Also called Safety and Poise
How it works
How a skipper stands, holds the rope and handles it safely. Poise is the first check of the Bronze Award, and it applies to every attempt after it.
The Safety and Poise points
Poise: back straight.
Arm position: arms in front, waist height, slightly bent (this applies to forward skipping).
Handle holding: hold the handle so at least 2 cm is visible in front of the thumb. It helps with leverage and moving the rope round.
Moving the rope: arms move downwards for forward skipping and upwards for backward skipping.
Once skipping starts: legs slightly bent, landing on the balls of the feet.
Positioning the rope: after a mistake, the safest way back to the starting position is to step over the rope. Don’t swing the rope backwards over the head.
Carrying an unused rope: when you stop skipping, double the rope up and tie it round your waist.
Never leave a rope on the floor, where someone could trip over it or slip on the handles.
skip-hop tipIn an award attempt, if a skipper misses a Safety and Poise point, that attempt doesn’t count. Give a reminder and they try again. Skills already ticked stay ticked.
Teach poise with the All-Access Skip Pass
Everything a teacher needs to teach safe skipping to a whole class:
- The skip-hop Poise video, with a chapter for each point and slow motion
- Arm position and handle holding in close-up
- Stepping over the rope after a miss, and carrying an unused rope safely
- The full words of the video, to read out or print
£149 a year for the whole school, or 6 months free with the whole-school rope set.
Where it fits
Poise: Bronze Award
Bronze Award
Safety and Poise is the first stage of the Bronze Award. It has to be passed before anything else, and kept up in every attempt after it, in the Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards.
The skills on this award:
- First: the Safety and Poise checks and the preliminary skips
- Bell
- Slalom
- Twister
- Side straddle
- Front straddle (scissors)
- Combined straddle
- Ex
- Wounded duck
- Side swing
- 180 degree turn
- Then the link: any 8 of the 10 skills linked in one routine, without a miss or error.
In the scheme of work
Poise isn’t a lesson of its own: check it in every skipping lesson, from the first time pupils hold a rope.
What you need
KS1 2.1m, KS2 2.5m or KS3 2.8m. 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 poise hard. Change one thing at a time.
What usually makes it hard: Remembering several points at once.
- TaskTeach one point at a time, and only add the next when the first is a habit.
- CommunicationShow each point rather than describe it, and use the same short words every time: “stand tall”, “arms in front”, “step through”.
- PeopleA partner watches and gives a thumbs up for each point.
Seated version. Sitting tall, arms in front, holding the handles, stepping or wheeling through the rope after a miss and carrying it safely all work seated.
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.