An introduction to USAG Double Mini Trampoline

If you've never been involved with an organized trampoline program, chances are you've never seen a double-mini trampoline. Double mini, or "DMT" for short, is a relatively new sport that combines the horizontal run of tumbling with the vertical rebound of trampoline. (For those of you coming to T&T from diving, DMT is similar in concept to springboard diving, except you use a mat instead of water and try to land feet first instead of head first!)

The picture to the right shows a typical competition DMT; the inset shows the landing pad. For the exact details of trampoline specifications, check out this equipment spec sheet from the USAG website.

After a short run, the athlete jumps onto the inclined portion of the DMT (left side in the photo) to perform a rebounding trick onto the second part, immediately followed by a dismount element onto a landing mat. A DMT competition consists of each athlete performing 2 "passes", with the final score being the total of the score from each pass.

As with trampoline, the athlete is judged on the quality of execution of each skill, and at the higher levels also receives points for difficulty of the routine. We'll cover the details of judging and scoring in later articles.

The following video gives you an idea of what a mid-level Jr. Olympic DMT routine looks like. This was the second pass in a Silver Medal winning Level 7 performance at the 2009 J.O. National Championships: