How many skips in 30 seconds is good?

In 30 seconds, a child in Year 2 who has learned to skip might manage about 10 skips, a Year 4 child about 20 and a Year 6 child about 30. These are the expected scores skip-hop and the Virtual Skipping League use, set from 25 years of skipping workshops in UK schools.

• Scores by year group
• Check a score
• How to test
• One minute
• Skip faster
• Questions

Expected skips in 30 seconds, by year group

Counting 1 each time the rope passes under the feet. Set from skip-hop’s school workshops and reviewed each summer as Virtual Skipping League data grows.

In the Virtual Skipping League, each pupil’s best gets a medal dot: bronze for nearly there, silver for expected and gold for exceeding.

Check a score

A score below “nearly there” is completely normal for a child who has just learned to skip. Every child has a personal best to beat, and that matters more than the table.

How to test it fairly

1. Check the ropeStanding on the middle, the handles should reach just below the armpits. A rope that’s too long or too light slows any skipper down. See how to choose skipping ropes.
2. Warm upA minute of easy skipping or bouncing on the spot first.
3. Work in pairsOne skips and one counts out loud, then swap. In school, half the class skips while the other half counts.
4. Use one counting ruleCount 1 every time the rope passes under the feet. Jumping and stepping over both count. After a trip, start again straight away and the count carries on.
5. Time it properlyUse the free voiced skipping timer on a phone or whiteboard. It counts everyone in and buzzes at 30 seconds.
6. Have more than one goRecord every go and keep the best as the score.

What about one minute?

We use 30 seconds because it’s easier to count, fits into any lesson and every child can keep going that long. For one minute, the most detailed figures come from China, where one-minute skipping is part of the national fitness standard for primary school pupils and children practise it in PE.

Skips in one minute. Median: about 100,000 rural pupils in central and western China, monitored in 2021 (China CDC Weekly). Pass and excellent marks: National Student Physical Fitness Standard, 2014 revision (60 and 90 points). Chinese grade 1 is about the same age as Year 2 in England.

Two things stand out. The typical pupil in that Chinese monitoring is far ahead of skip-hop’s expected scores for UK children, which suggests what regular practice can do. And even there, the median pupil sits well below the “excellent” mark.

Counting rules differ a little: Chinese school tests count one per turn of the rope, usually with both feet together, while our count also allows stepping over the rope.

How to skip faster

• 1
  Turn from the wrists

  Small circles from the wrists, elbows close to the sides. Big arm circles are slow and pull the rope short.

• 2
  Keep the jumps small

  Just high enough for the rope to pass, a couple of centimetres, landing softly on the balls of the feet.

• 3
  Move to the single bounce

  One turn, one jump. Once a child can do 20 single bounces in a row, speed comes quickly. Then try running on the spot or the boxer skip.

• 4
  Practise in short rounds

  Three goes of 30 seconds with a rest in between, trying to beat the best round. Little and often beats one long session.

• 5
  Set a score and beat it

  It’s one of the skills in the Blue Skipping Award, and the heart of the Virtual Skipping League.

To see the single bounce and running on the spot done well, watch Hopkins, our animated coach, on their skill pages, free: watch him, then copy him.

Questions people ask

How many skips in 30 seconds is good for a child?

It depends on age and practice. skip-hop’s expected scores are about 10 skips in 30 seconds in Year 2, 20 in Year 4 and 30 in Year 6, counting one every time the rope passes under the feet. A child who has only just learned to skip will be below that, and that is fine: the score to beat is their own last one.

How many skips in a minute is good for a child?

skip-hop and the Virtual Skipping League use 30 seconds, because it is easier to count and fits into any lesson. For a minute, the best published figures come from China, where one-minute skipping is part of the national fitness standard for primary pupils. In 2021 monitoring of about 100,000 rural pupils, the median managed 50 skips a minute at age 6 to 7, 80 at 8 to 9 and 104 at 11 to 12. Children there practise skipping far more than most UK children, so expect UK scores to be lower.

How many skips in 30 seconds is good for a 10-year-old?

Most 10-year-olds are in Year 5 or Year 6, where skip-hop’s expected scores are 25 and 30 skips in 30 seconds. 31 or more in Year 5, or 38 or more in Year 6, is exceeding.

What counts as one skip?

Count 1 every time the rope passes under the feet. Jumping with two feet and stepping over the rope both count. If the skipper trips, they start again straight away and the count carries on from the same number.

Do girls skip faster than boys?

In 2021 monitoring of about 100,000 rural pupils in China, girls skipped slightly more per minute than boys: a median of 92 against 86 across school grades 1 to 9, and girls were ahead in every primary grade. In the Virtual Skipping League, girls and boys compete in the same class tables.

How can my child skip faster?

Turn the rope from the wrists, not the arms; jump only a couple of centimetres off the ground; move from the double bounce to the single bounce; and check the rope is the right length. Then practise in short rounds of 30 seconds and try to beat the last score. The 30-day skipping challenge builds this up day by day.

What is the world record for skipping in 30 seconds?

In the International Jump Rope Union’s 30-second speed event, the records are 119 for men and 111 for women, both set by Chinese athletes in 2025. Speed events count one foot, so that is about 238 and 222 turns of the rope in 30 seconds.

Sources

1. The 30-second skipping challenge: rules, timer and expected scores, Virtual Skipping League
2. National Student Physical Fitness Standard (2014 revision), score tables (PDF, Chinese), Ministry of Education of China, copy hosted by East China Normal University
3. Luo et al. (2023), rope skipping performance of children and adolescents in China, China CDC Weekly 5(24)
4. World records, International Jump Rope Union