Richard Head on Personal Growth Through Jumping Rope (Ep. 4)

Richard Head (00:17)
It gets harder every day to be clever.

Dizzy Skips (00:20)
Yeah.

Ladies and gentlemen, cats and kittens, this is episode four of the Skip Squad Chronicles podcast with me, your host, Dizzy Skips. I’m just crazy about the jump rope community and the people I’ve met through this community are so supportive, hardworking, hilarious and fun. And jumping rope and dancing have changed my life for the better in so many ways. A lot of the credit goes to the support of wonderful people like my guest today. While jumping recently, I decided I wanted to know more about my jump rope friends and when we’re only connected on Instagram, it takes time to get to know one another.

You’ve got a maximum of 90 seconds on a reel or 15 second stories, occasional DMs and comments. So I thought what better way to get to know folks than to rope them into an interview where we can have a fun conversation and find out what makes our fellow jumpers tick. So in our fourth skip session today, I’m thrilled to talk to my friend Richard Head. He’s a really fun guy to follow and a skilled skipper. If you don’t know Richard already, you should.

You can find him on Instagram at @richard headjumps and I’ll put his link in the show notes as well. So Richard, thank you so much for joining me. Let’s just jump right in. First of all.

Richard Head (01:23)
So this whole idea is awesome, man. Thank you so much for including me. I really appreciate it.

Dizzy Skips (01:28)
Really? I’m so happy that, you know, I’ve got such great response from people and it makes me tickled because the idea of learning more about my fellow jumpers just felt inspiring to me. And I thought, you know, I can talk a little bit, you know, or at least I.

Richard Head (01:30)
Super cool.

Dizzy Skips (01:45)
Like I host these nerd meetups every month and so I exercise my extrovert muscles and get in front of people and talk and I thought, well, I can do this on the podcast and see how it goes. So thank you for coming on. Cool. So first of all, can you tell us like where you’re at, what you do?

Richard Head (01:58)
Well, just a fantastic idea.

So I’m a cook. actually work for corporate food service. So I run a cafe and then we have a catering department. So busy, busy days on my feet, which it’s kind of the only thing I’ve ever really done. it seems normal. Yes sir. Yeah, right downtown. I work real close to the space needle.

Dizzy Skips (02:25)
You’re in the Seattle area, right? Yeah. So do you work like…

wow. So yeah, I can imagine you’re quite busy.

How long have we done that?

Richard Head (02:38)
always, like I got my first restaurant job and I was probably 24 and I just have always done that kind of work. mean, now when I’m doing the corporate food service, I kind of can work those hours. So if you’re cooking for people, you know, that work a nine to five or whatever, it kind of enables me to have more of a family life and, and work those, those typical hours. Whereas most, most restaurant workers are, you know, up late and working weekends and working whenever, when everybody else is partying, but I’m

Dizzy Skips (02:44)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Right.

Richard Head (03:08)
I’m fortunate enough to not have to kind of bend myself that way. So it’s been nice with the family and stuff.

Dizzy Skips (03:10)
Yeah.

That’s cool. I’ve worked in kitchens before too. And, yeah, I’ve had that experience where you get called in at, you know, whatever hour they need you. So that’s cool. so when did you start jumping?

Richard Head (03:26)
So I think, was sort of, was kind of thinking about this and I think it’s probably been about two years now, maybe October-ish 2022 is when it started.

Dizzy Skips (03:34)
really?

Okay. And did you start your Instagram account at the same time?

Richard Head (03:44)
No, so that’s I had, you know, an Instagram, just my personal Instagram. And when I started kind of getting more heavily into the jump rope, I started doing what I’m doing now on @richard headjumps So I actually have about 18 months of like already done Instagram posts, put the music in different things because it was, you know, I like the jump roping. I liked the like the video editing kind not that it’s, you know,

crazy, intricate at it. But just picking out songs and putting in the edit and doing that. if you look at my page, can actually, if I have an older one, I’ll put the date because I have all the video, I have all the stuff. So can sort of just go to my personal page and then text myself that same thing and sort of recreate that over again. So if you look at my page, there’s a few that have like dates at the very beginning of the caption and those are some of my older ones. I’m still sitting on.

Dizzy Skips (04:18)
Yeah, totally.

okay.

Yep.

Richard Head (04:42)
quite a bunch of stuff. it’s kind of fun because I can, you know, I’m producing new videos, but also like if it’s a rest day or whatever, I can pull something out of the treasure vault and put it on there and that kind of, I sort of treat it like a diary. You know what I mean? Like, cause you look at, you look at, you know, you always wearing that t-shirt and I had that song and you know, like, I was feeling this way or, you know, my kids had just done this or whatever. So it’s, it’s fun. It’s, it’s fun for me to kind of back scroll and

Dizzy Skips (04:44)
That’s cool.

That’s awesome.

Yeah, totally.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, totally.

Richard Head (05:12)
The part that’s new is so I had that on my personal account, I started Richard had jumped a long time ago, but I sort of didn’t do anything with it until a month ago or whenever you and I first started communicating was kind of when I started it. the new part of this for me has been the community and seeing before it was just like, hey, look at me, I’m jumping rope and my friends, I get some likes from my mom or whatever, but I wasn’t.

Dizzy Skips (05:29)
Okay.

Hahaha

Richard Head (05:41)
I wasn’t seeing what other people were doing with their jump ropes or whatever, it because it was just my personal page. So the new thing, you know, that’s kind of hit me like a ton of bricks is just the community and watching other people and what they’re doing and, you know, having back and forth conversations about different tricks and different, you know, mindsets or whatever. So that that piece of it is super new to me. So I’m really I’m really kind of enjoying that.

Dizzy Skips (05:58)
Mm-hmm.

How does it affect you? Like how has the community affected you?

Richard Head (06:08)
Well, I mean, I’ll call you out if I have to because, you know, I started that page and, you know, I had had some interactions with like @vikingjumps and a couple other people, really, really limited stuff. And then I had, I saw you out there and we, don’t think we had interacted at all. And I had like, saw maybe, you know, a like or two or something, but I said, I put a post that said, well, Dizzy’s out there. You know, I woke up feeling kind of,

tired and no, should work out, but maybe I’ll just play video games or whatever and opened up my phone and sit down with my coffee and I saw you and you’re out there on your block just, you know, going for broke and I put in a comment or whatever. Well, if Dizzy’s out there, then I better get off my ass and go and do it. And then I can’t remember if it’s the next day or whatever. But you had replied with like a video message like referencing me like, hey, Richard, I’m out there.

Dizzy Skips (06:38)
yeah.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Richard Head (07:04)
And so that was a mind blower for me to turn on my phone and like, you know, because like I say, I was used to posting these videos and, you you know, my mom says something or whatever, but to like, here’s another person that’s out there who’s apparently just as crazy as me, you know, out there jumping. And so, I mean, that was a big deal for me just to get that response from you. So just like, that’s kind of part of my story and also a thank you I wanted to get in just because I opened up my phone and.

Dizzy Skips (07:16)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

least.

that’s so nice of you.

