My question is to many out there including C.F. about jump roping. I have a friend that puts presure on me to jump rope because he said it would put more explosion into my calf muscles for sprinting. I told him that I thought it was more of an endurance workout because you are not putting a lot of power and you are doing it many times(like a boxer) thus it is better for long distance but he doesn’t believe me. So I guess I am asking can it improve your sprinting.
Thank you 
I think it was dcw who said he uses it sometimes as a tempo replacement i.e. 30s jumproping 30s off… 10 times. I tried this and thought it was good.
tempo is low on CNS. I was asking can jump roping make you explosive for sprinting
For an untrained individual, sure jumping rope will have some impacts on calf strength and jumping ability. For someone who is a high performance athlete, jumping rope - i.e continuous skipping - cannot provide adequate stimulus to enhance sprinting/jumping ability. In fact, it can create fatigue and tightness in the calves that can negatively affect your ability to perform proper sprinting workouts.
If done as a tempo workout, be sure to stay on a soft surface to reduce stress on your feet, achilles and calves.
Sisco, it all depends on what your needs are.
For example, if you have never done plyo then the jump rope can be your first gentle step in your progression to advanced plyometric work. It won’t turn you into Mr. Explosion but it will start you on the path to becoming more explosive. Keep in mind that plyo is potentially the area where most people injure themselves by doing too much too soon.
When you become advanced, the jump rope can be a nice tempo alternative when its raining or freezing or miserable. As No 2 says though, I wouldn’t be doing it barefoot on concrete.
There are a few different ways jumping rope can be used. Often its useful for warm ups especially when there is limited space available or the weather is a nightmare (as it can be here!). Often as part of a plyo/weights warm up as its good for activation.
It can be done as part of a circuit.
Either for timed periods or for number of contacts for any of the above.
A really useful one to do with posture is by performing various running drills while skipping the rope. There are so many different leg actions you can do which require a better posture and rhythm when done with a rope.
Hope that gives you some scope to work with!
I feel that jumping rope is an unneccesary training distraction to the sprinter. Nothing beats jogging or striding as a warm up for sprints. For any other exercise, nothing beats the spacific exercise(e.g pushups or squats) or jogging as a warm up for it. So why give yourself an unnessesary(spelling?) distraction by jumping rope instead? If you can allready run fast, then skipping is not going to make you run faster.
Skipping is fun and I excell at it. I went to a kickboxing club one day for the hell of it last year. I had not done any training several months, and had not touched a skipping rope for 2 years.
I was fatigued and dehydrated before I even got there, becuase I walked there on a hot day. The warmup included skipping and I made everybody else look crap without wanting to. I sometimes did skipping when I used to play basketball but it was my depth jumps and squats that developed my dunking ability. Skipping doesn’t develope the explosion to sprint faster unless you’re overwaight and have not done any training before. Boxers use skipping to develope stamina, and a LITTLE bit of several other things.
Quote;“jump high/run fast, jump rope/run quick maybe?”
Not really. When your foot is on the ground it’s reactive strength and power(sprints/plyos/weights). When your foot is not on the ground your leg action/speed will be partly the result of what it did on the ground(read “passive reaction”) and partly ingrained and sometimes concious mechanics. Skipping doesn’t do more for the equation that other training components allready get. (unless you don’t do the other components.)
Great advice, go straight into depth jumps with no prehab and end your career before it starts.
What volumes are we talking about? Christ it seems like all training is dangerous now for jump rope work.
What do you mean? I think jump rope work is great prehab. It is certainly in no way something that you would use in place of proper plyometric training. I just think it is dangerous advice to tell someone to stop doing jump rope and start doing depth jumps. Intensity should build.
e.g. Jump rope -> High skips -> Sand Jumps -> Tuck & Squat jumps, -> drop jumps -> depth jumps.
Something like that.
“Quote: …Great advice, go straight into depth jumps with no prehab and end your career before it starts.” DCW
Oh, so this is about prehab now is it? So why is it in the sprint training thread?(and not the beginner thread.) The guy who started this post was not mentioning prehab, he was talking from the perspective of being able to develope more explosiveness which skipping won’t, but I guess u think every athlete in the world is going through prehab and only considers prehab type training.
You threw in the “prehab” tangent at the last minute. You even said yourself, when replying to clemson that jumping rope should not replace higher intensity plyos then u go and say that I should not advise people to do plyos becuase it could end peoples careers before they’ve even started. Becuase of “prehab”. If somebody can squat more than there bodyweight or if they’re in good sprinting shape then they don’t need skipping. The guy at the top of this thread mentioned nothing about being a beginner.
Calm down killers, don’t forget the respect we have for eachother and the sport on this site.
First of all, this is obviously a topic that is up for debate. If someone says “i did skipping when i played basketball but it was depth jumps and squats that allowed me to dunk,” how is that advising someone to do depth jumps and squats without being prepared, it seemed to me he was just speaking to his experience. Personally I like skipping rope during strength endurance. If i want to work calves, hip flexors, and quads, skipping rope is a good workout. I don’t think there is any reason to bash someone for doing something that works for them. Many times I try to add in different workouts during strength endurance just to do something a little creative and fun. I don’t think skipping rope is bad to do during strength endurance or as tempo maybe, even thought it isn’t something I have tried. I do think it is a bad idea to do it before a speed workout because you want to perform the speed optimally. That is it, now let the immature bashing begin. just kidding.
ps… i used to be a poor jumper, could barely touch the rim, but i started jumping rope a lot, soon i was able to dunk about 6 out of ten times. It could have been my strength getting better due to other leg workouts and running, but i was doing those things before starting to jump rope, so who knows, i like it, i think it works.