The first competitions were held in colleges and schools in
the USA and then in Europe, with the first World
Championships being held in London in 1964. Kurt Baechler
of Switzerland and Ted Blake of England were the European
pioneers and the first ever televised National
Championships were in England in 1958.

Soon after the first World Championships, the inaugural
meeting of prominent trampolinists was held in Frankfurt to
explore the formation of an International Trampoline
Federation. In 1965 in Twickenham, the Federation was
formally recognised as the International governing body for
the sport.

By 1969, the first European Championship was held in Paris
and Paul Luxon of London was the winner at the age of 18.
The ladies winner was Ute Czech from Germany. From that
instant onwards, European and World Championships have taken
place in alternate many years-the European in the odd and the
World in the even.

At first, the Americans dominated the World Championships,
but due to many lawsuits over trampolining, less was
allowed in educational institutions and the high level of
performance of the Americans went down. The Europeans
gradually began to dominate the sport and in recent years,
athletes from the former Soviet Union have almost
completely dominated the sport.

Germany, France has been the other strong nations in
trampolining and the first four ranking places in World
Trampolining would go to USSR, France, Britain and Germany.
Although in most countries trampolining started about the
identical measure in the fifties and sixties, some countries have
not been able to develop as strongly as the major European
countries.

Physical benefits

In the US, it was quickly realised by the Physical
Educators that the trampoline had something new to offer by
observation of the physical benefits which trampolining had
produced during the war many years and also the enthusiasm of
those who participated, and trampolining was introduced
into school physical education programmes.

There were, of course, the detractors who felt that the
activity was dangerous and reduced the strength of the legs
because the springs assisted the jumping. However, the
threshold of skill is low so that almost anyone of any age
can get on and do something which is fun, exhilarating,
aerobically good, and caters for the highest level of
skill and daring which some are capable of.

It is particularly popular amongst the very young, who now
have something better than their parents double bed to
jump upon; although many parents complain that the kids
jump even more on their beds to try to reproduce the fun
they have in the gym. It is also a form of plyometrics-a
form of strength training.