The Art of Angry Skipping with Aaron Fleming (Ep. 8)

Dizzy Skips (00:36)
Yeah, cool. was thinking about you earlier and so you’re 6’7″, so how long is your rope? Like I know a lot of manufacturers ship ropes that are like nine feet or 10 feet and I’m guessing you don’t adjust them that much because you’re so tall.

Aaron Fleming (00:53)
I actually take loads off. So when I first started it was literally out of the packet and then it was… So obviously your arms are wider aren’t they when you first start? So there wasn’t long enough so I had to buy one that was super long and it was like this is for like a seven foot person. So I could jump like this. But then over time like so now it’s like to my hips for the skipping ropes so obviously I’m cutting loads off when I get them now.

Dizzy Skips (00:56)
Do ya?

Yeah, right.

So that you could keep your arms way out like that. Yeah. Yeah.

Aaron Fleming (01:21)
But yeah, when I first started then I’d be looking because you know when you start shortening your rope. But I’m still trying to buy the ones that are way too long for me and then turning up and I’m like this is very long.

Dizzy Skips (01:21)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, yeah. So do you have a specific target, like when you’re sizing a rope, do you know exactly how many inches you need? Like if you get a new rope or like, you know, what I did initially was like target my belly button. So if I stand on the rope and I hold it like this and I try to get the handle so that they go to my belly button. So that or a little shorter now.

Aaron Fleming (01:57)
It does depend on the rope, like a weighted rope you need it little bit longer because you need to put more momentum in. A speed rope you can get rid of little bit shorter because can just crouch down. it does depend but I normally do go for under my belly button sort of area.

Dizzy Skips (02:04)
Mm-hmm.

Okay, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I’ve seen like those… Go ahead, please.

Aaron Fleming (02:17)
I don’t know… You know when you stand on it? Do you stand on it with one leg or two legs?

Dizzy Skips (02:27)
I do one leg, so I just kind of put it under one foot and then pull it up and try and get it so that it’s at my navel or shorter. And lately I’ve been…

Aaron Fleming (02:29)
Your one leg, yeah.

Dizzy Skips (02:39)
doing it a little bit shorter. The other thing I’ve noticed is that with these, you know, beaded ropes where I’ve got ties like that, sometimes after jumping for a little while, the rope just stretches naturally or the knot slips a little bit. And so I will start to feel it like I’m hitting the bench or I’m hitting the ground more. And so I’m often doing rope surgery while I’m out there, you know, like adjusting my length.

Aaron Fleming (03:02)
Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (03:04)
But yeah, I found that for me, because I’m like, when I make ropes, I make them with these two inch beads. And so 42 of them is what I need for a rope for me. And that’s 84 inches, not including the handles. And so I can just kind of measure it and know that that’s pretty much where I need to be, plus or minus.

Aaron Fleming (03:26)
Unless you miscounted and you’re like, why’s it so big?

Dizzy Skips (03:29)
Yeah, yeah.

Aaron Fleming (03:31)
Yeah, I’ve not… I should probably do that to be honest and count how many beads there is. They’re all roughly the same size anyway, aren’t they?

Dizzy Skips (03:38)
Yeah, it is.

Yeah, I think like a lot of major manufacturers just do one inch beads. So, you you can just kind of count. What I do is sort of fold it in half and then just kind of two, four, six, eight, you know, count like that. But yeah.

I think it’s good once I know, like once I knew my size, it made so much difference because I think I’ve talked about this before, but especially in my early videos, my rope was just way too long and I really didn’t quite understand or I didn’t, yeah, I don’t think I quite understood and I didn’t spend the time to go look up like, hey, what’s the right rope size? You I got the little recommendation in the packet and did some adjusting, but I would trip up so much and once I decided,

Like, I wanna be good, you I don’t wanna just be passable, I wanna be good. So then I looked at people like Lauren who adjusts her rope so that it’s like basically at her waist, which is lower than I go. But when you go that low, it forces you to keep your hands in, you know, because you have to be able to clear the rope. And so that’s kinda what I did.

Aaron Fleming (04:47)
Yeah.

It is tricky doing that, know, because I’ve got a rope where it’s literally to my waist, but then you know when I’m trying to do tricks and I don’t have enough room to do some of them, it becomes a bit of an issue. So I like it just a tiny little bit longer, know, so I can swing it around my head and all that sort of stuff.

Dizzy Skips (05:07)
Right. Yeah.

Yeah. You’ve seen those competitions, like I get these every once in a on my feed where it’s like a competition. I think it often happens in like Japan or different places in Asia where there’s speed rope competitions and they use those little wire ropes and they shorten them to the length that they have to like stoop over and then they just go like fast as hell. Like, and I think they count the skips or something like that.

Aaron Fleming (05:42)
Yeah, that’s… Have you ever tried doing it? It’s absolutely ridiculous. I don’t know how they do that.

Dizzy Skips (05:47)
I actually, you know, when I was like, yeah, I need to learn how to jump rope, I got on Amazon and I bought a few different ropes and I was like, this one says speed rope, I’ll get that. And it’s totally one of those wire ropes with the little, you know, ball bearing thing and not a good rope to learn on, you know, like, especially if you’d like going fast.

If you’re learning, like for me, Beat It is great because it’s got a little extra weight and a little more feedback. And when you whip yourself, it’s not, I don’t know, the wire in the PVC can be, I hit myself so hard today. Like a few times it just almost brought tears to my eyes. I like it, but I don’t know.

Aaron Fleming (06:21)
Yeah.

Yeah, the wired ropes definitely… because it’s really thin it really really whips doesn’t it? And then… I would say the weighted ropes whilst they’re really big and they look like they’re going to hurt, they’re probably not as bad as… it’s more like getting punched and not whipped. So it’s not too bad actually. yeah, that one’s… The beaded ones are weird though because it whips you but it… because it’s got like the little gaps in between. It’s like a staggered whip in there. You get whipped multiple times it’s the same whip.

Dizzy Skips (06:36)
Yeah, yeah.

Right, right, yeah. Yeah, I totally agree with you.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

So talk a little bit more about your ropes. How many ropes do you have and what are your standard, do you have a favorite rope that you always go back to

Aaron Fleming (07:15)
So I’ve got the main beaded rope which everyone sees which is blue and pink all day for a bit. So that’s the main one I use for all the tricks. And then I’ve just got another one from Mira. She’s… Mira Wate. I don’t know if you’ve seen her. But she sent me one which… The weighted one. So it was like…

Dizzy Skips (07:22)
Mm-hmm.

Yes. Which one did you get?

I ordered the same exact one the other day, yeah, from her, the blue one. And I noticed that Skippy Immy just got it, I think yesterday or the day before, and I saw her poster reel about it.

