The Costs Involved

Outlined below are the costs involved in bouncing in the Tiggers so that you can decide whether you definitely want your child to commit to the Club.

• Fees per session is £4.50, Paid each term in advance
• In order for your child to join they need to be members of the British Gymnastics, which includes the Eastern Region membership.
• The Annual club membership (inclusive of BG membership) is £45 per member
• Each competition has an entry fee (around £8.00) to cover costs
• Additional practise sessions prior to competitions may be offered at additional cost.
• Club Kit:  All Tiggers are required to wear the correct kit at competitions.  For girls this is a club leotard and boys need a boy’s club leotard and plain black trampoline trousers. All competitors must wear plain white sports socks (no colour allowed), and all long hair should be tied back (boy’s as well!). (see club kit page)
• Optional club t-shirt, tracksuit tops and trousers.

Please come and talk to Andie or a committee member if you have any queries, alternatively you can email to the Tiggers address combertontiggers@hotmail.co.uk

Tiggers guide to Competitive Trampolining

Competitive trampolining is a judged sport whereby the competitor performs two routines, a ‘set’ routine that all of the same age/level have to compete and a ‘vol’ routine that their coach constructs according to ability and confidence in certain moves. Each routine comprises of 10 contacts with the bed (not always ten moves i.e. a front drop is considered 2 contacts, from feet to front, from front to feet).

Levels (grades) :

British Gymnastics have recently re-set the levels and routines. They consider ‘I’ and ‘H’ ‘club’ level, ‘G’, ‘F’, ‘E’ and ‘D’ ‘regional’ level and ‘C’, ‘Fig (Federation of International Gymnastics) B’ and ‘FigA’ ‘National’ and ‘International’ level. It is from level ‘B’ and ‘A’ that selections are made for the British team i.e. the Olympics!!! and there are National Championships held each year for levels ‘C’, ‘B’ and ‘A’.

‘Grading’ competitions are only for level G to D and there are only three age groups; under 13, under 15 and over 15. This is due to the vision of British gymnastics that the routines should be no easier for younger competitors (as has been the case in the past) in order to prevent them reaching too high a level at too young an age (i.e. before they are old enough to compete for British Gymnastics) and then not being able to keep to that level as they get older and the routines get harder. Friendly open competitions have the lower levels included and split the ages into U9, U11, U13, U15, U17 and over 17 (yes, our adults can compete!). I will not enter any child for a grade until they can competently perform a routine – it is better for a child to be at the top of a lower group than the bottom of the higher group – although there is always the time when in order to progress, when they are ready, they need to move up a level and they will not be held back in order to keep winning a group. This is not fair on those new to that level.

From Level G onwards competitors have to qualify at one of the 4 grading competitions a year to move up to the next level (however they will only be entered at the next level up when they can competently perform the set routine, regardless of whether they have qualified – this is a club decision I have made). British Gymnastics hold a register of a competitor’s results to ensure that they only compete at the level they have qualified for at a ‘grading’ competition. This is due to the fact that the grading system the children are in leads up to the British team.

I took my Level 4, Senior Club Coach qualification last year (involving a 5 day course in Gillingham, 15 hours additional mentored coaching with a Level 4 coach, a 3 hours sports specific theory exam paper (individual move progressions and biomechanics to understand the physics behind movement and rotation!), a three hour common core written paper (knowledge of child physiology and psychology i.e. muscle and bone development and mental development stages), a morning of practical exam being monitored coaching the moves at Level 4. i.e. double somersaults, full twisting somersaults…. and luckily, I passed!!! This means your child can achieve National level within Tiggers!

However, a large time and financial commitment is required if your child were to compete at National level (including attendance at competitions around the Country) and it is likely they will need additional training time to what we offer at Tiggers. While I am keen for children to compete and gain the life lessons this teaches them, it is not my priority where coaching and Tiggers is concerned. My vision for our club is for it to remain a smaller, friendly club where happiness and building self-esteem are the priorities, with competition success a second to this. However, I do want all children to be able to reach their potential within our club and reach whatever level within this sport that they wish to, and it has to be individual desire on the part of the child, I will not push children into competition if they do not enjoy and benefit from it. This is why I made the decision early this year to link up with Ricochet Trampoline Club and set up facilities for competitive trampolining in Ely (gaining a £10,000 grant from Awards for All for new equipment at Ely Community College for Tiggers). Karen Bunyan, Ricochet Head Coach is also a Level 4 coach, working on Level 5 and coaching classes in Ely. She will be the coach we link in with should children reach this level, to enable the sky to be the limit from our small friendly club. I and other Tigger coaches will still be fully involved and supportive of children at this level – we just don’t have the time to do more courses or the inclination and nerve to teach moves harder than double somersaults and double full twisting somersaults!!! Karen is a full time coach unlike any Tiggers coaches who all have ‘day’ jobs! I envisage that should children reach National level, they will still train with Andie, but train with Karen in Ely to learn new moves only able to be taught by Level 5 coaches, and then improve these and work on routine improvements in training with Andie.

