Volunteering at Competitions

All trampoline competitions are run by volunteers. Every competition that the club enters students for has to supply a minimum number of volunteers depending on the number of entries. For BTA this generally means that we need to provide between 3 and 6 volunteers for a competition. Currently we only have two qualified Judges (Petra and Sara) as Simon is on the floor with the competitors as the Coach, and a couple of parents who kindly volunteer their time. We really need more, so here is an explaination of what being a volunteer entails.

Oh and if we don't provide emough volunteers, then our students cannot compete.

All bar one of the roles do not need you to have any knowledge or experience of trampolining - but you learn a lot doing it, and that really helps to understand what it is all about!

So what does being a volunteer involve and what are the various roles:

• Marshal - this is the person who ensures that all the competitors are ready at their nominated trampoline panel, for the correct flight (class) and in the right order to go up and compete. Clip board and ticklist basically - organising the competitors in the right order on the seats in the waiting area by the trampoline and sending them forward in the correct order once the competition has started. Each competitor bounces in two routines.

• Manual Recorder - you sit on the judges panel table and when the Chair of Judges calls out the scores for each competitor you manually record them on a piece of paper with a pen.

• Computer Recorder - you sit on the judges panel table and when the Chair of Judges calls out the scores you enter them ino the computer spreadsheet.

• Horizontal Displacement (HD) Judge - There are two people who stand either side of the trampoline bed and watch the competitor execute their routine of 10 moves. During these moves if the part of the body which is touching the bed - feet, seat (hips), front (hips) or back(hips) - move outside of the red cross box then you make a deduction depending on which box they land in, and the total of these deductions is taken away from 10 to give their HD score. You will get training for this on the day at the competition - its not as difficult as it sounds! There are 2 of you so the average of the two scores is used for the competitors final score.

• Judge - This is the best way to really understand all about trampolining and how the competitors get good scores. You do need to be qualified to be a judge BUT this is open to everyone (over 14yrs of age) who has an interest in trampolining. British Gymnastics are now running online training courses and exams to become qualified as a club judge. Click here for more information. The club will pay the exam fee if you then volunteer as a judge for the club.

So next time we are asking for vounteers PLEASE PLEASE put yourselves forward and have a go. If we have enough people volunteering then you don't have to do the role all day, as we can do half days, and that makes it easier on everyone.

Here is the form to complete if you would like to put yourself forward as a volunteer:

Volunteer Form

If you have any further questions, then please just ask Simon ot Petra.

Thank you