Richard Head (07:34)
There’s this guy I don’t even know just going like, hell yeah, dude, let’s get it together. So that was the mind blower for me. I mean, that’s a piece of it too. And then just seeing, I don’t know, I don’t feel like I’m necessarily a cool, like all you shuffler people and all the tricky ninja, like some of the stuff that you do is pretty mind blowing to me. so just starting to.

Dizzy Skips (07:38)
Let’s jump.

Cool.

Richard Head (08:02)
kind of see what other people just are doing is pretty neat. you like you reached out and I had a couple other kind of behind the scenes people that have reached out. I’ve heard you talk about Aaron before he’s sent me tutorials and just super exciting to, you know, not just be looking at YouTube videos, but actually being able to interact like within a matter of seconds. You know, I was working, I’ve been working on those, on those EBs and I can’t remember the specifics, but

Dizzy Skips (08:05)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Richard Head (08:33)
I think I clicked on, I did a search for EBs and clicked on a video that kind of made sense to me and just told whoever it was, I feel bad, I don’t remember his handle now, but made a comment and he immediately got back to me like, well try this and try that and that got me out there and so now I don’t have it mastered, but my body sort of knows what to do on each side, which is the goal, right?

Dizzy Skips (08:42)
Mm-hmm.

Cool.

Yeah.

Yeah, I just I never tire of the community. Like it’s the things that you can learn from people just by watching and listening and reading descriptions. You’re reading the reel descriptions or.

or the support that you can get. Like you listen to the podcast with Janie and Janie’s method of learning is like watching videos and then asking for help, you know, over Instagram and people have helped her. And I think that’s just awesome. And there’s.

Richard Head (09:17)
Yeah. Yeah.

Well, it just never occurred to me that that was a thing, you know? It’s just like you go and you take in from the internet, but like this back and forth component that has kind of materialized is pretty amazing, you know?

Dizzy Skips (09:32)
Yeah.

Right.

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

So going back to jump rope here, what are the things that you, like, how would you describe your own jump rope style? What do you do? What do you like to do? What do you hope to do or what are you working on?

Richard Head (09:58)
Well…

I so I started jumping two years ago, but I think if you travel, I’ve been thinking a lot about this, but before that, I’ve done a lot of cycling. So maybe 2018 to 2019, I kind of caught onto the idea that my job is 10 miles from my house. So I caught onto the fact that I could.

Dizzy Skips (10:14)
Mm.

Richard Head (10:27)
get on my bike and ride to work and then, you know, if you’re going into work or you’re going to, you know, a thing that requires energy, I get kind of anxious and my brain spins and I found that if I took that bike ride on the way to work, then I’m putting out some physical activity, I’m calming my mind. When I get there, I can take a quick shower and now I’m at least

better than I would have been if I just got up and drank too much coffee and drove straight to work. And so I did that for many, many years. And I think it was 2000, 2000, maybe it was before COVID. But anyway, I had been doing a lot of miles, no stretching, no nothing, no just get on the bike and go as hard as you can. And yeah, you can see where this is going. And so just like,

Dizzy Skips (10:58)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Richard Head (11:21)
almost overnight I developed this crazy like sciatic pain in my leg and it was it was just constant like I had that Thanksgiving that year at dinner I stood up because I couldn’t sit. When I I would drive to when I would drive to work in the morning I would have to take my foot and put it up on the dashboard because if I sat yeah I was just intense intense pain and I

Dizzy Skips (11:26)
Mmm. Yeah.

Ugh, that’s some serious pain.

Richard Head (11:51)
And I dealt with that for, yeah, no, for real, man, it was crazy. It was just what I had to do. And so I dealt with that for, I wanna say nine months, 10 months, a long time. I went to the doctor, I did physical therapy, I paid thousands of dollars that I didn’t have to go and, and, and I can’t tell, and then just, just like, it turned off one day.

Dizzy Skips (11:51)
That’s driving like a Muppet, Richard.

Holy Moses.

Yeah, treat this.

Richard Head (12:20)
I started taking fish oil. I don’t know if that’s what did it or not. But at the end of that, was left with, I had these stretches that I had got from the physical therapist. And I had, I found this, I found it really hard to be consistent and do those stretches every day. And so I knew I needed to do it. It only took 10 minutes, 15 minutes. And I knew that like that would help this pain, but it was hard for me to stay consistent. It was hard for me to stay

like on task enough to like, okay, now I’m gonna do this stretch and now I’m gonna not think about the next thing I’m gonna have to do, but I’m just gonna be here. And so I found this app where I could program in all my stretches and I could set the time for this stretch and I could set. And so then all I would have to do is take my phone out and I would put my headphones on and I would listen to music. all I would have to do is just hit go and then watch the screen, do the stretches for the amount of time.

Dizzy Skips (13:02)
Mmm.

Mm-hmm.

Richard Head (13:19)
Right? And so after I got onto that, then it wasn’t such a big like, I got to do my stretches or whatever. I just pull out my phone, hit go, and then just I’m there. I’m in that moment. I’m not thinking about the next thing. I’m just doing my stretches. And so from that, I started adding like dumbbells and I started adding different exercise to it. And again, it just helped me stay on track. And then at some point, at some point,

Dizzy Skips (13:40)
Mm-hmm.

Richard Head (13:48)
I think it was Lauren Jumps like everybody else or whatever towards the end of COVID. You know, I don’t know that I was even specifically trying to find jump rope, and I couldn’t tell you what the first seed was in my head, but I was like, cool, can do jump rope. And that was the other thing is if I’m cycling, like to get a good bike ride in, I’d be out on my bike for four hours away from the house, right? Because I didn’t just want to circle the block.

I want to be Frodo leaving the Shire and going journey, you know what I mean? That was part of it. And so trying to find like, what can I do where I can get that same cycling kick that I get, but not have to like gear up and get my head lamp and go do all this stuff. And so when I came across, when I came across a jump rope, I was like, okay, well, maybe this is, maybe this is it. And like a lot of people, I started

Dizzy Skips (14:21)
Right.

Yeah.

Richard Head (14:43)
And I tried it and just I’ve heard you say this too, like, my God, like this is so hard. My my my feet and my ankles and my calves, like it’s all just going to like light on fire. Like what the hell? You know, you know, I’m I’m I’m well into my 40s by this point. And so all I did was I added 30 second rounds. I think it was four 30 second rounds I added into my my stretches in my and my whatever. And at the start.

Dizzy Skips (14:48)
Holy shiznit!

Richard Head (15:11)
it was 75 % like dumbbells and, you know, planking and whatever. And then just those four 30 second rounds of jump rope. And like, that was enough to put me on my ass, right? Like those four 30 second rounds, done. Just basic bounce. That’s all I could do. No boxers skip, no nothing. And so I think just over the course of, you know, months and a lot of stuff changed for me.

Dizzy Skips (15:19)
Mm-hmm. yeah. Yeah, totally.

Richard Head (15:38)
when I found jump rope, know, I was, changed the way I’m eating. I decided to really focus on reducing my marijuana consumption, like down to as much as possible, because I was definitely a daily user. And I also found that the more pot I was smoking, the more like the next day those anxious, racing, self-doubting thoughts would come up. So that’s another

Dizzy Skips (15:51)
Sure. Dude.

interesting.

