Thank you.
Hello, my name is Louis Garcia and I'm here to introduce you to a revolutionary and exciting new sport called Freestyle Roping.
A sport that's been such an important and fun part of my life for the past 12 years, both as a performer and as a private trainer.
Most fitness experts would agree that jumping rope is one of the best exercises that any athlete, from the beginner to the professional, could incorporate into their workout.
Boxers, for example, have traditionally used jumping rope as an essential part of their fitness program.
Freestyle Roping is the ultimate jump rope workout.
It will help you develop the skills that will maximize your performance in every type of sport.
The Freestyle workout will burn calories and reduce your body fat, improve your endurance, and enhance your muscular toning and development.
It'll do wonders for your hand, eye, and foot coordination.
Your overall athleticism will be greatly improved, especially your lateral movement and agility, your first step speed, your timing to the jump, and your explosiveness.
In only 20 minutes a day, three to four times a week, not only will you get into incredible shape, but you'll also become the very best athlete that you could be.
After years of working with hundreds of beginning jump ropers, I've developed my own unique teaching method, which introduces people to the sport of jumping rope in a way that makes both easy and enjoyable.
Remember that if an exercise program is really fun, there's a much better chance that you'll stick with it.
So what we've done is to reinvent the sport of jumping rope by steering it in a whole new direction, a direction that's creative, safe, and easy to learn.
Freestyle roping will make a great addition to any fitness program.
So whether your sport is basketball, tennis, dancing, football, or you just want a great, super fun workout, there's something here for everyone.
What I'll be showing you today are just a few of the literally hundreds of movements and combinations that can be used in freestyle roping.
Freestyle roping can be done basically anywhere to any type of music, as long as you feel that it will inspire you to move.
And it doesn't matter if you've never held a jump rope in your hands before.
With our program, you'll gain immediate benefits and have fun from the very first time you try it.
So just sit back, relax, and enjoy the presentation.
Hi, I'm Rita May, and I'm a rebel roper.
I've been performing with Lewis for the past eight years.
There's two things in life I love.
I love to have fun, and I love to sweat.
So I became a dancer.
Well, when I discovered freestyle roping, I immediately fell in love with it because it was such a great workout, and it was also a creative outlet for me.
Lewis and I have traveled all over the world performing and teaching freestyle roping.
This tape is the result of years of experimenting with and refining our techniques.
No matter what size or shape you are, it's easy to learn freestyle roping.
I hope freestyle roping will be as exciting to you as it has been for me.
Now, let's get down to basics.
In selecting a good rope, there are some specific things to look for.
First, it's very important that the rope's length is adjustable.
Because as you become more skilled at freestyle roping, you'll probably want to use a shorter length rope than when you first started jumping.
I don't recommend weighted handled or heavy ropes since they're slow and cumbersome and can take the fun out of jumping.
Believe me, you're going to get an awesome upper and lower body workout without a weighted rope.
The rope should have quality grips.
I prefer foam grips because they're easy to hold onto even if you start to perspire.
As far as shoes are concerned, I suggest a good pair of aerobic or cross-training shoes.
They should have good padding for the ball of the foot and be designed with lateral movement support.
Grip the rope by the handles.
Put one foot on the center of the rope and pull up.
The handle should be about chest high.
This is a good length to start with.
Grip the handles as if you're shaking someone's hand with emphasis on the thumb and index finger.
The grip remains soft.
Elbows should remain close to the body with your palms facing front and slightly turned up.
Keep the handles in a straight line as if you're holding an imaginary pole from one handle to the other.
Your ankles and knees remain soft.
Shoulders are relaxed with the weight over the balls of your feet.
Try to keep your upper body straight without leaning too far forwards or backwards.
Here's a profile shot of proper body position.
Notice once again that Rita's shoulders are relaxed.
Her knees and ankles are soft.
Her body posture is straight.
Also that she's turning primarily from the wrist and not moving her arms very much
and that she's only jumping a few inches off the ground
which makes this a very low impact exercise.