Aaron Fleming (07:41)
Yeah.

Yeah.

So I’ve been using that one, that one feels pretty good as well. But obviously I’ve not got many weighted ropes, many beaded ropes to compare that to. So I have ordered loads of other beaded ropes which should be turning up soon. So I’ll be giving them a try. Then I’ve got loads of speed ropes, absolutely tons of them. Again, whilst I really like using them and doing tricks with them, on camera it doesn’t look like I’ve got a rope.

Dizzy Skips (07:59)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Right, I know exactly what you mean. Especially like when I jump at dusk, there’s times where I wonder like, are people just thinking I’m out there just hopping around and moving my hands? Because you can’t even see the rope, especially when I’m trying to go fast. yeah.

Aaron Fleming (08:32)
It is funny, there are times I do it, especially when it’s like winter and you’re doing it and there’s like, there’s no rope there, you’re just moving your arms and I’m doing crosses looking like a music composer whilst I’m doing it. I always do that on my reals, I always put like an opera song on and just watch me do up on crosses with opera music in the background, that’s funny.

Dizzy Skips (08:56)
That’s great. You know what I did yesterday as I put on, I was filming myself and I’ve got an iPhone and so I put it in slow-mo and then just filmed myself jumping for, I don’t know, 15 seconds or 20 seconds. It was really entertaining. Like when you watch yourself doing stuff in slow-mo, it feels epic. I don’t know, it’s just like that cinematic, know, every skip means a whole bunch.

Aaron Fleming (09:22)
You have to be careful with what you’re wearing though, when you do it in slow motion.

Dizzy Skips (09:25)
Yeah, right, right, totally. So when you say speed ropes, are these all PVC ropes?

Aaron Fleming (09:31)
No sir, they’re the ones with the metal core in them.

Dizzy Skips (09:37)
okay.

Aaron Fleming (09:39)
So when, because I know people go call the PVC speed ropes, but then obviously I’ve only ever known the speed rope with the metal core in, so I guess there’s two different types of the same thing.

Dizzy Skips (09:43)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah, I have a few, or actually I have one I think left that’s got that metal cord. And it’s totally a speed rope, but it’s, I would say the width of it, like a normal PVC rope is, you know, four millimeters, five millimeters or six millimeters. And I think the one that I’ve got is probably like two or three with a little wire in it.

And I think, I don’t know if I mentioned it on the podcast, but I broke one of them because I was skipping in the driveway without a mat or anything like that and I would skip really fast or whatever and I wore through it and in filming myself, at one time I was looking at a video going, why are there sparks flying off my feet? I don’t get it. And it was because the wire was hitting the pavement and sparking every once in while. It was crazy.

Aaron Fleming (10:39)
They’re a nightmare then ropes they amount I have chewed through. Because obviously I’ve got a mat and just hitting the mat over and over again breaks them as well.

Dizzy Skips (10:48)
Yeah, yeah, I like beads for their resilience. I mean, I definitely wear away at beads, but I also like that feedback. They’ve got sort of that balance between a heavy rope and a speed rope. And also…

I don’t know if you do this, but if you go and use a heavy rope for a while and then downgrade to a beaded rope for, you like you’re jumping with a heavy rope for 20 minutes and then downgrade to a beaded rope, you feel like, my gosh, I can move this thing so fast. And then you downgrade to a PVC rope or the speed rope and you feel like Superman. Like it’s so much easier to move that. I don’t know. I have fun doing that.

Aaron Fleming (11:27)
That’s how I train, I’ll use my heavy rope all the time. And then I switch to the beaded rope. When people are like, you’re going really quick, like yeah because I’ve just been using every rope before.

Dizzy Skips (11:39)
Yeah, I’m curious, were you a pro at Instagram before you started doing your jumping sort of diary or have you learned about Instagram as you’ve gone? Because I have learned as I’ve set up my account. I’m still learning.

Aaron Fleming (11:56)
I don’t really know about it, I’m even now too All I ever do is I put the videos on, put them together and then just use the same filter for the middle bits. That’s as much as I do. I don’t know on your phone, but on mine there’s a little button that can switch it to follower mode or it can just be the open mode.

Dizzy Skips (12:00)
You

Yeah.

Yeah.

Aaron Fleming (12:20)
I’m never ever in that open mode. Which, it’s not ideal because I never see new skippers but I’m just constantly looking at what everyone else is doing in my follower feed.

Dizzy Skips (12:30)
okay. So like you can filter your feed so that you’re just looking at the things of your followers or that it can suggest public stuff is…

Aaron Fleming (12:34)
Yeah.

Yeah, so I put it on follower mode and then I scroll to the bottom so obviously it’s only to my last post and then I react to everyone. You know all the posts in the middle of my last post and the other post. Yeah, it is stressful when I get loads of new followers and I’m like, there’s more people in my feed. And then obviously you can’t comment on everything because there’s not enough hours in a day.

Dizzy Skips (12:50)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah, I noticed that when I started this separate Instagram handle for Skip Squad Chronicles. And like, if I post a video and then I tag myself as a collaborator, I post it as Skip Squad Chronicles, tag myself as a collaborator, and then tag you, then anytime someone comments, you know, we all get notified and it can add up really quickly. Yeah, I start to get stressed. Like, did I answer everybody? Did I say something nice?

Aaron Fleming (13:29)
beer.

Yeah, I always like to respond to everyone. It’s weird because I’m not the greatest at receiving compliments. know if someone gives me a really big compliment and then I’m just like, I don’t really know what to say. Thank you. So I just put thank you and a smiley face. It means more to me than the thank you in a smiley face I’ve put there. I do struggle with that.

Dizzy Skips (13:50)
Yeah.

Yeah, I know what you mean. Yeah, it can be awkward. This guy that I know years ago, I went through this health issue and he was very supportive and…

At one point, I was talking to him about the reactions from other people and the outpouring of support that I got. And he was saying, you know, people want to see you succeed. They want to participate. And this is how they can do it. So let them do it. And I think of that in the same way with compliments. Like I get compliments where people call me, you know, things like the shuffle king or stuff like that. And I’m no king. And there are so many people who are so much better than I am. But

But it’s nice, I mean it’s nice and I’ve learned to say thank you and not argue with them like, no, I’m a doofus. But I do slip that in there periodically.

Aaron Fleming (14:52)
I used to do that with people comment saying, you’re really good and I’d now be like tagging in the other people I thought were better than me. But yeah, I’ve stopped doing that now. It’s the same when you’re commenting on people’s stuff as well. So like I’ll really like it and then I’ll just put firefirebrilliant and then post that and I’m like, is that enough? Why do I want to comment that? But yeah, I struggle with typing and words and stuff so… It’s not meant just to be.

