Introduction to trampoline

Introduction

The widely growing sport of trampoline has covered the
globe in relatively short amount of time since the late 1940"s.
It is my true passion and anyone who knows me knows I feel more
comfortable airborne then on firm ground. I think it has to do
with the freedom in the air, or maybe because it is an amazing
way to stay in shape and remain completely oblivious to the
effort involved, or maybe because it is an amazing growth
mechanism for individuals of all ages, genders and capabilities.
The trampoline is nothing more than a tool to mold, develop and
hone an individual"s physical and mental state preparing them for
anything life will through at them. I was highly restricted from
the trampoline as a competing gymnast when I first was adopted
and moved to Canada. There sure seems to be a stigma about
trampoline in the gymnastics community. Some coaches are led to
believe that trampoline and gymnastics are different techniques
and in order to keep the athlete consistent and stable trampoline
should be used minimally. My love for the sport has pushed me
past the boundaries of Canada to explore, motivate and spread any
knowledge I have for everyone who has an open ear.

History of
Trampoline

It all started many years ago with the Intuits who would
create a trampoline out of dried out walrus skin. Like today it
was implied to be a tool for fun however the safety parameters
may have been at a lower standard then they are today. Pablo
Fanque, the first non-white Circus proprietor in Britain had a
device in the mid 1800"s that resembled a trampoline but was more
of a bouncy board. It resembled a bouncing bed to the audience,
with coiled springs and sheets. Pablo"s performers would do
comedy routines on this contraption and it is assumed the
audience favoured the act very much.

According to Circus folklore the trampoline was created
by Du Trampolin who got the idea from a trapeze set up where the
safety net could be used to propel performers into the air.
However, there is no documentation of this so let"s skip ahead to
what we know today of the trampoline. George Nissen and Larry
Griswold are credited for the development of the first official
"Trampoline" in 1938 at the University of Iowa. Nissen was a
gymnast and diver for the University and Griswold was a tumbler.
Trampolin was the Spanish word for diving board which Nissen
heard on a demonstration tour in Mexico. He added the "E" for
trademarking purposes and that"s how we got the name Trampoline.
By 1942 these two had created a company and started making and
selling trampolines. Nissen and Griswold ended up separating for
business reasons but remained great friends simply walking
slightly different paths. Jeff Hennessy along with others were
the pioneers of the competitive sport in the late 1950"s and gave
spark to what we see today. The routines they would perform were
much different from our own and not as linearly structured. After
discussing this with some well-known members of the industry I am
ensured that it is because they were "more focused on getting
height then form" as the trampolines were not as powerful as
today. As 50 years go by the trampolines started getting more
powerful and with it the difficulty and execution increased. It
got to the Olympic stage in 2000 where it has filled stadiums
with cheering crowds from around the world encouraging their
countries representative. George Nissen passed away only a few
years ago but his legacy lives on and up to us to keep it
growing.

My
Background

My story begins in Moscow on May 17, 1990 where I was
born and immediately put into an orphanage. I stayed in orphanage
number 13 in the heart of Moscow for the first 5 years of my
life. Many see this as sad and depressing however I am grateful
as it has allowed me to see the world in a completely different
way than anyone else I know. I was picked up one day by a nice
Canadian family who took me is as oneof their own and I began a
new life.

I was enrolled into all types of sports and recreational
activities such as hockey, soccer, art class, music lessons and
anything else my heart desired as my family wanted to give me
opportunities I never thought existed. I fell in love with
gymnastics and followed that for the long haul. I went from
recreational all the way to junior national level in 12 years. I
had changed gyms and coaches a few times like anyone else but I
had a pretty standard training. My coaches were hard on me and
forced me to learn tough lessons that I think about constantly
even to this day. I was the "crazy kid" of the gym when I first
started out and got beat down so bad that I was literally not
allowed in the change room with the "Big Boys" as every
time I went in I came out with large bruises or even crying. Do
you think that stopped me? Of course not, I was programmed at
birth for the first five years to fight and keep fighting until I
got what I needed and to never stop or it"s game over one way or
another. I was still in survival mode even though I was in fresh
territory that did not require it. The constant beat downs, that
I deserved 100%, kept me in line and allowed for me to find my
place in the food chain. I ended up quitting gymnastics after I
won National Gold on Parallel Bars in National level 6. I was 17
and ready for a new challenge. I was already taking trampoline
classes at Skyriders Trampoline Place with Dave Ross and decided
to try competitive. I, again, was seen as the "Crazy" kid who
would do anything. Of course there was a lot more strategy then
that but I was able to keep it hidden and because of this I was
able to move through the ranks quickly winning Gold at Nationals
my first year in trampoline in the Open Level. I then moved to
Senior the next year and after another 2 years I was named to the
Canadian Senior Trampoline National Team and was able to travel.
I travelled for a few years competing and remained top 3 overall
and even got a Syncho National Gold Medal along the way. Quickly
I wanted more, and just like before I started looking for other
ways to start spreading my wings as there was simply too much
politics and extra headaches that I was not willing to deal with
as my personality conflicted with those who had authority. I
ended up missing 2012 London Olympics by just a few points and
decided to experiment with other avenues until 2016 Rio Olympics
came around. Now I have jumped, excuse the pun, fully into the
business world where I use my experience to educate and motivate
athletes who want a high level of success in
Trampoline.