Richard Head (16:05)
That’s another thing that I’m finding is the less pot I’m smoking, the less sort of consequences I’ll have to suffer later. And I can feel more calm and more self-confident and more, you know, the same feelings I’m wanting to get from that bike ride or from now that jump rope session of like, dude, just brain, Jacob’s brain, like, you know, calm down, you know, settle down. And so just over the months of trying to

Dizzy Skips (16:23)
Sure.

Right.

That’s really interesting.

Richard Head (16:35)
Yeah, and so just over the months of staying consistent with my workouts, just not even on purpose, like the dumbbells kind of disappeared and then the four 30 second rounds turned into six 30 second rounds and then they turned into 45 second rounds and then they turned into eight 45 second rounds and like now I don’t care so much about, you know, the curls and I don’t care so much about, you know, and so then after a while it just turned into like

Dizzy Skips (16:55)
nice.

Mm-hmm.

Richard Head (17:04)
know, planks and pushups are even pretty recent. But yeah, was just go and jump and yeah, just kind of that’s sort of the genesis of where I’m at now was the cycling and the thing about the cycling too and you know, it’s a skill, right? So if you’re out there on your bike, you can’t just totally disconnect and

Dizzy Skips (17:16)
So.

Cool.

Mm-hmm.

Richard Head (17:32)
not think about what you’re doing, you have to think about what you’re doing because there’s cars and there’s curbs and there’s potholes. But you still are in that mode of like, you know, your your your blood’s pumping and you’re, you know, and you’re chilling your your body’s kind of under a little bit of of duress and it calms your your mind, you know. And I feel like the jump rope is kind of the same thing. Like if. Even though I’m not traveling in a physical space, like if I.

Dizzy Skips (17:32)
Right.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, burning calories. Yep.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, totally.

Richard Head (18:00)
Like to be honest, I was a little bit nervous before we did this and I’m wandering around the house, know, bothering, know, chasing my wife around so I don’t have to do. And then I realized like, well, stupid, go out and jump rope for 20 minutes. And so literally like before I text you on Instagram, I’m like, well, I’ll just go out and do 20 minutes and then I’ll then I’ll feel more, more, more, more chilled out, you know, and be able to kind of articulate myself a little bit better. So, yeah, I mean, I know I,

Dizzy Skips (18:13)
There you go. Yeah.

Nice. Yeah.

Yeah. Cool. I know I’ve noticed on some of your reels, like you will, you do document like what you did. So you’ll say like, you know, four 30 minutes or 30 second rounds of this and then, you know, however much planking and then, and I, I thought that was interesting. And that’s something that I have not done or I don’t even really do in my descriptions to talk about like my warmups and stuff, but,

But that’s cool. Do you do that to kind of document it so that when you look back, you could see kind of where you were at at that time?

Richard Head (18:57)
Well, yeah, and I’m Like I say I sort of I sort of have always treated it like a diary and now that I have this new page I’m sort of just doing the same and I also want to make sure that I’m prioritizing the activity You know what I mean? Like So like on a typical You know thing for me and I like I like I like getting it done early like if I’m gonna if I’m gonna skip I want to go early because that way

Dizzy Skips (19:14)
Mm.

Yeah.

Richard Head (19:26)
I can come home from work and just, I did it. I got my thing done for the day so I can just chill out. With kids around and family, you have to touch base with everybody, you have to spend time with everybody, you have to do that stuff and it takes time. so, I mean, that’s kind of the other thing, the reduced marijuana consumption, the reduced video games and just really trying to, if…

Dizzy Skips (19:34)
Yeah.

Sure.

Richard Head (19:53)
People think they can just get rid of bad habits, but you have to replace those bad habits with something else. So why not jump rope, why not, That’s a little bit silly, but it’s fun, you Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (19:58)
Sure. Yeah.

Yes.

It’s not silly at all. don’t think I mean jump rope, jumping rope and shuffling, know, or dancing around the city or the town have totally changed my consumption of things, you know, like whether it’s food or smoke or stuff like that. I it’s just and it’s in a joyful way. It’s in a way that I don’t miss it, you know. So that’s been great.

Richard Head (20:17)
Sure, sure.

Dizzy Skips (20:28)
One of things I love about your videos on Instagram is that you’ve got, I think you and I are of similar ages and you’ve got a lot of good guitar music on there. I say guitar music, like Weezer and you’ve got Nirvana and I was writing down some earlier. The Cure, I heard The Cure, Kid Cudi. Yeah, The Cult, She Sells Sanctuary. Yeah.

Richard Head (20:50)
Yeah, I did the cure I think yesterday, or the last one I did was the cure.

yep. So that one, so that video is actually an old one. That one was from like last summer and that swing kick at the end was like, I had unlocked that that morning. So I was super stoked and I was like, what’s the song that really will just like, you know, and when that first kicks in at the beginning of that song, like it felt very appropriate for how I was feeling about being able to do that silly little, you know, kick move.

Dizzy Skips (21:01)
Yeah. Okay.

Nice.

Yeah.

That’s awesome. Yeah, it’s got a really cool intro. Very kind of iconic intro.

One of the other things that I like about your feed is you have a lot of inspirational stuff, like whether it’s you just posting stuff with text on it or posting other sort of meme stuff. In fact, I noticed that on your profile, you use the highlights feature, I think it’s called on Instagram, where you can kind of highlight specific reels. And so you have…

One that’s called like Jump Rope Friends and I have to say I’m honored to be listed on that. That was very nice. Thank you. But you have one that’s like inspirational stuff as well and that’s cool. I really liked, I like a lot of the inspirational stuff because I think it’s…

Richard Head (21:56)
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, like I say, you were the first one to like, yeah.

Dizzy Skips (22:13)
a lot, it goes along the line of how I think too. know, a lot of it is just get there, get out there and do that stuff. Going back to your jumping real quick, I was gonna comment that you jump a lot in the morning. I tend to jump, you know, later, except on weekends, I tend to jump as much as I can, but are you jumping at home in the morning or are you jumping at work in the morning or does it matter?

Richard Head (22:36)
So, well, I have a really great spot at home that actually I built, which is just a five by five cement slab. what I was gonna say is typically how it goes for me is, and this goes back to even beginning to jump rope at all, like you don’t want to always, right? So for me, if I leave the house at 5.30, I know that I can be ready for work at 6.30. But.

Dizzy Skips (22:44)
Okay.

Richard Head (23:06)
If I want to get in some jump rope, then I know I have to leave the house at like 4.30, which means I have to get up earlier. it’s kind of, before the jumping rope even starts, it’s like, okay, we got to get up, we got to get our stuff, we got to get there. And then, yeah, so the spot where I work, there’s actually two buildings and in the center, they have an open like courtyard that’s, you have to badge in and you can’t get in there. So I can go out there.

And skip my rope and there’s literally like I’m outside there’s leaves falling wind blowing but there’s I don’t have to worry about other people around So yeah, if you yeah

Dizzy Skips (23:44)
Yeah, it’s pretty. know exactly where you’re talking about, because there’s like angled buildings behind you. Yeah, it’s really pretty.

