For beginning jumpers, the rope should be long enough to reach from the floor to your armpits, when the rope is folded in half. Start out slowly, jumping thirty hops, just clearing the rope, and adding a minute to the routine each week. Harder - Rope games for children are found in the classroom, on the playground, and their homes. Some young ranch kids learn to rope at an early age. Older youth and adults may physically compete on a 'rope challenge course,' use ropes in the sports of climbing and rappelling, or use rope apparatus in team-building workshops.
Jump roping is a unique part of our cultural heritage.
Historically it was first a game primarily for boys. Males usually did not use rhymes. Migration of Americans from farms to towns and cities led to girls taking over this unique pastime of jump roping. One theory for this is that girls now had more time to play than they had back on the farm, and more friends to play with. On smooth city streets they put together dozens of games and hundreds of rhymes that make up modern jump rope lore.