The Troubles With Doubles

mydonspace

New member
There are more than two things wrong with how we teach double unders.

Some months back I dropped in out of town and was honored when a super fit 50 year old guy offered to be my partner. He threw up unbroken toes to bar like nobody's business, whipped that 50 lb dumbbell into a snatch like it was a feather and blew me away by doing his 10 cal on the row at a sustained 2,200 cals/hour! But afterwards, with the tone of voice suggesting he had given up trying, he told me he doesn't have doubles.

This keeps happening. I find guys wonderfully fit for their age, who have mastered so much of what is CrossFit, but are completely stuck with doubles and don't see a way out. Having others show them "how" doesn't help. Unlike the other skills, you can't get there by "starting light". There is no way to scale to a 1-1/2 under on the way to doubles!

I'd like to propose three fixes to the problem, all missing from the approach of in-person and online coaches. It seems like too many of them grew up jumping, find learning doubles easy and are ill-equipped to understand what will help those of us that didn't. A lot of the instruction is focused on improving doubles, when many of us struggle for to get even the first one. I hope this is a bit controversial:

1 - Get Symmetrical Singles, at Various Speeds

The standard advice to practice singles at different speeds is good. Make sure the athlete understands the slow speed is what the jump should feel like in doubles. There is a natural danger for the doubles jump cadence to be too fast.

The fast practice speed is for the wrists to get used to flipping the rope around quickly, as will be needed for the two swings in the double when the jump is up. Make sure they feel the rope going around the back side. All this needs to feel happy and relaxed.

Make sure their swing is symmetrical - both wrists doing the same thing. Put a bright piece of tape in the middle of the rope and make sure they see it going up and down directly overhead and in front, not off to one side. This took me a while - to develop matching wrist coordination.

2 - Skip the Fancy Footwork

Single foot single unders are a waste of time. It requires developing a lot more ankle strength which is a huge challenge for those of us that haven't jumped much. We don't need this for double unders. Don't make us frustrated trying.

3 - The Big Kahuna: It's Swing Rope, not Jump Rope

There is a natural inclination to think of this skill as jumping, with an added rope swinging. That's fine for singles but sets doubles to fail.

Instead, practice singles as a leading swing, with the jump almost as an afterthought. If you are giving athletes the "penguin" drill, get them to tap their leg the first time jumping. NOT like a single under. Otherwise, you'll be setting them up for the wrong timing - the one that catches the rope under the feet second swing. Maddening.

Watch this exceptional video:

The foolproof way I implement the proper timing is to start with a single under and then when I land, leave my feet on the floor for a VERY long time, until the rope is near my toes. Then, and only then, jump. Even with this timing shift, I have NEVER swung so early as to hit my toes with the first swing.

Let the rope swing fast for the double, and be sure to keep it going around the back side while standing still preparing for the next jump. Otherwise, the rope falls on their head.

It took me FOUR years to get here with doubles: for 24.2 placing me at the 97th percentile in the 65+ division by stringing up sets of 20-30. If I had seen that video or gotten similar instruction sooner, I would have saved a lot of time and frustration, and avoided overloading my achilles. If other old guys had this instruction, I would have not placed so high in my cohort. That would be a good thing!

Cheers

Bruce - St. Paul, MN
 
@sup3rb0wlz This is my problem too. I can do them in the warmup but the warmups are way too long and by the time the workout FINALLY comes around… it’s back to “double the SU” and then I start just wanting to skip DU days all together
 
@sup3rb0wlz I was the opposite. During the Open, 24.2, I got up to 13 unbroken and had never done more than 4-5 before that. Being exhausted takes my mind off it and lets it happen.
 
@sup3rb0wlz That's just a capacity issue. The way you get better is to work on them while fatigued in a workout. Ultimately you'll end up finding the timing where you either bound your hops harder or whip your rope faster in order to conserve leg energy.
 