Richard Head (23:50)
Yep. Yep. Yeah. So that’s, that’s the spot where I work. And so it’s just another piece of like, you know, you have to find the motivation to even get to your spot to start working out. And then you have, you know, so much time to get that done. think a lot of my jump, my jumping and that’s different than a lot of the other people you’ve talked to is, you know, it’s, I always use that app, right? It’s always like number of rounds. It’s always very,

sort of predetermined, you know what I mean? I really, and I think I’m getting to the point where I feel like that’s sort of holding me back a little bit because I just, for literally years, I’ve opened up that app and I said, okay, now I’m gonna do, maybe I’ll stretch first or maybe I’ll do whatever and then I’m gonna do 25 one minute rounds with a 10 second rest and just bang that out and then I hit go and I just start jumping. So I think I’ve, I’m sort of realizing now that

Dizzy Skips (24:20)
Mm-hmm. yeah,

Mm.

Right.

Richard Head (24:50)
you know, maybe I should attempt more to just go like, I’m just going to go outside and just jump rope and just try to do tricks and try and listen to my music or whatever. So it’s sort of a double edged sword because it keeps me very like, and again, it goes back to the cycling. Like when I’m jumping, it’s just I’m going, I’m putting out that effort. I’m I’m concentrating on the skill, right? Because if I’m not paying attention to exactly what I’m doing, then I’m going to, you know, trip on the rope or I’m going to whip myself in the face or.

Dizzy Skips (24:56)
Yeah.

Sure.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Richard Head (25:19)
Whatever, so that’s just like cycling. I like it that you can let your mind wander to a point, but then you have to still be focused on the task at hand.

Dizzy Skips (25:29)
Yeah, that’s my jump rope nirvana is when I can kind of like turn off my brain and and just flow, you know, and like, and I’m always listening to music and I’m very selective about what I’m listening to. so.

Richard Head (25:33)
Yeah, 1000%. Yep.

Mm-hmm.

Dizzy Skips (25:45)
Yeah, so it sounds like your approach is more from the like, I gotta get in exercise, you know, it reminds me of my kickboxing days where it’s like, all right, we’re doing three one minute rounds. And then there was that one time where I went to this boxing club in Tacoma. And they’re like, all right, we’re gonna do two 15 minute rounds.

And was 15 minutes, like in a row, and that’s what we did. And I thought I was gonna die. I don’t think I could walk for a few days after that. Yeah.

Richard Head (26:04)
Hahaha, yeah.

But yeah, think especially now and since I’ve started kind of seeing what everybody else is doing, I’m sort of looking at not getting rid of that strategy, but taking some time to just go out and work on skills and work on tricks. Because like I say, I feel almost, I don’t want to compare myself to other people, right? we’re not supposed to do that. But I think a lot of the people that you’ve talked to and a lot of people I see are just the behind the backs and the crisscrossing and all the, you know, and.

Dizzy Skips (26:26)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Sure. You got moves. Right.

Richard Head (26:42)
And I can do some stuff, like I can, you know, I’m not, I’m not not a ninja, right? Yeah, like I got some stuff, but just some of the other stuff I see, think, you know, if I’m, if I’m specifically like, I’m doing 30 minute rounds, I, and I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I feel like if I’m practicing tricks, then, you know, you’re practicing something new, you’re going to miss a step or whatever. And so now I’m not doing the work. I’m not, you know, going for that minute. So it’s sort of a, but then I also find that, you know,

Dizzy Skips (27:06)
Mmm.

Richard Head (27:11)
I did do a session where I just said 45 minutes, like I’m just going to be out here practicing EBs for 45 minutes. And I kind of found at the end of that 45 minutes, I was probably just as winded and, you know, getting all those positive benefits that I would have gotten if I just, I’m going to do 45 one minute rounds and that’s it. So I’m sort of.

Dizzy Skips (27:17)
Mm-hmm.

Hahaha

Good.

I would totally be winded from swearing at the rope, you know, or at myself. I’ve done that where I go out and practice like releases for, you know, a half hour or 45 minutes and I’m listening to music and whatever and just whack my knuckles over and over again or, you know, whack myself in the back of the head, launch my headphones off.

Richard Head (27:35)
Yes, yeah. And so I think also that’s why.

Yeah.

And then, I mean, kind of piggybacking on that, and maybe you can speak about this, but I’ve also felt like, you learn a few things with your rope, you know, like I’m coming from a place of like basic bounce, I thought boxer skip would be impossible, and now like I almost can’t not boxer skip when I jump, like I have to focus on basic bounce. Yeah, and so you get good at a few things.

Dizzy Skips (28:07)
Yeah.

Yeah, you do it really well.

Richard Head (28:16)
But now you have this sort of choice of, I can feel really cool and I can go really fast and I can do these things that I know that I’m good at, right? And now I’m cool and now I got my tunes going and now I’m going. But to keep learning, you almost have to like make the choice to be bad at jump rope again. Does that make sense? Right, because you know what I mean? Like that’s where I feel stuck because a lot of times like.

Dizzy Skips (28:27)
Mm-hmm.

It totally makes sense, yeah. I totally know what you mean.

Richard Head (28:43)
You know, like I only have so much time before work, so I don’t want to spend that time feeling like and feeling, you know, like I’m not good at this. So it’s sort of, you know, I get trapped in the like, well, I’m just going to do my boxer skip and my double side swings and my things that I thought were impossible that now comes so second nature. And it, feels like, and again, I don’t think this is accurate. I think this is a trick that my brain plays on me, but, I don’t want to, I don’t want to practice that right now because I’m not, I’m not good at it. And it’ll be a waste of my.

Dizzy Skips (28:49)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Richard Head (29:12)
of my workout time or whatever. Yeah, okay.

Dizzy Skips (29:12)
I know exactly what you mean, Richard. And I totally did that this summer. Especially, I live in Minnesota where the winters are kind of cold and desolate. So when it’s spring and summer, I just want to take advantage of it.

And you know, you know, sort of my style. put on music and I just do my thing and sort of flow. And I love that. I love that. For me, it’s really meditation. It’s helping me deal with the stress of the day or the week or my life or stuff like that. And so there are times where I feel like, OK, if I go out here and I practice releases or I practice that new footwork that coach told me to practice, it, you know, I’m going to stop and start and I’m going to swear or I’m going

Richard Head (29:42)
Yeah, yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Dizzy Skips (29:56)
be frustrated or I could go out and I could just flow and then feel better. And so I have just flown over and over again and so I feel like when I watch people, know again not to compare myself qualitatively to other people, but when I watch some people who have been jumping the same amount of time or less than I have, they’re doing releases left and right and catching them and I’m like man I…

Richard Head (30:03)
Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (30:20)
But I did say I did sort of make a decision at the beginning of the summer like this is gonna be my summer of footwork like I’m gonna learn how to do footwork and I don’t I don’t know that I’ve learned that but I I’m so much better than I was you know at the beginning of the summer and

Richard Head (30:29)
I’m right there with you brother, I’m feeling the same way.

