Editing Trampoline (section)

==History==

=== Early trampoline-like devices ===
<!--[[Blanket toss]] redirects directly here.-->
[[File:Inuitene morer seg med såkalt skinndans, 1922-1923 (12114498483).jpg|thumb|Inuit blanket toss in [[Wainwright, Alaska]] (1922–1923), during [[Maud (ship)|Amundsen's Maud Expedition]]]]
[[File:Nalukataq Blanket Toss Barrow.jpg|thumb|Iñupiat blanket toss during the [[Nalukataq]] festival in [[Utqiagvik, Alaska]] (2006)]]

A game similar to trampolining was developed by the [[Inuit]], who would toss blanket dancers into the air on a walrus skin one at a time (see [[Nalukataq]]) during a spring celebration of whale harvest. There is also some evidence of people in [[Europe]] having been tossed into the air by a number of people holding a blanket. Mak in the [[Wakefield Mystery Play]] ''[[The Second Shepherds' Play]]'', and [[Sancho Panza]] in ''[[Don Quixote]]'', are both subjected to blanketing – however, these are clearly non-voluntary, non-recreational instances of quasi-judicial, mob-administered punishment. The trampoline-like [[life net]]s once used by firefighters to catch people jumping out of burning buildings were invented in 1887.

The 19th-century poster for [[Pablo Fanque]]'s Circus Royal refers to performance on trampoline. The device is thought to have been more like a springboard than the fabric-and-coiled-springs apparatus presently in use.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sideshowworld.com/a/at/atskite.html|title=Sideshow World, Sideshow Performers from around the world.|website=www.sideshowworld.com|access-date=May 3, 2018|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303193734/http://www.sideshowworld.com/a/at/atskite.html|archive-date=March 3, 2016}}</ref>

These may not be the true antecedents of the modern sport of trampolining, but indicate that the concept of bouncing off a fabric surface has been around for some time. In the early years of the 20th century, some acrobats used a "bouncing bed" on the stage to amuse audiences. The bouncing bed was a form of small trampoline covered by bedclothes, on which acrobats performed mostly [[comedy]] routines.

According to [[Circus (performing art)|circus]] folklore, the trampoline was supposedly first developed by an artiste named du Trampolin, who saw the possibility of using the trapeze safety net as a form of propulsion and landing device and experimented with different systems of suspension, eventually reducing the net to a practical size for separate performance. While trampoline-like devices were used for shows and in the circus, the story of du Trampolin is almost certainly apocryphal. No documentary evidence has been found to support it.

[[William Daly Paley]] of [[Thomas A. Edison, Inc.]] filmed blanket tossing initiation of a new recruit in Company F, 1st Ohio Volunteers in 1898.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.loc.gov/item/98501030/|title=Blanket-tossing a new recruit|website=Library of Congress}}</ref>

===First modern trampolines===
The first modern trampoline was built by [[George Nissen]] and [[Larry Griswold]] in 1936.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20121006232916/http://www.wvtc.co.uk/history3.htm WestView Trampoline Community site – Trampoline History p. 3]</ref> Nissen was a [[gymnastics]] and [[Diving (sport)|diving]] competitor and Griswold was a [[Tumbling (gymnastics)|tumbler]] on the gymnastics team, both at the [[University of Iowa]], United States. They had observed [[trapeze]] artists using a tight net to add entertainment value to their performance and experimented by stretching a piece of canvas, in which they had inserted grommets along each side, to an angle iron frame by means of coiled springs. It was initially used to train tumblers but soon became popular in its own right. Nissen explained that the name came from the [[Spanish language|Spanish]] ''trampolín'', meaning a [[springboard|diving board]]. Nissen had heard the word on a demonstration tour in [[Mexico]] in the late 1930s and decided to use an anglicized form as the trademark for the apparatus.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/nissen.html|title=Inventor of the Week Archive – George Nissen|access-date=April 13, 2007|date=March 2004|publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT School of Engineering|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070630114013/http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/nissen.html|archive-date=June 30, 2007|url-status=live|df=mdy-all}}</ref>

In 1942, Griswold and Nissen created the Griswold-Nissen Trampoline & Tumbling Company, and began making trampolines commercially in [[Cedar Rapids, Iowa]].