@sup3rb0wlz Work on breathing while you do your doubles. You may not realize you're either holding your breath or not breathing as much as you need to. When I started consciously trying to breathe while doing doubles, suddenly I COULDNT do doubles anymore! But I was having the same problem as you. When I was fresh and not out of breath I could knock out doubles no prob. As soon as I got fatigued, I could barely do any.

I time my breathing with dubs just like I do with running. When I'm not winded, I time my footfalls on a 4 beat in, 4 beat out cadence. As I get more winded, I drop that to 3 then 2. Translate that to dubs and that means each double under rep is a breath, either in or out. For dubs I only do 4's and 2's, because 3's isn't natural to it.

It sounds complicated when I type it out, but I find that regulating my breath with my footfalls in running absolutely prevents cramps and it also prevents me from getting gassed too quickly. Translating that to dubs has been a huge thing for me.
 
@mydonspace I'm 50 and qualified for the quarterfinals. I am very athletic and especially good at calisthenics, conditioning, and pure strength. I can't get double unders consistently. I got up to 13 unbroken in 24.2, but did mostly double unders as single reps. I am have regressed since then. It's super frustrating.

While olympic lifting is hard and I'm not great at it (been doing it less than 2 years), at least I can do it and have made progress. Double unders are way more frustrating.
 
@mydonspace 41m here … mastered all movements and when DU are on the board I still cringe. Best I can do is s-du-s-s-s-du-s-s-s-du… I fucking hate du
 
@bsssg I think that’s making it harder. I am really good at them and can’t switch between singles and dubs because it’s all about rhythm and you’re messing that up completely by adding singles in the mix. I had a coach not even allow singles at all when practicing dubs and I had them solid within a couple weeks, and most of my gym (scaled athletes included) all had them down. I don’t know if that was the key but I do know swapping between the two is hard in both a technique sense, and the fact you’re adding 3 extra jumps every jump and it’s going to wear you out.
 
@mydonspace I think the biggest reason why people don't learn double unders is because they don't practice... I got double unders after training 10-15 min every day for a week... starting with s-s-d-s-s-d, then s-d-s-d-s-d, then d-d-d

at the end of that week i was able to do 15 on a row... i improved during the next week and then i was stuck doing 50 double unders max for several months when fully rested... Until i discovered the importance of managing the rope speed as you state in point 1... if you manage that, you never trip.. it takes a week or so to learn to manage that

Now, i'm at the point where i want to discover how not to blow up my shoulders after high volume... i don't know yet
 
@kenhensley You can't argue with your own results, I hear you.

FWIW I know people in my gym that are still struggling and stuck in ssdssd hell, as the guy I was responding to is. To me it seems like an unnecessary complication, engraining an incorrect rhythm - just setting a habit you'll have to break again.
 
@farmerdan what I did is this: practice until i can do 15 unbroken s-s-d

when i did that i practiced until i could do 15 unbroken s-d

when i did that i practiced the d-d like... I don't remember if it took 2,3 or 4 days to do 10 unbroken practicing only that... I just remember that the first day I just couldn't do more than 2 on a row... What i did also is s-s-s-s-s-d-d-s-s-s-s-s-s-d-d, combinations like that
 
@kenhensley Personally I've never been able to alternate singles and doubles. My brain just can't switch back and forth like that. I do a couple singles and then switch into "doubles mode" until I trip or take a break.
 
@srutz I said that elsewhere in here. My coach didn’t even allow that while teaching because it makes it harder. This is a skill that’s all about connecting the rhythm of a jump with the twisting of a rope twice. Having your brain switch between two rhythms is not going to make it easier. The people that do that tend to be doing the technique all wrong too. They’ll do 3 singles then do this giant jump all tensed up and lift their legs really high then go back and catch their heavy fall in a single. The whole key is to be relaxed and hear the tap-tap-feet, tap-tap-feet, tap-tap-feet.
 
@srutz Same. I actually had this for a while, and then I lost it. That's the frustrating part: you can to a certain level and assume you'll build from there only to try later and not even be where you once were.
 
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