A COMPARISON OF TIME OF FLIGHT AND HORIZONTAL DISPLACEMENT SCORES IN TRAMPOLINE GYMNASTICS ROUTINES

Abstract

In trampoline gymnastics, elements with low difficulty values are given more place in the first routines in accordance with the international competition rules. In the second routines, because the difficulty value of all the elements performed earn points for the gymnast, elements with high difficulty values are preferred. This difference may affect other score types in the routines. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to compare the time of flight and horizontal displacement scores in first and second routines. The results of the 2019-2020 Trampoline Gymnastics Turkish Championship constituted the data of the study. In both competitions, both the entire group and the female and male groups were evaluated. Except for the 2019 male horizontal displacement scores, the time of flight and horizontal displacement scores of all groups were found to be statistically significantly lower in the second routines compared with the first routines (p<0.05). According to these results, the trampoline gymnasts preferred more complex and difficult elements to obtain high difficulty scores in the second routines in accordance with the international rules, which may have caused them to achieve lower time of flight and horizontal displacement scores compared with the first routines. Trainers and gymnasts should aim to increase the difficulty score without decreasing the total score while choosing elements for second routines. To find this difficulty level, trainings and trial competitions can be performed with routines with different difficulty scores.