I have recently began the trend of "Freedropping" with
BAGJUMP Action Sports Gmbh. This has opened a lot of doors that
were never available to me and has simply reiterated the fact
that I made the right decision to pause my athletic career to
expand my knowledge. I currently travel the world now performing
clinics for athletes and coaches such as Lords of Gravity in
Hungary who are a NBA basketball slam dunk team and other various
Cirque schools around the world such as CNAC. I am doing TV
shows, live performances as well as videos for social media
platforms. I also have created a small group of athletes in
Ontario who have stayed by my side while I travel and spread my
knowledge. I will be hoping to take some athletes to the Olympics
one day.

Competitive
Trampoline

If you are new to the trampoline world and are
interested in the structure then pay attention. If you start from
the bottom you would be put into a typical recreational class at
any local gymnastics or trampoline club. Normally there will be
levels corresponding to different skills learned. If the athlete
shows willingness and a bit of talent the competitive head coach
will usually try to pull them into the competitive stream. Many
new recruits will start in Invitational level 1 which is lowest
level and move up to level 3 after a few years. Invitational are
competitions held at local gyms as a fundraiser, community
builder and to help develop the athletes skill in a smaller
environment.

If the athlete shows good form skill and eagerness to
continue they will be put into the competitive Provincial stream
where they will compete against any other athlete in the
Province. These competitions have more pressure and minimum
scores have to be met to continue through the levels. You can
remain on one level as long as you want but once you start you
can"t go down, you can only go up. This keeps the athlete skill
level relative (usually). Some gyms will attend training camps
and competitions outside of their province but these are special
exceptions. Assuming the athlete does well and hits all their
required scores out of 3 provincial qualifiers they will be asked
to go to Provincial Championships. This would be equivocal to
State Championship in the U.S or regional Championship in Europe
and Asia. If the athlete chooses to continue he or she will hit
the national stream which is another 4 levels above provincial.
In national stream athletes must get scores from provincial
qualifiers as well as national qualifiers where they compete
against every trampolinist in their category across Canada. If
the athletes get their required scores at the different meets
they qualify for funding and to be on National Team. Funding is
only enough to cover hours in the gym and many athletes need to
still keep at least a part time job to keep afloat. Other
countries have more money to allocate to sports then Canada as
Canada is primarily a socialist country.

If Injury occurs athletes have the ability to not use
all of the scores of that year and pick the best ones for
submission to the federation for Team score or funding. If one
year goes by and that athlete has not completed new scores they
are removed and a new athlete takes his or her place. Athletes
are constantly shuffling up and down the ranking list as
trampoline is not a stable sport due to its nature. The top 4
athletes are sent around the world to compete and represent
Canada at various world cups and if they do well at the world
cups they will qualify for World Championships which is held
every year.

To pick an athlete for the Olympics a scoring system is
put in place the year before and only applies for those wishing
to attend the Olympics. The system gives points for a medal
finish with gold getting the most points and bronze only getting
a point or two. After all three national qualifiers are completed
the federation adds up the points and the top athlete for men and
women go to the Olympics. Some countries get to send two
competing athletes to the Olympics if these two athletes
consistently did very well during the world tour. Only a few
countries get this opportunity. An "Alternate" is picked who is
usually ranked 2nd (Sometimes 3rd) in the country to go with the
Olympian as a backup who can still represent the country if the
other athlete gets hurt in warm up. Usually these Olympic
athletes will do lots of Press and Media once they get home
depending on their success at the games. After usually a few
months off they are back on track for the next season.

This is the generic structure of the trampoline
competitive world even though every country has different names
and different numbers of levels.

How To Score
Trampoline

PART 1: EXECUTION

Each athlete has to perform a "Compulsory" and an
"Optional" routine which consist of 10 skills that must be linked
together. The judges rate each of the 10 skills out of 5 (5 being
terrible and 0 being perfect) and add them together. This will
give the total number of deductions for the routine which is
subtracted from 10.00. Ex. 8.1 means there were 19 points of
deduction in the entire routine. There are four other judges who
all do the same thing. You drop high and the low scores and add
up the middle three.

