Mental Benefits of Skipping – Jumping Rope

Though I am now a member of the team at skip-hop I have for the last few years also helped run a company that brings tuition of Samba percussion to school children. When researching the benefits of Samba and music in the healthy stimulation of developing brains I came across an observation by scientists in California, namely: Music education exercises the part of the brain that governs spatial perception and abstract reasoning skills. It occurs to me that there are many parallels between the learning of music and rope skipping.

1) Audio Spatial Perception in Skipping Samba percussion involves the rhythmical repetition of accented and un-accented beats where the protagonist must recognize both tempo and metre. They must then go on to develop both the ability to concentrate and of course to persevere in order to learn and maintain these rhythms.

Skipping requires and develops;

perseverance
concentration
memory
and the recognition of;
beats accented and un-accented
tempo
metre
Memory comes into play (and I mean in this instance both senses of the word) with the introduction of skipping rhymes which are particularly used with long rope skipping (many examples of which can be found on our skippng-rhymes page).

These rhymes are not only great fun but help to focus the skipper on the metre, which in this instance is the regular tap of the rope hitting the floor but also the tempo, the actual time it takes for the rope to go through a full revolution. Both of which are vital in order to skip successfully. Long rope skipping is where the two turners of the rope must coordinate the metre of the turns with one another and work at a tempo attuned with the skill of the skipper. Accented and un accented beats are notable here because for skipping beginners and younger children, the rope turners would turn the ropes to strike the floor only on the accented beats. For intermediate skippers the rope would strike the floor on every beat of the skipping rhyme.

Further more, recognition of both the metre and tempo is required by the skipper as he or she must enter and begin jumping exactly in time with the turners.

2) Visual Spatial Perception in Skipping As if the aforementioned were not enough, skipping must combine the skills of rhythm and timing in relation to visual spatial perception by recognizing the skipping rope’s; distance, direction, speed and position.

All these calculations are performed very rapidly in the brain and then converted into movement by the skipper to enable him or her to perform the basic skipping techniques. Once these basic skips are maste

The 7 Secrets to Successful Skip Hire

Our research suggests that there are over 17 million skips hired in the UK every year for domestic use alone! That’s a lot of skips and if you’ve ever looked in Yellow Pages you’ll see that there are a lot of skip companies out there to choose from with no real way of knowing what kind of service you’re going to get before it turns up!

If, like us, you’ve ever hired a skip, chances are you will have had a good experience with a professional, licensed waste collector with no hassles or grief.

Unfortunately, this is not always the case. If you called more than one company before you actually hired a skip you may have found that some of them:

- won’t quote prices over the phone

- won’t tell you what time it will be dropped off, or picked up

- will only accept cash payments to the driver

You might have even had a bad experience where the driver has refused to take away your skip without throwing some of the rubbish back in your garden, demanded more money before taking it away, damaged your property by bad handling of their wagon and the skip…

This guide is for you: It answers all the most common questions associated with skip hire so that you know exactly what you’re getting into when you hire a skip and understand the whys and wherefores involved in skip hire so you never have a bad experience…EVER!

1. How can I tell which skip companies in the Yellow Pages are the good ones?

Unless you personally know the company, you can’t. Any fool with a wagon and a skip can get an advert designed and printed to entice you to call them, but mainly it’s a lottery not just in terms of prices and service, but also in terms of what actually happens to your waste – something that depressingly few of us actually think, or even care about.

Skip companies are not actually regulated at the time of writing. The good ones operate their own licensed waste transfer stations (regulated by the Environment Agency) and are members of the Institute of Wastes Management (a professional body that promotes education and raising standards in waste management).

The bad ones are just cowboys that often fly-tip your waste and therefore add to your council tax bill – cos the council are the ones who have to clean it up! (Flytipping is now costing local councils over £2.5 million a year! That’s our tax money!)
Did you know? “Every 35 seconds, somebody, somewhere is fly-tipping in the UK”

2. Why do skips cost so much money?

No-one is pretending skip hire is cheap, but think about the overheads involved:

Skip Wagon £35,000+

Skips £500/each for standard builderskip

Vehicle Insurance £2000/year per vehicle

Public Liability £1250/year per vehicle

Employer’s Liability £1250/year per vehicle

Skip Wagon driver £25,000/year

Fuel £20,000/year

Office staff £18,000/year per member of staff

Landfill taxes £18/ton increasing by £3 every year until 2010 where it will stand at £35/ton

Recycling costs Cost of buying shredders, trommels, weighbridges, picking stations etc – £millions

Soon adds up doesn’t it? Getting rid of waste is not a cheap business, but it has to go somewhere!

