Routines

About Routines

Routines underpin competitive trampolining

In the early years of competitive trampolining a routine started and finished when a performer chose and could contain as many moves as they wanted.  In our more organised sport these days, performers always compete 10-bounce routines starting and ending on their feet. 

Trampoline Routines – Construction & Performance

The following material is based on an article produced by BG some years ago as an aid to those studying Trampolining for GCSE and A Levels. It is also of some general interest to those new to the sport although might be slightly out of date in references to current BG grading routines. We have updated it to reflect a more contemporary view.

What makes a routine?

In Trampolining a “Routine” comprises ten consecutive skills defined as any action, other than a straight jump, between taking off from the trampoline, and the next landing back onto it.  It is essential to remember and to count any follow-on skill which might be implied; e.g. a Front Drop will always require a skill to follow, usually “To Feet”. Count this follow-on as one of the ten skills when preparing routines. 

A straight jump is not considered to be a skill, and must not appear within a routine. The last skill must terminate on the feet; body landings cannot, therefore, be used as the 10th. skill.

N.B. The term ‘Swivel Hips’, often written as a single skill by children, does in fact imply three skills:

  1. Seat landing
  2. Half Twist to Seat Drop
  3. Return to feet.

Consider safety

You should also take care to ensure that the chosen combination of skills is safely practicable for candidates with limited experience; a poorly-performed skill could lead to dangerous problems.  For example, if the Half Twist to Feet is under-rotated, the link of Back Drop, Half Twist to Feet, Front drop could be dangerous.  Rollers (Seat drop, Full twist to Seat), Turntables (Front Drop, Half Turn to Front), and Hands-and-Knees landings are NOT suitable for incorporation into a routine.

An Example Routine for Exams

A long-standing compulsory routine for the BSGA Open Schools Competitions is:

  1. (a) Full twist jump OR (b) Back SS (Tucked),
  2. Straddle jump,
  3. Seat drop,
  4. Half turn to seat,
  5. Half turn to feet,
  6. Pike jump,
  7. Back drop,
  8. Half turn to feet,
  9. Tuck jump,
  10. (a) Front SS (Tucked) OR (b) Full twist jump .

These routines form excellent models for the GCSE and A-level examinations.

Some Examining Boards list a range of skills and specify that a minimum number from the list must be used in the construction of a routine for the practical examination. Care is needed in these cases to ensure that the resultant routine complies with the rules of the sport, not only in the interests of teaching the pupil to practise the sport correctly, but also to aid the pupil’s safety.

Routine Performance

Essentially, an athlete performs a trampoline routine by firstly taking a number of lead-in jumps to establish his/her stability and jumping height, then executing the ten skills in sequence, and finally by standing still in the centre of the trampoline.

The candidate may perform as many straight jumps as he/she wishes before commencing the routine, and should ensure that the initial take-off is safe and confident. (Under competition rules, penalty marks are deducted if the athlete takes more than one minute to execute the first skill, but this would be inappropriate in an examination.) During the routine the athlete must not stop, nor land on one foot only, nor touch the safety mattresses or padding. All skills should be completed near to the centre of the trampoline. Each skill should show a recognisable body ‘shape’, and be performed with sufficient height for the moderator to be able to see a definite take-off, action in flight, and landing. (See ‘Judging Requirements’).

The take-off for each skill should ‘flow’ smoothly from the previous landing, so that there is a fairly consistent rhythm throughout the routine. Should the candidate fail to maintain and use the elasticity of the bed (i.e., he/she kills the rebound) between each skill, then the routine is terminated at that point.

After the last skill, the athlete may perform one straight jump to finish. On the last landing, whether or not it is the optional straight jump, the athlete must absorb the rebound and stand still for three seconds to show a controlled landing.

