Trampolining terms

Trampolining terms are used to describe various positions and types of skill performed in the sport of trampolining.

Basic skills

• Straight Jump – A vertical jump with the body held straight and arms in a straight line above the body at take-off.
• Tuck Jump – From a straight jump start, the knees are pulled up to the chest and the hands must at least briefly grasp the legs between the knees and ankle.
• Pike Jump – Again from a straight jump start, the legs are straight, held together and lifted parallel to the trampoline and the arms and body reach forwards towards the pointed toes.
• Straddle Jump – Similar to the pike jump except that the legs are spread sideways approximately 90° apart and the arms reach forward towards the pointed toes.
• Seat Drop or Seat Landing – Landing in a seated position with the legs straight. The hands support the body one either side and very slightly behind the posterior, palms down with fingers pointed towards the pointed toes.
• Seat Landing Half Twist to Seat Landing or Swivel Hips – Performing a seat landing, bounce up to a straight position (without landing) and then perform a half twist and land in the second seat landing facing in the opposite direction.
• Half Twist and Full Twist – While in a straight jump position rotating the body until facing the opposite direction for a half twist or a complete 360° rotation for a full twist.
• Stomach Drop or Front Landing – Landing horizontally on the bed, face down, with the arms bent to form a diamond shape with the hands overlapping slightly in front of the face. The legs should be bent slightly at the knee keeping the feet off the trampoline bed. But otherwise held in tension for a good landing.
• Back Drop or Back Landing – Landing on the bed on the back. The legs are bent up at about 90° on landing with legs held straight and the head is held in line with the body flat on the bed (to avoid whiplash injury).
• Hands and Knees 3/4 turnover – Bouncing on hands and knees then making a forward rotation to land in either Back Drop, to your feet or Seat Drop.

Intermediate skills

• Front Somersault – One complete forward rotation; the body can be in any of the tucked, piked or straight (rarely seen other than to develop straight barani) positions.
• Back Somersault – One complete backward rotation; the body can be in any of the tucked, piked or straight positions.
• Side Somersault – One complete left or right rotation; this is usually performed tucked, but advanced variations include piked: straight legs (bent body). The straight position is impossible as the asymmetry will develop severe twisting and transform the side somersault into a back somersault.