Dizzy Skips (14:59)
Yeah.

So.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah, guess as you know, I don’t know about you, but when I get a comment from somebody that’s just fire, fire brilliant, it means a lot to me still, you know, it’s someone who left a comment, they cared enough to leave a comment rather than just hit a heart. So I still like that. And sometimes like when I’m feeling busy, you know, I like drop the horns and a smiley face and that’s about it. But yeah, I don’t know when I’m on the recipient end that feels nice.

Aaron Fleming (15:30)
Yeah.

Yeah, they… Yeah.

Yeah, it does. When people leave it to me, does it. Obviously the support’s really good, isn’t it? But yeah, it’s a weird one because I don’t obviously do it for followers or anything like that. I edit my videos so they don’t appear on the feeds. think it is at 17 seconds is the ideal time I think I heard. But I make mine one minute thirty. Yeah. Yeah, I think it’s 17. And I make mine one minute thirty every single time because…

Dizzy Skips (15:53)
Yeah.

For a reel? Yeah. Yeah.

Aaron Fleming (16:16)
I’m not one for all fame and all that sort of stuff.

Dizzy Skips (16:19)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I know I got sort of caught up in that at first, because I would see, I would get these marketing people suggested in my feed, and they would talk about how your reel should be under five seconds, and it should have a really big hook and stuff like that. And I was sort of feeling pressure, like am I doing Instagram wrong or whatever? And then…

I realized, you know, I’m doing this for me and I like this song. I want to hear more than just, you know, one little chorus or whatever. I want to hear the song and I want to see what I could do. And so I do the same thing. It’s not, I’m not always a minute and a half, you know, I do have shorter stuff, but, but I don’t feel bad about using up a little extra time. And honestly, that’s one of the things that I like about watching your videos is like, you do you.

Aaron Fleming (16:57)
Yeah.

Yeah, I like to look back, you know when you look back and go out to progress. Where if I only ever made some more reels I wouldn’t be able to tell my progress. So like to put a little bit extra in every time.

Dizzy Skips (17:08)
Mm-hmm.

Right, like I could cherry pick 17 seconds that would make me look brilliant, but.

Aaron Fleming (17:19)
Yeah. Well, because I always think you need to go outside and do a combo, like how I do it. I can get lucky once, I can go outside and get lucky and do it straight away. But the way I do it, I’ve got to get lucky three, four times to make up that 1 minute 30. So it is fun. It works for me. It keeps me moving.

Dizzy Skips (17:35)
Yeah.

Yeah. So where do you go from here from a jump rope perspective? Like, I think I asked you a little bit about goals, but like what’s next for you? What do you want to get good at next?

Aaron Fleming (17:53)
So I’ve been playing around with the leg cross moves, seeing how that is. Again it’s quite hard, my legs are massive so I look quite comical doing them.

Dizzy Skips (18:00)
So when you say leg cross, can you explain what those are? Is that like the toad?

Aaron Fleming (18:05)
Yeah, the toad, or some Annie, the elephant, all the moves like that where you’re doing the cross at the same time, like so it’s underneath your legs and all that sort of stuff.

Dizzy Skips (18:17)
So are those all, those are all like one-legged things, right? Where you kind of like loop the rope around one leg and then you’re kind of getting around it in some fashion? Yeah.

Aaron Fleming (18:29)
Yeah, well I believe so, there probably is leg crosses that are two legs and I just haven’t unlocked them yet.

Dizzy Skips (18:36)
Yeah. my gosh. Yeah. I’ve seen people that can do those leg crosses so much and I think it’s really impressive. I don’t imagine that that’s ever gonna be me. Like I don’t aspire to be really good at leg crossing. I wanna be really good at releases and stuff like that but I think that’s one of the great things about the community is that there’s so many people doing so many different things and it’s fun.

Aaron Fleming (19:01)
I think it’s… You know when you start getting good at something, so like I started out with the crosses only. And then you start unlocking a few things. So I was doing crosses and footwork when I first started. But then I was getting good at crosses so then I stopped doing less footwork. So it all depends on what you become naturally good at. You’re more likely to push that aren’t you than something you struggle with. That’s the way I see it anyway.

Dizzy Skips (19:24)
Yeah, I think so. think, yeah, when I talk to Richard about that, I think there’s this, for me, there’s a certain element of I know that I need to learn how to do releases more and I will practice for 20 or 30 minutes doing that sort of stuff, but it’s not flow. It’s work and it’s often frustrating and disappointing. So when I’ve had a stressful day at the office, so to speak,

which is, I work from home most of the time. But when I’ve had a stressful day at work, I will often go out and just prefer to flow. And so I will deliberately not work on new stuff and just see if I can get to that point where I’ve turned my brain off.

Aaron Fleming (20:07)
Yeah, that’s the best part of skipping though isn’t it? Like I know we all try to learn new moves and new stuff but the most important thing is to have fun. you can’t go out every day and go right and learn new move, new move, new move, just become a nervous wreck by the end of it.

Dizzy Skips (20:17)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, yeah, and do you find, like, do you get to that point where you sort of lose time or that you’re sort of just flowing and you’re not thinking about anything else, you’re just kind of moving?

Aaron Fleming (20:38)
Yeah, so with some of the crosses, some of the videos I’ll do is just me just doing crosses. to people who don’t do all the crosses like I do, obviously it looks a little bit complicated. But I’ve done them that many times, it’s just normal for me to skip like that. So when I’m skipping off camera I’m still doing all the crosses. This is how I skip. Which I should imagine is the same for you, off camera. Off camera you’ll be doing loads of footwork as well, you? You’re not…

Dizzy Skips (20:54)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, yeah. You’re relentless about the crosses. Sorry.

Aaron Fleming (21:08)
just jumping up and down. What’s being recorded is actually what we do.

Dizzy Skips (21:14)
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I do like, like for me, sometimes when I get to that flow place where I’m not really thinking so much, I do naturally experiment or, or I just let, you know, like.

maybe I’ll miss a step and then realize, that was kind of a half beat on the music or whatever. And I’m always listening to music. So even sometimes mistakes are kind of like happy little accidents and then I can repeat them and work them into a footworky thing that makes me happy.

Yeah.

Aaron Fleming (21:48)
I don’t get too many of them, we’re fine. If it’s a mistake it’s whipped and it hurts.

Dizzy Skips (21:54)
Yeah, I mean, like, I can’t imagine that you have much time to think because your style is really like one cross after another. if you watch me, I’m jumping and then occasionally doing crosses and whatever, but you never just jump. You are like, cross this, cross that. Like, it’s one, you’re relentless. can’t, like, how do your arms not kill you at the end of a session?

