Trampoline drills for air awareness

• the athlete should have a solid front flip for anything beyond the first drill

For those of you who don't know, besides being a big math and science nerd, I am a fan of trampolines for training gymnastics.

[*To clarify, I recommend a single trampoline - preferably rectangular with springs on all sides. Another option (because it transfers tumbling to the floor) is a long thin rectangular tumbling trampoline, aka a TumblTrak.

I DO NOT recommend a trampoline park with connected trampolines due to their inherent safety design flaws. Even if they don't look connected, the base and springs are connected enough to transfer energy across the entire set of beds. They are unsafe and should not be used! Safety rant over now. Soap box away.]

So, why do I love trampolines for gymnastics training?

There are oh so many reasons, but the primary are that trampolines help save joints, increase air awareness, and improve form when used properly.

Today we're going to concentrate on air awareness.

There are so many options for teaching air awareness, but I recommend the following progressions in general. Master each progression consistently before moving on.

1. Seat-Twist: The simplest connection a gymnast can do on a trampoline is a seat-twist. That involves a simple seat drop, bounce up to straight (without letting your feet touch the mat), and then doing a half twist to land in a seat drop facing the opposite direction. Ideally, a gymnast would be able to do multiple connected seat-twists (with straight legs on the twist) in a row on a home trampoline.

Goal: connect five seat-twists (with straight legs on the twist)

After connecting multiple seat-twists, a gymnast should work on spatial awareness of takeoff and landing. An excellent drill for launch and landing awareness is to draw a 2'x 2' square on the center of the trampoline.

2. The gymnast should start jumping in the square and try to land every jump inside the center of the square. As they jump up, their arms should go up to increase momentum. As they come down to the trampoline, their arms should drop toward their sides to prepare for the next jump up.

Goal: takeoff and land within the 2' x 2' square ten times in a row

Once a gymnast has mastered spatial awareness on takeoffs and landing, add in an acro skill.

3. Most often, we start with a front tuck, working to take off and land within that same 2' x 2' square on the center of the trampoline.

Goal: takeoff and land front tucks consistently within the 2' x 2' square

So let's take a quick moment and explain why we're working to keep takeoffs and landings within a constricted space. There are two main reasons I love working these drills on the trampoline.

First, to connect multiple skills on a trampoline, gymnasts land with their feet directly under their center of mass. This is the ideal landing position for the best chance of a stuck landing. You can see how that would benefit other areas of gymnastics.

The second reason I love working these drills is simply air awareness. The more a gymnast saltos and twists in different combinations, the more they will naturally develop air awareness.

Precision flipping and twisting require excellent air awareness.

So, onto our next progression for building air awareness on a trampoline.

The next goal is to learn how to connect two acro skills, two front saltos.

Since the gymnast is already taking off and landing with precision and accuracy from the last drill, we can work toward connecting two front saltos. We do this in steps.

4. First, the gymnast does a front tuck and then jumps as many times as needed to be comfortable to do another front salto.

Repeat this a few times until you get an average number of jumps between the two front saltos. It may be just a jump separating the connection - or it could be multiple jumps in the way.

Goal: get an average number of jumps needed to connect a front salto to another front salto

5. Then, we work to reduce the number of jumps between the two front saltos.

As the gymnast gets more comfortable landing and taking off from that square, their confidence and accuracy grow.

Goal: Reduce the number of jumps between the front saltos until there is just one jump between the saltos.

6. Gymnasts will reduce the number of jumps between the saltos until they're connecting a front salto directly to another front salto, accurately and precisely.

Goal: gymnast can land one front salto and immediately take off for the next, landing with precision in that same 2' x 2' square in the middle of the trampoline

7. Next, we have gymnasts work on connecting two Branis (front salto with a 1/2 twist). We use the same progressions as we do through the front saltos, reducing the number of jumps between the saltos.

8. After we can connect two Branis, we work on connecting two back saltos using the same technique.

9. Once a gymnast can connect two front saltos, two Branis, and two back saltos, we work on connecting 2 element combinations, such as Brani + back salto.

I hope you enjoy our beginner air awareness drills for the trampoline. Have fun jumping!