Monique Vescia - Extreme Trampoline

Published in 2020 by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. 29 East 21st Street, New York, NY 10010

Copyright 2020 by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Vescia, Monique, author.

Title: Extreme trampoline / Monique Vescia.

Description: First edition. | New York: Rosen Publishing, 2020. | Series: Extreme sports and

stunts | Audience: Grades: 58. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019013258| ISBN 9781725347526 (library bound) |

ISBN 9781725347519 (pbk.)

Subjects: LCSH: TrampoliningJuvenile literature. | TrampolinistsJuvenile literature. |

Extreme sportsJuvenile literature.

Classification: LCC GV555 .V48 2020 | DDC 796.47/4dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019013258

Manufactured in the United States of America

Disclaimer: Do not attempt this sport without wearing proper safety gear and taking safety precautions.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

A gymnast races down a mat, then uses his momentum to execute a series of somersaults and twists. Now imagine performing the same acrobatic moves while nearly 30 feet (9 meters) in the air above a bouncy rectangle stretched on a metal frame. On the way down, you need to land on a target area thats just 7 by 3.5 feet (2 m x 1 m), then rebound up into the air again.

Whether competing against other world-class gymnasts on regulation trampolines at the Olympics or combining awesome rebounding stunts with other activities to create thrilling new acrobatic acts, expert trampolinists risk life and limb every time they take to the air. For a stunt aired on the television show Americas Got Talent, Canadian trampolinist Greg Roe jumped from a crane platform suspended eighteen stories above the ground. He completed a triple front flip with a twist before landing on a giant trampoline. Roe has wowed audiences in trampoline battles around the world, where athletes show off their mastery of the most insane trampoline stunts.

Trampoline tricks are truly extreme. The safety risks multiply as the gymnasts altitude increases. However, athletes continue to master their fears and face these challenges, developing heart-stopping routines that leave audiences breathless. Anyone watching YouTube videos of insane trampoline stunts can see how dangerous trampolining can be. But even young children can learn the basics and jump for joy at a trampoline park or on a backyard bouncer.

Despite the big dreams of its inventor, George Nissen, it took almost seventy years for trampoline gymnastics to earn its place among the Olympic sports.

The modern trampoline is almost a century old. While materials and designs have evolved and safety features have improved, the basic principle of the device remains the same: a trampoline converts downward force to upward motion and allows the jumper to defy gravity. What could be more fun than that?

CHAPTER ONE

DEFYING GRAVITY

H uman beings are earthbound creatures, subject to the force of gravity. When a person trips over a rock, she will never fall upat least not on this planet. Luckily, our imaginations arent limited by the same forces that act upon our bodies. We have invented ways to resist gravity and send ourselves soaring through the air, in planes and rocketsand even on a simpler device called a trampoline. When a human body becomes airborne, suddenly anything seems possible.

Rosie MacLennan and Karen Cockburn perform a synchronized trampoline routine at the Trampoline and Tumbling World Championships in 2011.

CURIOUS GEORGE

In 1930, George Nissen, a teenager living in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, got an idea while watching a traveling circus. As the trapeze artists landed with a bounce in the safety net, the sixteen-year-old gymnast wondered if he could design a contraption that would let a person keep bouncing and flipping on a springy surface. He began trying to build a device in his parents garage, using canvas stretched across a rectangular steel frame. He called it a bouncing rig, but it was not very bouncy.

Later, when Nissen was a student at the University of Iowa, he and his gymnastics coach, Larry Griswold, began tinkering with Nissens design. Once they had a working model, they showed it to the athletic department at the university. Gymnasts and divers quickly saw the value of training on this bouncing rig. It let them soar into the air and safely practice somersaults and twists without having to worry about landing on a hard surface. Soon, Nissens device caught on at other major colleges and universities.

By 1937, Nissen was traveling around the United States and Mexico as a member of an acrobatic act: the Three Leonardos. Around this time, he learned the Spanish word for diving board: trampolin. Nissen decided to trademark his bouncing contraption under the name Trampoline.

BOUNCE YOUR WAY TO BETTER HEALTH

After college athletic departments began using his trampoline, Nissen convinced the US military to buy the device to train divers. During World War II (19391945), Navy Seals used trampolines as part of their pilot training. Bouncing in the air helps simulate weightlessness. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has used trampolines to help astronauts prepare for the lack of gravity in outer space and for the ways their bodies might flip around inside a space capsule.

As Nissen recognized early on, the trampoline has many physical fitness benefits. Trampolining (or rebound exercise, as it is sometimes called) builds core strength and improves balance. A 2016 study conducted by the American Council on Exercise determined that a trampoline workout burns calories and improves endurance without tiring the body the way that running does. According to NASA, ten minutes on the trampoline has the same health benefits as thirty minutes of running. Its also easier on the joints of the body. Trampolining tones the muscles, increases circulation, and improves balance and oxygen circulation throughout the body.

REBOUND THERAPY

Trampolines can be used as a form of therapy and exercise for people with special needs. Autism spectrum disorder is a developmental disorder characterized by interest in repetitive behavior, difficulties with communication, and challenges with social skills. Parents and therapists have found rebound therapy to be helpful for children with autism. Jumping on a trampoline can be an appropriate outlet for certain types of repetitive physical behavior. It also offers a child with autism an opportunity to play with other children while improving body awareness and building muscle and bone strength.

Children with autism often learn more effectively when intellectual tasks are reinforced with physical actions. A therapist will write words in chalk on the trampoline bed and ask the child to jump from one word to another to form a sentence. Rebound therapy has also proven to be effective for adults with autism.

EXTREME KANGAROO

Nissen worked hard to spread the word about his invention. He traveled the world promoting the trampoline. In New York City, he bounced on a trampoline in Central Park with a kangaroo named Victoria, delighting his audience of amazed onlookers. Nissen was a great advertisement for the health benefits of his device. In 1977, when he was a very physically fit man in his sixties, he hauled a trampoline to the top of an Egyptian pyramid and did somersaults up there.