Monday’s free newsletter will still come out this week, but on Tuesday. I’ve been sending out stuff on Memorial Day for too many years, and nobody ever reads it. This time, I finally learned my lesson and pushed the newsletter back by a day. It will come out at 11 a.m. ET Tuesday. In the meantime, I’m making today’s weekly discussion thread free to all. The topic is trampolines. Are they harmless fun or notorious death traps? My opinion is in the video above. Share yours in the comments below.
I'm at work today, I'm a gymnastic coach in Ontario Canada. Backyard Trampolines and Trampoline Parks should be avoided at all costs. Number one, unless you have a million dollar insurance liability you should not let anyone outside your household on your trampoline. More importantly injures occur mainly because there is no certified coach to watch and control the participants. Main cause of trampoline accidents is what we in the industry call a double bounce. This usually happens when more than one person at a time, but can also happen with just one person. Trampolines go up and down. If you happen to be coming down when the trampoline is going up, this is a double bounce. The force created by the trampoline coming up is similar to having a concrete slab slam you in the feet which usually results in a buckle fracture. A certified coach makes sure the gymnast is not too fatigued, is centre in the trampoline and jumping with control. I tell all my clients DO NOT GET A TRAMPOLINE, OR GO TO A TRAMPOLINE PARK
I'd believe what Blether says! She's the voice of experience here. With 4 of your own daughters all wanting to jump at the same time, there will either be major fights or injuries or both. Also, you know their friends will show up & want on. That's where that insurance policy comes into play. It's a must. Insurance companies have a special phrase for it like having a pool - it's considered a neighborhood nuisance or something similar. Our neighbors in Hawaii had one for awhile and at every opportunity, my kids were either on it or trying to get on it! And my daughter was only 18 months old! Also, I'm not familiar with your weather, but in a high wind it will likely be picked up and thrown somewhere that causes damage. Check Google images or possibly YouTube views of where they land. I saw one pic with the legs of one embedded in the end of a neighbor's house. Also common, tangled in electrical wires which thrills your neighbors when their power goes out! Yes, people tie concrete blocks to them and sometimes the rope breaks or the knots fail. Nope, just nope. They are fun until something or someone gets hurt!
Dangerous fun. We've had tramps for years. When they were younger, our kids (and all their friends) had hours of fun on them. In the past few years, though, they've outgrown them --- but our GOATS haven't. Yep, goats bounce and play king-of-the-mountain using our tramps. Now THAT is fun on a whole 'nother level!
Hi James. They could be wonderful, but they hardly can be "harmless". Last month, the daughter of a friend of mine broke her arm just for falling from one. And that's more. She was pushed down the trampoline by another girl, so they not only are death traps, but they can be actively weaponized by some children.
Amazing how many "death trap" people are out there. Of course they're dangerous. So are swimming pools, cars, and electrical sockets. So much danger in so many areas if not properly regulated. I think they're fun, but you need to make kids hyper aware of how they can avoid serious injury.
Definitely a death trap. Even with all the safety features modern trampolines have (nets, cushion guards over the springs, etc.) you can easily injure yourself or even kill yourself.
A friend of mine had one when we were growing up back in the early to mid 90s. It was a much older one, rectangular, rusty as all get-out, flakes of lead-based paint peeling off. Her parents had a very solid rule: if you wanted to jump on the trampoline, you needed to bring a note signed by your parents, stating that they will not hold the friend or her parents responsible if you were injured or died. I came close to serious injury a couple of times, but I managed to live.
If I had a kid, though, I would NEVER buy a trampoline. Some homeowners' associations actually forbid it, and some home insurance policy providers will either raise your rates big time, or else refuse to cover you, if you have one.
I don't think any parent ever does, because they would expect the other kids' parents to be as sensible as they are. Kids are gonna get hurt. Even if you put all of the safety precautions you can think of in place , they're going to find a way to get themselves hurt. You could wrap them up in a 5-foot thick layer of bubble wrap, followed by 5-foot layers each of fiberglass insulation and duct tape, and they're still going to find a way to injure themselves. It's the nature of the beast.
