01)
So
a loose one, goes wild and you’ve just got no hope of getting it back. Or if you do, it goes hilarious. Yeah, if I do a tight mamba, because I think when I got first taught, someone taught me to lean forward, right into the camera then, lean forward, put your arm out and do it like that. And oh my God, the amount of like lip smacks, nose smack, eye smacks, I got from that. I was like, that is not for me.
Dizzy Skips (1:28:04)
Yeah, You feel like you have more control if it’s tight and…
Mm-hmm.
Sare (1:28:30)
stood up straight, proud, tighter, tightened it in. And now it’s just fluid, it just works. So yeah, it was weird. But again, that’s someone else using their experience, how they do it to teach me, but that didn’t work for me. So then I had to find a compromise. even though all advice is great, excuse me, all advice is great, sometimes it’s not all fits in one the same box. And again, that’s another message that I try and tell people.
Dizzy Skips (1:28:37)
Nice.
Mm-hmm.
Sare (1:28:57)
Your mic release isn’t going to look like mine because you’re not me. You’re not the same build as me. Your arms aren’t the same. Your arms don’t have the same strength. Your legs don’t have the same strength. My jump doesn’t look the same as anyone else’s because I jump how I jump. So when we was doing the… Yeah, and it’s absolutely fine. When we were doing the jump for joy combo that we did at the end, we did just the basic bounce between being inclusive for everyone, but we did also a combo that we did at the 100 days.
Dizzy Skips (1:29:00)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Right. Mm-hmm. And that’s okay.
Sare (1:29:26)
So Peta put it down and again it was a combo. So I was there panicking going, I don’t follow combos that well. So I’ll just write it down and I’ll just execute it while I was on holiday. Now it was Laura skipping midlife crisis and it was heel tap, pause, heel tap, pause, heel tap, pause. Mama do… I do not skip like that. Like I heel tap, swing, heel tap, swing. Like I do like my legs just do 10 to dozen.
Dizzy Skips (1:29:49)
Mm-hmm.
Sare (1:29:55)
So I had to do it in my way because if I did it the other way, it was labored and it hurt. Now, skipping doesn’t generally hurt me, but that hurt. So I was like, I’ve just got to make this adaptation to change it for me. By the end of the 100 days, when I posted it again, I was like, I can do that now. But it just, it didn’t, still didn’t look the same because I had to slow it down and it was, it’s hard for me to slow, slow, like slow things down. But I just said to the girls, I was like,
Dizzy Skips (1:30:00)
Mmm. Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Sare (1:30:22)
No one’s gonna look the same. You’re all not gonna look the same when you’re doing it. You’re not gonna look as effortless as Laura or Peta doing it because that’s Laura and Peta. Everyone’s completely different. Some people come into jump rope and think they need to look as good as Lauren or Kathy to be good at it. No, that’s completely a misconception.
Dizzy Skips (1:30:29)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Sare (1:30:44)
Everyone has their own journey and I think that’s the thing that I try and teach people is it isn’t perfect all the time and it can’t be perfect all the time. If it was then you’re a wizard with a rope and you can go on and make your millions but it’s just joy. If you get joy out of it it’s worth doing.
Dizzy Skips (1:30:50)
Right.
Yeah.
Totally, absolutely. And I’ve said this before, but I just love that everybody has their own style and can bring their own flavor to it. It’s funny you mentioned that when you were in the challenge that people were calling you the release queen and you’re like, no, I’m not a queen or anything like that. I’ve got feedback like that too about shuffling or whatever. Thank you, that’s very nice of you.
Sare (1:31:10)
Yeah.
I’m no.
you are a good shuffle. You’re a shuffle queen.
Dizzy Skips (1:31:28)
But it’s so weird to me because a year ago I was not doing this. I went back recently when I was doing that interview with Jenny. @jennyjustjump and looked at some of my early videos where I was trying to learn the shuffle. And I really struggled with my feet, just doing the basic thing and standing, all right, pick this leg up now, do this. And it’s fun to make progress. And you made another comment about how you kind of never know.
Sare (1:31:33)
That was so…
Mmm.
Mm-hmm.
Dizzy Skips (1:31:57)
this is not a quote, but you kind of never know what you say that will affect somebody else, you know, or what you do that will affect somebody else. And so sometimes those encouraging things that those messages that you might send people or even the comment that you put in your reel. I’ve had so many times where I’ve written something and then I get like really genuine feedback from people saying, thank you for saying this thing here. That really meant a lot to me. And, you know, to me it was like, this is just my journey. This is just, you know, something I’m going to
tell people about my struggle or whatever and have people go, my God, I’ve had that same thing. And so I think that’s just such a lovely part of the community.