When jumping backwards or in the opposite direction
the body posture is almost exactly the same except for the rotation of the wrist
which is an up and back rotation.
Grip the handle with your thumb and index finger closest to the rope end of the handle.
Do not grip the rope from the other end of the handle.
Grip the rope firmly but don't put what we sometimes call a death grip on the handle.
Keep your elbows into your body.
Not away.
Keep your elbows into your body.
Not away.
Keep your elbows into your body. Not away.
Your shoulders should remain down and relaxed.
Not up and tight.
Turn the rope primarily with the wrist.
Not with the arms and shoulders.
Keep the weight over the balls of your feet and your body posture straight.
Do not lean forwards.
Do not lean backwards.
Keep the weight over the balls of your feet and your body posture straight.
Do not lean forwards.
Or backwards.
Keep your weight centered.
When jumping, straighten legs on the way up and land softly with slightly bent knees.
The balls of the feet are the last part of the feet to leave the ground and the first to touch.
Don't jump with your knees overly bent and do not land flat-footed.
Only jump a few inches off the ground.
It will really minimize the impact to your body.
Do not make big jumps.
You expend way too much energy, which is a very common mistake amongst beginning ropers.
You want to try and make your basic two-foot jump look effortless.
When turning the rope, keep a smooth arc and keep the slack out of the rope.
Do not allow the rope to lose its natural arc.
No slackers out there now.
You want to maintain a nice, even motion with the rope.
In the next segment, we'll begin by showing you a variety of basic techniques for turning the rope.
These rope turns are an essential building block for all of the jump rope moves that you'll see later on in this tape.
Then we'll demonstrate a number of what we call neutral or resting moves,
all of which are designed to help improve your timing and endurance level with the rope
and are perfect for the beginning freestyle roper.
So even if you're not in the best of shape or even if you've never held the jump rope in your hands before,
this is how you get started.
Begin by gripping the rope with both handles in one hand
and turn the rope to the side of your body in a forward direction.
Make sure the rope turns directly forward and doesn't start to drift sideways to the left
or over to the right.
Switch hands and try this from the other side.
This will help develop your coordination with both hands.
Now try turning the rope backwards or in the opposite direction.
Once again with one hand
and then over to the other.
This will help you when you begin to jump backwards,
which actually has a more natural feel to it than jumping forwards.
Now let's move along to what we call figure eights.
Grip the rope with both handles in one hand
and cross the rope in front of you in a figure eight motion.
Do this a few times and switch over to the other hand.
Now using both hands, grip each handle individually and repeat the entire sequence.
First forward to one side of your body and then the other.
Then backwards to one side of your body
and then the other.
And finally in a forward figure eight motion.
Before you begin jumping inside the rope,
I strongly suggest you begin your training with the rope turning to the side of your body.
This technique will help you develop a smooth motion with the rope
and help build your timing and endurance
without you having to worry about catching your feet on the rope
or what we call missing,
because at this point you're not jumping through the rope.
Neutral and resting moves are all done with the rope turning to the side of your body.
These very low impact moves are a great way to get comfortable,
relax and loose with the rope as you begin your workout.
Neutral and resting moves are great for warming up your body.
You can use all the different rope turns we just showed you.
Here you see Rita doing a twist with a two-handed figure eight rope turn.
And here my feet are doing the box step and I'm using a one-handed forward rope turn.
If you've ever taken an aerobic class,
a lot of the footwork in these moves might look very familiar to you.
When practicing these moves, it's important to keep good form,
shoulders down, elbows in and turn the rope primarily from the wrist.
All these very low impact neutral and resting moves can be learned in no time at all.
Just stay loose and relax and have fun with it.
We begin this section with a basic run with a right-hand forward rope turn.
In this next run, Rita's knees remain high and in front of her.
Then she switches over to a left-hand forward rope turn.
This is a classic boxer shuffle with a right-hand figure eight rope turn.
