A Natural History Of Trampolines

Walrus skins - It has been said that the first type oftrampolining was done by the Eskimos who used to toss eachother up into the air on a Walrus skin; something like thesheet used by firemen to catch people jumping out of thewindows of houses which were on fire. In Anchorage Airport,Alaska, there are postcards depicting the Eskimos beingtossed up in a Walrus skin.

There also is some evidence of people in England beingtossed up into the air by a number of people holding ablanket. These may or may not be the true origins of thesport of trampolining but it is certain that in the earlyyears of the 20th century there were stage acts which useda "bouncing bed" on the stage to amuse audiences. Thebouncing bed was in reality a form of small trampolinecovered by bedclothes on which the acrobats performedmostly comedy routines.

Trapeze artists

The trampoline itself, according to circus lore, was firstdeveloped by an artist called Du Trampolin who saw thepossibility of using the trapeze safety net as a form ofpropulsion and landing device and experimented withdifferent systems of suspension, eventually reducing thenet to a practical size for separate performance.

In the early 1930s, one George Nissen made a trampoline inhis garage and used it to help with his diving and tumblingactivities. He then felt that he could entertain audiencesand also let them participate in his demonstrations. Thuswere the beginnings of a new sport.

World War 2

During World War 2, the United States Navy Flight Schooldeveloped the use of the trampoline in its training ofpilots and navigators, giving them concentrated practice inorientation such as had never been possible before. Afterthe war, the development of the Space Flight programmeagain brought the trampoline into use to help train bothAmerican and Soviet Astronauts, giving them experience ofvariable body positions in flight.

The nature of the activity is natural, easy and rhythmical,and the power of the bed enables participants to have funand excitement by jumping higher than they would normallybe able and to perform many skills landing on the feet,seat, front and back and also to take off from those variedlanding positions.

Jeb Taylor is a fitness guru. He works out on all exerciseequipment he thinks will help him. Along with bikes andjogging, Jeb loves bouncing on a trampoline as a fun way tofitness.

Find out all you need to know about trampolines. How touse them for best exercise results, and which models tobuy. Daily updated blog of news & articles. Clickhttp://www.trampolines-101.com/

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