Sare (1:32:28)
Yeah.
It opens up a new
wave of communication and you go, okay, well, if you struggled with that, me and, I don’t know if you follow a faith, she was one of the ladies in Jump Joy and me and her, she was like my jump rope sister. I’m like, everything she conveyed, I was like, I think I’ve already said that. We were like entwined but in completely different continents. It was just mad. And to know that…
Dizzy Skips (1:32:38)
Right.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Sare (1:32:59)
one little message that you put out that just makes someone not feel better about themselves but relates to them. Like if something’s relatable I think that’s more genuine content and I quite like that. I say I don’t expect to be adored by thousands. I’m not there for that. I just love the community that we are and if you reach out to one person and it affects someone and makes them feel either better or you know just gives them a
Dizzy Skips (1:33:06)
Mm-hmm.
Sare (1:33:27)
I’m not stressing so much then that’s worth a million followers to me. Like that is the same feeling. Like I’m not really reels. It confuses me all this thing. Like if I try and in the techniques of like the background, I think Becky was on about it. Like the reel stuff, like the views and things, it confuses the hell out of me. Like I’m like, how can one get a hundred? And that was a damn good combo.
Dizzy Skips (1:33:30)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Sare (1:33:54)
like a hundred
views and then that one gets a thousand five hundred. I’m like, I don’t really understand that. If I get into it, then I’ll start being, it will start to affect me mentally and it’ll make pressure on me. So I don’t look into it. I just literally just don’t. I’m like, you do you boo. That’s me. I just say that. And I’m like, just do, just do me. That’s fine. And it will reach to who it needs to reach to. And if it inspires someone else to pick up a rope.
Dizzy Skips (1:33:58)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Sare (1:34:22)
then amazing, which I’ve had a lot of people do that. Like a lot of people see me in the gym, the person that I joined the gym with, so the personal assistant that signed me up, she bought a rope. She was like, she did a session with me when I joined the gym. And I think that’s just lovely. And someone the other day, I didn’t even know her. I started following her, because I can’t remember why I started following her. I saw she was at the same gym. I was like, okay, hi.
Dizzy Skips (1:34:23)
Mm-hmm. That’s cool.
Nice. Yeah.
Sare (1:34:51)
So I followed her and she was like, I was watching you on the leg press in complete awe the other day and I was like, were you? I didn’t even know you could see me through that room!
Dizzy Skips (1:35:00)
Yeah.
Sare (1:35:00)
She was like, yeah, you got me through my last set because I was just watching you. was like, oh god. I was like, and I just put at the end, I was like, if you want to come join me, I have plenty of ropes. I just, yeah.
Dizzy Skips (1:35:01)
Yeah.
That’s so cool. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, that is so
fun. It’s so fun that you can have such a positive effect on other people by doing something that you love, right? You know, like.
Sare (1:35:21)
Yeah, for sure.
Dizzy Skips (1:35:22)
I know I’ve posted several videos where, you know, I’m a spaz and I dance between my, you know, whatever. I’ve had several people contact me and say, I love seeing you dance because it’s, you know, there’s so much joy in it. And I’ve had a few people, even one friend from Mexico who contacted me and said, I have always been so scared to dance in public until I saw you do it and now I’m starting to do it. And I was like, go, go, do your thing, man.
Sare (1:35:28)
I love your breakouts, I love your freestyle.
Dizzy Skips (1:35:49)
This is your life, have fun while you can, you know?
Sare (1:35:51)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that’s something that’s grown in me more than anything. That is just made to go, why do you care what other people think? And that is something that Jump Rope has taught me. Like, if I don’t compare myself to anyone else, why would I care what anyone else thinks of me? Like, just go and do you. Like, just be your own self. And yeah, I can do it to music and yeah, I could probably do it without music. I mean, we do do it without music at meetups, but…
Dizzy Skips (1:36:00)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Sare (1:36:20)
I do have to say it breaks because the asthma is real and the heavy breathing does sound scary. To other people they’re like, are you okay? And I’m like, I just need my inhaler, I’m okay. Just need a minute. But yeah, so like I do do it and I vibe and like I jam and I dance and.
Dizzy Skips (1:36:27)
Yeah.
a stretcher at the ready. They’ve got an ambulance on the way.
Sare (1:36:41)
Even, I think, Peta taught me about, like, not taught me, but I saw her do it in her reels of just having a little breakout dance movement. And I was just like, you know what, don’t be afraid to dance in the middle while you’re having a little break or something like that. And I have done it a lot more and actually I quite like it because if she did it to me and influenced me to do it, well, if I post it, who am I going to influence to do it? And it’s not about being an influencer. It’s just about to be, it’s about to be a positive impact to someone to go, just be you.
