Article written by Jim Bertz, 1976 and 1978 Tumbling World Champion. 

In The Beginning 

We now see glorious acrobatic multi-somersaulting, multi-twisitng feats competed in the sport of tumbling.  This is due partly to more sophisticated techniques, but also largely because of the spring involved in the rod floor used in competition.  But the world of international competitive tumbling was not always allowed such a luxury.  In the past, spring floors and Tumble Traks were probably someone's dream as tumblers basically trained and competed on less glamorous apparatus.  Hopefully, I can knock loose all the spider webs in my brain and relinquish to you the evolution of competitive and training tumbling apparatus of the past.

Where did tumbling start its competitions?  On the bare gymnasium floor!

Tumbling on a floor is not too far-fetched to me, because most acrobat and dance studios——even when I was competing in the 1970s——taught acrobats off a floor as opposed to a mat. It was the way their recitals and shows were done.  Tumbling on a bare stage floor.

When I was looking for information on Rowland Wolfe's 1932 Olympic tumbling gold, I was told by a reliable source that this event was actually competed on the stadium grass.  No mats, no crash pads, just man making his body spin and twist against the elements.  I guess that is why it was eventually called "floor exercise" in gymnastics.  After a friend actually contacted Rowland, I found out that the first competitions back then were actually competed on a 2” wide 60’ long horsehair strip.  Although many of the tumblers back then preferred the floor or grass to compete on because they seemed more giving than the old horsehair strips.

So the first actual adventure towards a tumbling mat or cushion that I can find on record up until the 1950s was what they called a horsehair mat.  What is that? Well it basically was a canvas rubber coated type material that was stuffed with horsehair.

What was the purpose of the mats?  Well, it wasn't to get any spring off of them, but more as a cushion.  I have seen a panel version of horsehair mats, and the cushion they provided were not substantial enough to be considered any better than the floor.  Now, when I see panel mats, the mats I competed on, mounted on the walls of a local trampoline and tumbling gym, I can clearly remember our walls were mounted with the good old horsehair mats.  So, that is probably where old tumbling systems retire, to the walls of the gyms.

A little later in time, in Europe——and this spread to other countries——there was a development of a foam rubber strip for tumbling.  These strips were not contained by any outside material, but stood free on the floor.  They, as the other early mat systems, often could slide on the floor while people were using them.  They eventually became the basis for the first floor-exercise competitive mat for the Olympics and eventually had carpet laid over them.

Before I go on, I wonder, in today's tumbling world how many tumblers suffer from bruising the balls of their feet?

Tumbling Floors and Mats That Contained a Spring Factor

When George Nissen developed his trampoline and sold its concept around the world, he didn't just deal with the trampoline.  He also dealt in gymnastics apparatus and other acrobatic equipment.  It was always a big goal of his to help in developing the design of acrobatic equipment.  He also did this with the tumbling apparatus.  Due to this, in the late 1960s was the development of the Nissen panel mat.  They were sometimes called gold and blue mats for their colored stripes, used so a tumbler could recognize better where they were at on a tumbling mat.  These mats were probably the first that actually administered a little spring to one's tumbling and made for softer landings on the bigger tricks.  Tumblers before this time were already doing double backs and working on full twisting double backs, so, yes, the softer landing was important.

These panel mats were 6' by 12' sections that folded for storage and would attach to each other flat on the floor by a velcro system.  The outside contained a rugged vinyl exterior around a styrofoam type rubber surface on the inside.  The exterior surface allowed for the tumbler to have a minimal slip while tumbling on the mats and for the mats not to slide on the floor.

This tumbling system was adopted into USA tumbling competitions in the early 1970s.  It would be the system that was used in the International Trampoline Federation's first World Tumbling Championships in 1976 in the USA.  For this particular competition, George Nissen brought out a revised test version that was a little thicker and had a little more spring. This revised version was designed due to the fact that tumbling clubs were placing panel mats on top of panel mats for training purposes.

At the same time also in Russia, there was a different type of tumbling floor being developed. It was a Reuther system platform tumbling floor. This system worked from the technology of the then used vaulting springboard (Reuther System) made of wood. The system used curved wood planks to allow for more additional spring than anything developed and was probably considered the first spring floor of any kind.  It was first used in international competition at the International Federation of Sports Acrobatics' (IFSA) 1974 Sports Acrobatics World championship competition in Moscow.  The IFSA would continue to compete its tumbling on a platform spring floor through its duration of international tumbling competitions.

I personally never tumbled on this floor, but a close friend, Ed Goodman, 1976 World Tumbling silver medalist, competed in the 1974 event in Moscow and I do know he competed tricks that he could not accomplish on the USA panel mats of that era.

