Getting Started

7 Essential Rope Flow Tips For Beginners And Beyond

Tip #1 - Experiment With Different Tools.

There are various different quality ropes you can use to practice rope flow. While the tool itself doesn’t matter as much as the practice, there are pros and cons to different types of ropes. If you’re a starter to rope flow and you’re intrigued you need to get a specially designed rope that work fine to begin with. They’re not relatively reasonably priced and you can find one on our page that should suit your need.

You can choose from lighter to heavier in weight. For children you may like to choose one that is lighter in weight. As for male adult you may go for the 420g-520g in that is a little heavier ropes to get you started.

For a super heavy rope, which works well for testing the body’s rotational capacity, but as for starters it isn’t too good for learning new skills.

These ropes are pricier than the standard skipping rope or DIY options, but they do feel nice to train with. There’s a good balance between being challenging enough to train the body, but also easy enough to learn the movements in the first place.

You can get started with little to nothing, and then if you enjoy learning the basics, it may be worth exploring some of the different ropes available on our store. Simply contact us via email: healthylifestylesingapore@gmail.com or whatsapp us at hp: (65) 81823325 Jenny Lim.

Tip #2 - Use Knots To Get The Right Fit

So you have your rope, the next thing is to ensure you have the right fit. If you stand on the center of the rope and pull it taught, ideally the ends will come somewhere between your hip points around the top of the pelvis and the bottom of your ribcage.

You want enough clearance so you’re not constantly whacking yourself in the head, but not so much slack so that it’s always dragging on the floor and more difficult to generate power.

This can be achieved using a series of knots:

We get questions about how to tie the ends all the time, as well as is the rope suitable for my height? You can send us an email to enquire and we even custom-made the length for you accordingly.

To shorten the rope by around 10-15cm, you can use a simple knot, ideally around 10-15 cm away from the handle, or at least not in the middle of the rope. If you want to shorten it further, you can either add additional simple knots, or you could add a figure of 8, which should cut it by another 20cm or so.

Tip #3 - Aim For Flow Before Speed

Now we’ll move away from the gear and explore the actual practice of rope flow. The first important concept is to focus on technique and finding a flow state before you aim for speed. We often think that going faster or harder is better, but this isn’t always the case, and certainly isn’t when learning a new skill like rope flow.

If you aim for slow and smooth first, this will help remove any tension and restrictions, and eventually, speed will come naturally.

On the other hand, if you try to force speed right away, you won’t have the technique as a foundation. The result will be sloppy and you’ll learn bad habits so go slow before you go fast.

Tip #4 - Skill Work Vs Working Out

Another key concept to consider when rope training is that it’s a skill, rather than a workout. Sure, rope flow is a great way to challenge the body and get a good cardiovascular training effect. But to reap the benefits long term, you’re better off viewing it initially as learning anew skill, as opposed to a way to break a sweat or challenge your body.

This means practicing little and often, break each skill up into small chunks, taking adequate rest, and staying fresh. The same goes for learning other skills like handstands or slack-lining.

Commit to the practice, and then soon enough you’ll be able to incorporate rope flow into your more physically demanding training.

Tip #5 - Stack Your Bones

Rope flow is an excellent way to practice using both sides of the body, and to mimic athletic movement patterns. Something that may help you get that feeling of athleticism with the rope is to think about shifting your weight to one side at a time.

You can imagine this as almost stacking your bones. So if I’m performing an overhand pattern on the right side of my body, I’m shifting most of my weight onto the right foot. I could even lift my left foot off the floor if I’d like to. Having the bones stacked on top of one another like this results in more efficient movement. We’re using the whole musculoskeletal system. This is where we see the link between rope flow and athletic movement patterns like striking, throwing, running, and more.

Tip #6 - Use Your Whole Body

This rope flow tip links with using your whole body. Watching someone roll a rope, it’s easy to assume that it’s just the shoulders involved. But the truth is, the rope is a full-body experience. Ideally, you want to let rope move you all the way from your toes to your wrist and everywhere in between. Getting the whole body involved has numerous benefits:

• Coiling through the spine generates power

• Pivoting from the hips allows you to transfer power from side to side.

• Wrists are a big one, allow for more intricate control over the rope.

This isn’t something that you’re necessarily going to feel right away, but it’s something to keep in mind. This idea of whole-body integration and balance between both sides.

Tip #7 - Integrate Rope Flow Into Your Practice

The rope is a versatile tool and can be incorporated into your movement practice in a number of ways.

A few ways that we can use the rope include:

• Warmup for running and strength work.

• To keep moving between sets.

• Standalone zone 2 cardio.

• Moving meditation in the morning.

• Taking out on an adventure – hike or to the beach.

The most important thing is that you find something that works well for you. Over To You!

Any questions, let us know and if you have any tips that you’d like to share with others, you can hit me up in the comments, or head over to our Facebook page for more sharing. May the flow be with you always!

BACK TO HOME PAGE