Why I chose to offer competitive trampolining within Tiggers

I find that children gain great benefit and life lessons in competing. It is a great motivator and what I think often keeps Tiggers in the sport for many years – this is why I chose to make Tiggers competitive. When Tiggers do well at competition and have a positive experience it is fantastic for all involved and I think a real sense of achievement for the Tigger – it is not an easy thing to put yourself up for criticism (which being judged is) and I think doing this and getting used to it at a young age builds strength and character in our Tiggers, learning to ‘win’ and ‘lose’ graciously, and not give up when the going gets tough. As with most things that have positive outcomes and involve a bit of a risk, there is often a potential downside. I hate it when Tiggers go wrong and get upset at competitions, as I feel personally responsible for their sadness being the one who encouraged them to enter into a competition and it not being a happy experience. However, in life, things sometimes go wrong, and you have to learn to pick yourself up and try again, learning from mistakes and doing all you can not to make them again. From a club and competitive point of view, personally, I don’t care where Tiggers come, as long as they enjoy the experience, so I will never be let down if a child makes a mistake, and I think this is sometimes what they worry about, letting others down. I want Tiggers to realise they mean as much to me and all no matter how they do and their success is no less or more whatever level they are competing at. I hope Tigger parents can support this.

At a competition

During training your child will have been made fully prepared and aware of what the judges are looking for. The measure of progress is determined not on which position they come in a competition (as you never know who they are going to be up against), but instead what total score they receive.

Each competitor first performs a “set” routine, determined by their level, decided by their coach. These routines all involve ten contacts with the bed, and have to be performed exactly as they are set out by British Gymnastics. As ten contacts are made, all marks are deducted from 10. Up to 0.5 can be deducted for each move performed (though there are other deductions that can apply – such as losing 1.0 for an extra bounce), with judges looking at shapes, pointed toes, straight arms, lift ins and line outs, height, travel and phasing in somersaults. There are 5 judges and each judge awards their score for the routine, after deducting their deductions from ten, if the routine was performed correctly. Other deductions can apply – most important for the Tiggers to be aware of is the mark of up to 0.2 per move that can be deducted for not standing still (showing stability and control) for 3 long seconds at the end of a routine – often Tiggers forget this and throw away marks this way despite numerous reminders!!!! Other deductions include 1.0 for each additional moves/bounces and termination of a routine i.e. the judges marks will only count up to where a child performs a wrong move in the set routine, touches the end mats or side frames, lands on one foot, loses elasticity of the bed. So, for example, if contact 7 were a half twist out of a back drop, and the child lands on one foot, once the routine has ended, the Chair of Judges will make the decision and inform the judges to only mark out of 6, given that contact 7 was not competed due to the one footed landing. Therefore, whatever deductions have been made up to that point will be taken away from 6, not 10, often giving a score in the 3s or 4s. This is why I don’t like to judge, as if I don’t see the routine, I can’t explain to Tiggers why they got the score they did. Then the process is repeated with the voluntary (vol) routine. This routine is constructed by a competitor’s coach according to the criteria set at each level. It is also a ten-bounce routine with the deductions working in the same way as in the ‘set’ routine. The difference being that from Level F onwards, a ‘difficulty’ (tariff) score is also awarded for the difficulty of the routine, based on individual points gained for each move (usually between 0.8 and 4.5 at regional level). The final score and positions then are determined by the total of the “set” and “vol” combined. If there are 3 or 4 Tiggers in a group then their scores will be combined and a team medal may be awarded if they are the highest scoring team. Trophies are usually awarded for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place and the 1st place team. Generally we are looking for scores in the 6s for first competitions, 7s after this and 8s when they are at the top of a group ready to move into the next. If you would like further details regarding deductions and competitions then please have a chat with Andie.

Parental support at competitions

This is vital as in order for competitions to run, a certain number of judges and other officials are needed, and we need are parents for this. We ask that you make the day free for competitions as we don’t know until the week before when your child will be competing, and we expect that if a child is competing they will be there for half the day, to compete, wait for their results and support other Tiggers. The letters I send out have a time of arrival (time to take in the venue and get ready) and a warm up time. I can never specify the time they will be able to leave. All Tiggers are expected to wait for their results, as if they are entered in a team, they will need to go up together if they get a medal. We love as many family members as possible to come and show support!

I hope this quickly written guide has been useful to you. If you have any questions please ask me or another experienced competition parent – I apologise if I don’t get time to speak to you on the day, they are often very mad and I’m usually needed in about 5 places at any one time!

Andie