Everything I needed to know about double-unders, I learned on the playground. Then forgot.

It's been over 30ish years since I was in elementary school.  We never passed a school levy.  Our playground equipment sucked.  We had a huge tire that was buried 1/4 of the way into the ground.  It ALWAYS smelled like pee.  Always.  We had very questionable swings, monkey bars and a faded 4-square court.  Then, there was the milk crate of discarded junk.  Things like cracked Frisbees, a glove, a metal toy car with 2 wheels.  And jump ropes.  Crappy, ugly ropes.  They were jump ropes in the sense that if you jumped with it, that made it a jump rope.  Brown, thick twisted, twine-looking things with knots tied on the ends.  And unless you wanted to spend recess in the tire-you prepubescent closet freak- you either played kickball, used the equipment provided or jumped rope.   It was prison rules for the contents of that milk crate.  Me and my crew-we got ropes.  Swings are for suckas!
We were not double dutch masters, but we did it.  It wasn't like some awesome McDonald's commercial from the '80's.  We had a couple of rhymes we sang when we used 2 ropes.  Little white girls in an Ohio farming community- we were hardly fly.  BUT, we were proficient.  I could jump all recess.  I could 'jump in' and 'tag out' like a mother father. 
Fast forward to present day.  I'm 39.  I should have about 33 or 34 years of jump rope experience under my cap.  I am smarter.  I own a kick butt jump rope-a Buddy Lee-that is customised to my height.  I do CrossFit.  I should be like a YouTube video at this point, right?
Wrong.  I blow at jump rope.  Single-unders?  This is me:  "1..2..3..4..5..fu%$! Wait.  Wait. I gotta start over.  1..2..3..4..5..6..7..holy crap, look at me..22..23..24..25..26..fuck!!!! F!  F!  F!! F!!!!!!!!!!"
Now, this is pretty entertaining for the other people in the room.  And, I can laugh at myself.  But I would be lying if I said this didn't frustrate the hell out of me.  It's jump rope.  That's all. Jump rope.
Yesterday I did 79 single-unders in a row without peeing myself.  That was a PR.  Then Rodney had me do double-unders.  It took me his whole bowl of oatmeal to do 30.  I think he was eating his oatmeal.  I don't know.  I was too busy sucking at double-unders.  And, sucking wind.  For future reference and on a personal note, Rodney- if this is going to be my warm up for our one-on-one training sessions, may I suggest you use this time to multi-task.  Balance your checkbook,  respond to comments on your Facebook, eat breakfast.  I'm gonna be a while.
Why can't I jump rope anymore?  I mean, I'm not a complete spaz.  I can do one double-under at a time-not always consecutively-but I got skillz.  Still, what have I lost over the last 3 decades?  I have top notch shoes, an expensive custom rope with handles that rotate, one of the best trainers.  WTF?  I don't know.
But, I have a theory.  We, as adults, think about things too much.  We get all technical on this Mickey Mouse shit.  It's jump rope-that's all.  We don't allow ourselves to get lost in the movement.  A kid will get lost in the pure pleasure of it.  And, they will sing-song a clever little rhyme that slams a friend and their future baby Daddy("....then comes Brad with a baby carriage.")  Kids rock.  We suck.

We can think ourselves out of a lift.  A HUGE PR on a 500m row(another story) or consecutive double-unders.  My best WOD's are when I just enjoy what I can do.  When I get lost in the pure pleasure of it.  That is when I PR.  I love CrossFit.  I get to have 'my adult recess' almost every day.  Besides from practicing to improve my agility and coordination, I really need to learn to enjoy and relax.  To get lost in certain movements.  And not to let 39 year old Nicole mess with 7 year old Nicole's game.  She is one bad little mother.