Trampoline - Definition and Overview

For an alternative meaning, see Trampoline (computers) or Trampoline_(multihulls).

For more information on the sport, see Trampolining.

A trampoline is a gymnastic and recreational device consisting of a piece of taut, strong fabric stretched over a frame using many coiled springs as anchors. This gives rise to an overall elastic surface on which a user can bounce to a height of several meters. The name comes from the Spanish trampolín meaning a diving board. George Nissen 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. Trampolines feature in the competitive sport of trampolining as well as in Slamball, a variant of basketball.

The first purpose built trampoline was built by George Nissen and Larry Griswold around 1935. Nissen was a gymnastics coach and Griswold was a tumbler on the gymnastics team, both at the University of Iowa, USA. 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.

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

External links

• Detailed history of the trampoline and trampolining from the West View Trampolining Club of Preston UK (http://www.wvtc.co.uk/history.htm)