Dizzy Skips (30:37)
That’s one of the great things about recording and watching those videos is I can go back to March when I started and see these videos where I was so proud of myself that I could alternate my feet without tripping up for 45 seconds. now it’s like I can alternate my feet and I can do some shuffles and stuff and I can do all that within 45 seconds and still trip up. Yeah.

Richard Head (31:00)
Yeah, right. Right. then I’m sorry, go ahead.

Dizzy Skips (31:07)
I was just gonna ask about your ropes. can you talk a little bit about like your favorite ropes or what do you use? Are you a rope nut like me?

Richard Head (31:11)
Yeah, good. Actually, I was going to answer that question and then I thought, don’t interrupt him. He’s okay. So, okay. So the other thing that kind of got folded in by accident for me is when I started out, my very first rope, I got like a $12 just PVC rope from like Big Five Sporting Goods and I rocked that one. I rocked that one for quite a long time. That was the one that kind of took me from the point of

Dizzy Skips (31:17)
Ha ha.

Richard Head (31:38)
You know, I tried to jump for my four 30 second rounds and realized that that will light my legs on fire and like, how could I ever do that? And so that, that rope took me from that point to like, you know, maybe 10 one minute rounds or 15 one minute rounds I was doing and I was feeling pretty strong and I was starting to learn some, some crosses and like boxer skip a little bit. And then, I got, I got the money rope, the Rush Athletics money rope. It’s like a, it’s a, it’s another PVC,

Dizzy Skips (32:05)
Okay.

Richard Head (32:08)
rope, there’s a, if you look up Rush Athletics, there’s a British guy and he does like crazy double unders and like, my God, that guy’s a maniac. And so I bought one his ropes and I used that one for, it actually kept breaking. Like I would break at the handle and so that was, I think so, yeah, it was like a yellow, yeah, it wasn’t a beaded one. I never have used a beaded one and I know that you probably do.

Dizzy Skips (32:12)
Yeah, I…

Yeah. Yeah.

Was it PVC?

Mm.

Richard Head (32:36)
about that because I feel like I’m ready to.

Dizzy Skips (32:38)
You’ve never used a beaded rope, really?

Richard Head (32:40)
I mean, once or twice I had one, but then I sized it for my daughter and I never really picked it up again after that. So anyway, yeah, well, had my other one and I didn’t really go for it. And so that one that I spent money on had broke and I returned it and brought it back and it broke. again, the reason that was so frustrating is because I had this certain workout that I was gonna go do on the morning before work and whatever, and then my rope

Dizzy Skips (32:47)
And then it was hard because you kept whacking yourself.

Mm-hmm.

Richard Head (33:09)
broke and so then it was like, dude, I had pumped myself up to go do this work and now my rope’s broken. And so I decided to, that’s when I got a cross rope. So I started, I got the two pound and the one pound and I had a six ounce rope. And I started doing, using that one. And I think at that point, because when I was doing the PVC ropes, I was focusing more on my crosses and my tricks and that kind of stuff and then I.

Dizzy Skips (33:27)
Okay.

Sure.

Richard Head (33:39)
And then I got the cross rope, which was a little heavier duty. The handles are much heavier and all that. And so at that point, I really started to feel some like physical changes in my body, like in a good way, like my upper body and my chest and my arms. you know, like we talked about, I was on a bike, so I never was really a like upper body guy. I still can’t like do a pull up or any of that stuff, but.

Dizzy Skips (33:54)
Okay? Yeah.

getting ripped.

You

Richard Head (34:05)
That’s on my bucket list, but we’ll get there. But yeah, I started to really see, man, I’m like, I don’t know how to say it without, but you know, you feel good about yourself and yeah, yeah.

Dizzy Skips (34:18)
No, you start to see muscle definition that you didn’t see before. Like, wow, I had that same experience where I was like watching a video and going, I have muscles in my legs. Like, I can see definition there. It’s weird.

Richard Head (34:27)
Yeah, yeah. I was all proud of myself because I got out of the shower and I was like, look without my glasses on on a foggy mirror. I look like Hugh Jackman who’s much older than me. Like, good job, buddy. Like, cool, you know. So and then, you know, once that started to happen, I pretty much I pretty much only just had my cross ropes since then. I burned through the six ounce rope and I have a I have a four ounce one that actually probably when I’m done talking to you, I’m going to

I need to get a new one. it’s electrical tape. Yes, sir. Yeah, tape, tape, tape them up. Cause I think just from the, go ahead.

Dizzy Skips (34:57)
Is that duct tape on it?

Okay, like is it… Do you… Or is it just wearing on the like concrete or… I’ve seen you jump on a mat. Don’t you have like a…

Richard Head (35:13)
totally. No, think that’s just from tapping on my foot. It wears away at the material. I’ve had this one for probably a year now. I’m getting my use out of it for sure. So I feel like it’s finally time to do it. But I think I’m ready now. I want to maybe look at a beaded rope. And I had my phone out to spend some money before. And I thought, well, maybe I should talk to Dizzy first and then wait and see.

Dizzy Skips (35:24)
Interesting.

Yeah.

Richard Head (35:44)
but yeah, I always, have a mat, it’s soaks up a lot of water though. So I can’t, I would love to be outside in the, in the terrible weather that’s about to come to Seattle right now, but I’m going to need probably a different mat and, maybe a beaded rope or, just, I want to find another rope that’ll be good for me to kind of start exploring like not, not 31 minute rounds, but we’ll go out and just, you know, f*ck around for an hour and see what we can do. So I want to, I want to kind of explore that avenue that’s sort of next on the horizon.

Dizzy Skips (35:57)
Mm.

Yeah.

Yep. Yeah.

Right. You know, one thing I found that I thought was a totally great idea is like, I’m a Costco nut, that I love shopping at Costco and they have these doormats that are, you know, like outside doormats that are, I think they’re like 14.95 or whatever.

Richard Head (36:13)
But yeah, cross-rope, cross-rope almost exclusively.

Okay.

Dizzy Skips (36:32)
And they work perfectly as a jump rope mat. Like I put one inside and so, and they’re smaller, you know, I think they’re probably like, I don’t know, two by three or something, but they’re enough to be able to like jump and protect your rope a little bit. You know, the first rope that I was jumping with, when I started jumping at the end of last year and then injured myself so that I couldn’t jump until like February.

Richard Head (36:35)
Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Dizzy Skips (36:59)
was like this cheap wire rope that I got off of Amazon and I’ve seen them all over the place. I got like two for one, whatever. And it was on the order of a speed rope, but it had bigger black handles that had these little grooves in them or whatever. And I really had fun with it.

Richard Head (37:13)
Uh-huh.

Dizzy Skips (37:18)
At one point, watching a video of myself skipping, I was like, why in the world are there sparks flying off my feet? And it was because I had worn through the rope and there was an actual wire in there that was hitting the ground and sparking. Yeah. Yeah. No, no, I’d have to go back and find it. Yeah. But yeah, it was interesting. So, what

Richard Head (37:28)
Yeah. No way. And it was making sparks? Man, did you have that posted somewhere? That’d be a cool video.

Dizzy Skips (37:48)
What you’ve said that jump rope kind of helps you set your mind right in a way or like deal with stress. there other, and it’s also helped make you buff. Are there other benefits that you’ve, Richard did that in quotes for those of you who are listening and not watching. So are there other benefits that you’ve gained from jumping rope outside of that and the community, I guess?

