What is Trampolining?

Trampolining is a relatively young sport originally derived from fitness training performed by servicemen and gymnasts. It has grown to Olympic status now and is a recognised discipline of Gymnastics worldwide. Trampoline can be broken down into four specialist disciplines.

Trampoline (aka Euro)
Using a full sized (often called a Euro or Master Tramp) rectangular trampoline, athletes are able to perform a range of difficult jumping, twisting and tumbling manoeuvres. In sport the trampolinist performs a sequence of 10 tricks, with points scored for difficulty of each manoeuvre and their “form” (body position and neatness) during these skills.
Points will be deducted for not completing all 10 moves or for performing extra moves. Judging will stop if the trampolinist fails to complete a move correctly (lands badly or off the trampoline), or bounces without having performed a recognised move (double-bounce).

Double-Mini
Double-mini is a relatively new form of trampolining involving running down a track (like a gymnastics vault), and then bouncing on a specially designed trampoline having two “bounce areas”, one slightly sloped at the front and a second flat area directly attached to it, followed by a padded landing mat.
Athletes must complete two moves during their pass, landing cleanly on their feet between moves. They may perform these two moves in any of the three opportunities, while mounting, while traversing to the second area, or while leaving to land on the mat. (Most routines take advantage of the last two bounces as they will typically get more height and hence more time to complete their skills).

Tumbling
Tumbling is an ancient gymnastic and circus discipline now managed as a sport under the trampolining banner. Tumblers use a sprung track down which they perform a series of 8 skills finishing on a padded mat.
Like trampolining each skill is marked on form and difficulty, with the added challenge of not being allowed to do the same skill more than once; excepting some of the simpler skills like round-offs (cartwheels) and flik-flaks.

Synchro
Synchronized trampoline is one of the most amazing sports to watch, with two trampolinists on adjacent trampolines performing identical routines in time. Each trampolinist is individually marked on form, difficulty is added and finally a special score is awarded based on how synchronized the two routines are (with the added challenge that judging stops if the participants get too far apart).

Skills
(Thanks to www.ministryofair.co.uk)
Many moves are named with reference to how the trampolinist lands on the trampoline. There are four possible landing positions:
Ø to feet: landing in a standing position
Ø to seat: landing in a sitting down position with the legs pointing straight ahead
Ø to front: landing on the stomach, or front, with hands under chin
Ø to back: landing on the back with arms & legs pointing upward
The seat, front & back positions lend themselves to three basic moves; the seat drop, the front drop & the back drop which are performed from a normal upright jump. These can then be linked together one after another (this is what happens in routines) with no upright jump in-between. So for example the linked move we call seat drop to front drop means ‘land on your bottom & rebound straight over onto your front’.
As well as these basic landing positions, we must consider twists. A ½ twist jump is when the trampolinist simply jumps up and faces the other way (180°). From that it follows that a full twist involves a complete revolution to face the same way again (360°). These can obviously be extended to one and a half, double, triple etc..
These two ideas (landing positions and twists) can be combined to form more complex moves and links. For example:
Ø A ½ twist to back drop involves the trampolinist in jumping up, twisting through 180° and landing on the back.
Ø A front drop ½ twist to seat drop means jump & rotate forward into a front drop then on the rebound simply roll over through 180 ° to land in a seat drop position.

Body Shapes in the Air
When in the air it is possible to do many things, some of which have been mentioned above. In order to do any move, we must consider the body shape of the trampolinist. When not performing a move, the body shape should normally be ’straight’ – i.e. upright and fully extended. There are three other possible body shapes:
Ø tucked: curled up in a little ball with the hands on the shins and the knees together.
Ø piked: in a ‘touching the toes’ like position with legs straight and together and the hands near the feet.
Ø straddled: the same as piked but with the feet well apart.
These shapes can be done whilst in the air and give rise to the most basic moves of all: the tuck jump, the pike jump and the straddle jump. They can also be done during somersaults (see below) with the exception of the straddle, which is never used apart from in a straddle jump.

Simple Skills Examples:

Somersaults
Somersaults are partial or complete rotations, forward or backwards around the hips area. Somersaults are named by considering six things:
Ø The direction of rotation: forward or backward (very occasionally also sideways)
Ø The amount of rotation: single, double, one and three quarters etc.
Ø The amount of twist: in multiples of a half
Ø The body shape in the air: straight, piked or tucked
Ø The take-off position: from feet, from seat, from front or from back.
Ø The landing position: to feet, to seat, to front or to back.
From this, we can see that there are hundreds of types of somersaults which are possible. Many everyday somersaults have special names of their own, and here are a few examples, to see the definitive list try

