Three named jump rope tricks shown in one multiple-exposure frame: basic bounce, crossover and side swing.

Jump Rope Trick Names: A Beginner's Glossary From Basic to Advanced

Sep 17 Geraldo Alken

Jump rope trick names range from simple footwork variations to full combo moves. The boxer step sits at one end, the EB or elbow crossover at the other. Most named tricks are built from a small handful of base moves. Once you know those base moves, most trick names describe a variation on one of them. Very little is entirely new.

What Are the Basic Jump Rope Trick Names?

Bounce, or basic jump: the default two foot jump every other trick builds on.
Boxer step: alternating your weight foot to foot with each jump, like light jogging in place.
Crossover: crossing your arms in front of your body mid rotation and jumping through the loop.
Side swing: swinging the rope to one side without jumping through it, used as a rest or transition move.
Double under: passing the rope under your feet twice per single jump.

Five moves. Almost every other entry in this glossary is one of these five with something added, removed or repeated.

What Are the Intermediate Trick Names?

Criss cross: a faster, more continuous version of the crossover, chained rather than done once.
TJ, sometimes called the Toad: crossing one arm under the opposite leg mid jump.
Cross under: a crossover performed low, close to the ground, common in freestyle transitions.
EB, or elbow crossover: a crossover where the cross happens at the elbow rather than the wrist. Tighter loop, faster turn.

Notice the pattern. Three of the four intermediate trick names are crossover variations. That is not a coincidence, and it is the main reason the crossover is worth drilling properly before anything else.

What Are the Advanced Trick Names?

Double under crossover: combining a crossover with a double under in the same jump. Covered on its own in our double under crossovers tutorial, since it is a distinct skill from either move alone.
Full Toad: a full body crossing move under both legs, an advanced variation of the TJ.
Freestyle combo: not one trick, but a chained sequence of several tricks performed without breaking rhythm.

How Are Jump Rope Trick Names Actually Built?

Most names follow one of three patterns, and spotting the pattern makes an unfamiliar name readable.

Some describe the body part doing the work. The elbow crossover and the cross under are named for where the cross happens. Not for what the feet are doing.

Some describe how many rope passes happen per jump. Double under, triple under and so on all count passes rather than describe a shape.

Some are just initials or nicknames a community settled on. TJ, EB and Toad carry no description at all. Those are the trick names you have to be told. They are the reason a glossary exists at all.

Why Do Some Tricks Have More Than One Name?

Freestyle jump rope grew out of several separate communities. Competitive speed jumping, street freestyle and fitness content each settled on their own naming conventions before they crossed over.

The TJ and the Toad are frequently the same move under two names. Which name you hear usually just tells you which community taught it to whoever is talking. None of the names is more correct than the other.

Do You Need to Learn These Trick Names in Order?

Roughly, yes. Basic moves are basic because everything after them assumes you already have them automatic, not just possible.

Trying to learn an EB before your plain crossover is solid means learning two things at once. That is harder than taking them one after another. The full progression, with timings for each stage, is in how to learn jump rope tricks step by step.

Side-on view of a jumper performing a basic two-foot jump rope bounce in a bare room, rope passing under the feet in hard morning light.

Basic moves are basic because everything after them assumes you have this one automatic, not just possible.

What Is the First Trick Most Glossaries Skip?

The side swing. It does not look like much. No jumping through a loop, no crossed arms held for long. A lot of trick guides skip straight to the crossover.

But the side swing teaches you to control the rope arc with one hand. The crossover and most advanced moves quietly depend on that skill. If you are stuck on the crossover specifically, our crossover walkthrough covers the exact timing that trips most beginners up.

Are Trick Names the Same Across Languages and Communities?

Mostly not exactly. English language freestyle content tends to use the names above. The same moves show up under different labels in competitive speed rope scoring. Each federation names its own skill list.

The International Jump Rope Union maintains the rulebooks competitive events score against. Its skill terminology does not always match street or fitness usage. Broader reference sources like the general overview of skipping rope use different terms again.

Watching international freestyle videos and a name does not match anything here? It is very likely one of the moves above under a regional label. Genuinely new tricks are rarer than new names for old ones.

Which Trick Names Should You Actually Learn?

For most people, five is enough to follow any tutorial or freestyle video.

Bounce, boxer step, crossover, side swing and double under cover most of it. Between them they carry almost every beginner and intermediate video. Everything else can be looked up when it appears.

Learning the full list of trick names before you can do any of them is a trap. It feels busy without making you better. Learn the move, then the name sticks on its own.

Here are ten of these moves demonstrated back to back, so the names attach to something you can see.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which jump rope trick names are the hardest?

Among named tricks, combo moves that stack two skills into one jump are consistently the hardest. The double under crossover is the usual example. You are timing two demands at once, the extra rope pass and the arm cross. Full body moves like the Full Toad are close behind.

What jump rope trick should beginners learn first?

The crossover, once the plain bounce is automatic. It is the base move behind most of the intermediate and advanced trick names here. Learning it well shortens everything that follows. Attempting it before the bounce is automatic is the most common reason beginners stall.

Is freestyle jump rope the same as tricks?

No. A trick is one move. Freestyle is chaining multiple tricks into a continuous sequence with your own timing. One trick on its own is not freestyle. You only need two or three tricks you can do without thinking before freestyle becomes possible.

How many jump rope trick names are there?

Dozens in common use, and more if you count federation skill lists and regional variants. The number matters less than the structure, since most trick names describe a variation on one of five base moves. Learn those five and the rest become readable rather than memorised.

What is the difference between the TJ and the Toad?

Usually nothing. They are the same move under two names, one arm crossing under the opposite leg mid jump. Which name you hear tells you which community taught it. The Full Toad is different, since it crosses under both legs and is a genuinely harder move.

Do I need a special rope to learn these tricks?

No, but rope feedback matters more as the trick names get harder. A rope with some weight tells your hands where it is through the rotation. That helps on crossing moves, where the rope leaves your eyeline. Very light cables give you almost no warning before they reach your feet.