Day 2 - Skipping is for girls

にわとぶは女の子の運動ではないでっしょう！

When I was a kid the boys in the playground used to laugh at the girls doing skipping or 'rope jumping' or whatever it's called to differentiate it from 'skipping'. I used to skip as a girl, but it was usually in a group with singing or with a friend. It was strange to be skipping, boxer style in the courtyard by my apartment.

The tip about finding a softer surface was dead right. Even going from concrete outside my block to a tarmacked road made a difference.

So far, I've only managed one complete set of 50 consecutive skips. When I started yesterday, I was a bit scared of the whippy sound and wondered if I was going to wake anyone as it was about 7 am.
When I get it right I notice a few things are also happening.

1. I'm looking up, not down. 
2. My wrists are doing the work and I'm not throwing my shoulders around. 
3. The jump is low and springy, not high and flouncy.
4. The count is by numbers one to ten, e.g., get to twenty, then go 'one, two, three...'　not, 'twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three'
5. As my capoeira teacher Cacapa says, do it with a smile! 

However, saying this and doing it are two different things. When I lose focus or just get puffed out I revert to a steppy skip or a double bounce. 

The mat exercises are not great. Lunging after skipping is harder than just lunging. And my ab. pull down things are pretty poor because my torso is weak. Only one way to fix that and it's practice!

Does anyone have any advice for better form for the ab work?