Trampolining is a 20th-century manifestation of people’s desire to escape gravity. To enthusiasts and serious
athletes alike, trampolining offers an exhilarating form
of exercise that develops balance, timing, muscular
control, and coordination.
History
Circus legend has it that a 19th-century professional
tumbler named Du Trampoline came up with the idea
of adapting the safety nets used by aerialists for use as
part of tumblers’ routines. However apocryphal that
legend (and since trampolín means “springboard” in
Spanish, suspicion is in order) professional acrobats
and tumblers used something like a trampoline for
many years before the modern apparatus was invented.
In 1936, an American diving and tumbling champion,
George Nissen, built the prototype of the modern apparatus and the sport of trampolining, at first called
“rebound tumbling,” was born.
With the outbreak of World War II,the sport attracted the interest of the U.S. military, who incorporated it into
the exercise program for airmen. The sport was viewed
as an ideal exercise for promoting physical conditioning
and mental confidence while simultaneously releasing
the tensions produced by an intensive training schedule.
After the war, enthusiasm for the sport spread rapidly
among physical educators and gymnasts. Competitive
trampolining was introduced in the United States as a
special event at the 1947 Amateur Athletic Union (AAU)
meet in Dallas, Texas, and was included in the PanAmerican Games in 1954. Interest soon spread to Great
Britain, Europe, South Africa, and Japan. The first world
championships were held in Great Britain in 1964 and,
beginning in 1969, have been held every two years.
Rules and Play
The modern trampoline consists of a resilient “bed,”
made of canvas, nylon, or woven webbing, attached by
springs to a metal frame that suspends the bouncing
surface well above the ground.
When the trampolinist lands on the bed after a
bounce, the springs and elasticity of the bed absorb the
impact of the body, converting the force of the impact
into a recoil that propels the gymnast into the air again.
Trampolinists learn to use the energy of the recoil to attain optimum heights for the performance of various
routines. The heights achievable on a trampoline allow
for the execution of some acrobatic maneuvers that
could not even be attempted by a floor-bound gymnast. Advanced trampolinists need about 25 feet of
headroom to carry out their routines.
With experience, the trampolinist learns to perform
backward and forward somersaults and twists, as well
as multiples and combinations of these maneuvers.
Two, even three, people can perform on a trampoline
using either alternating or simultaneous bouncing
techniques, but this demands teamwork, close coordination, and precise timing since the athletes must
share the rather limited area of the trampoline bed for
their takeoffs and landings.
In trampoline competition, competitors are judged
on their performance of compulsory and voluntary
routines. In each case, a competitor performs a 10-
bounce routine in which a different maneuver is completed on each of the consecutive bounces, with no extra bounces in between, and the trampolinist must
land on his or her feet after the tenth maneuver of the
routine. The elements of the routine are rated by degree
of difficulty, and competitors gain or lose points according to their skill at performing them.
—BONNIE DYER-BENNET