3. Why isn’t my skip dropped off and picked up when I ask for it?

This isn’t always the skip company’s fault – too many people don’t understand that hiring a skip is not like calling a taxi. Just think about what goes into the average skip lorry driver’s day – it’s heavy haulage we’re talking about here, and lots of things can go wrong on a pick-up or drop off that will slow down the whole day’s schedule, such as a customer putting toxic waste in a skip, overfilling it, or the driver being given incorrect drop off details by a customer.

We publish a national trade magazine for the industry called “The Skip” (www.theskip.net) and through this we are pushing for more skip companies to incorporate new technology like Vehicle Tracking to improve delivery schedules and take-up of this kind of improvement is increasing all the time.

In the meantime, you should be patient waiting for your skip because it’s rarely a case of deliberately bad customer service.

4. Why won’t they take the skip away if the rubbish is just over the fill line?

It’s not the skip driver being unreasonable – it’s the law! They are legally bound to not carry unsafe loads and unfortunately many people order smaller skips than they need in order to save a few quid. Our advice – order a larger skip than you think you need because you will always fill it – just don’t go over the line!

5. What actually happens to my rubbish when they take it away?

If you’re not asking this question, you should be. Landfill space in the UK is running out fast. It is estimated that by 2010 there will be virtually no landfill space left in Britain and the government is increasing the landfill taxes that waste management companies have to pay every year. The best skip companies are investing heavily into new plant and technology to the point that many of them are recycling over 90%! Using these companies will eventually reduce prices and massively increase recycling rates – something we should all be interested in.

The bottom line is – the cheaper the skip, the less likely it is that the waste is being responsibly managed.

6. Why won’t my local skip company take a credit card or even tell me prices over the phone?

This is mainly a historical thing. Most skip hire companies have evolved over the past 25 years from construction and demolition companies, and the traditional way they do business is either by issuing invoices or cash-in-hand! Also, a lot of companies still charge for waste disposal by the tonne and won’t always quote an exact price because they don’t know exactly how much it’s going to cost them to get rid of until it comes in.

7. Why do I get quoted so many different prices for the same service from different companies?

The answer’s in the question – you don’t get the same service from different companies! You get different levels of service from different companies. Most of the time, you get what you pay for. After you’ve had a bad experience, you’ll wonder whether it really was worth saving £20 by going with the cheapest you could find.

Plus there are other factors such as skip permit prices. All skip companies are supposed to tell you that you need a permit if the skip is to be on a public highway. These permits are provided by the local council – sometimes the company by law has to sort it out for you, sometimes you’ll have to go direct to the council yourself.

The variances in skip permit price across the UK are staggering – some council’s charge nothing and issue them the same day, some charge £70 and make you wait weeks before issuing.

In the end…

It’s up to you. You now know pretty much everything necessary to make an informed choice about which skip hire company to use.

If you want all the guesswork taken out of the job and a guarantee of:

- excellent customer service levels
- fully online secure payment system
- a free-phone number so it won’t cost you to enquire about anything
- responsible waste management and a commitment to recycle at least 70% of waste collected
- fixed, published prices

Tools of a Skip Tracer

Would you go to a dentist if the only tools she used are a chainsaw and a stick? Would you take your car to be serviced by a mechanic whose only tools were a chocolate bar and hairspray? Would you want to your child to go to an elementary school that only taught from a set of 1964 encyclopedias?

Do you see the connection?

It is simple- really. Every industry has tools that can be specific to that industry. The dentist would never use a chainsaw (even though it may feel like it). They use tools that are designed and that are necessary for the successful completion of their task- to assist with proper dental hygiene. The same holds true for ever other profession and industry. At the same time, to take tools that may not be useful to an industry can slow down the process.

So here comes the question. Why is it that those that skip trace do not utilize the tools that are available to our profession or we try to use the tools of other professions to do our job?

What are the tools available to the skip trace industry? You’ve heard me talk about some of them. Databases, each other and our minds. But, what are some other tools available to us? Below is a list. I’m not calling it a complete list, because we think out side of the box and have incredible imaginations, so the list will never be completed. Not all of these will apply to your needs, but maybe it will spark some ideas and you can add to the list.

CALLER ID

Have caller ID setup on ALL incoming calls. When you ask for a debtor for their number, is it matching up with the number they are calling from? If possible, through you phone provider have a report available to you per day of all received calls (just incase you miss it and they don’t leave a message). Any numbers that you do not recognize reverse that number and see what you get.

SUBSCRIPTION DATABASES

Most of us already use these. They can be very useful for obtaining additional information on your debtor or those around them. Some include: http://www.accurint.com, http://www.merlin.com and http://www.skipsmasher.com to name a few. There are several more available, do some research and see which best suites your needs.

FREE PUBLIC INFORMATION WEBSITES

These websites have gathered tons of links to public record sites. Most of them
separate the information by state. Some examples include: http://www.skipease.com,
http://www.crimetime.com and http://www.publicrecordfinder.com.