Just be you and be as crazy or as restricted or whatever you want to do. But if it brings you joy, just do it. It’s as simple as.
Dizzy Skips (1:37:16)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
And you never know who you’re gonna touch. I know I told this story on a previous podcast, but part of the reason that I dance in public and do my thing is that when I lived in Washington state before I moved out here to Minnesota, I would.
Sare (1:37:21)
Yeah.
Dizzy Skips (1:37:31)
Be driving to work some days and I would see this lady who was I guess she’s like in her 60s or 70s or something like that Just this gorgeous black lady. She’d have her headphones on walking down the street Just dancing her ass off and every time I saw her it made me grin ear to ear and I would think I wish I had the courage to you know Be that free or whatever and at some point I lost my shame and I’m like, yeah, you know if they don’t like what I’m doing F them I’m doing it, you know, and if they do like it whether they like it or not, it’s their business
Sare (1:37:57)
Yeah, all they can do.
Dizzy Skips (1:38:00)
And certainly I want them to like it if they or make them happy but that lady has no idea how she touched my life. And I never got out of the car and told her, my God, I love you so much and thank you for doing this. But yeah, she had a big effect on me.
Sare (1:38:14)
Imagine
how she would feel if you did tell her. Imagine that feeling. Yeah, but it’d just be pure elation. It’d just be, yeah, it’s that whole thing, isn’t it? It’s just spreading the joy and making people feel that connection. And even though it’s not a physical or, know, but that just, it just exuberates out. Like I said on the hang, that song that Becky did.
Dizzy Skips (1:38:17)
Right. Yeah. I don’t know. Yeah.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
yeah, Mm-hmm.
Sare (1:38:40)
Indestructible,
I swear to God every time that comes on I just feel a vibe in me. If I’m in the car I’m like, oh my God, I’m just going. Because I just think of what that message that she conveyed in that entire post and I was like, oh my God, that is about the jump rope community and how did I not think about that before? And I would have never associated it. Yeah, I think I’ve done a reel to it before of going indestructible and I was like, yeah. But I never thought of it the same way that Becky did it. And I was just like, oh my God, you’re completely true.
Dizzy Skips (1:38:47)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Sare (1:39:07)
And it’s just something that vibes out of you. And it’s just, it’s that emotional state. And I think everyone has it. It’s just something that brings out of you a bit more in the jump rope community because you do, you feel like a connection. You feel like a love relationship with your damn ropes. A love hate relationship sometimes, but, and it’s that, it’s that, it is a companion. It’s a partnership. It is that, that’s how you work it. So yeah, I get, I get really emotional. Have you ever,
Dizzy Skips (1:39:12)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Sare (1:39:35)
Have you ever done a jump or a… Do you flow rope? Do you flow rope at all?
Dizzy Skips (1:39:39)
I don’t have a rope for flow, I mean know, flow with my own ropes but I don’t have like the big, yeah. I would like to.
Sare (1:39:41)
No.
Yeah, yeah, I am.
Yeah, they’re really good and they are really good. I mean, you can still do the kind of same moves because there’s no actual skipping in flow rope. You can still do the same moves like the dragon rolls and things like that. And you don’t just vibe in just with the rope on each side. And it’s exactly the same. The flow rope doesn’t really add much to like the ropes themselves and add much to it apart from the weight and what you can actually do with it. But that when I flow, I’m no I’m not a good flower.
Like I actually do say that because there’s still some moves I can’t transition within and it’s something that I really want to get into this year as well as another thing. I want to be able to flow rope a lot more fluidly and just so it’s not as where I have to stop and go, right, okay, go to the next move. Cause it’s not a next move, it’s that whole connection and be one with the rope. I moved to it to a point where I made myself cry on a holiday.
and I don’t know, there was a lot of stress going on and I went outside, I went out the back and I made some time for myself in the sunset and I just went out and flowed and I had to, and I was recording it and I just couldn’t stop recording because I couldn’t even go back to the camera, I was crying my eyes out because I just felt such a release from this flow rope. So that’s another thing that I want to try and get into this year is to get my emotions.
Dizzy Skips (1:40:59)
Mm-hmm.
Sare (1:41:01)
stabilised, not that I’m always upset because I’m not, I’m not much happier place than I am now, but to get that flow rope and get those movements so I can express myself in that. I think I saw Peta do it and she was dancing with it like a salsa dance and I was like, I love doing a bit of dancing, bit of zumba and bit of shimmies, let’s do a bit more of that. I’m such a shimmie, I love a shimmy, love a shimmy. But yeah I want to be able to be a bit like…
Dizzy Skips (1:41:06)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
A shimmier. Yeah, I’m a good shimmy.