Now switching to the left hand and finishing off with left-hand figure eights.
These moves are a great way to work on your hand, eye and foot coordination.
You'll develop a nice smooth motion with the rope without having to worry about missing
because at this point you're still not jumping through the rope.
Later in this tape you'll see how many of these moves are the exact same ones
you'll eventually be doing through the rope.
You can see Rita is starting to get a little funky here.
As loose as you can with the rope is something you really want to work towards.
In this move my feet are crossing and I'm using a variety of different rope turns.
Neutral and resting moves will give you the timing and footwork that you eventually need
to jump inside the rope.
But they can also be challenging in and of themselves.
No matter what shape you're in or how good an athlete you are,
you can learn most of the moves and start to burn calories from the first day you try them.
In the following segment we've put together a few of the neutral and resting moves
you've just seen into a continuous sequence.
But remember, the individual moves can be combined in any order that you want
which will give you the freedom to make up hundreds of different routines.
Just use the moves you like combined with your own creativity.
Later in the tape you'll learn how you can do these same continuous sequences inside the rope.
Notice here how I switch from my right hand to my left,
which brings up a really important point.
Freestyle roping is a great way to develop the coordination in your weak hand.
For right handers it's your left, and for you lefties out there it's your right.
In most sports, being able to use both hands equally can give you an incredible advantage.
So always remember that it's a good idea to practice all your rope turns during every workout.
Forwards, backwards, left hand, right hand, and figure eights.
Try mixing it up.
Here Rita and I are doing a continuous sequence of low impact neutral and resting moves in unison.
Jumping rope with friends or family is a great way to have fun and exercise at the same time.
You can get together as a group, work on individual moves, play follow the leader,
or choreograph entire routines together.
These low impact moves are excellent for anyone who's going through rehab or recovering from an injury.
They're easy on your body and you can safely build your timing, strength, and endurance.
By now you've seen there are a large number of moves that you can incorporate into your workout
without ever jumping through the rope.
And when you begin to jump inside the rope,
remember you can always go back to these neutral or resting moves
if you become overly tired or think you're going to miss.
Besides helping build your timing and endurance level with the rope,
this technique is extremely important because it will help you recover,
maintain a nice even breathing flow,
but still allow you to keep your heart rate up until you're ready to begin jumping through the rope again.
The important thing for the beginning roper or the person who's not quite as physically fit
is to stay outside the rope and eventually work your way back inside the rope
when you're rested and feel you're ready to do so.
In the following section we introduce you to a wide variety of jump rope moves.
You'll see some basic rope moves as well as some more advanced jumping techniques.
Each one of the individual moves will be repeated many times
so you gain a very clear picture of how they're done.
A really important technique to remember when learning these moves,
a technique which I developed after years of working with hundreds of beginning jump ropers,
is that if you're having trouble with a particular move,
practice the foot and the arm movements without the jump rope first.
Then, once you're comfortable with the foot and the arm movements,
add the rope by putting both handles in one hand and turning the rope to the side of your body.
By doing this, you'll be able to break the movement down into separate components,
get your timing down before you actually jump inside the rope and put it all together.
Step number one, practice the foot and the arm movements without the jump rope first.
Then turn the rope to the side of your body, which makes step number two a neutral or resting move.
Step number three, jump through the rope.
Once again, without the rope, then a neutral move with the rope to the side of your body,
and finally through the rope.
So remember, if you're having trouble with any of the following moves,
you can always go back to the three-step breakdown.
The following jumps will be shown first in slow motion and then at regular speed.
When learning and practicing these basic jumps, keep these important pointers in mind.
Your shoulders stay down and relaxed, your elbows in and not away from your body.
Turn the rope primarily from the wrist.
Your body position is straight.
Without leaning too far forwards or backwards, knees remain soft.
Only jump a few inches off the ground and try to land softly.
You'll notice that a lot of these basic jumps are built on the neutral and resting moves you've already learned.
