If you’re training to be a boxer, the jump rope has a very important role in your development. One of the keys to winning fights is good footwork, and that can only come about through hours and hours of training, in activities like jogging, sparring, shadow boxing, heavy bags, speed bags—and especially the many variations of rope jumping.

Rope jumping has come a long way since the days of “double dutch” in the schoolyard. Today, there are moves and maneuvers using weighted ropes, plastic speed ropes, heavy leather ropes, beaded and segmented ropes, even self-adjusting ropes, along with many jump techniques that not only improve footwork, but also timing and coordination, while increasing leg strength and endurance.

Boxing, as with so many other sports, depends on the lower half of the body to keep an athlete on the field or in the ring. Remember the dancing feet of Mohammed Ali? His intimidating power came from his one-two punch, but he also bedazzled opponents with his fancy footwork. In his later years, when his power started to fade, his legs took him through to the very end. When the legs go on a boxer, you might as well pack it in and get ready for that shoeshine kit.

So, if you’re not planning to be a contender, why should you jump rope? It just happens to be one of the best aerobic forms of exercise you can do. Even just jumping up and down without a rope can get the heart going and the pulse rate jumping. Jumping with a rope adds a more strenuous activity involving the upper body as well. This stimulates both the respiratory and circulatory systems, pumping fresh oxygenated blood to all areas of the body.

This is a must. If you want that machine of yours, your body, to operate at its peak efficiency—you gotta’ sweat and give that big muscle of yours a workout! No, not that one-- your heart! Your heart, in spite of its multi-function, life-giving activities is still a muscle. And with any muscle, if you don’t use it, you lose it.

But why jump rope, when there are so many other aerobic activities to do? There’s weight lifting, calisthenics, swimming, spinning, bike riding, jogging, tennis and any number of sports. Well, your choice to jump rope is plainly a matter of economics and convenience, while getting the same results.

For under $5, you can buy a regulation jump rope, wrap it up, stick it in your back pocket and go wherever your heart desires to use it. Let’s see you do that with an exercise machine or a pair of dumbbells.

Aside from that, once you learn the hang of jumping rope or rope spinning, as it’s sometimes called—you’ll look pretty cool doing it! When anyone sees you handling a rope like Rocky Balboa training for a fight, no one will ever kick sand in your face. And you can truly say with a straight face, “I could have been a contender.”