Advanced skills

• Barani – A front somersault with a half twist before landing; also known as a front-half.
• 3/4 front (Crash Dive) – Three quarter straight front somersault that lands in the back drop position.
• 1 and 3/4 front (1 and 3, 217) – One and three quarter front somersault (performed in tucked or pike shape) that lands in the back drop position.
• 2 and 3/4 front (2 and 3, 317) – Two and three quarter front somersault that lands in the back drop position.
• 1 and 1/4 front – One and one quarter front somersault (performed in tucked or pike shape) that lands in the front drop position.
• 2 and 1/4 front – Two and one quarter front somersault that lands in the front drop position.
• 3/4 back (Lazy Back, Easy Back) – Three quarter straight back somersault that lands in front drop position.
• 1 and 3/4 back (Suicide) – One and three quarter back somersault that lands in front drop position.
• 1 and 1/4 back – One and one quarter back somersault (performed in tucked or pike shape) that lands in the back drop position.
• 2 and 1/4 back – Two and one quarter back somersault that lands in the back drop position.
• Pullover – Three quarter back somersault from back drop position that lands on feet.
• Ballout – One and one quarter front somersault from back drop position that lands on feet. Usually performed after Crash Dive.
• Cody – One and one quarter back somersault from front drop position that lands on feet. Usually performed after Lazy Back.
• Kaboom – Three quarter back somersault from back drop position that lands on feet following the heels being bounced off the canvas.
• Zack – Three quarter front somersault from front drop position that lands on feet following a 'kaboom'.
• Arabian – Early ½ twist into back somersault with initial take-off being consistent with forward rotation.
• Front Full – A full-twisting straight front somersault
• Rudolph (or Rudy) – A single straight front somersault with one and a half twists.
• Back Full (or Full) – A full-twisting straight back somersault.
• Full in or Full out – A double back somersault with a full twist in the first or second somersault respectively.
• Full in triff – A triple back somersault with a full twist in the first somersault.
• Full in quadriff – A quadruple back somersault with a full twist in the first somersault.
• Full out in – A triple back somersault with a full twist in the second somersault.
• Full out triff – A triple back somersault with a full twist in the third somersault.
• Front Full in – A double front somersault with a full twist in the first somersault.
• Full in full out – A double back somersault with a full twist in each somersault.
• Full in half out – A double front somersault with a full twist in the first and a half twist in the second.
• Full in Rudy out – A double Front somersault with a full twist in the first and a Rudy in the second.
• Miller – A double back somersault with 3 full twists in any somersault.
• Miller Plus/ Killer – A double back somersault with 4 full twists in any somersault.
• Miller Plus Plus/ Killer Plus/ Thriller – A double back somersault with 5 full twists in any somersault.
• Double Front – A double front somersault (may be performed in tuck or pike position).
• Double Back – A double back somersault (may be performed in tuck, pike, or straight position).
• Triple Front – A triple Front somersault.
• Triple Back – A triple back somersault.
• Quad Front – A quadruple front somersault.
• Quad Back – A quadruple back somersault.
• Half In (Tsukahara) – A barani followed by a back somersault.
• Rudy In – A Rudy followed by a back somersault.
• Rudy Out – A double front somersault with one and a half twists in the second somersault.
• Fliffus – Double front somersault with at least one half twist.
• Triffus – Triple front somersault with at least one half twist.
• Quadriffus – Quadruple front somersault with at least one half twist.
• Randolph (or Randy) – A single front somersault with two and a half twists.
• Double Full – A single back somersault with two twists.
• Triple Full – A single back somersault with three twists.
• Quad Full – A single back somersault with four twists.
• Quint Full – A single back somersault with five twists.
• Sextuple Full – A single back somersault with six twists.
• Barani ballout (BBO) – the same as a Ball out, but with one half twist. May also be performed with varying degrees of twist: e.g. rudolph/randolph/adolph ballout.
• Adolph – A single front somersault with three and a half twists.
• Full Half – A double front somersault with one twist in the first and a half twist in the second.
• Full Rudy – A double front somersault with one twist in the first and one and a half twists in the second.
• Frydolph – A single front somersault with four and a half twists.
• Frydolph Plus/ Robodolph – A single front somersault with five and a half twists.
• A note about twisting somersaults - although it is not impossible to associate different amount of twist with either front or back somersaults it is universal practice that front twisting somersaults will always have an odd half twist while back twisting somersaults will always have a round number of twists. This is to make it easier for the performer to 'spot' the bed prior to landing.
• Somersaults may be performed in one of four positions: tuck, pike, straight (or layout), and puck. The tuck position is considered the least difficult. Somersaults done in pike or straight position are more difficult, and each complete rotation is awarded a 0.1 bonus to Degree of Difficulty. Puck position is a body position intermediate between tuck and pike, and is used in multiple twisting somersaults.
• Gtramp – Gtramp (short for garden trampoline and also known as freestyle trampoline) is a less technical and non-competitive version of trampolining. It is a growing sport with tens of thousands of participants and whose athletes usually consist of teenage boys, however there are a few athletes who are younger or older and there is a small amount of girls involved in it as well. It’s usually practiced at home on a backyard trampoline as the athletes perform and use almost all of the terms listed above and link them together to form combos (short for combinations). The athletes take creative approaches to their tricks as well and do many stomach open ups (tricks landing in the front drop position to perform any variant of the skill ‘cody’). Less commonly seen are over-rotations (tricks landing in the back drop position to perform any variant of the skill ‘kaboom’). There is little to no form of instruction or specific techniques to perform skills with in this sport. The athletes connect and bond over the social media platform Instagram, where they have thousands of followers and post their own flips and support others as they do the same. They also set up informal ‘meet ups’ where they get together and ‘tramp’. I partake in this kind of trampolining and it’s a very fun thing to do and I encourage anyone who’s interested to join the community.

Competition Terms

• Degree of Difficulty (DD) or Tariff – A score added to the execution score which reflects the difficulty of the skills included in the routine.
• Voluntary or Optional Routine (Vol) – A routine comprising skills chosen by the athlete or coach to reflect their best performance. Usually the routine must have a minimum (and sometimes at lower skill levels, a maximum) degree of difficulty.
• Compulsory Routine (Set) – A routine which has a set list of skills and a set order which must be followed by all athletes in a competition. No degree of difficulty marks are given for this routine; the marks are purely for execution.
• Time of flight (ToF) – A score added to the execution score which reflects the time the gymnast spends in the air when performing the routine.
• Horizontal Displacement (HD score) – A score added to the total score. The score is calculated by how much the athlete is out of the "box" during the routine.

References