Welcome to my world!

Welcome to my very first blog! I hope you are all enjoying it and become a “trampoline-lover” as well.

My name is Sarah and I do trampoline for nearly 12 years now and never regretted to do so. Unfortunately not many sport clubs can offer trampoline because of very high costs and a lack of experienced coaches. As a result there are just 4 clubs in Berlin having that sport in program although all children I know that far really love that sport and will jump all day and night if they can. So I am really lucky that I was able to join one club.

 

me jumping

 

My club is called VFL-Lichtenrade which is the biggest and best club in Berlin and Brandenburg regarding trampoline.  After many competitions and days full of training I don’t jump anymore because of fear.

 

                                                                                                                                                               Nevertheless, I could never leave the VFL and give up trampoline completely.

me placed on the 3rd

 As a result I started to teach smaller children (whom you will get to know later) how to jump correctly once a week.  This is really fun and works the better the younger the children are. Why? Well the older ones start to

think about everything which is really not good regarding trampoline because you get scared ( that is exactly what happened to me). 

I know that trampoline is not that popular but believe me it is really great but also more difficult as is seems to be. I

hope that I arouse your curiosity and that you will become addicted to that great sport as well.  

Trampoline moves part – M drills

The second part of my “trampoline moves” will give you a better insight in the very advanced drills. Whereas the L drills are referred to as “Leistungsübungen” (doing it on a competitive level), the M drills are also called the “Meisterschaftsübungen” (drills for masterships).

In very important and famous competitions you will often find a given minimum level (e.g. a M5) to be allowed to participate. This is done to ensure a certain standard in each competition.
Although it looks pretty easy, please do not try to do them on your on when there is no coach next to you! All the videos which I took show very experienced and advanced athletes that do this sport for years.
At this point of time I really want to thank all ma dear ‘actors” who had so much patience with me and this camera… Especially Jenny, who is a multiple Berliner Champion, should be mentioned here because she jumped for me very often although she was so exhausted!

Trampoline moves – L drills

Hey guys!

Now, you know a couple of pictures and videos about trampoline which I posted in my blog. But today I want to show you the official movements. Every country offering professional trampoline, is bound by decided rules which include movements and drills. These are accepted all over the world. No matter where you learn to jump, the drills and movements are always the same. This ensures that when speaking about the M5 everybody knows perfectly what is meant.

 

Trampoline in the show business – a shooting in front of the Reichstag

Hey there!

Today I want to continue with the aspect of show business because it is a very interesting topic and I have great pictures to show you

So let’s start!

As I already mentioned in my previous post Trampoline in the show business – a day with Jeanette Biedermann we are quite often asked whether we can help with the production of advertisement since they need advanced athletes who are able to guide other persons that never jumped before. Last year we were also asked by the Spiegel team in Berlin whether it would be possible for us to come to a shooting that they want to have in front of the Reichstag. All needed permissions were already granted to them. Of course this was a great offer and the remuneration was also great. As a result we agreed and brought our trampoline to the free area in front of the Reichstag where it was curiously observed by all the people spending a nice sunny afternoon there.

Trampoline in the show business – a day with Jeanette Biedermann

Hello guys!

Do you love action movies in which a lot of stunts exist? Well, then this post might be pretty interesting for you

Today I want to talk about trampoline in the show business where it is very often used to create funny pictures or cool stunts. Although our club is actually focused on the sportive aspect (competitions), we are often asked whether we can come to companies producing movies to help with stunts, create funny pictures or for a shooting.

Trampoline stuff required

Good morning to everybody!
Today I thought about telling you something about all the different devices that you need to have to jump professionally trampoline.
So what do we need?

Firstly a trampoline would be quite useful. In Europe that company Eurotramp is the biggest producer and responsible

Trampoline with mats

for the production of professional trampolines when an international competitions is coming. Furthermore, it was also used during the Olympic Games in Sydney and Athens.

Berliner Bärencup

Hey there!

Do you know the feeling when you are completely satisfied with your job? For me, my trampoline job gives me this exact feeling when I was able to achieve something with the little one. It can be a jump which we already practiced for a long time, a commendation by satisfied parents or even a good ranking in a competition.

In the beginning of September the VFL organizes its own competition like every year. And I can tell you that means a lot of effort… Al invitations are sent one year in advance ( well, practically the one for the next year are given out during the competition) to make sure that  as many clubs as possible can come to our competition. The participants come from all over Germany it is really nice to have so many people in your gym that are interested in the same think as you.

Famous Competitions

Hey guys!

Another week of training is over and my kiddies become more and more nervous due to a coming competition in July.

Ok, allowedly it is not a big thing because it is focused on the younger ones. But we have bigger ones as well! I think you got a pretty good impression when having looked at the video of the European Championship which is posted in “synchronized trampoline”. On watching it, it looks really cool and easy but I can tell you that it means a lot of training and ambition to jump on that high level.

Synchronized trampoline

Hey there!

Today I want to speak about a very interesting part of trampoline. I don’t know whether you ever watched synchronized jumping in TV or somewhere else but it looks really cool!

When jumping synchronously, two athletes jump simultaneously on two different trampolines which stand parallel.

Synchronized trampoline in a competition (Ostseepokal 2008)

 Although they are allowed to turn into different directions when doing fulls, they must look in the same direction in the beginning.

Even though this might sound weird it looks great and pretty easy but in reality it means a lot of work to coach the 2 jumpers to be synchronic. The problem is that both need the same altitude from the beginning until the very last move. As a result we have to find jumpers that fit to each other regarding the high. Apart from that everyone must hear when his/her partner becomes lower or higher during the drill and adjust his/her own altitude to the partner. Often this very difficult because you need a lot of experience and knowledge to vary the high during your drill because you might need to slow down or jump off very hard before a particular move. When having fear, you should definitely not participate in a synchronized jumping contest.

Competitions

“What should I do when being on the trampoline? How do I greet the judges? What will happen if I fail?” are a few of the question with which I have to deal with when telling one of my little ones about their coming very first competition. Wow, how exciting

Well, what actually happens during a competition? 

There are a couple of competitions in Berlin which take place every year (like competitions for our new blood, our internal one, the Berliner championship and other internal ones from other clubs). As a result we are pretty busy to prepare our athletics for every single competition.

Of course there are some rules that have to be considered when participating which I will try to explain now. 

The eternal search for new members

Wow, this week was really hard because we had to practice for the Berlin Championship which will take place on his Saturday. I hope you are still interested in trampoline or did I even raise your curiosity?

It is so strange for me that many people do not even know that trampoline is a competitive sport although it is so great! But exactly this problem faces my club as well: children and parents are impressed, excited and have a lot of fun in your club. But everybody to whom I spoke said that it is the very first time they  heard about something like this.

So what to do to get attention when nobody even knows the sport? 

We try to solve this problem by going into the public as often as possible. One unique alternative offers the intern festival of our club which takes place once a year. All members are invited to have a collective barbecue, to enjoy the music and to play games (especially the last opportunity is absorbed very positively by our youngest ones). We, the trampoline section, are also present to offer some ”classes” for free. This sounds easier as it actually is. The first problem that we have to overcome is to transport the huge (and very heavy) trampoline to the area where the festival takes place. After putting the device into the truck, driving to our destination and unpacking everything, almost 2 hours are over and all voluntaries are done as well.