Trampolining or trampoline gymnastics is a competitive Olympic sport in which athletes perform acrobatics while bouncing on a trampoline. In competition, these can include simple jumps in the straight, pike, tuck, or straddle position to more complex combinations of forward and/or backward somersaults and twists. Scoring is based on the difficulty and on the total seconds spent in the air; points are deducted for bad form and horizontal displacement from the center of the bed.

Outside of the Olympics, competitions are referred to as gym sport, trampoline gymnastics, or gymnastics, which includes the events of trampoline, synchronised trampoline, double mini trampoline and tumbling.

Origins

In the early 1930s, George Nissen observed trapeze artistes performing tricks when bouncing off a safety net. He made the first modern trampoline in his garage to reproduce this on a smaller scale and used it to help with his diving and tumbling activities. He formed a company to build trampolines for sale and used a variant of the Spanish word trampolín (diving board) as a trademark. He used the trampoline to entertain audiences and also let them participate in his demonstrations as part of his marketing strategy. This was the beginning of a new sport.

In the United States, trampolining was quickly introduced into school physical education programs and was also used in private entertainment centers. Elsewhere in the world the sport was most strongly adopted in Europe and the former Soviet Union. Since trampolining became an Olympic sport in 2000, many more countries have started developing programs.

Basic landing positions

Competitive trampolining routines consist of combinations of 10 contacts with the trampoline bed combining varying rotations, twists and shapes with take-off and landing in one of four positions:

  • Feet
  • Seat
  • Front
  • Back

A routine must always start and finish on feet. In addition to the 10 contacts with the bed in a routine, competitors must start their routine within 60 seconds after presenting to the judges. They are also permitted up to one "out bounce", a straight jump to control their height at the end of a routine, before sticking the landing. The trampolinist must stop completely—this means that the bed must stop moving as well—and they have to hold still for a count of 3 seconds before moving.

Basic shapes

In competitions, moves must usually be performed in one of the following 3 basic shapes:

{| class="wikitable"

|-

!Shape

!Method

|-

|Tucked

| with knees clasped to the chest by hands

|-

|Piked

|with hands touching your feet and both arms and legs straight

|-

|Straight

|body in a straight position with legs together, toes pointed, and arms by the sides

|}

A fourth 'shape', known as 'puck' because it appears to be a hybrid of pike and tuck, is often used in multiple twisting somersaults—it is typically used in place of a 'tuck' and in the competition would normally be judged as an open tuck shape.

A straddle or straddled pike is a variant of a pike with arms and legs spread wide and is only recognized as a move as a shaped jump and not in any somersault moves.

Rotation is performed about the body's longitudinal and lateral axes, producing twists and somersaults respectively. Twists are done in multiples of a half and somersaults in multiples of a quarter. For example, a barani ball out move consists of a take-off from the back followed by a tucked 1¼  front somersault combined with a ½  twist, to land on feet. Rotation around the dorso-ventral axis is also possible (producing side-somersaults and "turntables"), but these are not generally considered to be valid moves within competitions and carry no 'tariff' for difficulty.

Trampoline skills can be written in FIG (Federation Internationale de Gymnastique) shorthand. FIG shorthand consists of one digit signifying the number of quarter rotations, followed by digits representing the number of half twists in each somersault, and a symbol representing the position of the skill. "/" represents a straight position, "<" represents a pike position, and "ο" represents a tuck position. For example, 42/ is a back somersault with a full twist in the straight position, 800ο is a double back somersault with no twists in the tuck position, and 821/ is a double somersault that has a full twist in the first full somersault and a half twist in the second full somersault while remaining in a straight position.

Competition

Individual

thumb|right|Programme cover from first World Championships showing Rob Walker outside Houses of Parliament

The first individual trampolining competitions were held in colleges and schools in the US and then in Europe. In the early years of competition there was no defined format with performers often completing lengthy routines and even remounting if falling off partway through. Gradually competitions became more codified such that by the 1950s the 10-bounce routine was the norm thereby paving the way for the first World Championships which were organised by Ted Blake of Nissen and held in London in 1964. The first World Champions were both American, Dan Millman and Judy Wills Cline. Kurt Baechler of Switzerland and Ted Blake of England were the European pioneers and the first ever televised National Championships were held in England in 1958.

Soon after the first World Championships, an inaugural meeting of prominent trampolinists was held in Frankfurt to explore the formation of an International Trampoline Federation. In 1965 in Twickenham, the Federation was formally recognised as the International Governing Body for the sport. In 1969, the first European Championship was held in Paris and Paul Luxon of London was the winner at the age of 18. The ladies winner was Ute Czech from Germany. From that time until 2010, European and World Championships have taken place in alternate years—the European in the odd and the World in the even. Now the World Championships are held annually.

In 1973, Ted Blake organised the first World Age Group Competition (WAG) in the newly opened Picketts Lock Sports Centre; these now run alongside the World Championships. Blake also used the first WAG as an opportunity to organise a World Trampoline Safety Conference which was held in the Bloomsbury Hotel, London, in order to codify safety concerns.

In senior level competitions, a "Time of Flight" (ToF) score was added to the overall score from 2010. This benefits athletes who can maintain greater height during their routines. "Time of Flight" is the time spent in the air from the moment the athlete leaves the mat until the time they make contact again and is measured with electronic timing equipment. The score given is the sum the time in seconds of all completed jumps. This is now mainly in all competitions, including Club, County and Regional, as it is a key factor in judging.

In 2017, the method of determining the horizontal displacement from the centre was changed, new markings were added to the bed and zones set up with deductions based on the distance from the centre of the trampoline bed. The score is determined by a deduction which is the sum of all the landing zone deductions subtracted from 10. The displacement is measured electronically where the equipment is available, or else by two judges observing the landing zones.

The total score is a combination of the degree of difficulty (DD) performed plus the total Time of Flight (ToF) minus standardized deductions for poor form and mistakes and the horizontal displacement.

Score records

The official world record DD for men at a FIG sanctioned event is 18.00, achieved by Jason Burnett of Canada on April 30, 2010, at the Pacific Rim Championships in Melbourne, Australia. He beat his own world record of 17.50 that he had achieved on April 2, 2007, at the Lake Placid, New York, Trampoline World Cup. Burnett beat the twenty-year-old record of 17.00 by Igor Gelimbatovsky (USSR, 1986) and Daniel Neale (GBR, 1999). The top competitors usually perform routines with a DD of 16.5 or greater. In 2009 Jason Burnett completed a training routine with a DD of 20.6 at Skyriders Trampoline Place in Canada.

The women's world record DD is 16.20 by Samantha Smith (CAN). The top women competitors usually compete routines with a DD greater than 14.50.

Among Olympic athletes at the 2008, 2012, and 2016 games, the injury rate for trampoline gymnasts was about half that for artistic gymnasts.

References

Sources

  • Some original material extracted from Bounce 2000 information booklet: David Allen, Brisbane, Queensland Australia.
  • Everything about trampolining and acrobatic sports
  • Important Trampolining Safety Tips