If you've never been on a Trampoline before or you've only just started, you're bound to be apprehensive when the committee and the super-keen start talking about competing.
This page is here to try to allay any concerns you might have about competitions in the hopes that you give one a chance. They really are amazingly fun and many of the friendships around the club were formed at them. Undoubtedly, some are the result of belting out Minaj lyrics on the M3, murdering Silent Night after a fire alarm or raucous games in a packed student flat.
Here's a breakdown of some of the main terms you're likely to hear over the next few weeks. A full glossary here would scroll forever so feel free to pester a coach or committee member if you're unsure of anything.
SUTL The Southern Universities Trampoline League is a series of five competitions each academic year held at various Unis across the South and Midlands including Bristol, Bath, Southampton and Cambridge. Honestly, it sounds scarier than it really is — feel free to talk to Sean, Ryan or Andrew about it if you want to know more.
Cuppers
This is a Cambridge term for an intercollegiate competition. Certain sports take Cuppers pretty seriously but at
CUTC it's just about the most laid-back competition of the year.
You'll see assorted groups of colleges band together to form teams linked by something tenuous like 'we all
rowed once' or 'we can portmanteau our college names to make …'
There's also normally a few Town and Alumni teams.
BUCS The British Universities and Colleges Sport - is an organisation that runs a multi-sport league across the country. We use BUCS to refer to the Trampoline competition held each year that's a part of that league. Usually held in Sheffield, BUCS is coming to Cambridge for 2018!
Routines You perform two routines in a typical competition and each routine is simply 10 elements (skills) linked one after another with no straight jumps in between. Depending on the level you can compete at, what is in your routines will vary.
Levels There are lots of different levels and whilst SUTL and BUCS align very well, not all competition structures will. SUTL and BUCS have numbered levels from 6 up to 1 and then an 'Elite' level on top of that. Further Info: The NDP events, held for National progression, start with Club 1 to Club 3 and then go from NDP 1 to NDP 6 with two higher levels above that.
In this section, we'll go through a typical competition day play-by-play. It may sound a little complex but there will always be plenty of friendly faces who can help you through it.
Whilst the higher levels have to wear leotards, neither SUTL nor BUCS require lower level competitors to jump in lycra. Instead, you would compete in shorts and t-shirt.
If you can't find the answers you're looking for here, just ask any committee member.