If you would like to sustain an interest in skipping, or would like to see children developing and improving their skipping skills, the National Skipping Challenge may be of interest:

The ‘challenge’ is our website competition that enables children to compare their scores with other children in schools across the UK. It’s a fairly informal competition in that there are no prizes ( although children who come first, second and third in each of the six categories receive an attractive, laminated certificate at the end of each term.) The ‘challenge’ began in 2003 and over 1000 children from nearly 400 schools have taken part…. so why not join in?

How to get started:

Firstly, you need to familiarise yourself with the six categories. To do this go to our website: www.skipping-workshops.co.uk and click on ‘skipping challenge’. This page shows the six categories and the minimum qualifying score for each category. Below are the winning scores from the previous term and, finally, all the scores from the present term. If you click on the ‘view all’ box, it shows, in alphabetical order, all the schools which have entered.

How to get children’s names on the web-site:

The first challenge is to be able to reach the minimum score for at least one of the categories. It’s worth noting that the six categories are not of equal difficulty. Overleaf are descriptions of the six sections and some advice about how to reach the minimum scores.

Once you have reached a qualifying score, an adult at the school needs to submit the score; this can be done by e mail: h.galley@btinternet.com or by fax: 0208 786 7707.

( please note that scores submitted by individual children are not accepted).

Once scores have been received, they usually go ‘live’ on the website within two days. There is no doubt that children are pleased (often thrilled) to see their name on the website. This also gives them a chance to see where they stand in the current list, and what they need to do to improve their position. Once a child has improved their score it needs to be submitted, so the child can see their new score on the website list.

Special summer term ‘novice’ challenge:

Some children who are new to the  ‘challenge’ are put off by the record scores and the sometimes amazing scores needed to reach the top of the various lists. Its worth noting that some children who are presently in Y6 started submitting scores at the start of Y3. To give newcomers a better chance, we are introducing a ‘novice’ competition in the summer term. A novice is simply a child who has not entered a score in each category previously ( this will make it impossible for the experienced, advanced skippers to enter, although they will get their chance in the other two terms)

To get involved with the ‘ National Skipping Challenge’, it’s a good idea to start with Keep the Pot Boiling, because the qualifying score is a modest 30. Children should have been taught the ‘keep the pot boiling’ game during the ‘Skipping Workshops’ presentation. Its simply a continuous figure of eight game, with one point scored for every time the rope is jumped; the counting stops when the rope is tagged or turned without a jump. You need a group of at least five to start the game. Once children get the idea of this game its fairly easy to achieve scores of between 50 and 100. Scores above 100 require good levels of fitness and sustained concentration. One tip is to have a confident skipper at the front of the group, and to encourage children to run quickly into the rope as soon as the previous child has started.

The next easiest category is face to face ( minimum score : 50). To reach this score you need the child with the rope to be a confident double-bounce skipper, turning the rope to the maximum height on every turn The secret here is for the two children to bounce as close together as possible, and to keep close all the time ( the tendency is for the child without the rope to bounce backwards). Face to face involves teamwork and co-operation, but, given practice, scores above 50 are not difficult.

The main challenge with double dutch is turning the ropes slowly, maintaining full circles with every turn. Once children can turn the ropes competently, the minimum score of 50 is fairly easy. Once children can jump in they need to sustain a fast, high, single bounce jump, keeping on the centre spot of the rope.

Once children can manage a crossover, the challenge is to try continuous crossovers  Children usually start by trying 3 or 4, slowly building up to 10. Getting a score of 10 often takes quite a while and involves some perseverance. However, once children do manage 10, they usually progress quickly to the qualifying score of 40. The secret of continuous crossovers is to keep the rope turning to the maximum height on each turn and, to achieve this, children need to turn their wrists to generate the rope height as its passes behind them. Some children prefer to do continuous crossovers in single bounce mode, but high scores are easier if children use double bounce.

Pretzels: as with crossovers, it usually takes children quite a while to reach a score of 10, but rapid progress usually follows once this score is achieved. The techniques are also similar to crossovers, with generating height on the rope the key skill. While doing the pretzel it’s a good idea to keep facing in the same direction. The minimum score of 30 often takes a great deal of determined practice.

Double-unders is the hardest of the six categories and has the fewest entries. It involves turning the rope rapidly twice for one  jump of the rope. The minimum score of 10 does not have to be done continuously, but does have to be achieved in one sequence of skips. Children often find a sequence of ‘single, single, double, single , single double’ is the best way to build up to a score of 10.

We hope you find these notes useful and will be encouraged to send in entries to this term’s ‘National Skipping Challenge’ For more information, please visit our website:

www.skipping-workshops.co.uk and click on ‘skipping challenge’