Trampoline is no longer is just a backyard hobby. In 2000, men’s and women’s Trampoline became part of the summer Olympics in Sydney, and since then, the sport’s popularity has surged across Canada.
What was once an extension of gymnastics, Trampoline has now splintered off into its own genre. Young athletes are excelling at this sport, and they’re gaining the skills, knowledge and support they need to flourish at clubs like Airborne Trampoline KW.
Chris Martin is the club owner and competitive team head coach, and he’s been involved with Airborne since 1994. His family opened their first trampoline facility using Olympic trampolines and NCCP certified coaches, becoming one of the first trampoline-only clubs in Canada.
After expanding into a few cities, they landed in Kitchener-Waterloo in 2011, and now their primary facility resides in the Tri-Cities. While they offer recreational trampoline classes, birthday parties and day camps, where Airborne Trampoline KW excels is their competitive team.
Their jumpers comprised the highest scoring trampoline team in Ontario from 2018 to 2022, and last year, they placed runner-up among all trampoline teams in the province. Competitive season runs from September to June, but new members can request a tryout at any point throughout the year.
One reason Airborne Trampoline KW has enjoyed so much success at the provincial level is their unique approach to training. Unlike many jumpers, Martin came from a background in various other sports and not just gymnastics. He used trampoline as a training tool to help him get better at agility and coordination as an athlete.
“A lot of trampoline as a sport comes from gymnastics, which is very regimented,” Martin said. “I was able to come up with many new and creative ideas that I learned from participating and competing in other sports and applied it to this sport to help create a better team and environment.
“It’s an individual sport and you compete for yourself, but we train as a team; and everybody supports everybody all the time.”
Martin has trained countless athletes over the years, including Olympic silver medallist Jason Burnett. Olympic Gold medallist and world champion trampolinist Rosie MacLennan also got her start with recreational trampoline classes at Airborne’s former Woodbridge location.
Young athletes don’t need to be seasoned veterans to try out for the Airborne competitive team, but having a background in athletics always helps. They’ve taken in athletes like aquatic divers, gymnasts, tumblers, even backyard trampoline freestylers.
The competitive team trains anywhere from two to four times per week, and they’re currently prepping for the Ontario provincial trampoline championships at Durham College in Oshawa, and Eastern Canadian Championships in St. John’s, Newfoundland later this spring.
Airborne Trampoline KW aims to be a very inclusive environment for their training, creating a friendly and positive atmosphere where all athletes can have fun and be their best selves. The approach is clearly working thanks to the number of world-class athletes that emerge from the Airborne Trampoline Competitive training program.
It’s not only about fostering an environment for young athletes to thrive, it’s also about teaching young people the values they’ll need in their everyday lives outside the gym. Martin says if he’s able to instill those values into his students, that makes it all worthwhile.
“Being a coach with that much influence over kids, just like a teacher would have at school, I have the opportunity to coach them to be a good person at the same time,” Martin said. “To have the right attitude, the right morals and the right outlook on life and its challenges. I’m not just coaching them in the sport, I’m coaching them in life skills as well.”
Airborne Trampoline KW’s competitive team trains from September to June, but new members can try out anytime throughout the year.
To learn more about the competitive trampolining team, visit AirborneTrampoline.ca.
This article was sponsored by Airborne Trampoline KW, a 2023 CambridgeToday Reader Favourite.