Richard Head (37:54)
100%.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, I think I could get real deep with it to be honest with you, but I think let’s start with just sort of my personality is that I can, you know, I’m very excitable. I’m very emotional. will, you know, if we need to get the job done, I’ll expend all my energy all in one shot and get it done. And I think a lot of times with exercise or with

you know, lots of different things. I’ll try, I’m gonna do this as hard as I can and then I’ll either burn myself out or whatever. But I think the jump rope has helped me instead of like, I’m gonna jump rope for two hours on Tuesday, right? And like, I could do that if I wanted to. I mean, I’m at the point where I could jump rope for two hours, but then I’m gonna be sore and then I’m gonna be messed up the next day and whatever. Like, I can do that, but.

It’s teaching me to…

focus more on consistency than hitting that high water mark of whatever it is.

Dizzy Skips (39:14)
Sure.

sort of modulating things. yeah.

Richard Head (39:19)
Yeah, and I mean, that’s, I mean, that’s also something I like about the physical aspect of jump rope itself is, you know, we all see those beginner videos of like, don’t jump really high and, don’t do this. But what we don’t talk about is the reason we don’t do that is because we’re expending far more energy than we need to, to get the job done. And the job is to jump over the rope. Right? So,

Dizzy Skips (39:44)
Sure.

Right.

Richard Head (39:49)
it’s sort of as you get better, what are you doing? You’re reducing the amount of energy expended from your body in order to get this job done, right? You’re increasing the efficiency of your movements and you’re doing that both physically with your body and also using your mind to control your body too. So then, you know, with your boxer’s step or your basic bounce, like, you know, like.

Dizzy Skips (39:57)
totally.

Totally.

Richard Head (40:15)
You’re just jump, only need to jump that much higher than the rope. if you’re doing that, like, and that’s also what brings on that flow that you’re talking about. I, yeah, and I find that something that that’s a skill that I need for the rest of my life too. You know, like if I’m in this huge kitchen and I need to talk to seven people, if I go to the guy upstairs and talk to him and then I come down.

Dizzy Skips (40:17)
Yeah, you jump, right.

Yeah, it looks so cool, doesn’t it?

Mm-hmm.

Richard Head (40:41)
to talk to the guy downstairs, but I forgot to go tell the other guy something and now I’m back up here and now I have to go and do this and I can still get that job done, but if I stop for a minute and think like, okay, slow down, I need to have this conversation and then I need to go down here and then I need to do this and so it’s, I’m looking at it as, know, and it’s the same thing, like the skills I’m trying to get good at at work, like communication and all those things, like I want to learn those skills

Dizzy Skips (40:47)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Right.

Richard Head (41:11)
for work, but I want to learn them because then I can bring them home and now I can officially communicate with my daughters and now I can make sure that my wife understands how I’m feeling and I understand how she’s feeling and then we can help do whatever it is and all that stuff. So, mean, kind of in a weird way, just that efficiency of movement with the jump rope, you can apply that piece to lots of other things in your life. You know what I mean? Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (41:24)
connect better. Yeah.

That’s really cool. Yeah, I’ve never thought of that. Yeah. I mean, so…

Richard Head (41:41)
So it’s yeah, that efficiency of movement and the, you know, again, like if we’re gonna do four 30 second rounds, that seems impossible, but we start developing the muscles and we start learning to move correctly. And now that seems like nothing, you know? And so we can, but still just we’re refining, refining, refining, refining always, you know? And not just with the jump rope, but we do that with the rest of our life. It’s pretty, it’s pretty shocking. Like, yeah.

Dizzy Skips (41:54)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

think that’s a great observation.

Richard Head (42:10)
You know, like they always say, like if you turn your boat like two degrees in a direction over time, like the difference you’re going to, the different place you’re going to be. And so, you know, again, like I was talking about, always want to try to do the big crazy thing, but I’m realizing that instead of doing one big crazy thing, if I just make these little changes and hold onto them and be consistent with them, then over the course of six months or over the course of a year, like

Dizzy Skips (42:19)
Yeah, like it adds up.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Richard Head (42:37)
that big crazy change that I was trying to do in just one night or whatever, I can do that, but I have to have the patience to remain consistent and let it happen. You know what I mean?

Dizzy Skips (42:42)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, that is such a great observation. And I am totally like that too. and I was that way in school, like with homework, like if I couldn’t sit down and get all of the homework done, I didn’t want to get started. Like I hated to do 15 minutes here and 15 minutes there. I thought I had to do it all at once. And when approaching jump rope, you know, I’d like, all right, I’m going to go out for two hours. And like when I’m starting out and…

Richard Head (43:03)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (43:13)
And you know, I had a ball, you know, I injured myself a whole bunch and had to take it easy. but I, I think that consistency of just showing up and put in 15 minutes, put in 10 minutes, you know, you get better and you get markedly better if you just keep doing it. It’s, it’s better to do that, you know, 10 minutes every day, five days a week than it is to do like one 50 minute session, right?

Richard Head (43:26)
Yep. Yep.

Yeah, yeah, and I just, I mean, I’m applying that to the jump rope, but I’m also just trying to apply that to everything, you know, and it’s, yeah.

Dizzy Skips (43:48)
That’s a really cool insight. I’ve never thought of it that way, but that is great. It reminds me of looking at my early videos when I was jumping with my arms way out to the side and I would go home and like, why does my left shoulder kill right now? I just don’t get it. And yeah. And then over time you realize, yeah, you keep your elbows in and you keep your wrists kind of down by your waist and you rotate your hands. And yeah, you can go a lot faster. You don’t have to jump as high.

Richard Head (44:02)
Yeah. Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (44:17)
So I want to know what like, you laugh at yourself while you’re jumping? I laugh at myself constantly. What’s something funny that has happened to you while you’re jumping?

Richard Head (44:27)
Well, I mean, that’s sort of where the name @richard headjumps comes from, right? And like you, you know, you spoke about, jumping rope in front, in front of like stoner teenagers and not really caring and, and, and whatever. But, you know, it’s kind of like, I picked that name because, you know, there’s, there is, there is a little bit of like, I, I think from other people’s perspective, there’s a little bit of silliness to it. And I felt like,

Dizzy Skips (44:42)
Yeah.

Richard Head (44:57)
if I’m a 44 year old man who’s posting videos of himself jump roping, like that guy’s kind of a dickhead, right? And so it was just sort of like a funny thing and it was also me admitting like, I get that other people will see this and think like, okay, this guy’s a little bit silly. it was sort of…

Dizzy Skips (45:19)
You know what, I kid you not, when I saw your handle I thought, boy, his parents did a number on him. Like, I thought it was your real name and I wasn’t gonna ask, like, okay.

Richard Head (45:26)
Well, no, so to be clear, that’s no, no, not my real name. Richard head jumps is like Batman. He’s like an idea. You know what I mean? So just even the name was sort of an admission of like, know this is a little bit goofy, but like I’m getting a lot of positive out of it and I wanna do it. So hey, yeah, dude, yeah. You wanna see a dickhead jump? All right, here he goes. So that’s sort of even where that came from is just, you

Dizzy Skips (45:46)
Yeah. Yeah. Makes you happy.