Glossary
Ø Crash Dive : a three quarter front somersault to land on the back.
Ø Lazy Back : a three quarter back somersault to land on the front.
Ø Barani : a single front somersault with a ½ twist.
Ø Rudi : a single front somersault with one and a ½ twists.
Ø Randi : a single front somersault with two and a ½ twists.
Ø Adolf : a single front somersault with three and a ½ twists.
Ø Full Back : a full twisting single back somersault (usually done straight).
Ø Ball-Out : a one & a quarter forward somersault done from back landing to feet.
Ø Cody : a one & a quarter backward somersault done from a front drop position.
Ø One & Three : a one & three-quarter front somersault, (lands on the back).
Ø Half-Out : a double front somersault with a ½ twist at the end.
Double somersaults and above
The more twists and somersaults you have in a move, the more combinations are possible.
The recognition and naming of multiple twisting, multiple somersaults is a science in its own right, and being able to name the blur of body parts you have just seen in the air will make you the envy of many. The number of somersaults is rarely more than three, the number of twists rarely more than four, and the position is normally feet to feet. This keeps things a bit simpler than they might be, but the difficulty lies in working out both the rotational direction and how many twists happened and WHEN.
For example, a double front somersault with a ½ twist can be done in two ways:
With the twist in the first somersault (called a Half-In) … or, in the second somersault (a Half-Out).
A double back with a full twist can be done in three ways:
With a ½ twist in each somersault (Half-In Half-Out), … all the twist in the first (Full-In) … or all the twist in the second (Full-Out).

Judging/Scoring
Marks for form are scored out of one point for each of the moves, with deductions applying on each move for poor form (such as bent or loose legs and arms). Like many judged sports a panel of judges (5) will mark the athletes form; and the top and bottom score are ignored in calculating their total.
Marks for difficulty are awarded based on complexity of the skill, usually through measurement of the number of rotations of the body horizontally and vertically, and are added to the form score as follows
This combination establishes a careful balance for the trampolinist to be able to increase their difficulty, but without losing too much form in the process (not surprisingly the harder the skill the harder it is to focus on being tidy at the same time).
NSTI has a proud reputation in maintaining a focus on form while building up the athlete’s difficulty levels.

Difficulty “Tariff”
(Thanks to www.ministryofair.co.uk)
The basic premise is that each quarter-somersault (90° forward or backward) is awarded 0.1 point, and each half-twist (180° around the Longitudinal axis) is also awarded 0.1 point.
An additional 0.1 points is awarded per completed somersault (each somersault is worth 0.5 instead of 0.4).
Single somersaults without twist performed in pike or straight position receive an additional 0.1 point bonus. [Single somersaults with twist are considered to be done in a 'free' position, so do not qualify for the straight legs bonus].
Multiple somersaults of 720° or more, with or without twist, executed in the straight or pike position will receive an additional 0.2 points maximum bonus.
These straight-legged bonuses are only applicable to whole somersaults, e.g. there is no such bonus to Ball-Out Barani, thus 0.6 for somersault (5 quarters plus 0.1 bonus for one completed somersault) plus 0.1 for ½ twist, totals 0.7 points, regardless of shape.
Repeated skills do not receive any Tariff award.
Here are some examples: to see a more definitive list try Tariff
Ø back drop = 0.1 (¼ somersault rotation)
Ø ½ twist to front drop = 0.2 (¼ somersault rotation plus a ½ twist)
Ø seat drop = 0.0 (no upper body rotation or twist at all)
Ø pike back somersault = 0.6 (four quarters of rotation plus 0.1 completed somersault bonus, plus 0.1 for straight legs)
Ø straight barani (single front somersault with ½ twist) = 0.6 (four quarters rotation plus a ½ twist but no straight legs bonus)
Ø tucked full twisting 1 ¾ front somersault to back = 1.0 (seven quarters rotation, with 0.1 complete somersault bonus, plus two ½ twists)

Grades/Levels
Trampolining difficulty can be measured in Grades, starting at Grade 7 and working towards Grade1, before finally progressing on to Elite. The grades recognise the mastering of different skills, starting with the basics like seat drops and working towards the more complex tumbles.
Complimenting the grades NSTI has introduced a levels system defining routines the children can master on their way to achieving the trampoline grades. Although not exact the levels relate to the grades as follows
Ø Level 1..5 Grade 7
Ø Level 6 Grade 6
Ø Level 9 Grade 5
Ø Level 12 Grade 4
Ø Level 15 Grade 3

Beyond Grade 3 the levels system drops out of play and the athletes will tend to focus on the grades system supporting their competitive achievement.
The club coaches will assess children and develop them through these levels as they progress, and let the athletes know when they have passed each level and in turn earned a TNZ badge.

Grade Badges
Trampoline New Zealand (TNZ) recognise achieving the various grades with a series of badges.

Ø Grade 7 = Red
Ø Grade 6 = Blue
Ø Grade 5 = Green
Ø Grade 4 = Yellow
Ø Grade 3 = Purple
Ø Grade 2 = Black
Ø Grade 1 = Orange
Ø Elite = White