Sare (1:41:27)
Not so much as in like the footwork type thing because I can do footwork and I’m all right with footwork, I’m fine with that. But because that puts a lot of pressure on this plantar thing, maybe it’s not the best thing to progress with this year when I do want to jump with people. So I’m going to try and get more into the flow rope and the dance flow. So with the rope and things, I’ve given one, I’ve donated one to look after to Rebecca, the one down the road. She’s got that until she buys her own one so she could get into flow rope as well.
Dizzy Skips (1:41:35)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Sare (1:41:54)
So had a lighter version, but my big one’s still here and I do love it. I love mic releasing with that, now that hurts. That’s like a boulder into your shin when that hits. my God. It comes in like a wrecking ball.
Dizzy Skips (1:42:01)
Yeah, I bet.
Yeah.
I like that
you talk about the emotional stuff because I’ve been pretty straightforward that I get emotional when I jump sometimes. Sometimes it releases feelings from hard things that I’ve been through. Like I lost my dad a while ago and there times where I’m jumping and I’m listening to music and I feel music really deeply and so I will.
Sare (1:42:26)
Me too, yeah.
Dizzy Skips (1:42:26)
you know,
think about stuff like that. And sometimes it’s emotions that are very much motivated by gratefulness. know, like I like I think I mentioned this in the group hang sometimes I watch some of the videos that I’ve reels that I’ve made and it’s the combination of the music and then seeing me do something that I never would have thought I could do like a couple of years ago. I never would have imagined I would be doing this. But but to see it and see
Like Becky said something in our group hang that.
really stuck with me. was like when she watched videos of herself, she could see herself in that moment of joy where she was having so much fun. And so sometimes when I go back and watch my reels, I’m like, yeah, I had no worries right there. I was just flowing and I was having fun. And I know what it felt like years ago when I couldn’t get out of bed or when I couldn’t find a reason. And that guy is happy and I love that. And sometimes that makes me feel quite a bit.
Sare (1:43:00)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. It’s seeing,
is it kind of seeing that freedom of yourself and your own little inspiration? Do you know what I mean? Like you kind of inspired by yourself because two, however many years ago you weren’t that Dizzy you weren’t that person. that again, like you said, you religiously watch your reels back. I don’t, I do kind of when you’re editing, I just don’t, I don’t know, I don’t get that connection.
Dizzy Skips (1:43:24)
Yeah, like, hey, I’m… Right.
Right.
Sare (1:43:42)
I do watch them and go, bloody hell, you did a really good job there and I feel really proud of myself. Things like that. And it’s those types of things that, yeah, I suppose I look at it and I go, I was really free then. Like there was a mental bit, May had go, wee, on his little rollercoaster that’s going on. But yeah, I think that I’m the same. I’m very emotionally connected to music. Like I say, if I’ve got a bit of a charge on in my head, I need to go and release.
Dizzy Skips (1:43:47)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Sare (1:44:12)
release it
out with some metal. But also I release it out some really slow songs as well. like, I put some, you know, like Eva Cassidy, some stuff on like that. Like I really just flow out to it, even if it’s just jump rope and I’m just doing some wraps or just doing some releases. And yeah, I’m very much motivated by music, if that makes sense. So like it’s what drives me.
Dizzy Skips (1:44:14)
Hahaha, nah.
Sir.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, me too.
Sare (1:44:39)
I’m no proclaim dancer, but I’d give it a whirl. You know what I mean? I’d just give it a whirl. don’t know salsa, but I’ll give it a whirl. Not just to create content, it’s just because I want something, I want to have that connection and I want to be able to feel the music as well as actually feel the movement. So that’s more about what I’m like. So yeah, I get that. And emotions are high driven with stuff. Even if I am…
Dizzy Skips (1:44:42)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Sare (1:45:07)
I associate the same with weightlifting. So because I set myself out to some massive challenges, so not last year, the year before, I almost did half a ton on the leg press. And I loved that. I loved it. But that, that was a mind over matter thing. So that was a, I was in a real bad rut of depression then. And I look at that and I go,
Dizzy Skips (1:45:09)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, I’ve seen some of those videos, it looks crazy.
Mm.
Sare (1:45:34)
Your depression was like really severe at that point. Like you still went to the gym and pushed almost half a fucking ton. that person, those two circumstances shouldn’t have been together, but they were together. And that’s what I, I’ll just pull my mic out. Well done, Sarah. Yeah, that’s what I really like about associating with things like that. again, that accountability, it’s, there is a little history.