Richard Head (45:56)
Just the admission of it. okay, so I have another story and I wanted to make sure to tell this story. So we were getting ready to go to Vegas. This was, I don’t know, last summer. And we had never been on a plane together as a family. Like the girls had never been on a plane. And so we were discussing that, you know, what to be ready for and whatever. And my younger daughter had made a joke about like, what if terrorists take over the plane? You know, like just joking, right?

And I turned around and I, you know, I had been working out or whatever and I made some like, yeah, well I’m a tough guy and I’ll take care of it. And my older daughter is playing video games and not really participating in the conversation. And she immediately looks up and goes, my God, terrorists have broken onto the plane. Does anyone here know how to jump rope? Right. And then just went back to what she was doing, right? Like, started making fun of me a little bit. I, you know, I thought it was hilarious, but.

Just sort of that, like you’ve spoken about it too, of just like the willingness to kind of be a little goofy, you know what I mean? It’s sort of part of it too, and it’s a part that I enjoy, but as far as silly things happening, that’s one that I wanted to tell, just my daughter giving me a hard time, which in our house, we make sure to give each other a hard time, because the rest of the world’s gonna give you a hard time too, so you gotta get used to it. Yeah, yeah, and then she just went right back to her video game or whatever she was doing and

Dizzy Skips (46:55)
That is, my gosh, that was.

Yeah, yeah. man.

that is so hilarious.

my, can anyone jump rope?

Yeah, she’s right back to her switch or whatever it is.

Richard Head (47:25)
Yeah, yeah, just just got me and I was really proud of her for that one. then, yeah.

Dizzy Skips (47:29)
Boom. Yeah, she dropped the bomb and then walked away. So, yeah, go ahead, please.

Richard Head (47:32)
And then the other story, I’ll go ahead. so I have one more kind of silly one and this was way back. So I work in a kitchen. There’s a guy that I work with that I would have never been friends with ever if it wasn’t for me working in the kitchen. He’s from Egypt and his name is Mohammed and he’s funny because he started before I did. this man, he didn’t speak a word of English when he started working in the kitchen.

He had, and now he’s fluent in English. You can have a conversation with him. And so he became fluent in English only using the language that is used in the back of the house, like in a kitchen. And that’s how he learned to speak English, right? So some of the things he says and some of the phrases that he knows are pretty spicy, I guess. And so anyway.

Dizzy Skips (48:18)
wow.

Yeah, there’s spicy. That’s funny. In the kitchen, sure.

Richard Head (48:27)
Right, you can imagine the language that goes on behind scenes in the kitchen. And so if you were to learn English strictly from that, like this is how he’s learned English. And so him and I got to be really good friends and he was a boxer in Egypt. And so he had some background of jumping rope and he doesn’t anymore. But this is before I had lost really any weight. I was starting to jump rope and I showed him one of my jump rope videos expecting him to go, that’s really cool. You know, and I showed him and.

Dizzy Skips (48:34)
so funny.

Richard Head (48:56)
And he goes, hey man, like what? He’s like, too heavy, too heavy, man, too heavy. And I was looking at it like thinking he meant like I was landing wrong or I was, you know, like, what do you mean, dude? I’m not landing right? Am I landing too hard? And he goes, he goes, no, man, your body, your body’s too heavy. And again, you know.

Dizzy Skips (49:11)
Right.

Don’t pull any punches!

Richard Head (49:21)
Yeah, no, he definitely didn’t pull punches. And that was also something that kind of sparked it like, okay, well, this is another something that instead of trying to starve myself or whatever, but I’m just going to start changing the way I eat. And I did like at my heaviest, was I think 220, 230 and I’m float around like 185 now and him saying I’m probably 6′ 1″ maybe. So and him saying that to me that day sort of

Dizzy Skips (49:39)
How tall are you?

Okay, that is hilarious.

Richard Head (49:48)
Not that I felt bad or he was making fun of me, but just I had thought like, it must be my technique that’s wrong. And he’s like, no, dude, your body’s much too heavy for what you’re trying to do. So that sort of sparked me to travel down a road of like, yeah, maybe I’ll eat a little less or do whatever. sort of, you know, that was something that I tried to remain consistent and I’ve seen results, you know, from that piece as well. So it’s funny the little things that sort of just happen. And again, you know, when you’re in a community of different people,

you know, the different things that you didn’t expect that just maybe it’s, you know, like the video that you sent to me or whatever. You never know the next thing that’s right around the corner that can, you know, kind of spark you to go like, okay, well, I’ll twist this dial a little bit on my life or I’ll pull this lever down a little bit and try to adjust things. I’m again, speaking about the community, it’ll give you things that you may not even want, but it’ll send you in a direction and you never know what’s next, you know.

Dizzy Skips (50:36)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. One of the things I love about being part of the community is, the cheering people on, you know, like being supportive. Like I, I am just one of those people who feels like if you put good energy out there, it comes back to you, you know, and if you vice versa as, as well, but,

Richard Head (51:03)
Yeah, 100%.

Dizzy Skips (51:04)
I’ve had so many people support me from the time where I know I wasn’t jumping super well. I had so much to learn, but nobody was like, hey dude, you really suck, but keep going. People were like, you’re doing great. They’re just like, right, no, get hearts. That kind of support meant a lot to me. I was thinking about this earlier while I was driving.

Richard Head (51:17)
Yeah. You’re pretty crappy at this, bro.

Dizzy Skips (51:33)
I say that, you know, when I started this and I started my Instagram account, it was really to track my own progress. at the beginning, that was very much true. But I think over time, my focus has changed a little more. I am tracking my own progress and I do pay attention to that stuff and I learn, but…

but I also am now participating more in the community. then I feel like over time you also sort of get your style or I’ve sort of found a little more of my style. so I am exercising that style, I guess, a little more. And so it’s not just all about tracking my progress. Some of it is about being part of the community. Some of it is about figuring out who I am.

Richard Head (52:17)
Well, so let me ask you this, if you’re talking about tracking your progress, so in order to make progress towards a goal, we have to have goals, right? So like, what are some of the goals that you’re setting or like, you know, I feel like I’m loving my crossroads, but I wanna make kind of a change and not give up the crossroads, like, how do you, can you speak on setting goals and tracking progress and like, you know, like, how does that look for you?

Dizzy Skips (52:27)
Yeah.

Richard Head (52:47)
You know what I mean?

Dizzy Skips (52:49)
Yeah, I know what you mean. And thank you for the question, Richard. So I would say that I realized early on that I wanted to get good. Like so many people, I saw Lauren Johnson was like, my Lord, how can I do that? How can I move like that? And so I figured…

Richard Head (52:53)
Thanks. Sure.

Mm-hmm.

Dizzy Skips (53:11)
I could accelerate my experience by having a coach. And so I found this coach that I work with. He’s a wonderful guy, @alwaysghadi And you see his videos pop up all the time on Instagram. He’s really funny guy, super supportive guy, but…

He has an app, his company is Timeless Jump, and he has an app that has daily lessons. And so you sort of work through things. Sometimes it’s not a jump day, sometimes it’s more of a off day, just maybe hand stuff or exercises, warm up stuff.