Aaron Fleming (22:20)
So I’ll sort of break it down. I’m not thinking, right I’m doing a crossover EB. I’m not thinking of all the moves. I’m thinking I do this crossover and then those crossovers follow that crossover. So I’m thinking like quite far in front of the moves that I’m actually doing.

Dizzy Skips (22:40)
You’re playing rope chess, kind of, yeah, playing it out at head. That’s cool. So you just kind of flow, but you’re kind of going from move to move based on where your hands are or like what comes naturally next.

Aaron Fleming (22:42)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, it’s just, er, just use, like, I know if you’ve heard of Uncle Roger where he just says use feeling. But yeah, it’s just literally using feeling, so if I do one move I know that there’s only three possible moves, but if it’s coming a certain way, then that’s the move I need to do.

Dizzy Skips (23:07)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Aaron Fleming (23:15)
Yeah, it’s one of more awkward ones, then to explain, then likewise with footwork, know, when you’re all doing all your crazy steps and such stuff. I can’t figure that out. Mine’s like a planned footwork and I’m like, this is the next step, then this is the next step. Yeah, I can’t just free-flow footwork. I’ll just do the same one over and over again.

Dizzy Skips (23:29)
Yeah.

Yeah, I think for me it’s very much tied to the music and so that influences what I’m doing. You know, the speed of the beat and then whatever else is going on in the music. Sometimes I try and pick that up but that will totally influence how I’m moving. I was curious, do you consider yourself an introvert?

Aaron Fleming (23:56)
yes. Massively. So… Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (23:58)
You seem pretty introverted to me. I don’t know about you, I consider myself an introvert as well. I force myself to do some extroverted things or some things where I’m talking to people like this. But I find that Instagram and connecting with people there is a lot less stressful than showing up and talking to someone in person.

And I think it’s kind of tailored for interverse. don’t know if you’ve ever thought about that, but.

Aaron Fleming (24:29)
Yeah so if… erm… You know like if I’m doing a tutorial for someone I’m like super nervous doing that tutorial. So I have to like put a character on and then I’m like jumping into the camera like hello it’s Aaron! But that’s literally not what I’m liking the slightest. So if we were to have a big meet up I’m gonna go in the corner somewhere and hide. Which is obviously weird.

Dizzy Skips (24:51)
Yeah. Yeah, I was thinking about that. Go ahead.

Aaron Fleming (24:55)
Sorry. It’s weird when you’re so tall because people think, he’s going to so confident and loud and then I’m so quiet and reserved. I’m trying to hide in the corner.

Dizzy Skips (25:02)
Yeah, right, right. I was thinking about that, like, I think it was maybe Becky was talking about going to a meetup in London or, yeah, because I think she met Lauren and just tons of people in one place. And that simultaneously sounds glorious to me, like to be around a whole bunch of people that are jumping rope like that. And also kind of scary, like I might end up, you know, at the border kind of, I don’t know.

But I think I would have a lot of fun and then I would go home and I wouldn’t talk for two days.

Aaron Fleming (25:34)
Yeah, I

Yeah, I think I’d be extremely nervous. I’d be okay with the skip rope in my hand but then when someone else is trying to talk to me I’m like, I don’t want to say the wrong thing. Me and my mates we know we’ll get together and then they’re all talking and I’m just trying to think of something funny to say and then I end up saying nothing. Just silent the whole time.

Dizzy Skips (25:48)
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Have you ever done like skipping with somebody like a coordinated routine or something like that?

Aaron Fleming (26:09)
no. I have to save.

Dizzy Skips (26:10)
Have you ever tried to remix like someone’s re, I noticed people will do that, know, where they’ll like pick a Lauren routine or somebody else’s routine and then remix it where they’re kind of doing head to head and they’re copying their moves.

Aaron Fleming (26:24)
No, I’ve not done any. It doesn’t interest me so much. You know, like, if I see someone doing… skipping their own way, I don’t like to try and copy them, so that’s why I don’t really watch tutorials or anything like that. Well, I’ll watch a tutorial, but then I’ll not watch the next 16 tutorials by that same person, because I don’t want to skip like them. I just want to learn that one move.

Dizzy Skips (26:41)
Mm-hmm.

Sure. Right. Right. So that explains why when I jumped in a skirt that weekend and then challenged you to remix my reel, you didn’t even respond.

Aaron Fleming (26:58)
I do.

Dizzy Skips (26:59)
Yeah, I called out like three people like, come on guys, who’s gonna remix me? And it was just crickets.

Aaron Fleming (27:06)
I have done some of my old ones, have been in a pink tutu and stuff like that.

Dizzy Skips (27:13)
I have to find that. Yeah.

Aaron Fleming (27:15)
Yeah I was, with the cancer research stuff I was doing a lot of stuff. The kids were like, wear that today dad. I’m like wearing a shower cap and a dress.

Dizzy Skips (27:24)
Nice. Yeah, that’s super funny.

One of the things I wanted to ask you about was, like I mentioned before, I’ve heard from several people how helpful you are, and you mentioned earlier, like doing tutorials for people, and like what motivates you to help people? Like why do you do that?

Aaron Fleming (27:42)
So, when I… Sorry, was going quit drawing. But, you know…

So you know when someone’s struggling to get a move? Like they’ve learned all the moves and you’re like there’s no more moves left for me to learn. And then I’m like what move do you to learn? Like a crossover or something like that. And then I think sometimes just sending them a little tutorial helps them keep some spurring along and keeps on doing it. Because I’ve been in them situations where I think I’ve done all the moves. Like that’s it, I’ve completed skipping.

Dizzy Skips (28:02)
Mm-hmm.

Aaron Fleming (28:16)
but you haven’t have you? There’s so many moves to do and then of course you need to like how am going to do this move because I only know six moves for example. Yeah it’s just to stop people getting stuck in, Obviously there’s loads of coaches out there but they’re all going to charge you for how to do it or I don’t know you’ve seen it but it’s like the how-to videos and no one’s talking.

Dizzy Skips (28:25)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

too.

Aaron Fleming (28:40)
So it’s just like, do this move, but there’s like, yeah but you’ve not explained it. And if someone’s stuck on the second bit, how do they… do know what mean? So I like to break down the move and say, if you do it like this, this will be easier. This is the easiest way of doing it and I’m trying to show from every angle on how to do that move.

Dizzy Skips (28:45)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I know exactly what you mean.