The generic term for the trademarked trampoline was a ''rebound tumbler''<ref name=rebound_tumbler>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s85tbw_N6hcC&q=%22rebound+tumbler%22&pg=PA125|title=A Sportswriter's Life: From the Desk of a New York Times Reporter|first=Gerald|last=Eskenazi|date=May 3, 2018|publisher=University of Missouri Press|isbn=9780826262608|access-date=May 3, 2018|via=Google Books}}</ref> and the sport began as ''rebound tumbling''. It has since lost its trademark and has become a [[List of generic and genericized trademarks|generic trademark]].<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.cnbc.com/2011/02/17/Surprising-Generic-Terms-That-Were-Once-Trademarks.html|title=Surprising Generic Terms That Were Once Trademarks|first=Colleen|last=Kane|date=February 17, 2011|website=CNBC|access-date=March 8, 2024|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20231226172326/https://www.cnbc.com/2011/02/17/Surprising-Generic-Terms-That-Were-Once-Trademarks.html|archive-date=December 26, 2023}}</ref>

[[Image:Spaceball.jpg|thumb|1968 demonstration of Spaceball]]
Early in their development Nissen anticipated trampolines being used in a number of recreational areas, including those involving more than one participant on the same trampoline. One such game was Spaceball{{mdash}}a game of two teams of two, or played between two individuals, on a single trampoline with specially constructed end "walls" and a middle "wall" through which a ball could be propelled to hit a target on the other side's end wall. Spaceball was created by Nissen together with [[Scott Carpenter]] and was used in space training at NASA.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.brentwoodtc.org/history.htm | title = Trampoline history | url-status = live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100610013557/http://www.brentwoodtc.org/history.htm | archive-date = June 10, 2010 | df = mdy-all }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=How the Trampoline Came to Be |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/how-trampoline-came-be-180974343/ |website=Smithsonian Magazine |access-date=14 June 2023}}</ref>

===Use in flight and astronaut training===
During [[World War II]], the United States Navy Flight School developed the use of the trampoline in its training of pilots and navigators, giving them concentrated practice in spatial orientation that had not been possible before.<ref>{{cite web|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121006232916/http://www.wvtc.co.uk/history4.htm |url = http://www.wvtc.co.uk/history4.htm |publisher = WestView Trampoline Community |work = Trampoline History |title = Trampoline Training During World War II|archive-date = 6 October 2012}}</ref> After the war, the development of the [[space flight]] programme again brought the trampoline into use to help train both American and Soviet [[astronaut]]s, giving them experience of variable body positions in flight.

===Competitive sports===
[[Image:Girls Synchro WAGC 2007.jpg|thumb|Girls competing in synchronised trampoline]]{{Main|Trampolining}}
The [[1964 Trampoline World Championships|first Trampoline World Championships]] were organised by [[Ted Blake]] of Nissen, and held in London in 1964. The first World Champions were both American, [[Dan Millman]] and [[Judy Wills Cline]].  Cline went on to dominate and become the most highly decorated trampoline champion of all time.

One of the earliest pioneers of trampoline as a competitive sport was [[Jeff Hennessy]], a coach at the [[University of Louisiana at Lafayette]]. Hennessy also coached the United States trampoline team, producing more world champions than any other person. Among his world champions was his daughter, [[Leigh Hennessy]].  Both Jeff and Leigh Hennessy are in the [[USA Gymnastics]] Hall of Fame.

The competitive gymnastic sport of [[trampolining]] has been part of the [[Olympic Games]] since 2000. On a modern competitive trampoline, a skilled athlete can bounce to a height of up to {{convert|10|m|ft}}, performing multiple [[somersault]]s and twists. Trampolines also feature in the competitive sport of [[Slamball]], a variant of [[basketball]], and [[Bossaball]], a variant of [[volleyball]].

===Cross-training for other sports===
There are a number of other sports that use trampolines to help develop and hone [[acrobatic]] skills in training before they are used in the actual sporting venue. Examples can be found in [[Diving (sport)|diving]], [[gymnastics]], and [[freestyle skiing]]. One main advantage of trampolining as [[List of acrobatic activities|a training tool for other acrobatic sports]] is that it allows repetitive drill practice for acrobatic experience every two seconds or less, compared with many minutes with sports that involve hills, ramps or high platforms. In some situations, it can also be safer compared to landings on the ground.

===Wall running===

[[File:WallRun1.jpg|thumb|Wall running]] Wall running is a sport where the participant uses a wall and platforms placed next to the trampoline bed to do tricks. The basic movement is a backdrop on the trampoline and then the feet touching the wall at the top of the bounce. From there, there is no limit to the acrobatic movements that are possible, similar to regular trampolining. The advantage is that twists and turns can be initiated more forcefully from a solid wall and that the vertical speed can be transferred to rotation in addition to forces from the legs or arms. Additionally, energy can be gained both from the bed at the bottom of the bounce, and from the wall at the top of the bounce.