Scoring in Competitions

Form or Execution

There are four Judges who mark the ‘Form’ of a routine, by deducting marks for poor performance.  Each skill in a routine is given a starting mark of one point (so the full routine is worth a maximum of ten points). Form Judges deduct from 0.0 to 0.5 from the base mark of each skill, according to errors described in ‘Judging Requirements’, following.  In practice, deductions of 0.0 to 0.2 are very good, from 0.3 to 0.4 mediocre, and 0.5 indicates a skill that only just survived!  The Judges total their deductions and take them from the base mark of 10; they then display the net score – 7.5, or 8.2, or 6.9, for example.

The four scores are recorded, and then the highest and lowest marks are cancelled. The two remaining marks are totalled to give the competitor’s Form Score.

Difficulty

In a voluntary routine, one more judge marks the difficulty, or ‘Tariff’, of the routine. (Often two judges work together, to check each other, but only one Difficulty score is shown.) This Difficulty score is added to the competitor’s Form score.

Calculating Difficulty marks.

Difficulty is assessed according to the amount of twist and/or somersault rotation in each skill. Simply put (FIG code definition is shown below), this is based on

  • For each half twist (180 degrees), 0.1 is awarded.
  • For each quarter somersault (90 degrees), 0.1 is awarded.

(Note that ‘somersault’ is measured by rotation of the torso; a Seat Drop, even though the legs rotate from the vertical, is not classed as somersault rotation.) E.g.

  • Front Drop (quarter of a somersault) – 0.1
  • Return to feet from Front landing (also quarter of a somersault) – 0.1

Where skills combine rotations around two axes the respective points are added together.  E.g.

  • Half Twist to Front Drop – 0.2 (Half Twist plus quarter of a somersault)

Note: Difficulty marks are only awarded for each different skill in a routine; if a skill is repeated, no difficulty mark is awarded for the repeat. For example, in the link of

  1. Back Somersault to Seat (0.5)
  2. Half Twist to Feet (0.1)
  3. Seat Drop (0.0)
  4. Half Twist to Feet (0.0)

skill (4) is identical to skill (2) – it is a Half Twist to Feet from a Seat Landing. The repeat does not, therefore, earn any difficulty mark.

FIG CODE CALCULATION

Tariff is awarded based on the following:

  • 0.1 for each ¼ somersault (ss)
  • 0.5 for a complete single ss
  • 1.0 for a complete double ss
  • 1.6 for a complete triple ss
  • 2.2 for a complete quadruple ss
  • 0.1 for each ½ twistSide ss and elements without twist or somersault rotation have no difficulty value
  • In elements combining somersault and twist, the difficulty values for the somersault and twist are added together. 
  • Single somersaults (only) of 360 – 630° without twists, executed in the straight or pike position, will be awarded an extra 0.1 points.
  • Multiple somersaults of 720° or more, with or without twist,  executed in the straight or pike position, will be awarded an extra 0.1 points per somersault.

Bringing the Scores Together

The total score will be calculated as:

  • Set scores = E (Execution) + HD (Horizontal Displacement) + ToF (Time of Flight (if available)).
  • Voluntary scores = E + HD + D (Difficulty) + ToF (if available)

So for typical schools’ routines scores might look something like:

  • Set score = E (7.8 + 7.9) + HD 9.3 {(9.4 + 9.2)/2} = 25.0
  • Voluntary score = E (7.4 + 7.6) + HD 9.1 {(9.1 + 9.1)/2} + D (3.4) = 27.5

Examples of routines:

1. Full Twist 0.2  Back Somersault (Straight) 0.6
2. Straddle Jump 0.0 Straddle Jump 0.0
3. Seat Drop 0.0 Back Somersault (Tuck) to Seat 0.5
4. Half Twist to Seat 0.1 Half Twist to Feet 0.1
5. Half Twist to Feet 0.1 Tuck Jump 0.0
6. Pike Jump 0.0 Barani (Pike) 0.6
7. Back Drop 0.1 Back Somersault (Tuck) 0.5
8. Half Twist to Feet 0.2  Crash Dive (Straight)٭ 0.3
9. Pike Jump 0.0 Half Twist to Feet 0.2
10. Front Somersault (Tuck) 0.5 Front Somersault (Pike) 0.6
  Total: 1.2   3.4

٭ This is a 3/4 Front Somersault to Back

Judging Requirements for Form & Execution

The basic elements of judging a competition routine are:

  1. How neat is each skill in the routine?
  2. Does each skill land in the centre of the bed?
  3. Is a consistent height maintained throughout the routine?
  4. Does the routine finish securely?