The only difference is that now you're jumping inside the rope.
The best way to learn these jumps is to watch the tape,
then either in front of the television or wherever you've got enough room to swing the rope freely in both directions.
Just grab a rope and jump to it.
And when you feel you need to, you can always go back and refer to the tape.
If you want to get a little more creative with the rope, here are a few more moves you might like trying.
I'd like you to pay close attention to this next move, the figure eight entrance.
It is the key to going from neutral and resting moves to jumping inside the rope and then back to neutral and resting moves.
Begin with a two-handed figure eight rope turn with your hands held closely together.
As the rope begins its downward descent, pull the handles apart and jump through the rope.
In this next section, we put together a number of basic jumps you've just seen with a variety of neutral and resting moves
and tying them all together with a figure eight entrance.
When I talk to people about jumping rope, I hear a lot of them say things like,
I know it's great exercise, but it's just too hard.
Well, by using this technique, where you jump inside the rope and then you recover with neutral and resting moves,
you can see that it just isn't true.
As we showed you earlier in this tape, you don't have to continuously jump through the rope to get an awesome workout
and have a lot of fun at the same time.
Begin by picking a few of the basic jumps that you're comfortable with and combine them with neutral and resting moves.
The variety of combinations and sequences you can create is almost limitless.
Here, I'm outside the rope, now inside, and back to outside.
In this next continuous sequence, Rita will demonstrate how once you've built up your skill level and endurance with the rope,
you can transition from one move to the next without the use of neutral or resting moves.
Freestyle roping is a great way to improve your agility, your hand-eye and foot coordination, and your cardiovascular conditioning.
You will tone every major muscle group in your body.
No matter what your body type or athletic ability, you can't beat freestyle roping.
Not only is it fantastic for your physical conditioning,
but it is one of the only exercises that will develop what you might think of as your mental conditioning as well.
Freestyle roping forces you to maintain a certain level of concentration,
because if you don't, you'll get hung up on the rope and miss.
Here you can see Rita doing foot crosses, arm crosses, the drape, and the running man, all without the use of neutral and resting moves.
After you've gotten comfortable turning the rope in a backwards direction, it's time to try the backwards figure 8 entrance.
Begin with a backwards figure 8 rope turn with your hands held closely together.
When the rope is at its lowest point and begins to come in front of you, pull the handles apart and jump through the rope.
Speaking of backwards, almost all the neutral and resting moves, as well as all the basic jumps, can be done with the rope turning backwards.
Jumping backwards might feel a bit awkward at first, but just keep working at it and in no time at all you'll begin to feel comfortable.
Here's a boxer shuffle with the rope turning backwards.
And now we have a basic run.
Jumping backwards will open up an entirely new dimension to your workout.
Switching from backwards to forward jumps and from forwards to backwards will give you so many additional combinations to choose from.
You'll also be working your athletic skills in a whole new way, so make sure that every time you pick up a rope you spend a few minutes jumping backwards.
And now I finish off the sequence with some backwards figure 8 entrances.
Oh, by the way, it's okay to miss.
Next, Lewis and I will combine jump rope moves with some basic dance steps.
This will show you an important difference between freestyle roping and traditional jumping rope.
By incorporating dance steps and body movements that come naturally to you, you'll see how exhilarating and inspiring freestyle roping can be.
What we want you to get out of this section is a feeling for how you can improvise with the rope and how we originally came up with the name freestyle roping.
You can see here how Rita's really loose, she's feeling the music, and she's moving and grooving in a way that comes naturally to her.
This might not be the exact same type of movement which feels natural to you, but the important thing is that you put on some music that makes you want to move and you start to bounce and bop and dance a little with the rope.
If you like rock and roll, throw on some rock. If you like classical, put on Mozart. If hip-hop's your thing, that's cool too.
Not only can you shake your rear end, but you'll shape it too. Freestyle roping is one of the best butt shapers in the business. It will shape your body from top to bottom.
