Trampoline History
History of Trampoline Competition
In the earliest competitions, the performers were allowed a time limit of from one minute to one minute 30 seconds, and later from 45 seconds to one minute, in which to complete the competitive routine. The meets were virtually endurance contests and the routines included many intermediate bounces and almost no continuity. To encourage more continuity in the routine and to shorten the time required to administer the event, procedures were changed to allow each performer three sequences of eight contacts with the bed and 10 seconds rest between each sequence. Along with this change came the concept of continuous swing-time routines with a logical beginning and ending.
In 1958 the complaint that the third sequence was merely a repetition of the first two caused the NCAA and the AAU to adopt two sequences of 10 contacts with a 20-second rest between them as the standard routine. The length of this routine seemed too long for safety, and therefore, in 1959 the two organizations shortened the standard exercise to two sequences with eight contacts.
So,
while the trampoline was part of a gymnastics competition, it
was being administered differently from the other events in the
sport of gymnastics. In other events the gymnast was allowed to
compose his competitive routine in any way that he saw fit so
long as it met certain requirements of composition and difficulty.
Therefore, the rules committee of the NCAA first moved to one
sequence of from 10 to 12 contacts with the trampoline, and then
later finally removed the last vestige of the old required number
of contacts.
During the period from 1966 to 1968 the trampoline was treated as just another event in the gymnastics meet. The tables of difficulty conformed to those used in gymnastics; the language used to describe the elements to be included in an exercise was the same, and the judging system for making deductions from 10.0 points was the same. During this period of time, a World Championship Competition was organized and financed by a manufacturer of trampolines, and at a meeting in conjunction with this competition leaders from the various countries agreed to form the FIT. Since trampoline was separate from gymnastics in most countries, the international group began with the swing-time concept already well developed, and their main concern was with the development of a system of evaluation, which would be fair for all. They had two models to work from, that of diving competition where the difficulty of each dive is combined with the execution score, and that of gymnastics where deductions are made, from a perfect score of 10, for flaws in the execution of the skills or for the lack of difficulty. The FIT used parts of both systems, and the final result is consistent with the nature of trampoline.
The basic form of the FIT system of competition is derived from a concept for determining difficulty called axial rotation (AR) suggested by Mr. Robert Bollinger in the United States. Mr. Bollinger's system awarded one point for each 1/4 rotation on the lateral axis and one point for each 1/2 rotation on the longitudinal axis. Under this system a double forward somersault was worth 8 points (4 points for each somersault) and a double twisting backward somersault was also worth 8 points (4 points for somersault and 4 points for the 2 twists).
From: Trampoline Tumbling Today; by Larry Griswold and Glenn Wilson; 2nd edition; A.S. Barnes and Company; 1970; p. 160-169.