After dancing, water polo and much more, it was time for Vision’s finest to once more return to action, with Michael Thurloway and Amy Ballard making the trip for a spot of trampolining.
MT: “TRAMPOLINING? Isn’t that just bouncing up and down?” A phrase I’m sure those who compete in trampolining are tired being told. While to a certain extent you would be correct to say it is, it is no more or less true than saying that football that is only about kicking a ball. In order to be good, it is necessary to do far more than just bounce up and down.
AB: Trampolining is much harder than it looks! After spending the last two years just thinking my housemate simply bounced up and down on a trampoline a couple of times a week I went to give it a go. The first challenge was getting on the trampoline, which definitely required an element of grace. We went through some simple moves, with the President, Rachel Bates coaching on the sideline.
The members of the club bounced about double the height I did! Whilst it was fun, and I got the hang of most of the moves, it was a lot harder to connect them and make it into a consistent sequence.
MT: It may sound straight-forward, but it was the bouncing up and down which was the first skill that a beginner like myself would have to master. We learnt that it was important to get the right swing in the arms to bounce most effectively.
Soon we were asked to try out some moves. The seat drop came first, and we gradually developed this until I was able to do the swivel hips, essentially a seat drop followed immediately afterwards by another one, but the second facing the opposite way to the first. By the end, I’d even tried a back drop (which wasn’t as easy as the name makes it sound).
AB: My favourite part was bouncing as high as possible and doing an assortment of jumps. My least favourite part was the seat drop; I found it really difficult to control my hands, which seemed to chaotically fly around in contrast to the neat routines of the others. You could see the club working continuously on their routines for Varsity, so I hoped they’d do well!
MT: I got the impression that the individual moves in trampolining are quite straight-forward. It is stringing them together into a routine that is the difficult part, though of course, we were not expected to do that in a first session.
The tips and instructions that I was given in the session were highly useful. After a little practice, the muscle-memory from secondary school P.E. lessons kicked in and, all of a sudden, I began to remember how to do the moves. Yet, for a move like the swivel hips, which I remember struggling with at school, the advice I got from a specialist who actually competes and knows what they’re talking about, rather than the all-rounders that are school P.E. teachers, was invaluable.
AB: I would definitely go to trampolining as a casual member, the club were all very helpful and nice, though I ended up with more bruises than when on the Ziggy’s dance floor!
MT: For sure, I didn’t come near to perfecting anything as a stand-alone move, but I felt much more confident with it than I ever had done, and this was after less than two hours of practice. It’s a lot about confidence: once you know you’re not going to be sent flying across the room by the trampoline, then there’s no limit to what you might be able to do.