TRAMPOLINING
The first individual trampolining competitions were held in colleges and schools in the USA and then in Europe, with the first
World Championships being 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 in
England in 1958. At first there was no generally accepted format for trampoline competitions but this became standardized as the sport
became more organized and international with the setting up of the International Trampoline Federation.
Soon after the first World Championships, the inaugural meeting of prominent trampolinists was held in Frankfurt, Germany, to explore
the formation of an International Trampoline Federation. In 1965 in Twickenham, UK, 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 onwards, European and World Championships have taken
place in alternate years — the European in the odd years and the World in the even years. There is also a World Cup circuit of international
competitions which involves three competitions every year. There are also international matches between teams from several countries.
At first the Americans dominated the World Championships, but due to many law suits over trampolining injuries (mostly in recreational
and unsupervised facilities), trampolining was no longer allowed in most educational institutions due to the high costs of insurance and the
high level of participation and performance by Americans went down. The Europeans 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 consistently produces Olympic and World Cup athletes.
The International Trampolining Federation became part of the Fédération
Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG) in 1999. FIG is now the international governing body for the sport which is paired with Power 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.
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 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. The routine is marked out of a score of 10 by five judges with deductions for incomplete moves,
moving too far from the center mark 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 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.
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