How it works
Chain skipping, but everyone crosses and uncrosses their arms at the same time.
Why partner skipping matters
skip-hop coach Lee Collinson-James has used partner skipping for 25 years to help children learn to skip. It’s the doorway that unlocks the mystery of turning a rope and jumping, and putting the two together. It can give a child their first ever experience of being inside a turning rope, and their first step towards understanding how a moving rope and bouncing feet fit together.
Partner skipping is surely one of the most effective ways to develop children’s physical health and spatial awareness. None of it is possible without the three C’s: cooperation, coordination, concentration.
It is that eureka, “I can do it” moment that can make the most reticent child into an active teenager. I have first-hand experience of this: lifelong adult skippers.
For a child who is struggling to skip, start face to face with them: Lee’s tips for SEND pupils and young skippers.
Teach the chain skip cross with the All-Access Skip Pass
Everything a teacher needs to teach this skill to a whole class, from skip-hop coach Lee Collinson-James:
- Step-by-step teaching: chain skipping, then cross together
- The secret: bang-on timing
- Spot the fault, with the fix
- A pupil self-check and a link to the Black Award
£149 a year for the whole school, or 6 months free with the whole-school rope set.
Where it fits
Chain skip cross: Black Award
Black Award: Expert
A related skill for the Black Award: one to include in lessons.
To pass, a pupil:
- Performs 5 double unders (single bounces in between are fine)
- Performs a full 360 degree turn
- Performs a side swing cross on both sides
- Leads a group routine including individual, partner and long rope moves
- Keeps the pot boiling in Figure of Eight in a team of 6 to 8: 5 full figures of 8 each (10 jumps), with the whole team succeeding
In the scheme of work
Where this skill is taught in the skip-hop scheme of work.
- UKS2Lesson 4: Team skillsTricks, Teams and Double Dutch · Years 5 and 6
What you need
A longer rope gives two skippers room. skip-hop ropes are designed specifically for the skills shown on this site.
SEND and inclusion
Make it work for everyone
Ideas for pupils with SEND, and for anyone who finds chain skip cross hard. Change one thing at a time.
What usually makes it hard: Everyone crossing at the same moment.
- TaskOnly once the chain skip is steady.
- CommunicationA caller says “cross” and “open”.
- PeopleKeep the chain short: two or three people.
Seated or no-jump version. Seated end link, crossing and opening the outside arm on the call.
An adapted pass is still a pass on the Skipping Awards. Use your own judgement and each pupil’s care plan. More in SEND and inclusion at skip-hop. Pupil struggling to get started? Try Lee’s tips for pupils who are struggling to skip.