Don’t do Rope Skipping myself (I stick to a bit of running and my Easy Fitness exercises – don’t have time for everything!), but I feel sure that it is great exercise.

But what about skipping without a rope. You know the sort of skipping along that kids do – looks a bit like the middle section of the Hop Step and Jump – perpetually alternating legs and usually waving the arms around gaily and laughing a lot.

Well, I don’t do this either, I suspect it would be bad for the image. But, again, I think that it must be great exercise, and there is one other potential benefit.

A few years ago I heard a guy interviewed on the radio who said that he lived in a particularly rough area of town and that he had been mugged several times. That is until he took up skipping to get around – he hadn’t been touched since (I think I can understand that – but how did he start?).

Wouldn’t it be great to see a load of skippers gleefully cavorting in our parks instead all those dour faced runners (like me) – and none of them getting mugged!

PS – Oh well, off for a run now rather than a skip. Can’t quite handle the image problem. I’ll think about it in the pub later.