Yeah, I find that super helpful. And also the what not to do is like, be careful when you’re trying to do this move because like,

I do have the Fancy Feats app from Lauren, and I think she’s a fantastic teacher, and she will oftentimes say, you know, here’s how you do the move, and here are the things that people often get wrong, like they come out of the move and their hands are too far apart, or something like that. And so I find that super helpful, because then I watch myself for like, am I coming out of the move with my hands way far apart, and that’s what’s tripping me up?

Aaron Fleming (29:30)
Also when you’re teaching people, I always recommend them to me a reel back, like a video and direct messages, just so can see how they’re doing. And help from that point, so they’re not stuck on it for ages, just constantly like, I can’t get this tutorial, I’m like, well, just this little bit, and then the next time I do one, I’m like, well this person was struggling on this, so that’s an issue that can happen. And then it just slowly builds up over time, then you can be more…

Dizzy Skips (29:41)
Mm-hmm.

Aaron Fleming (29:58)
quicker in helping and a bit more direct with it. I enjoy doing it, I don’t like it when they… you know like I get a big round of applause and everyone’s like good job Aaron for teaching them that, don’t do that, just lend a move and pretend I didn’t teach you. Yeah, it’ll be nice.

Dizzy Skips (30:01)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Don’t talk about me. Don’t say anything nice. Whatever you do. But yeah, just learn to move. Yeah, that’s hilarious.

Aaron Fleming (30:26)
Like some of other sports I’ve done before, know… So skipping rope… Sorry, jumping rope is like really supportive and stuff. But then the other communities, they’re really negative and I… So I got kind of used to someone just like telling me, you’re bad at that, you’re bad at that, then I’ll get better at it because they’re me I’m bad at it. So I’ve sort of become that person to myself, know, like, you’re terrible, you need to learn this. So then obviously when someone tells you you’re great but then you’re telling yourself you’re terrible, it’s…

Dizzy Skips (30:35)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Aaron Fleming (30:54)
sort of cancels each other out.

Dizzy Skips (30:57)
Do you find that you have a lot of negative self-talk like that?

Aaron Fleming (31:01)
Yes, yes, every single day go outside I’m negative. But it does help me so I’m better, know, when it is negative or the pressure’s on to perform and stuff like that. That’s when I’m actually in my element. Yeah, if I’m really positive about myself I’m never good.

Dizzy Skips (31:03)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Does it make you angry? when you approach it from a negative perspective, do you find that you get angrier or you get hot under the collar?

Aaron Fleming (31:31)
Yeah. Yeah. I might… You know when people say skipping is calm and relaxing? I’m the least calm and least relaxed you’ve ever seen anyone skip. I’m getting really aggressive, I’m blaming everyone for… Like… I don’t know, like, neighbour will open his door and I’m like, it’s your fault you’ve opened that door! And it’s distracted me! But, erm… I have tried to get better with it. I think the other day I highlighted that I had a new unlock and I skipped for an hour and I was still not angry, so…

Dizzy Skips (31:59)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, that’s cool. Yeah, I… Go ahead, please.

Aaron Fleming (32:01)
yeah

Sorry. Like, because obviously I did weightlifting before and getting angry is the thing to do. So getting angry you’re going to lift it up. If you’re not angry enough, if you’re not angry enough you’re not picking it up. So then obviously I took that philosophy to skipping which… Well it works. I do the skipping but I’m always angry.

Dizzy Skips (32:12)
Right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That’s funny. Yeah, I just, hate being angry and, and so, yeah, I really try not to approach it that way. And I am very good at negative self-talk, but my experience is that over my life, negative self-talk has really never helped me that much. You know, like I don’t find it motivating. I find it kind of demeaning and stupid the way I do it to myself. So,

So yeah, I try to give myself a break and laugh it off as much as possible and dance it off too.

Aaron Fleming (33:00)
The way I do it, I always say to everyone when they watch me skip, the way I skip is how you should not do it. You shouldn’t be angry doing it. You shouldn’t do it every day. You shouldn’t jump as high as I do.

Dizzy Skips (33:08)
Hahaha

Yeah. There’s several people I follow who have a running joke about their concentration face Where every time they’re in, I think you’re kind of like this, where you look like you’re, not like you’re angry, but like you’re very much concentrating and you’re not out there like, hey, I’m having a good time. It’s like, I’m getting something done here, man.

Aaron Fleming (33:37)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. I always find it funny because I never look at the camera. When I first started, and obviously it was a bit fun and I was laughing the joke around with it, I would look at the camera the whole time and then the winter happened and I’ve got a circle light and it was starting to hurt my eyes looking at it. So that used to make me angry so then the whole time now I just look at the floor. Even in the summer the light’s not there but I can sort of see it in my head.

Dizzy Skips (33:51)
Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Yeah.

funny.

Yeah.

So I asked you what’s next, so as far as what you wanna learn next or where you’re gonna go next, what’s your dream skill?

Aaron Fleming (34:21)
Erm, see what’s next for me is… It’s quite an awkward one actually because obviously I the the 365 skipping and then I didn’t stop I just carried on going but then I’m thinking in the new year do we just do a new thing? Do we just spin off skipping and do something else? But then yeah it’s an awkward one because obviously I still want to do the skipping but then I want to do like a new challenge, you know what mean?

Dizzy Skips (34:30)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Okay, outside of skipping. like within skipping, do you have a dream goal there? Like I wanna be able to do the toad?

Aaron Fleming (34:49)
Yeah.

Not so much, I want to improve my footwork and then I want to do the leg crosses and stuff but I’ve unlocked all the moves I wanted to do when I set out. So now it’s like moves I don’t actually know, I don’t even know the name of them. So I’m just literally looking on people’s reels and going, I’ll try that move or I’ll try skipping backwards and doing the tricks backwards instead. Yeah.

Dizzy Skips (34:59)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I think that’s one of the things that’s so cool about the jump rope as a hobby or as a, you know, jump rope in, in general is that there’s always something more to learn. Like if you really want to keep going, like, yeah, if you feel like you’ve got everything forwards, then start doing it backwards. like, yeah, there’s always something more to learn.

And I would certainly love to learn to be a better rope wrangler like you. I don’t think I will ever be, have the energy to like do cross after cross after cross, but yeah, you’ve definitely got a style and I like it.

Aaron Fleming (35:58)
Hey.

It doesn’t need to be probably as intense as I do it so you learn a cross over and you do couple of crosses then you’ll learn an EB on one side and then the other side and then it just slowly builds up over time. So like my early videos I’m just doing a cross and that’s it. That’s all my moves. And the very first ones because I learnt the cross really early. It would take me half an hour to get one cross in the video but yeah.