Compulsory Routine/ Ex.

Assume we have a junior national athlete who just got
these 5 scores:

8.1, 8.4, 8.3, 7.8, 9.0

7.8 and 9.0 are dropped and you are left with
8.1+8.4+8.3= 24.8

PART 2: DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY

Then you take the difficulty of the routine which is
calculated by another judge and add it to the previous
total.

Degree of Difficulty (DD) (Compulsory)

• Olympian: 3.3-3.5

• Senior National: 2.9-3.3

• Junior National: 2.3-2.7

• Provincial Level4: ****Given Mandatory Routine with
  No Difficulty in Compulsory****

• Provincial Level 2: ****Given Mandatory Routine with
  No Difficulty in Compulsory****

• Interclub/Invitational: ****Given Mandatory Routine
  with No Difficulty in Compulsory****

Ex. If our athlete was in Junior National and had a DD
of 2.5 your score would be 24.8 +2.5= 27.3

PART 3: TIME OF FLIGHT

In the National Level recently they added in "Time of
Flight" which is calculated by a laser system underneath the
trampoline that measures how long each athlete is the air.(Time
in the air subtract the time in the bed**)The larger the number,
the higher the athlete is jumping and the higher his or her score
will be. The key to a successful routine is balancing all three
and working to your strengths.

** TIP: If you do not have a T.O.F set up you can time
on a stop watch and subtract ~3.0 seconds to get a rough T.O.F.
Most Coaches will time athletes with a stop watch and simply use
that for comparison but it is important to note that these are
two different numbers.

Time of Flight Scale (Compulsory):

• Olympian: 18.0 +

• Senior Team: 17.0-18.0

• Junior Team: 15.0-16.0

Ex. If our athlete is Junior National and got a
Compulsory T.O.F of 15.5 then the total score for a compulsory
for this athlete after adding up execution, DD and T.O.F = 27.3+
15.5= 42.8

The same exact Scoring system is used for Optional
routines but the execution and T.O.F tend to be lower as the
Optional routine focuses on a higher DD.

Optional Degree of Difficulty (DD)

• Olympian: 16.5-17.0

• Senior Team: 15.5-16.5

• Junior Team: 13.0-14.5

• Provincial Level 4: 9.0-11.0

• Provincial Level 2: 4.5-6.0

• Interclub/ Invitational: 1.0-3.0

Ex. Let"s say our Athlete is very consistent and is able
to get the same exact Execution score as on his compulsory with
the same T.O.F but with a 13.8 DD on his optional. What is his
optional total?

= Execution (24.8) + T.O.F (15.5) + DD (13.8) =
54.1

Combined Score: 42.8 + 54.1=
96.9

This athlete is doing well and will most likely continue
to do well based on these scores in the Senior squad.

PART 4: FINALS

Assuming that our athlete made top ten in his category
which with these scores most likely he did, he is required to do
another Optional routine. Assuming his consistency stays the same
and he gets the exact same score on his Final Optional as he did
on his first one, his TOTAL SCORE would be: 96.9+ 54.1=
151.0

Education of
Trampoline

There have been some rumours going around that a
trampoline is one of the most dangerous tools you can use. Anyone
who commits to using one regularly knows this is a myth but the
issue is that the wrong message is going out to the public. As a
community we have allowed ourselves to get wrapped up in the
media and casted out by the insurance companies due to high risk.
Many of us can think of many dangerous activities that do not
nearly get as much bad publicity. As passionate enthusiasts of
our beloved sport it should be our goal to spread the actual
facts faster than the myths. I have had great success with injury
prevention over my last 10 years of coaching due to the fact I
knew one thing. If you know how to fall, you will know how to get
back up again. So many coaches are focused on many other
important aspects but seem to forget that instead of training not
to fall, you should be training how to get back up. One of the
techniques I teach is "Arms In!!!!!" which tells the
athlete to hug themselves as tight as they can when they know
they are not landing properly. The body is more solid and able to
handle a greater impact as one unit rather than 4 separate limbs
(5 if you count the head). When enforced over and over again, the
athlete starts to make it a habit and broken arms and legs are a
thing of the past. Not to say injuries do not occur but the risk
is much lower. I also focus a lot of the mental GPS (Global
Positioning System). This trains the athlete to know and "feel"
where they are in time and space rather than depending simply on
spotting. As the tricks get bigger and bigger your brain will not
have time to coordinate your neural pathways fast enough to keep
up with the demand. At a young age I do drills where they start
feeling the rhythm of the jump and it feels a lot like music.
There is a tempo and the higher the tempo the lower you are and
vice versa. Once the athlete is able to read this tempo they will
be able to map out where they are in the air. This will send off
alarm bells right before they are about to land almost like a
"Spidey Sense" and the athlete will learn to finish the skill or
"bail". To bail means that you attempted a skill and realized
before the landing that something was wrong and you could not
make it so you made a movement to land on your back. This is
safer as you have a wider surface area on your back which can
absorb awkward landings better than two small feet. Sometimes you
can bail to stomach or even feet with a slightly easier version
of the intended skill however the idea of knowing before you land
that you need to react is the key.

