How to use your knees properly while jumping rope

Start by trying to lift the right knee so that it's about hip height, and lifting your left knee down towards the floor.

You could also lift your left knee slightly and raise it up towards the ceiling (the top of your chest is above your knee, so you're doing high knees jumps).

woman jumping rope

As you do this, try to bring your knees up towards your shoulders (which is what the above picture is doing) to start the lift. Jump like this for 3 jumps and then try to lower your left knee back to your hip, but not so low that it's off the ground. You don't want to hurt yourself, but you don't want to land down so far that your legs don't make contact with the floor, you want to make it a little bit of a lean forward position. Now you have your hips and knees in an almost straight line. When your knees come down, try to bring your left knee back up to hip height. This is harder as you won't have full body contact with the ground and you have to bend yourself in to reach the knee.

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Keep going until your left knee is the same height as your hip (you may stop as you get close). You should eventually have a slight curve in your leg so that your weight distribution is balanced. Now that you've got your leg in a straight line, you can work on lifting it up again. Don't let your knees come down as much as you can at this point to gain a lower position for your left leg. Now as you lift up your left leg back up to hip height, try to get your knees over your head. This is hard, especially at first, but it gets easier with practice.