Dizzy Skips (1:45:38)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Sare (1:46:02)
I
think Becky said it, if her account ever got took, like, honestly, she’d die. And I think I’d feel the same because it’s literally a whole path of how I’ve dealt with this depression. Because it’s my second, it is my second Instagram account. I’ve got a personal one as well that I keep just for family stuff and, you know, other things. But my jump rope and my weight lifting one, everyone’s going through a name change at the moment. It seems to be the new trend of 2025. And I’m like, they would change my name because it is a bit more like jumpy, but…
Dizzy Skips (1:46:06)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Sare (1:46:33)
I don’t know, I’ll just keep it as the same for now because it is me. Ironically, you didn’t know me at this point, but my first name for that Instagram account was SaddlebagSare. Which is awful! Because it’s awful and you know what? I can’t remember who said it to me. She was like, that’s really brutal of yourself. And I was like, yeah, but it’s how I feel. Like I’ve got Saddlebags. I’m Saddlebags with, like SaddlebagSare. And yeah, everyone like it.
Dizzy Skips (1:46:42)
No kidding. That is terrible.
Sare (1:47:01)
took me until I got to a better place in my head to go, stop shitting on yourself. Like stop being so bad. And yeah, that was a, that was a changing point when I changed it to @strongerwithsare . And I was like, fuck yeah, I’m strong. I’m a strong mom and I’m a strong woman. Like, and it was that whole thing that that was that mentality shift. So I probably wouldn’t change it actually. quite like it, but yeah, it was saddlebag Sarah and it was really bad.
Dizzy Skips (1:47:13)
Mm-hmm.
Yes you are.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. Well, I’m glad you changed it because you are definitely stronger. And I think that the benefits that you’ve got from Jump Rope are amazing. And I’m so glad to have connected with you. And this has been just an incredible conversation.
Sare (1:47:30)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Thank you ever so much for having me. I really appreciate it.
Dizzy Skips (1:47:45)
Yeah, well,
love talking to you. Thank you so much for your time, Sarah. I just, this was so much fun. That’s all right.
Sare (1:47:48)
Yes. I know we’ve been way longer than an hour.
Dizzy Skips (1:47:54)
Yeah, you know that you know, it’s funny about this is that when I came up with the idea I was in the park jumping on a limestone bench and I thought So here’s what I’ll do. I’ll just have this podcast. It’d be like 15 minutes or 20 minutes every episode I’ll ask like the same seven questions of everybody and it’ll be super informative and I realized really quickly like no that you know, everybody’s unique Everybody’s got a different story and some people, you know I want to talk to about releases and other people we’re gonna talk about addiction or whatever it might be and that’s cool
Sare (1:47:55)
You
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dizzy Skips (1:48:23)
So anyway.
Sare (1:48:23)
And
I think that’s another quick thing I’m just going to say about the jump rope community. And another thing that you brought to light with these things is how much actually we have in common with people. And you would never have thought it without asking or saying something like, you know, sobriety or addiction, things like that. It’s just mental how much people knit together when they realize, shit, you’ve been through that journey and now you’re doing this. And it’s amazing that we’ve got that connection. So I just want to say that too, sorry.
Dizzy Skips (1:48:38)
Right.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah,
Sare (1:48:52)
I’ll shut up now.
Dizzy Skips (1:48:52)
no, it’s true. Like that’s also one of the ways where you make these connections where like…
Addiction, have that is something that I have struggled with, you know, like I quit drinking a little over 20 years ago and it was hard, you know, I I am an alcoholic and that like if I drink I could die and and it was a hard thing to quit and I would see these people post on you know, like hey, I’m three three years alcohol free or I’m three months alcohol free and and they’re jumping rope and I’m I just couldn’t be more proud of them, you know, just like keep at it.
Sare (1:49:04)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Dizzy Skips (1:49:27)
you’re doing something good for yourself. And the times when I’ve spoken up and said, hey, you know, I had to quit drinking too. And because I had a bad habit of waking up in handcuffs, you know, and people are like, my God, yeah, you too? That’s so crazy. so.
Sare (1:49:40)
Yeah,
the relationships it opens up, but yeah, it’s just, it’s a community like I’ve never known. So I’m so thankful to be a part of it and I’m so thankful to have found you through it as well.
Dizzy Skips (1:49:46)
Yeah.
Likewise, Sarah. Well, thank you
so much for coming on The Jump Rope Podcast. We’ll do this again.
Sare (1:49:56)
Yes, we will. Alright.
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