Your toes and balls of your feet should make contact with the floor. When you land, your heels should lower somewhat, but not so much that they touch the floor. That way, you dissipate the energy of the impact and load for the next jump.
Interval training Jumping rope is ideal for interval training. Try something like 20 to 40 seconds of high intensity jumping followed by 30 to 60 seconds of easy walking. Repeat sequence numerous times (til exhausted?).
Yeah, I hear it's good for stamina training too! I normally do 120 jumps in sets of 30 as part of my daily training routine. And I have to land on my toes and try to be as soft as possible cos I live in a 15 storey apartment and I don't want the downstairs neighbours to complain! Boy i'm pooped. Just finished my routine! This is what 18 days of holiday does to your fitness! So take note, when on holiday, keep exercising!
Best thing to do is setup your gheto blaster/CD player and put something on that makes you wanna moove , i usually put on the Rocky Soundtrack or techno music like 'prodigy or something' try keeping up with the beat or rhythm of the songs - hopefully you put something fast on thats got a good beat.... and see if you can go the full length of the songs without making a mistake and starting over. also once you get the basic timing down start doing more elaborate things like like double jumps and criss crosses etc... cuz it can definately get boring if you do the same thing everytime Here are some Vids http://www.lakland.com/html_pages/qt_small/jump_rope.mov http://www.austincc.edu/hirsh/ExerciseGuide/vid_smils/jmprope-rv8.ram also make sure you stretch your calve and shin muscles between breaks .. and dont overdue it and get tight calves and shin splints