Dizzy Skips (36:14)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Aaron Fleming (36:29)
So it is nice to see the progress of my first videos where I’m just jumping and just to get that 30 second clip of just me jumping that was an ordeal.

Dizzy Skips (36:30)
Yeah.

Yeah, I know exactly what you mean, especially like when I started and my rope was too long and I just didn’t have the experience. Yeah, it felt like a win to get like 15 seconds in a row. Like, my gosh, I skipped without goofing up after.

Aaron Fleming (36:55)
And then they actually post it like, yes I’ve got a post, I’ve got a post.

Dizzy Skips (36:58)
Right, right. That’s great. Or I would just string together a bunch of like, you know, 15, 10 second things, would splice them together so it made it look like, well, I wouldn’t try to make it look like I actually did it consecutively, but.

Aaron Fleming (37:01)
other than

Yeah.

I have, on some bad days I’ve like, right, let’s put it all so it looks like I’ve done it all in one go. But like now I would just do, that was one combo, that was another combo, that was another combo, and it’s normally pretty clear, or I hope it they were separate combos. Normally because I’ve gone to an open skip, so.

Dizzy Skips (37:18)
Mm-hmm

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. So, do you always skip on a mat?

Aaron Fleming (37:40)
Yes, because I like to skip barefoot and barefoot on concrete is a little… To be fair, I don’t mind jumping on concrete and skipping, but then you get a little stone and it slashes your foot open and little bit of glass and it goes straight into you. So I always try to use a mat now.

Dizzy Skips (37:52)
Mm.

Back when, yeah, back when I did kickboxing stuff, I took my rope into a parking lot one day and was like, yeah, it’s so nice outside. I’ll just take off my shoes and I skipped on it and it was warm out. So I skipped on the pavement for, I don’t know, a half hour or whatever. And I actually blistered underneath each one of my toes. had huge blisters.

Aaron Fleming (38:19)
I think… Yeah, I’ve got… I’ve got… my big toes, you know, from the barefoot skipping When I’ve gone for too long, I’ve rubbed it off. I literally rubbed the skin completely off both my big toes. And then it’s blistered, and then I keep popping the blisters and it’s just constantly like layers and layers of blisters on one toe on each foot. It’s pretty disgusting to look at, but no one looks at your big toes, fortunately.

Dizzy Skips (38:25)
Mm-hmm.

You’re c-

Right, right. And now you’ve got those kind of aqua sock things. I think of them as aqua socks, but what is the actual name of those kind of shoes?

Aaron Fleming (38:52)
They’re barefoot shoes, so it’s the same as… Honestly all is is just like a tiny little bit of rubber. Just protecting your foot from the floor. Apart from that it’s just barefoot.

Dizzy Skips (38:55)
barefoot shoes.

just like latex or something like that. it’s not, it doesn’t give you a lot of padding or cushion. Yeah.

Aaron Fleming (39:13)
No, no, it’s as little cushion as you can have really. Which is ideal for me, because like, I don’t know if you’ve seen me when I’ve done it with actual trainers on, I’m jumping like super high off the floor. Because like, I can jump high so when I’ve got trainers on I’m not feeling the same impact on the floor. So I’m just literally bouncing like super super high off the floor, and everything’s heavy.

Dizzy Skips (39:17)
Mm-hmm.

Hahaha

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Aaron Fleming (39:38)
Which I do jump high with barefoot but I jump even higher with shoes on so…

Dizzy Skips (39:43)
Yeah, I notice that, you know, since I’m older, my knees are not great. Well, even when I was younger, my knees weren’t great. But I kind of have to jump with shoes. sometimes after I’ve jumped with flat-soled shoes for quite a while, which I’m very partial to because they’re good for dancing, too, I have to put on running shoes or something that has a little more padding to it so that I can ease a little pressure off my knees and ankles and stuff.

Aaron Fleming (40:12)
I think that most people in the world shoes are the thing you need to jump in.

Dizzy Skips (40:12)
I’m surprised that with your football, go ahead.

Yeah, yeah. So one thing I found is like there skipping on a mat is different than skipping on concrete or definitely a limestone bench or something. There’s a different sort of feel to it. Do you have an adjustment period when you go from concrete to mat or vice versa?

Aaron Fleming (40:41)
I did with this current mat I’ve got which is a stable mat for horses. So it’s like 2 inches thick and it’s just like a solid rubber mat that I just put it outside and that’s it. It just stays in the garden.

Dizzy Skips (40:49)
really?

Okay, so.

Okay, got it. So it’s quite thick and so it absorbs a lot more than, so it’s kind of taking care of some of what you would wear running shoes for. Kind of padding.

Aaron Fleming (41:12)
Yeah, yeah, it’s like a solid rubber. Obviously it’s made for horses to walk on it so there’s no give in it. But yeah, I have had the thin mats and all that sort of stuff but this mat’s much better and it doesn’t absorb water or anything like that. But yeah, I should imagine it does the same thing as what wearing trainers does when you’re it on the concrete.

Dizzy Skips (41:21)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, cool. Well, so I guess one question that I sort of asked you before, but I’d love to hear you talk about is.

recommendations that you would have for new skippers, like somebody who’s thinking about getting into skipping or someone who’s just started out and they see you and they go, my God, I can’t, I’ll never be able to do that. Like, what do you tell people like that? Or what would you tell people like that?

Aaron Fleming (42:04)
So when you’re first getting into jumping, like when I did the cancer research challenge, getting to 100 skips in a row is sort of the thing that everyone was striving for and I thought that was good idea looking back at it. when I went into that I was already doing 6,000 skips a day which wasn’t ideal. But yeah, just getting 100 skips a day before you can do any tricks, don’t try to do any crossovers, just try and get to 100 a day.

and have fun doing that and focusing on that goal. think that’s the best thing to do. Obviously if you message me and say what should I do? I’m probably going tell you to go cross over. don’t do any of that. Don’t try to replicate anyone else. Just try and get to a hundred skips in a row without tripping. I think that’s the best way of doing it. Because if you try to do tricks too early you’re just going to get super stressed out with…

Dizzy Skips (42:50)
Mm-hmm.

Aaron Fleming (42:59)
trying to do that as well as trying to get to, you know, just trying to jump consecutively whilst doing tricks. It’s a little bit too much and that’s when you’re get disheartened

Dizzy Skips (43:09)
Yeah, I totally agree. I think there’s something to be said for like nailing the basics. I know my coach, he said like, every time you go skip, I want you to work on the single hand swing, you know – both hands, you cross it in front of you, whatever. And it may seem boring, but it’s like, it has so helped me out. Cause I basically do that all the time, the single hand swing. And it really helps.

