*ack!* You're giving me traumatic flashbacks to 1st grade recess. Everyone else "just knew" how to jump rope. They never taught any aspect of it; just provided the ropes. Of course, the assertive girls grabbed all the available ropes off the bat, so there wasn't even any way to try to learn by oneself. I brought my own private piece of heavy cord to school so that I could try to figure out jumping rope on my own anyway. It wasn't heavy enough to work properly, but I was going to give it a go. Except I got called on the carpet for going off by myself and not playing with the other children. And they took my piece of string away.

So there you go: not only failing jump-rope, but punished for attempting to create my own remedial jump-rope program. In first grade.

Let's not even start on four-square.