What is technically happening, is that the athlete is
able to know the at top of the jump and calculate the amount of
time it will take to get to the top from the trampoline and back
down to the trampoline which is usually around Two seconds for a
senior athlete. One second to the top of the jump and one second
back down. Usually by the time the athlete is at the top he or
she should have already decided if he or she can make it. This
gives the athlete one whole second to make adjustments and bail
if need to. That is a lot of time for an athlete as the brain
works extremely fast. My trainings develop the GPS as well as
safety with bails to ensure success and longevity in the sport. I
am working with gymnastics experts to develop this training
previously named "BIO-FLIGHT" by Ray Bright who is a former
astronaut and first discovered this method of teaching. I of
course work on many other aspects in terms of conditioning and
psychology but I think the GPS is something over looked and
undervalued. It can be developed and strengthened if done the
correct way and is not simply a genetic trait that we have or
don"t.

What Makes a
Great Athlete?

A great foundation is key to any athlete. How can you
make a pyramid as strong as the Egyptians with a foundation the
size of even a gymnastics facility? Athletes need to see it all
and travel to different clubs and learn from different coaches.
No one knows it all and unfortunately greed and ego take over
many coaches and may hinder the athlete"s ability to learn. Let
the athletes spread their wings. If you were a good coach they
will always remember you even if you were not their last or even
their favourite. Know your own limits and if you know deep down
your athlete would do better traveling to a specialized training
facility, then let them go.

Usually the battle of a proper foundation is lost way
before this becomes a problem. The reason? Reputation. Coaches
will push the athletes for skills sometimes not because they want
to see them do it for their own use but because the coach wants
to see the other coaches in the industry see that their athlete
can do that skill. It"s an ego boost, a fallacy committed usually
by those who do not have a great deal of success in the coaching
or competitive sectors. Just how a parent will live through their
children, coaches are susceptible to the same corruption. It is
better to have the athlete go at a slower pace and maybe train a
few extra hours just to keep the pace regulated. Many athletes
will not say if you are pushing too hard because they are scared
to disappoint the coach and their parents. It is the coach"s job
to be a psychologist and learn each athlete inside out and figure
out what makes them tick.

ANYONE CAN TEACH TRAMPOLINE! The
technique is very easy when you break it down and can be learned
in a day, but that is not what determines an athlete"s success.
Can the coach adapt to each individual athlete? Can the coach put
away their psychological fallacies for the sake of their
athletes? Can the coach motivate the athletes? Can the coach
teach appropriate morals while doing so? My heart tells me that
all coaches try to do this, but my brain is telling me otherwise.
Like any human a coach has their own life, wants, needs and
ambitions. Many do not know how to separate themselves for the
best sake of the athletes. That"s simple psychology, and no one
is above human nature no matter how much we pretend to be. Keep
that in the back of your mind while coaching at all
times.

I go over in great detail the technical
aspect of the sport of trampoline in my clinics from entry angles
to body alignment to routine structure. These techniques along
with many others get more than adequate attention by my coaching
team and I. I want to enforce that it is not WHAT YOU KNOW it is
HOW YOU DELIVER.

Take
aways

Trampoline needs a new kick start and fresh approach.
Athletes and coaches have become complacent with the structure
and rules to the point other sports are growing, adapting and
changing and trampoline is being left in the dust. The coach is
the key factor here because you can have a genetically great
specimen but if the laboratory does not have up to date equipment
then the tests are still invalid. The coach determines what that
athlete amount to. The Olympics is not the "be all and end all"
situation. There are gains to the athlete in terms of social
awareness, mental toughness, determination, dealing with failure,
working for success, and many other avenues that have nothing to
do with carefully calculated outcomes such as medals and
trophies. These are a disguise that allow the coach to take the
focus away from learning life lessons which you can"t market to
an 8 year old. The new generation coach is one that mentors
athletes rather than simply "coaches" them.

CONTACT:

Feel free to connect with me to learn more about my
coaching thoughts ideas and techniques.

gregroetrampoline@hotmail.ca

Phone: (416) 999-318

Autor:

Greg Roe: Trampoline"s
specialist

Edited and translated into Spanish by:
Manuel Rojas Basan

MST. fitness science and gymnastics
consultant

Canada, September 9th/ 2014