FILTER DATABASES

On these websites you enter various information of the debtor, public records and
other websites are searched and the results are provided in a quick easy to
understand format. Some examples include: [http://www.argali.com], http://www.pretrieve.com
and http://www.zabasearch.com. These really speed up the investigation process.

COMPARE DATABASES

This is where I daydream about a database that you can enter the information for two different people at the same time. Then with the same process of the other databases information is researched on both subjects then is compared for anything that is the same and that information is returned to the user. This way you can determine if there is a spouse or roommate or significant other. The reason that I daydream is because to my knowledge no such database exist at this time. However, if it does PLEASE let me know.

WORKSHEETS

Whatever you call it. A worksheet, a checklist or a form. This is what the investigator uses to make sure that every stone has been turned, every nook and cranny (what’s a cranny?) has been checked for information to help locate the debtor.

LETTERS

This provides another option to reach out a touch the debtor. By sending a letter with PLEASE DO NOT FORWARD ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED printed on the envelope is an easy way to get determine if the debtor has moved and left a forwarding address. The downside to sending a letter is the turn around time.

INTERVIEW TECHNIQUES

There are two different approaches direct and indirect. Direct is determining the information that you need contact the people that have that information and ask them for it. Indirect is also called pretext or social engineering. Determine what information that you need then develop a story, contact the people that have that information and present your story so that they will give you the information that you need. Sometimes pretexting is illegal; please make sure you know both the federal and your state laws that apply.

TRAPLINES

This is a service provide by various telephone companies. When someone calls a trap line the number is captured. It does not matter if it is non published or published you will get a report of all numbers. You can setup a standard toll free number to do this but it takes up to 30 days to get results.

HELLO LINES

This is a phone line that is simple answered as “hello”. It is not answered with the company name or with the professionalism of the company. It is answered in the same way that you would you home phone.

CALLER ID SPOOFING

There are companies that can be used or phone systems that can be purchased allowing the user to change their outgoing Caller ID information.

INVESTIGATOR SURROUNDINGS

Collections and skip tracing need to be physically separated. It helps with the mindset of the skip tracer as well as not allowing the other party to hear a demand for payment in the background.

NETWORK OF INVESTIGATORS

A spider web works because there are many strands connected. If your debtor is running from you they are probably running from someone else. We need to work together.

MINDSET

Here is where the rubber meets the road. Skip tracing is a game of hide and seek. The debtor is hiding you are seeking, it’s that simple.

INVESTIGATOR EDUCATION

A skip tracer MUST stay up to date with laws, procedures and resources to be the best that they can. About a once a year seminar that includes laws, processes, skill sets and resources with the ability to network should do the trick.

We have the skills. We have the resources. We have the tools. Lets show the rest of the world how the professionals do it!

Oh, if you come up with some more to add to the list-please send a copy my way.

As always, happy hunting.

Ron Cooper

ACCURATE INTELL

[http://www.accurateintell.com]

PO Box 30485

Greenville, NC 27833

Should I Help My Child Skip a Grade?

Skipping a grade may be a good option for some parents, while some may see it as short cutting a child’s education. This is a big decision, one that should consider if a child is ready to adjust to a new environment, where he or she may be the youngest in the class. Skipping a grade usually happens during elementary or middle school and should only be done if a child is willing to do so.

First of all, consult the school’s guidance counselor to know more about the process, and to assess if your child deserves to be accelerated. Usually, schools have a set of guidelines, such as testing procedures to check if the child deserves to skip a grade because of academic excellence.

The regulations differ from one school district to another – while some may be quite relaxed in conducting the process, others may take a strict stance in making sure the child qualifies. Most schools, however, will give a test on knowledge and comprehension on the subjects that your child may skip. If the student shows enough comprehension on major subjects such as English, Social Studies, Science and History, the child may be allowed to move on to the next level.

Preparing Your Child

Parental guidance is necessary if you aim to help your child skip a grade. The child may have to dedicate more study hours to get a firm grasp of the subjects that he plans to skip. You should get a copy of the textbook that the school uses for these subjects and guide your child in his studies.

Skipping a grade not only benefits a family in terms of the financial savings, but it will also give some advantages to your child. It can give him the confidence, knowing that he excels academically. It can also offer more opportunities for him, such as scholarships, and can prepare him better for more challenges in life. The discipline it takes to study on his own and to succeed in passing his tests is a good exercise in life values, that he can take with him as he grows up.

Skipping a grade, however, should only be encouraged if your child is ready for it and realizes the demands of such a challenge. It is a good way to challenge your child, but if your child shows some resistance to it, offer other ways to challenge him academically.

Older posts »