You've already seen a lot of the moves you're watching in earlier parts of the tape. They're just sped up and a little funkier now.
I've always enjoyed putting on some music and starting to dance a little with the rope. You'll be amazed at how quickly time passes when you approach your workout this way.
When most people think of jumping rope, they know it to be great exercise, but quite often they think of it as too hard, boring, and monotonous.
Well, we hope you've seen it's a lot easier to get started than you thought, and it definitely doesn't have to be boring. Just the opposite.
Freestyle roping is a whole lot of fun. No matter what your body type or natural athletic ability, if you closely follow our teaching method, you'll be amazed at how quickly you'll start to make gains and have fun with the rope.
One of the big pluses about freestyle roping is that you can do it by yourself, but you can also do it with a friend or a group of friends.
When the music's on and the ropes are turning and you're working on moves and tricks, there's so much positive energy surrounding you.
We know that some of the moves you've seen throughout this tape might seem difficult at first, but remind yourself to stay loose and relaxed and challenge yourself and concentrate on one move at a time. Just be patient.
Start out by practicing three to four times a week for about 15 to 20 minutes a session, and you'll be amazed at how quickly you'll get good with the rope.
You'll be working hard, but at the same time, you'll be having a blast.
For those of you looking for a high-intensity cross-training workout that will maximize all your athletic potential, this section's for you. The jumping moves you'll see will do wonders for your upper and lower body toning, speed, power, and stamina, while at the same time helping you to develop and refine the individual skills that'll make you the very best athlete that you can be.
Triple, triple, triple.
Let's see that one more time in slow motion. Start with single jumps, then to doubles, then work your way to triples. You can clearly see the explosiveness in consecutive triples.
Now you'll see some of the most advanced moves you can try with the rope, first at regular speed and then in slow motion. These jumps are something to work towards and challenge yourself with. Just like you did with the basic jumps, make sure you use the three-step breakdown.
Freestyle roping will give you lightning fast hand and foot speed and greatly increase the fluidity of motion. Because freestyle roping makes you incredibly light on your feet and keeps you extremely loose, it is the perfect counterpart to weight training programs.
You'll see significant gains in explosiveness in your timing to the jump. Minute for minute, it's hard to imagine a more beneficial cross-training exercise.
Devising training methods to develop the potential of young and maturing athletes has never been an easy task, but we've found that freestyle roping is unparalleled in this respect. Athletes of all ages take an immediate liking to it and find it to be inspirational and self-motivating. I've heard more than one person say they never knew jumping rope could be so cool.
Here I'm going into backwards consecutive doubles and then I work my way into backward double crosses, one of the hardest moves you can try and incredible for developing your hand, eye and foot coordination.
You hear a lot of talk these days about getting back to basics. All you need for freestyle roping is a jump rope and a pair of sneakers and you're on your way, simplicity at its best.
If you're trying to push yourself in a minimal amount of time, freestyle roping is an indispensable training tool. If you're on the road a lot, throw it in your suitcase and you've got the greatest portable workout in existence and you just can't beat the price.
This is just one possible combination out of hundreds you can put together. Just like with the basic jumps, speed and power moves can be combined in any order that you want.
Here I'm going from double crosses to speed shuffles and I finish it off with some side whips.
As we touched on earlier in this tape, another unique aspect of freestyle roping that I really want to stress is that your mental game will also improve.
Plain and simply, if you don't sustain a certain level of concentration, you'll miss. And in any sport you can name, the ability to maintain mental focus is quite often the difference between winning and losing.
Of course, there are many different schools of thought regarding what training methods and techniques are most beneficial for competitive athletes, but it's difficult to think of a total strength and conditioning program that couldn't benefit from freestyle roping.
In combo number two, I start out with running crosses, then go to alternating the ups and I end it with a toe-heel speed shuffle, which is the fastest move you can do with the rope and a move that will give you incredibly quick hands and feet.