And I think getting those fundamentals down is a really great recommendation because it is tempting to say, I want to try and do crosses like Aaron and I would just get pissed off and go home angry. But I think trying to encourage people the path that gives them momentum is a great idea.

Aaron Fleming (43:47)
Yeah.

Yeah, so you want to start out with the small lot so you’re just trying to get to 100 jumps in a row. And then you’ll do little bit of a boxer skip, maybe hop on each foot. And just slowly build up over time, doesn’t it? All that’s going happen if you’re trying to do all the tricks is you’re going to get injured. Very quickly. And also, when you’re first starting out, definitely don’t be doing it every day. Don’t be doing what we do when we jump outside for an hour a day. That will get you injured very quickly.

Dizzy Skips (44:03)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, yeah, and frustrated.

Yeah.

Aaron Fleming (44:24)
Again, the same thing’s gonna happen is you’re gonna wake up with shin splints, you’re not jumping for 3-4 weeks. It’s best just to do a small session and just slowly build it up over time. Which is what I did, so obviously I do over an hour now, but when I was first starting it was 5 minutes, then 10 minutes, then 20 minutes. And then obviously you’re addicted and it becomes life.

Dizzy Skips (44:30)
Yeah.

Yeah.

That’s great.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I went overboard in the beginning very much so, but, and I remember hearing a few different coaches say, yeah, start with like 10 minutes or 12 minutes a day. And I was thinking, that’s like nothing. That’s like two songs, you know, or three songs, but.

Aaron Fleming (45:03)
idea.

Dizzy Skips (45:06)
But I think it’s wise, you know, like that idea of doing a little bit every day, even though it’s not the two hours that I want to do, you can make better progress because you don’t injure yourself, you know, and you can keep up that momentum. And I think that showing up every day and doing that 15 minutes or whatever it is in the long run, you make more progress and you see more progress than when I go out and I do two hours and then injure myself and then can’t jump for two days.

Aaron Fleming (45:36)
Yeah, your body’s not used to the impact of hitting the concrete over and over again. You can say to a new skipper… I always say, with the Mira ropes, they’re like the expensive ropes aren’t they? So I was like, well I wouldn’t tell a new skipper to get that, but people who already into skipping I’ll tell them to get that. Because when you first start skipping you’ve got a cheap rope from Amazon.

Dizzy Skips (45:36)
Yeah.

Yeah.

sure.

Aaron Fleming (45:59)
and you’ve got a concrete floor because that’s how you’re jumping You’re not going to be buying a 70 pound mat, you’re not going to be buying a 70 pound rope either. Obviously you need to do a little bit at a time to get your body used to hitting that concrete floor.

Dizzy Skips (46:02)
Mm-hmm.

Right. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, totally. When did you get, or maybe you were already this way from doing football, but when did you get to the point where you started to realize the benefits, like from a jumping perspective or like, I realized my, you know, my dog is scratching here on her bed. Zuzu, please.

One of the ways that I started to realize that this was really working for me was my balance. My balance became insane. Not insane, but I can stand on one leg really easily for quite a while and I can do my ankle rotations and stuff like that. In the shower, I can bend over and pick up the soap while standing on one foot, which I don’t know. Did you get to a point where you were like, my God, look what I’ve done here?

Aaron Fleming (47:02)
Yeah so, I’ll take you back a tiny bit, before I started the 365 and all that sort of stuff. When I first picked up a jump rope and I tried to jump one time, my missus was on the floor laughing her head off about how ridiculous I looked jumping. So, yeah, was obviously, I was quite a heavy guy at the same time. I did like, my arms were around here and I was trying to jump in the air.

Dizzy Skips (47:09)
Mm-hmm.

Really?

That’s encouraging.

Aaron Fleming (47:32)
Yeah, I always say to people when they’re like, they want to get to my level and don’t think they’ll ever get there. It’s like I struggle to jump off the floor, let alone do what I’m doing now. So yeah, I literally had to learn one jump, two jumps, three jumps all the way up. So yeah, obviously now what I can do with the rope is significantly better than what I could do back then.

Dizzy Skips (47:39)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah

Yep. Yeah.

Yeah.

Aaron Fleming (47:59)
and my balance, was like super clumsy, my balance was off. Literally all I had was strength, I could pick up things. But then I could pick up things and then I would be going up and then it’s like right up. So yeah, just like coordination and balance and everything’s so much better than what it was when I first started. And obviously doing a release and catching the handle again, but I didn’t think that would ever happen, so.

Dizzy Skips (48:03)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

I know. That looked miraculous to me when I first saw it. I just could almost not process being able to do that. Still, sometimes I, I mean, still watch some people do releases so smoothly and so perfectly and think, I gotta get there at some point. I guess by showing up 15 minutes a day or an hour a day or however long I do it, I eventually will get there, but.

Aaron Fleming (48:54)
The good thing with the release is you can sort of practice that in your garden, can’t you? You don’t have to go anywhere to skip, you can just swing your rope round and try and it. Swing your rope round and try catch it. You can just keep doing that for ages, or until you start getting angry and then obviously put it to the side. So like, what I’ve tried to do when I’m learning tricks now is try to learn three or four at the same time so I’m not getting so angry

Dizzy Skips (48:59)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Right, and get to the point where I’m swearing at it.

Aaron Fleming (49:18)
Which is, that’s another thing I would recommend to people trying to learn new tricks. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket and just like, learn a couple of things at the same time and progress a little bit on that one and a little bit on that one.

Dizzy Skips (49:24)
Mm.

Yeah, I think that’s a great piece of advice. So, like if you’re trying to learn a few different tricks, maybe you spend 10 minutes on one and then just go to the other one, regardless of whether you’ve nailed the first one.

Aaron Fleming (49:45)
Yeah so obviously if you notice that you’re doing really well on one of them, obviously just sort of stick on that one and finish it off until you’ve learned it. But then if you go out and you’ve spent 10 minutes on it and you’re getting no further forwards, have another trick in mind and then spend 10 minutes on that. Maybe 3 or 4 and obviously don’t make them all super hard so you’re just going to spend the whole day and you’ve failed every trick. Have one that you sort of think, I’ll get that one. I know I’m going to get that one.

Dizzy Skips (49:52)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Right.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Aaron Fleming (50:14)
I think that’s the best way of doing it and that’s how you can increase your skills quite quickly as well because you’re loads of different things at the time.

Dizzy Skips (50:22)
Yeah. Yeah, I think that’s a great piece of advice and having goals that are measurable and that are beyond where you’re at, but that aren’t like, hey, I’m going to jump like Lauren right now, you know, because that could just be self-defeating.

Aaron Fleming (50:37)
Yeah.

