THE EVER ELUSIVE DOUBLE-UNDER

You’re sitting there thinking to yourself, Coach K you have to be genetically predisposed to being able to do double unders or blessed by CrossFit baby Jesus. That you are wrong my friend that is functional. Anyone can learn to double-under, it just takes some painstaking practice. I think Ryan Lennon can vouch for that.

So what are these things you call double unders?

The Official definition: According to Skipping Rope in Wikipedia, double unders are performed when, the participant needs to jump up higher than usual while swinging the rope twice under his feet. Simple enough, right? One jump rope passes twice, DOUBLE, below the feet, UNDER you. I’m glad we got that out of the way.

My definition: a conditioning tool where magic is preformed, allowing you to gravitate momentarily while a skipping rope somehow passes beneath without whipping you in your eyeball.

Double unders are those sneaky guys that everyone forgets about till the CrossFit Open pops up every year and then everyone suddenly starts practicing them. Not that easy my friend. My only problem with this is that as a CrossFitter we see a skipping rope and we look at it solely as a device built for double unders. A skipping rope is an insane conditioning tool. Rocky Balboa used a skipping rope for conditioning, anything Rocky does I want to be doing.

The skipping rope and the double under go far beyond just adding it to a CrossFit workout. Askipping rope should be seen as an amazing conditioning tool, and you should be proud to own one. Don’t own one? You will after this my friend

TYPES OF ROPES

1. The “I want to get started, but I am not serious” option
   
2. The “GAME CHANGER I want to be a badass speed rope” option
   
3. The “I’ve watched way too much Rocky” option
   

DOUBE UNDER TIPS AND TRICKS

The number one problem I see when people start double unders is that they try use their shoulders which makes their arms look like giant windmills. Swinging your entire arm is inefficient and you look really silly as well, no one likes to look silly do they. All you need remember is that the movement comes from the wrists not the shoulders.

Now instead of you listening to me for hours harp on about what to do, let’s watch Dan Bailey whilst trying not to get lost in his eyes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zyvusyli-UUI

hope the video helps understand the positioning better and the wrist movement which I referred to above.

TWO WORKOUTS GUARANTEED TO KICK YOUR ASS AND IMPROVE YOUR DOUBLE UNDERS BY 200%
Now, you know what double unders are, somefictitiousand real athletes who useskippingropes for conditioning, what’s a good rope to buy, how to size it properly, and you have gotten a few tips on how to do them. Now let’s get these suckers dialed in.

In my opinion the only real way to learn something is to get out there and do it. Do it over and over until you get it right. These two workouts are guaranteed to FORCE you to get quicker and more efficient at double unders. Not only that, they are both great conditioning workouts and will get your calves swole.

Workout 1:

1,000 double unders for time.That’s right! Set out to do this workout and see how long it takes you. In the process, you will get very good at double unders. I did this workout for the first time when I first started CrossFit, I remember almost giving up CrossFit that day.

I had a rope from Rebel Sports which cost about 5 dollars but I pushed through and got it done with man tears in my eyes.1st attempt – Took me 20 ish minutes if I remember correctly. I will re-test this one and get back to you guys on my progression, will post a video on crew page.

Workout 2:

Double under/single under intervals for 10 minutes.On the first minute you do single unders at an easy pace.The second minute you do double unders.

You alternate single unders and double unders every minute giving you 5 rounds of single unders and 5 rounds of double unders.

THE CATCH: You have to set a “goal” number for each double under minute. It can be 20, 30, 40…whatever you will be comfortable with.

If you can get your goal number every doubleunderminute (all 5 rounds) you completed the workout (If you choose 20, and you get to 20 in 10secondsthen the rest of that minute is rest until your single under minute comes up).

The next time you do the workout you have to add 10 double unders to your goal. You keep doing this until you cannot complete the workout OR you get to 100 double unders a minute for a total of 500 double unders.