Also around the same time, the world of gymnastics had accepted another floor design for their floor exercise.  This floor involved sections of the floor exercise floor with small springs under a sheet of plywood.  The sections attached to make the complete floor, and foam rubber matting and a carpet was laid over the floor.  The rationale at the time the floor was used in international competition was not that it was for added spring in tumbling, but that it would decrease tumbling injuries in floor exercise.  Immediately, I had to agree with the rationale, but at the same time, all of a sudden I could do tricks I only dreamed of before.  So, in addition the floor allowed for much more dynamic tumbling in gymnastics floor exercise.  Knowing about this floor will be important later when I talk about the FIT's progression in spring floors.

In the mid 70s, Bil Copp and George Nissen, after seeing the Russian Reuther floor system and gymnastics' spring floor, began work on their own version of a spring tumbling floor to be used in Sport Acrobatics.  In 1977 at a training clinic in the USA, they unleashed what I call the ultimate spring floor.  I have been on many spring, ski and rod floors in my life and nothing could compare to this in the amount of spring acquired from a tumbling floor.

The first thing I ever did on this floor was a standing full to a punch barani to a full to a barani and so on and so on until I got tired.  My first run down the mat, when doing a layout back timer for a double back layout, skyrocketed me so high that my feet got tangled in a wire that was hanging from the ceiling at about 18 feet.

The floor consisted of large springs, in comparison to the gymnastics floor exercise spring floor, between a plywood top and bottom.  The two major problems with the floor were: its safety factor with tumblers being thrown right off the side of the floor, and the fact that tumblers were punching through the plywood.   The floor would be used in USA Sport Acrobatic tumbling competitions for years.  Whether this tumbling floor made it to the international scene or not, I could not find any source to confirm that.

It wouldn't be until 1982 at World Championships in the USA that the FIT would incorporate its first tumbling competition with a spring floor system.  This floor system replicated the gymnastics spring floor in every way and was just an attachable strip of the design.  Sections could be attached for competition at the length of 84 feet.  It was also the first time that the FIT regulated the amount of tricks allowed in a tumbling pass to 10 tricks.  This floor was originally developed as a tumbling training strip for all-around gymnastics clubs so tumblers could practice on the spring floor and land into a pit.

I also worked on this spring floor and found it to be one of the better floor systems I ever used.  It allowed a tumbler to be able to travel a little to the side and still not cause possible injury by throwing them off the floor, or by losing the spring support that kept injury safety on the ankles.  Have you ever landed to one side of a rod floor on a high trick?  Ouch!

From here to the present day tumbling, many countries and many international competitions would see many different spring floor designs.  There was the French floor used at the 1986 FIT Worlds and the Speed floor in 1988.  It seems athletes had no idea before a world competition what they were going to perform at worlds until they got there to see the tumbling floor system.

Finally, a ski floor was developed using fiberglass skis with the tips cut off of them.  These skis were ribbed sideways down the floor to allow spring off the center of the floor as the skis sprung back from a person landing on them.  The floor only allowed for spring down the middle of the floor.  But what is wrong with that?  Tumblers are supposed to tumble down a straight line!  They were developed and used as training floors and in some countries used for national competitions, but the floor never made it to any international World competition.

The biggest importance of the ski floor to tumbling was that it was the basic design that developed the most consistent tumbling floor ever used; the rod floor.  I am sure everyone by now knows and has seen a rod floor in action. Developed in the early 1990s the first time I can find it used in international World competition is in the 1996 FIT World Championships. I have found videos of the 1992 competition and the floor appears different from the rod floor. I have not seen any videos of the 1994 competition so maybe the floor was introduced in 1994. Unfortunately I have found no one who can clear this up for me so for the sake of history if anyone does know the answer to the mystery, please let me know so it can be documented!

The rod floor has been the official tumbling floor for the tumbling world now for over 10 years, and as far as I know is still holding its ground as being an official tumbling floor.

For those of you who have never seen a rod floor before, it consists of sections that can be put together.  Each section has two long base pieces of metal that run the length.  This piece holds fiberglas rods in it that run along the width.  These rods flex back and forth to give the spring.  The design allows for any trapped air to run out the sides of the floor system allowing for more efficient spring from the floor.  When the sections of rod floor are placed together then a long roll of Styrofoam-like matting is placed over the rods, so there is no wood or plywood involved in the design.  Over the Styrofoam matting is carpeting so there is minimal slip when tumbling.

So what does the future of tumbling have in store when it comes to tumbling floors?  Will the rod floor be its standard for competition for years to come?  The Euro Trampoline has been a standard in trampoline for decades.  Or will some new training device like Tumble Trak or the Chinese air floor be altered and developed into the next big tumbling floor for competitors.  I can only hope for the sake of tumbling that they stick with the rod floor and leave the consistency in the sport that it deserves.

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A special thanks to Lori Davidson Aamodt (1978 World Tumbling Silver Medalist), Jim Aamodt and A. Bruce Frederick (Author of Roots Of American Gymnastics) for there help in retrieving information for this article.