Yeah, cos you don’t even have to do any tricks at all. can just jump for numbers. So you can do 100. Then when you’ve got to 100 it’s like, my next goal is to do 200 in a row, then 300 in a row, then 1000 in a row. And that’s another great way of doing it. And then obviously if you’re doing 1000 in a row without tripping, and then you go to do tricks, you’ve got to find them so much easier because you’re not used to tripping.

Dizzy Skips (50:47)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Right, yeah, you have that basic rhythm down and yeah. Well, this has been so fun. I really love talking to you, Aaron, and I really appreciate you spending the time with me to do this. Is there anything else you’d to say to the community or folks out there?

Aaron Fleming (51:20)
Thank you for supporting me actually, I would like to say that. It’s been really good to connect with everyone out there. It’s obviously, as an introvert, it’s kind of weird to meet new people, I don’t really do that. So it’s nice to that online, having that online place where you can post your videos and interact with everyone else’s at the same time.

Dizzy Skips (51:24)
Hmm. Yeah, well.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, yeah, I think it’s quite magic. I just love the jump rope community and how positive, relentlessly positive it is. you know, even, I’ve said it before, even when I know my jumping was, you know, pants, people were saying, know, slapping me on the back and saying, keep going, man, you’re doing good. And that really helped. And so I wanna be that person to other people too, you know.

Aaron Fleming (52:10)
Yeah, I’ve it.

I’ve had those videos as well where I post it and like this is absolutely horrendous and then everyone’s like no no that was really good and it does help so then the next time you go out you’re not thinking of how bad you did the day before you’re sort of thinking I did well I did well yesterday which obviously if you’re not posting online or having that support around you that’s when

Dizzy Skips (52:20)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah.

Aaron Fleming (52:38)
Again it can start spiraling and kind of is you had a bad session the next day you have a bad session the next day of a bad session all you’re thinking about is I’m no good at this.

Dizzy Skips (52:41)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I think another thing that I’ve noticed is that…

I can be more objective about your videos than you can and vice versa. So I might watch one of my videos and think, you know, I was just, this is terrible. Like, why did I even post this? But, but I may be doing something in that video that is impressive to you or that, you know, you see in a different way. Whereas I went through the thing emotionally as well as physically, you know, I’ve noticed that several times where someone will say they will make a compliment about something I’m doing in the video.

never saw it, but it meant something to them and it’s kind cool.

Aaron Fleming (53:24)
Also, you never know who you’re inspiring either. So like, know… Obviously there’s the other jumpers and we all know each other, but there’s other people who follow all of us who don’t jump. Or they do jump, but they don’t post it. And obviously, you’re inspiring them people as well. So when you’re like, this is terrible session, and put it on like I do, it’s not great for them people when they’re like, well that’s better than I can do. And I just want to be like you and you’re…

Dizzy Skips (53:28)
Right.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Right.

Aaron Fleming (53:53)
telling me that you’re terrible.

Dizzy Skips (53:56)
Yeah, yeah, I know what you mean. I’ve had that happen several times where like I have my Instagram connected to my Facebook. So when I post a reel, it automatically goes over to Facebook. And I’m connected with a whole bunch of people from, you know, nerd conferences and stuff like that. And

So I’ve had it happen where I’m in a zoom meeting that is about search engine optimization or something like that. And then somebody in there says, Hey dude, I really love your jump rope videos. And I’m so taken off guard because they see them on Facebook and they’re like, yeah, I watch them all the time. They’re great, but they never like comment or interact with them. But, but that’s kind of cool. Like you said, you never know who you’re inspiring. And, and I think, you know, if you can skip

100 skips in a row, you’re doing something more than a whole bunch of people can do. And that’s an accomplishment. And you should pat yourself on the back on it about that. And keep going.

Aaron Fleming (54:50)
Yeah.

Yeah, the only session that’s truly a bad session is the session you don’t do. if you go, I come up with an excuse to not do it. Obviously if you’re injured or something that’s different, but if you just come up with an excuse to not do it, that is the worst session you’ve had. And then the next day if you do the same thing that is the second worst session you’ve just had. So it’s just showing up and doing something every day. Which is the hashtag I use to…

Dizzy Skips (55:02)
Yeah.

Right? Yeah.

Yep, absolutely.

Yeah, yeah, I think that getting started sometimes is the hardest part, right? Like when you’re not feeling it. But once you get started, for me anyway, it’s like, okay, this is awesome. You know, I just lose myself.

Aaron Fleming (55:26)
Yeah.

It’s like going to work isn’t it? Like you wake up and you’re like I can’t go to work. Then you go to work and it’s like well I might as well work because I’m here. So like just entering a gym or just jumping a couple of times. If you go outside or you travel to the park with your jump rope you’re not going to jump twice. You’re going to… Like in your head tell yourself you’re going to go and do two jumps and then go home but once you’re there and you start doing it you’re not going to… You’re going to stay and do a bit more.

Dizzy Skips (55:42)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, I bought this backpack at Costco because I liked how many dividers it had in there. You it’s got like a laptop sleeve and then in the main compartment, it’s got several dividers. And so I carry probably, I don’t know, 10, 12 jump ropes with me everywhere I go. And yeah, so I’m always prepared. And I laugh at myself for that. I think months ago, saw @jennyjustjump

mentioned something about showing up at the gym with a bag of a dozen ropes. And I thought, my gosh, that sounds amazing. And now I just do it all the time. Sometimes I have to leave ropes out because I just want to take them all. Do you name your ropes and talk to them like I do?

Aaron Fleming (56:48)
I definitely don’t talk to them as nicely as you do, but they don’t get any names. They’re all that I would say on here.

Dizzy Skips (56:56)
Okay. Yeah. I name mine and I will often put in the comments the name of the rope that I was jumping with. And one of the ropes I have is named Kermit and I call him Kermit the Flog because he occasionally whips me. someone commented on one of my videos today, like, who’s Kermit? You keep talking about Kermit. Who’s Kermit? It’s my jump rope. Doesn’t everybody name their jump ropes? Anyway.

Aaron Fleming (57:21)
You should get one of your mates to turn up with like, dresses Kermit in the background and stuff walking around.

Dizzy Skips (57:25)
Yeah, right, yeah. Should totally do that. Man, I just love talking to you. Thank you so much for supporting me as well and for coming on the show. This was so much fun and we will have to do this again. I like that idea of doing sort of like a panel at some point where we like we could have the Brit panel where we just have a whole bunch of friends from around the UK and do some sort of panel. We’ll have to come up with some idea.

Aaron Fleming (57:54)
Yeah, I think I would enjoy that with loads of us all talking.

Dizzy Skips (57:59)
Yeah, right on.