Trampolining

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.[4] 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.[4] There is also a World Cup circuit of international competitions which involves a number of competitions every year. There are also international matches between teams from several countries.

At first the Americans were successful at World Championship level, but soon European competitors began to dominate the sport and for a number of years, athletes from countries that made up the former Soviet Union have often dominated the sport. Germany and France have been the other strong nations in trampolining and the first four ranking places in World Trampolining used to go to USSR, France, Britain and Germany. In recent years, Canada has also produced Olympic medalists and World champions due in large part to contributions made to the sport by Dave Ross. Ross pioneered the sport in Canada almost 30 years ago and has consistently produced Olympic and World Cup athletes and champions. Since trampolining became an Olympic sport, China has also made a very successful effort to develop world-class trampoline gymnasts, their first major success was in the 2007 Men's World Championship and later in both Men's and Women's gold medals and a bronze in the 2008 Olympic Games held in Beijing. Since then, they have won both World Championships and several Olympic medals.

Female synchronized trampoline performance

In synchronized trampolining, two athletes perform exactly the same routine of ten skills at the same time on two adjacent trampolines. Each athlete is scored separately by a pair of judges for their form in the same manner as for individual competitions. Additional judges score the pair for synchronization. Fewer points are deducted for lack of synchronization if the pair are bouncing at the same height at the same time. The degree of difficulty of the routine is determined in the same way as for individual trampoline routines and the points added to the score to determine the winner.

Double mini trampoline in a training gym

A double mini trampoline is smaller than a regulation competition trampoline. It has a sloped end and a flat bed. The gymnasts run up and jump onto the sloping end and then jump onto the flat part before dismounting onto a mat. Skills are performed during the jumps or as they dismount.

A double mini-trampoline competition consists of two types of pass. In the one, which is known as a mounter pass, the athlete performs one skill in the jump from the sloping end to the flat bed and a second skill as they dismount from the flat bed to the landing mat. In the second, which is known as a spotter pass, the athlete does a straight jump from the sloping end to the flat bed to gain height, then after landing on the flat, performs the first skill, then after landing on the flat a second time, performs a second skill as they dismount. These skills are similar to those performed on a regular trampoline except that there is forward movement along the trampoline.

A double mini-trampoline competitor

The form and difficulty are judged in a similar manner as for trampolining but there are additional deductions for failing to land cleanly (without stepping) or landing outside a designated area on the mat.

Tumbling gymnastics is a further discipline of gymnastics competed at national and international events, usually alongside trampoline events. Instead of a sprung trampoline, competitors do a single, long complex tumbling and somersaulting combination along a straight, sprung runway, leading to a high final somersault onto a landing mat. The skills involved are very similar to those used in floor exercise or vault routines in artistic gymnastics, but with an extra emphasis on continuity and directional accuracy than in either of those events.

Tumbling is not an Olympic Games event but has been held as part of the European Games, as well as individual World and Continental Championships.

The International Trampoline Federation became part of the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique in 1999. FIG is now the international governing body for the sport which is paired with tumbling as the skill sets overlap. International competitions are run under the rules of FIG. Individual national gymnastics organizations can make local variations to the rules in matters such as the compulsory and optional routines and number of rounds for national and local competitions.

As part of the agreement to merge FIT with FIG, individual trampolining was accepted into the Summer Olympic Games for 2000 as an additional gymnastic sport.

The currently accepted basic format for individual trampoline competitions usually consists of two or three routines, one of which may involve a compulsory set of skills. The skills consist of various combinations of somersaults, shaped bounces, body landings and twists performed in various body positions such as the tuck, pike or straight position.

The routines are performed on a standard 14-foot-by-7-foot regulation-sized trampoline with a central marker. Each routine consists of the athlete performing ten different skills starting and finishing on the feet.

Computer-assisted scoring

The routine is marked out of 10 by five judges with deductions for incomplete moves or poor form. Usually, the highest and lowest scores are discarded. Additional points can be added depending on the difficulty of the skills being performed. The degree of difficulty (DD or tariff) is calculated by adding a factor for each half turn (or twist) or quarter somersault. Difficulty is important in a routine, however, there are differences in opinion between various coaches whether it is better to focus on increasing the difficulty of routines given that this usually results in a reduced form score or to focus on improving execution scores by displaying better form in an easier routine.[5]

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.

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.[6] 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.[7] In 2009 Jason Burnett completed a training routine with a DD of 20.6 at Skyriders Trampoline Place in Canada.[8] 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.[7] The women's synchronised trampoline pair of Karen Cockburn and Rosannagh Maclennan also of Canada completed a new world record DD of 14.20 at the same April 2, 2007, Lake Placid World Cup.

Although trampoline competitors are highly trained, they are also attempting to perform complex manoeuvres which could lead to accidents and falls. Trampolines used in competitions have their springs covered in pads to reduce the chance of injury when landing off the bed. They also have padded end decks, which are the locations that athletes are most likely to fall off the trampoline. The rules for international competitions (updated by FIG in 2006) also require 200mm thick mats on the floor for 2 metres around each trampoline and for there to be four spotters whose task it is to attempt to catch or reduce the impact of an athlete falling off the side of the trampoline bed. The floor matting rules are typically adopted by national bodies but not always in full; for example, in the UK the requirement for National & Regional competition is still 2m but only of 20–25mm matting.

Teenage trampoline athletes are at higher risk of injury with higher training loads.[9]

Among Olympic athletes at the 2008, 2012, and 2016 games, the injury rate for trampoline gymnasts was about half that for artistic gymnasts.[10]

• Some original material extracted from Bounce 2000 information booklet: David Allen, Brisbane, Queensland Australia.