Oh my god, trampoline is on the Olympics right now.
SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOo jealous.
I took trampoline as a phys ed elective my senior year of college, and it was definitely among the best classes I ever took in undergrad. I kid you not.
I used to dive, as well as swim, on our summer league throughout middle school and high school, but I eventually quit diving because I stalled mentally, unable to get over the fear of doing inverse dives and back flips. I never hit the board, but during a practice session, a lifeguard once "warned" me that I was very close to the board as I was doing my flips, and it freaked me out. Despite my coach's best efforts, I couldn't move forward after that.
Trampoline, though, is awesome, because there's no fear of under- or over-rotating and hitting the water badly. You can land on a trampoline without fear of intense pain, and in nearly any position. You can land on your front or your back, or your side. Plus, you can pretty much keep doing trick after trick after trick as long as you keep your momentum up on bounces in between; you don't have to stop after one move and get out of the water, back on the board, and start all over again.
I so wish I could find a way to continue doing trampoline, but it's pretty difficult. Most gymnastics centers don't have adult classes or practice sessions, due to massive liability issues. I did find one in the Philly suburbs when I moved there to start grad school, when my trampoline hunger was highest; they had an adult open session once a week, where you could come and work on whatever skills and equipment you wanted. Unfortunately, I sprained my ankle pretty badly the week of Thanksgiving that year when my ankle turned on landing an otherwise-awesome back flip, and I was out for the fall. Then they shut down the sessions due to liability. Blah.
(That incident also set off a string of events in which Hahnemann Hospital in Philly mischarged me for xrays for my ankle, and it has taken the next four and a half YEARS to get it straightened out. I seriously just got my check a couple months ago.)
The other problem with satiating my trampoline appetite is that those professional trampolines are not the regular black backyard kind. They're more like nets, made of super-stretchy elastic, so you bounce much higher and with much less effort. A backyard trampoline just doesn't do it for me. :(
So I'll just watch the Olympics in jealousy instead.
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I loved the trampoline in high school, but they got rid of it after a kid (who was, incidentally, somewhat high at the time) went into the gym before class began and the teacher was there, got up on the trampoline and started jumping and broke his neck. That was the end of the trampoline at our school. But I loved it - I was also a diver and could do front flips on the tramp but not off the board and back flips off the board but not on the tramp. Go figure!
I watched this event with complete envy, too. I can't believe you took it as a college course! WTF?! I was clearly in the wrong...everything.
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