1. Form (or ‘Neatness’).

  • All skills must show a definite shape – ‘Tucked’, ‘Piked’, or ‘Straight’. (‘Straddle’ is not a shape – it is a variation on the Piked shape.)
  • The head must be naturally-aligned (i.e. not thrown back).
  • Arms and legs must be straight whenever possible.
  • Arms must be close by the body whenever possible.
  • Hands must touch the legs below the knee in tucked shapes.
  • Legs must be together in flight (except for the Straddle jump).
  • Toes must be pointed in flight.
  • Skills must show definite ‘phases’ of take-off, flight, and landing.
  • For tucked shape, the angle between the thighs and trunk, and that between the thighs and the shins, should be less than 90 degrees; in effect, the heels should be as close to the buttocks as possible, and the knees as close to the chest as possible.
  • The piked shape requires the angle between the legs and the trunk to be less than 135 degrees, and ideally less than 90 degrees.
  • In the straight shape, the angle between the legs and the trunk must be greater than 135 degrees, and ideally be 180 degrees.

2. Centre.

This used to be part of the Form Judges’ responsibility but it has now been replaced by ‘Horizontal Displacement Judging’. Most competition trampolines have a ‘box’, one metre by two metres, marked out in red on the webbing; all skills must land within this box to avoid penalty.

HD JUDGING

This involves two judges normally standing alongside the trampoline although sometimes using overhead camera displays, marking which segment of the trampoline the gymnast lands on.

Landing in the central square results in a 0.0 deduction, the two adjacent boxes 0.1, the 4 boxes on the short and long edges 0.2 and the 4 corner boxes 0.3. A foot (or centre of mass for body landings) needs to be substantially over the line for the deduction to apply.

Where there are 2 HD judges the two scores are averaged with the resultant number forming part of the score for that routine. Typical scores range from 8.5 to 10.

3. Height.

All skills should attain the same height. In practice, marks are deducted if a skill is lower than its predecessor. Skills performed from body landings, e.g. seat drops, will inevitably lose some height, and some allowance is made for this.

In some competition environments/systems, Height is now assessed using ‘Time of Flight’ machines rather than Form Judges who should discount Height in their determinations.

TIME OF FLIGHT CALCULATIONS

Time of Flight is the amount of time the gymnast is in the air (i.e. excluding the time landing on and taking off from the trampoline) whilst performing their routine. The resulting ‘score’ is added to the form and any tariff scores.

Typical school-age gymnasts might achieve a ToF score in the range of 12 to 16 seconds.

4. Stability.

At the end of the routine, the competitor is allowed to take one straight jump to ensure her balance. After that they must absorb the rebound of the bed and stand still for three seconds to show a controlled landing. In competitions a range of penalty points will be deducted according to the level of instability. Knowledge of these is outside the needs of the GCSE syllabus.

5. Interruptions.

A routine is considered to be ‘interrupted’, and no further skills are marked, if the gymnast:

  1. Fails to use the elasticity of the bed (i.e. stops jumping, even if only briefly.)
  2. Lands on one foot.
  3. Touches the frame, padding, springs, or safety mattresses.
  4. Fails to perform the correct skills of a compulsory routine in the correct sequence.
  5. Falls off.

For the purpose of a GCSE Examination, it is recommended that a candidate whose routine is so interrupted should be allowed a further attempt, the failed routine being dismissed.  The number of attempts allowed should be for the Moderator to decide.