Dear CrossFit, Doubling Down on Double Unders

Jumping rope is fun.  It’s fun to do and it’s fun to watch.  It’s something you can do with your kids or grandkids or nieces or nephews.  I love teaching the kids how to jump rope in the barn, and then watching as they get their first jump, their first two in a row, their first five in a row, their first ten in a row, and so on.  The other night, the 9 year old did 2,000 jump ropes over the course of an hour (there was money and bragging rights over her sisters involved).  She did them in groups of fifty.  It was very impressive.  Even more impressive was watching the 8 year old work double unders.  She wasn’t interested in a two hour slugfest, but she was interested in one spectacular movement that only one other person could do.  She wanted to feel special.  I overheard her tell the 7 year old “If Uncle JT can do them, I can do them. He’s old, has a steel hip, and he eats too much.”  I wasn’t offended, because all these statements are true, and, I can do double unders.  I couldn’t a year ago.  I could barely get ten single unders in a row.  But our coach is very insistent that people work on double unders.  Very insistent.  So insistent that some people who don’t have dubs actually work on dubs and get them.  I hereby endorse the insistence on working on dubs.  Dubs make your hands faster and make your feet faster and make you jump higher and make you spin the rope faster.  Dubs make you learn how to breath.  You simply can’t hold your breath for 50 dubs.  And they’re just so cool.  The sound that rope makes as it slices through the air, the look of amazement in people’s eyes as they watch you crank out an impossible number of dubs in a row, the feeling of accomplishment as you set a new PR for dubs.  It’s all good.  Dubs are a symbol of committment to consistentcy and persistence.  You can do a dub, because, like Emma said, Uncle JT can do dubs, and he’s old and eats too much.  You know the open is coming.  You know there’s going to be dubs.  Get busy Wodders, and get dubs.  I wonder what tomorrow’s WOD will be…