COMBO BUILDING

All half crosses can be entered by performing one Swing or an Open before them.

The Open entry is often referred to as a ‘dive’, because the back hand shoots behind you immediately after jumping the loop of the rope. Since the Swing before a half cross is rarely explicitly stated, the word ‘dive’ helps distinguish between the two possible entries in a combo.

Try it yourself: starting with the rope behind you, bring it over your head and try to toe catch the rope in an EB or EB Toad. The rope will have to pass your side (even under one leg for the EB Toad), unless you jump the Open to dive in.

All back crosses can be entered by performing two Swings or an Open before them.

The Open is the default entry method and subsequently the Open is often overlooked and rarely explicitly stated. in a combo.

Try it yourself: starting with the rope behind you, bring it over your head and try to toe catch the rope in a TS. The rope will have to pass by each side one at a time to eventually reach your toes, unless you jump the Open to enter.

Half crosses can be exited immediately into any front cross without any Swings or Opens before them.

Back crosses can be exited immediately into any front or half cross without any Swings or Opens before them.

In both cases, it’s usually easier to include a Swing or Open.

Try it yourself: starting in an EB or TS, at the moment you jump the loop of the rope, try to immediately enter a basic Cross without a Swing or Open first, then with a Swing and finally with an Open.

For all three types of crosses, a jumper can enter a second cross of the same type as the first cross without any Swing or Open between them.

When transitioning down the body, from body to leg crosses for example, this is very easy whereas transition up the body is much harder - it’s important to note that the difficulty of these transition doesn’t make them ‘impossible’ but instead just demands much greater rope control and careful enough timing to achieve.

Try it yourself: try to transition between the following equivalent front and half crosses in both orders:
1) Cross to Toad (and vice versa)
2) EB Toad to AS Toad (and vice versa)

Jumping backwards is akin to jumping in reverse. What this means is that, when creating a sequence of skills, all the previous five rules are reversed.

Rule 1 - front crosses backwards function as back crosses do forwards. By this logic, you must perform two Swings to heel catch a backwards Elephant, such that the rope will pass by each side one at a time to eventually reach your heels, unless you jump the Open to enter it.

Rule 2 - half crosses remain completely unchanged except that the swing in will always be behind your body (e.g. EB Swing or AS Swing).

Rule 3 - back crosses backwards function as front crosses do forwards. By this logic, you can heel catch the rope in a backwards TS without any Swings or Opens before.

Rule 4 - front crosses can now be exited immediately into any back or half cross without any Swings or Opens before them. Half crosses can be exited immediately into any back cross without any Swings or Opens before them.

Rule 5 - when transitioning between equivalent crosses, it is now much easier to move up the body, from leg to body crosses for example, as opposed to moving down the body forwards.