only just noticed this thread but thought i'd make some comments. Coiling rope to avoid twists/tangles is simple enough but first you need to know some things. You say you coil longer lengths of rope around elbow and hand, this will indeed put twists into your rope so stop doing it. Always coil towards the end of rope that is free and not connected/tied to anything so any twists roll out of the free end as you coil, coiling towards an end of rope that is fixed/tied to something will put kinks into the rope and the closer to the end you get the worse the twists will be. It's okay to coil with one end tied to something provided you coil towards the free end of rope. First to start remove any kinks in the rope (you are sure to have some if you've been coiling wrong), you don't necessarily need much space you can do it in the living room if you wish no matter how long the rope is, just hang a carabiner from something and pull the rope several times through the carabiner making sure both ends of rope are free and not attached to anything, works best when there is a good angle between rope and carabiner. Next determine what type of rope you have as this will affect the type of coil you use, there is braided rope and twisted rope, twisted rope is either right hand lay or left hand lay (hold the rope vertically and note which way the twists rotate, to the right is called Z twist and to the left is called S twist, most twisted rope is right hand lay called Z twist). You coil right hand laid rope (Z) in a clockwise direction and you coil left hand laid rope (S) in an anti clockwise direction, if you coil in the wrong direction you will put kinks in the rope as you coil. For right hand twisted rope (the most common) start by holding the rope in your left hand and make the coils in a clockwise direction with your right hand giving each coil a little clockwise twist (roll perhaps describes the motion better than twist) between thumb and finger as you place each coil into your left hand. For braided rope it's different, do not use that little twist between thumb and finger and just let it lie natural, braided rope will naturally form a figure of eight shape as you coil the rope, this is correct and how it should be coiled, do not try to remove the figure of eight shape in braided rope coils, any twists should be worked out when coiling provided the end is free and not tied to anything. Try to keep each coil a similar size, however this is not critical, if the rope is coiled correctly in the first place it will run out smoothly even if coils are a little different in size. Finally regarding wrapping rope around a drum or something, the same thing applies regarding wrapping in a clockwise or anti-clockwise direction using Z or S twisted ropes.