The short answer to your question is I have other people help me set goals because it is easy for me to just get into the flow and just kind of do my thing. I do watch people and I do try things, but having somebody say, no, Eric, you need to practice these releases 100 times on that side. I want you to, like, you should be good at this already is motivating to me. And also to have somebody who can, in the moment, like,

Richard Head (53:53)
Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Dizzy Skips (54:17)
on zoom look at me and say you know your hands are too far up or you’re too tense like relax has meant a lot to me so so yeah having somebody else

constantly rooting for me and also correcting me and giving me things to do, like inspiring me. Like I watch that guy’s videos and I’m like, holy Moses, that is so cool. Like if I could do that. And so, yeah, so I think that’s my answer basically is I do know like I wanna get good at releases. There’s this lady that I follow, Miriam Jumps Dance and she is like a fricking rope ninja. If you watch her, she does these releases and jumps and

Richard Head (54:31)
Hahaha

Mm-hmm.

Dizzy Skips (54:59)
Like she’s amazing to watch. And I see that, that’s a goal of mine. Like I want to be able to move my rope like that. I have not focused on the rope wrangling as much as I have on the footwork, but I will get like Miriam someday because I’m going to put in the time. Whether it’s 10 minutes a day or 15 minutes a day. Yeah. Well, thank you. That’s very nice of you. So I’ve kept you for a while. I’d like to ask you that,

Richard Head (55:12)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, dude, you got the footwork for sure.

Dizzy Skips (55:27)
like what is your advice to people who are just starting out? You’ve been at this for a while. We’ve talked about consistency and stuff, like somebody just starting out or thinking about, should I, I’m cycling, but should I do jump rope? What do you say?

Richard Head (55:40)
I I can only speak to my own experience, but yeah, I have actually a kid in his 20s at work that I got, he bought a rope last week and I’m just telling everybody like, just do your four 30 second rounds, but do it with consistency. I think it’s super important to just not set the bar too high. We’re all in charge of our own goals.

Dizzy Skips (55:52)
Nice.

Richard Head (56:09)
And so we can choose to make these crazy goals, right? But then if you set the bar way high, I’m not saying you can’t achieve that goal, but it’s gonna be a lot more difficult. you can set a goal way high and try to do it, but if you miss, that’s gonna kinda click in your brain and man, maybe this is not for me, but if you intentionally set those goals to be real, just easy ones, and then

Dizzy Skips (56:09)
Mm-hmm.

Right?

Sure.

Yeah.

Richard Head (56:38)
you know, just gradually, right? Like that’s, mean, that’s what I would say is, know, pretend you’re that, that frog that’s getting boiled over a long amount of time, right? Like just, just try to really trick yourself. Yeah, yeah. Just don’t, yeah. Just, just turn up, turn it up real slow. I think that’s kind of my advice. And I think a lot of people with the personality to go out and jump rope on a block all night, like maybe they don’t have the patience, but I think that’s

Dizzy Skips (56:39)
Yeah. Right.

The heat’s turning up slowly. Yeah.

Richard Head (57:08)
That’s part of it too, is just exercising that patience and just allowing for like, okay, I’m gonna go out there for five minutes, but I’m gonna also go out there for five minutes tomorrow. I’m also gonna go out there for five minutes on Thursday or whatever. And I think that just focusing on that consistency over time is way more important than any one thing you might be able to achieve on a certain day.

Dizzy Skips (57:11)
Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. I love that. I think that’s great advice. I think, like you brought this up earlier, just the whole evening out of your life and sort of making things a little more mellow. I’ve noticed even, you know, at work, things that would make me, you my blood boil or make me fret or whatever. I have a little more like water off a duck’s back syndrome, you know, where it’s like, that really sucks, but.

Richard Head (57:46)
Yep. Yep.

Yeah. Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (58:00)
this is the only thing I can do about it or something like that.

Richard Head (58:03)
It’s the exact same reason that Edward Norton in the movie Fight Club wasn’t bothered by his boss anymore after Fight Club was over, right? Like, after Fight Club, yeah, yeah, after Fight Club, dude, there’s no more problems. My boss at the office is not gonna bother me. It’s that, that’s what it is. And it’s such a powerful, yeah, it’s such a powerful tool that we can, if we can…

Dizzy Skips (58:12)
Right? Because he was getting his ass kicked every day.

Right. Yeah. Yeah. Taking punches to the face.

Richard Head (58:32)
get up and go get out there and put your shorts on and just, you you don’t even have to do your full workout. You just have to start. And once you start, you know, I used to tell people when I was riding a lot, they’d say, my God, how do you ride all these miles? you know, because I was 10 miles to work, but I found these alternate routes where it’d be like 30 miles to work. And now I’m going across Mercer Island at 3 a.m. and coming back around down 520 and all this stuff. And, my God, people would say, how do you do that?

Dizzy Skips (58:56)
Wow.

Richard Head (59:00)
And I said, the hardest part is to get from my bed to the front yard of my house. Like that’s where the battle takes place. And I think for people to remember that, you know, that’s what I’m learning is I don’t have to even do a full hour’s workout. I just have to do the first like four minutes. And then after that, I got music, I got sweat, I got blood pumping. After that, it’s easy. So the hardest part is just to commit to doing it, whatever it is.

Dizzy Skips (59:13)
Yeah.

Yep.

Right, totally.

Yep. Yeah, that is so true. I can’t tell you the number of times that I’ve like driven to the park and sat in the car and been like, I don’t know, man. I’m a little bit sore and it’s kind of crappy out or it’s a little cold. And once I start jumping that it’s just that first step. Yeah. Then, then I’m in the zone and I don’t care if it’s raining or whatever. just have, have a ball. And I think that’s

Richard Head (59:35)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Then it’s easy.

Dizzy Skips (59:54)
That’s great advice. Richard.

Richard Head (59:57)
Well, again, that’s another lesson we can apply to everything, right? Like there’s things in your life that you don’t want to do, and if you just, okay, go and do it, like build that muscle as well, that muscle in your brain that just goes, okay, we’re just going to take care of whatever this is, and not sitting around and waiting to do it.

Dizzy Skips (1:00:01)
Yeah.

Yep.

Yeah.

Yeah. Wonderful insight, Richard. So I just appreciate the hell out of you. And I thank you so much for coming on the podcast and talking to everybody. I think this has been a lot of fun. Got a little philosophical there, which is great. Got some good music. Talk in.

So thank you so much, Richard. Like I said, I really appreciate you and I love being connected with you. for everybody else out there, I know I said it earlier, but it’s @richard headjumps And now you know the story behind that.

Richard Head (1:00:48)
Well, dude, just thanks so much. Like I say, you were kind of the first person to reach out and make me go like, wow, there’s a whole bunch of nutcases out there that I can interact with now. So I just really appreciate you and I think this whole podcast idea is just fantastic. So thank you very much, sir.

Dizzy Skips (1:01:06)
Thank you so much. Yeah, I love being the nutcase out there that inspires people.

Richard Head (1:01:10)
Yup.