In this combination, we give you a somewhat different look at how you can string together speed and power moves.
Deciding what training methods to use in the off-season that will keep you on top of your game is a major decision for high-end athletes, from the pros on down to high school.
With freestyle roping, you won't lose a step in the off-season and you will report to training camp in better shape than you ever have. In fact, you just might gain a step or two.
Although it's beyond the scope of this tape, you can create drills and workouts that are very sport-specific.
When most people think of jumping rope, they think of it as an exercise that's done in a stationary position.
Although it's true that one of the great advantages of freestyle roping is that it can be done in a very limited space, here we demonstrate how you can also travel with the rope by moving horizontally and laterally.
By changing directions with the rope in short, multi-directional bursts, while simultaneously executing various moves and jumps, you'll be able to closely mirror the types of movements which are used in almost any sport you can think of.
Whether you're a basketball player playing tough D, a linebacker covering a halfback out of the backfield, or a tennis player rushing the net, the bottom line is that you will see results in game situations.
The tremendous variety of moves and combinations, the ability to alternate between going inside and outside of the rope, to change the speed of your rope turns from slow to fast and from fast to slow, all add up to the fact that your workout will never stagnate.
You will always be able to test your skills as an athlete.
Another aspect of freestyle roping that I'd like to briefly mention is that it lends itself perfectly to interval training.
Try alternating between being more aggressive and attacking the rope, and then recovering by going back to neutral and resting moves.
In the sequence you're watching now, you can see me going from inside to outside of the rope, while at the same time I'm moving laterally and horizontally.
A fantastic way to work your timing and footwork.
In conclusion, athletes of all ages will stick with it, because once you reach a certain proficiency level with the rope, you'll be pushing yourself hard, no doubt about it.
But the music, combined with the speed and power of the rope, gives it a rhythmic, powerful feel that makes time just fly by.
Freestyle roping has taken jumping rope to a whole new level. A level where you can get into a kind of a zone, so to speak.
Well, we hope we've painted a clear picture for the potential of freestyle roping.
In a nutshell, we've taken the traditional benefits of jumping rope and multiplied them many times over. Take a look for yourself.
Here I am, jumping rope,
...
Every person has their own natural and unique way of moving, and one of the most important
things that we've tried to show you in this demonstration, and I just can't stress this
point enough, is that you get a sense of how to move and relax with the rope.
It's not so much about how many different tricks and moves you can learn, but how you
combine and put them together in your own individual and creative style.
Nothing feels quite as powerful as when you're jumping, your body's loose and relaxed, the
music's pumped up, the rope's feeling smooth, you're cruising from move to move, and you're
sweating hard.
There's nothing else like it.
In this final segment of our presentation, we'll show you some freestyle soloing, where
we combine a wide variety of different jumps and movements that you've already seen throughout
this presentation.
In other words, this is what happens when you put it all together, and then let it all
hang out.
person to combine his or her own natural body movements with what might be called traditional
jumping rope, we've introduced the element of individual expression and creativity into
your workout, and as a result, we've created a unique and exciting new exercise that's
never been seen before, a cutting edge cross-training workout that'll make you the very best athlete
that you can be.
And in comparison to aerobics, step aerobics, weight lifting, jogging, you'll have such
a fun time freestyle roping that you'll get in great shape without even knowing it.
You won't ever go tired or bored because there will always be room to set new goals and continually
improve by learning additional movements and then combinations of those movements.
And that's why we like to call freestyle roping the perfect combination of athleticism and
individual artistry.
So whether you want a five minute warmup, a high intensity calorie burning workout, or
to elevate your athletic skills to a whole new level, you will truly love freestyle roping.
Well, I hope you've enjoyed the presentation, and I plan on seeing you jump in really soon.
Thanks a lot now.
Bye bye.
To purchase more tapes or for more information on jump ropes, merchandise, personal appearances
and training seminars, please call 1-800-ROPE-132.
That's 1-800-ROPE-132.