| Walrus skins - It has been said that the | | | | demonstrations. Thuswere the beginnings of a |
| first type oftrampolining was done by the | | | | new sport. |
| Eskimos who used to toss eachother up into | | | | |
| the air on a Walrus skin; something like | | | | World War 2 |
| thesheet used by firemen to catch people | | | | |
| jumping out of thewindows of houses which | | | | During World War 2, the United States Navy |
| were on fire. In Anchorage Airport, | | | | Flight Schooldeveloped the use of the |
| | | | trampoline in its training ofpilots and |
| Alaska, there are postcards depicting the | | | | navigators, giving them concentrated practice |
| Eskimos beingtossed up in a Walrus skin. | | | | inorientation such as had never been possible |
| | | | before. Afterthe war, the development of the |
| There also is some evidence of people in | | | | Space Flight programmeagain brought the |
| England beingtossed up into the air by a | | | | trampoline into use to help train both |
| number of people holding ablanket. These may | | | | |
| or may not be the true origins of thesport of | | | | American and Soviet Astronauts, giving them |
| trampolining but it is certain that in the | | | | experience ofvariable body positions in |
| earlyyears of the 20th century there were | | | | flight. |
| stage acts which useda "bouncing bed" on the | | | | |
| stage to amuse audiences. Thebouncing bed was | | | | The nature of the activity is natural, easy |
| in reality a form of small trampolinecovered | | | | and rhythmical,and the power of the bed |
| by bedclothes on which the acrobats | | | | enables participants to have funand |
| performedmostly comedy routines. | | | | excitement by jumping higher than they would |
| | | | normallybe able and to perform many skills |
| Trapeze artists | | | | landing on the feet,seat, front and back and |
| | | | also to take off from those variedlanding |
| The trampoline itself, according to circus | | | | positions. |
| lore, was firstdeveloped by an artist called | | | | |
| Du Trampolin who saw thepossibility of using | | | | Find out all you need to know about |
| the trapeze safety net as a form ofpropulsion | | | | trampolines. How touse them for best |
| and landing device and experimented | | | | exercise results, and which models tobuy. |
| withdifferent systems of suspension, | | | | Daily updated blog of news & articles. Click |
| eventually reducing thenet to a practical | | | | |
| size for separate performance. | | | | ** Attn Ezine editors / Site Owners ** Feel |
| | | | free to reprintthis article in its entirety |
| In the early 1930s, one George Nissen made a | | | | in your ezine or on your siteso long as you |
| trampoline inhis garage and used it to help | | | | leave all links in place, do not modify |
| with his diving and tumblingactivities. He | | | | thecontent and include my resource box as |
| then felt that he could entertain | | | | listed above. |
| audiencesand also let them participate in his | | | | |