A little known secret for you… exercise doesn’t have to be boring.
Did you know you’ll burn roughly the same amount of calories trampolining for half an hour as you would running for half an hour? It’s way more fun, and you can look awesome doing it.
We’ve all seen the death-defying parkour videos and awe-inspiring weight lift videos that look impossible for someone who isn’t a superhero. Fortunately, trampolining is a lot easier to master to show off your daredevil skills to your friends. Here are our best trampoline tricks for you to learn.
Easy Trampoline Tricks
For those new to trampolining, there’s a whole host of easy tricks to learn. Master these before moving on to the advanced tricks.
1. The Tuck Jump
Tuck jumps are a great place to start learning. They’re nowhere near as daunting as a flip, and you can later incorporate tuck jumps into more advanced trampoline tricks. Get your footing and balance by bouncing up and down until you feel steady. Once you’re ready, when you’re mid-air, pull your knees up towards your chest, tuck them in and then straighten your legs again before you reach the trampoline bed, so you land on your feet.
2. The Twist
This is another easy trick that can later be incorporated into others to make some cool trampoline tricks you can show off. There’s two types of twist, a half twist, and a full twist.
You need to be bouncing normally to learn a half twist. All you do is bounce, twist 180 degrees to face the opposite direction, and continue bouncing. Simple! A full twist involves the same upright bouncing position, except instead of twisting to face the opposite direction and landing, you need to spin the entire 360 degrees round and land facing the same direction. We’d suggest starting with the half twist and then gaining height whilst doing this to master the full twist.
3. The Backdrop
Moving up a gear, backdrops will allow you to begin learning the very basics of a backflip. To start learning a backdrop, you don’t actually need to bounce at all. Simply allow yourself to fall back on the trampoline bed, and learn to use the momentum of the trampoline to spring you back upright again.
Once you have the hang of this, start bouncing and trying it. Remember, the aim isn’t to fall on your back and stay there, but to bounce on your back and then upright to your feet to continue bouncing.
4. The Straddle Jump
Similarly to a full twist, you’re relying on height to master this trick. A straddle jump is when you create a V shape with your legs mid-air and touch your toes. You can learn this trick by jumping and practicing the V position with your body and landing on your feet before you incorporate touching your toes mid-air too.
5. The Pike Jump
Similar to the straddle jump as it is completed mid-air, a pike jump is essentially taking a seated position mid-air with your legs placed, so they’re straight out in front of you. Height is key here to give you enough time to straighten your legs back out to land on your feet. Practice the seated position and landing on your feet first, before building up to touching your toes mid-air whilst in the seated position.
You can also choose to land on your butt instead and then use the momentum to bounce back up to your feet (much like a backdrop!) for a seat drop trick.
Advanced Tricks
Your easy tricks should have given you a good foundation to build on, but these advanced tricks will take a little longer to master. Remember to always try and have someone with you when doing flips.
6. The Front Pullover
Remember when we said that a tuck jump would be useful? Take your now mastered tuck jump and roll it forward mid-air for a front pullover. You’re basically doing a mid-air front roll to then land on your back on the trampoline bed, which will then propel you to your feet. It’s less daunting than a front flip as you’re still landing on your back as opposed to your feet.
Once you’ve got the hang of the front pullover, you can see how many times you can do it repeatedly to land on your back instead of aiming for your feet.
7. The Front Flip
A natural progression from the front pullover is the front flip. You know how to roll mid-air already, but instead of landing on your back, you want to land on your feet. So use height and remember to tuck your legs in nice and tight for a clean spin. Don’t worry if you don’t get it straight away. Practice makes perfect for flips.
8. The Cradle
For a change of pace from all of the dizziness, the cradle is an awesome looking trick that’s easy to learn. All you’re doing is combining the half twist and backdrop you learned previously. Backdrop in one direction, then instead of landing on your feet, spin your body 180 degrees in the opposite direction and land another backdrop. Doing this repeatedly is a cradle trick.
Water Trampoline Tricks
Not to be left out, there are some great tricks you can try if you’ve got a water trampoline. For extra splash, combine these with the tricks you learned previously!
9. Double Bounce
You can actually do these on a normal trampoline, but they’re a lot safer (and more fun!) on a floating trampoline. You’ll need some friends bouncing with you for this trick. All you need to do is time the bounces right, so when your friend, or friends, are landing their bounce, you’re taking off. It’ll send you twice as high… and usually flying off into the water!
10. Dives
You can also use your water trampoline as a springboard to practice your dives, whether they be forward dives, twists, or backward dives. If you’re brave, you can also try out your front flips into the water!
After you’re done showing off your tricks, there’s a whole host of other floating trampoline games you can play with friends and family.
Get Bouncing!
Remember to be careful while practicing your tricks, and try to always have someone else with you just in case. Use our comments section to let us know how you get on with your tricks, or if you’ve got any other easy trampoline tricks you think we’ve missed!