Jumping Rope

by Khach

In the beginning of December my friend Troy invited me to join the group of guys he works out with three days a week. I found that being in the group pushed me beyond any workout I had done on my own anywhere and signed up after the first week, having two gym memberships for the first time in my life. I still keep the one that is just down the hill from my house. One of the workouts included jumping rope which I had not done since sometime when I was in elementary school thirty years ago.

Yesterday, jumping rope for the fourth time sine the 1980’s I realized that my mental state changed when I was swinging the rope. Mentally, I was going back to a state from childhood and was not able to maintain more than several consecutive jumps without the rope catching my feet and needing to start over. I decided to try on a new state and forget everything about who I had been in the past and just focus on that rope going around and perfect timing of my feet not being on the floor as the rope passed.

I found that I could maintain that state without distraction for quite a while and string together 20 or 25 jumps without distracting myself into another state. It caused me to pay more attention to my state very closely before jumping. It has made me wonder what other states I could improve going forward.