But, a lot of modern parents out there think their children are delicate, fragile things, like porcelain dolls or crystal figurines. And if their kid gets hurt, it's never the kid's fault, it's always somebody else's fault, because they didn't watch them or take the necessary measures to protect them.
I’m a grandparent (of the helicopter type believe it or not ) and I actually wanted to get one for our very active grandkids, ages 9 and 7. Rule #1: only one person at a time so you can only kill yourself, not the sibling. No one actually wants to kill themselves, at least that was my thought process. Rule #2: The trampoline replaces my son’s plan to buy them hoverboards which actually are killing machines. Btw, I lost this argument, the kids got hoverboards for Christmas and my granddaughter immediately fell off of it, hit her head on the corner of the fireplace mantel and knocked herself out cold.
Remember, you survived your trampoline experience and I survived the 1970s version of yard darts. 😬😳😜
Deb, my 1974 son got hit in the temple with a 7", rusty, muddy dart on Oct 9, 1976. It was embedded a half inch. Of course, his Navy father was at sea and had to be helicoptered back. After middle of the night emergency surgery (it took hours for them to find a pediatric neurosurgeon that would come to the Navy hospital in Oakland, CA) and a week in the hospital (missing his own bday party), he was fine other than missing half of his beautiful baby hair! Darts terrify me! If it's a choice of even the big lawn darts or a tramp, I'd take the tramp!
This question comes up in my household all the time, as nearly every garden in Sweden has a giant trampoline, often without a net. I’m pleased to see that 99% of the answers so far are Death Trap. I have failed at convincing my children not to go on them at friends, but we have succeeded in rebuffing all pleas to buy one. To be fair, I loved going on a trampoline at camp when I was a kid (and don’t think there were nets then!), so I get the appeal, but as a parent, they terrify me. Especially when other parents don’t have a 1-kid-at-a-time rule, which sadly is often the case. So far, no injuries...and my kids are outgrowing trampoline age.
We had a huge trampoline for our two boys. They and their friends spent hours upon hours on it. Not one bone was ever broken and no injuries requiring a doctor visit. All of our grandkids have trampolines and no injuries, just hours of exercise and fun. We made sure they were all taught safety procedures and made sure they followed the rules we gave them. Not a death trap!!
Deathtraps, absolutely.! My eldest son broke his ankle and his wrist on a trampoline on different occasions. My youngest son bounced off of a trampoline and head-butted a garage wall. 4 hours in Emergency Care ensuring he hadn't done any permanent damage. He hadn't, thank goodness.! My neighbour's daughter broke three bones in her foot at a trampoline park, whilst on vacation... and to top it all off, we had a small child's trampoline, where the mat is only 20cms off the ground and the dog got his tail caught in the spring while he was playing on it, even though it had a cover over the springs. Poor puppy. A year or so ago, I reminded my son of his accident on the trampoline when he was considering buying his children a trampoline. He decided against it, so at least my grandchildren will be safe from the trampoline tyranny.
Like all of life, they come with risk. Like many risks, there are ways to mitigate the risk. I was a kid in the 70’s/80’s. My best friend in high school had a sleepover when I was 14. The first time I ever had the opportunity to jump on a trampoline. She had a rectangular trampoline in the back part of her yard. Her yard, you have to understand, was divided. The 2/3 of the yard closest to the house was landscaped with a mixture of cactus and gravel (it was in New Mexico), with a line of concrete pavers that ran to the back part of the yard.
The back 1/3 - which you had to walk down a set of concrete steps to get to - was approximately 10’x18’, surrounded by a 6’ cinder block wall, with a ground covering of approximately 4 inches of basalt shard gravel (like this: http://www.imageafter.com/dbase/textures/grounds/b19grounds012.jpg ). And the rectangular trampoline. Which my friend and I - and the other three girls she invited to the sleepover - chose to go out to jump on (all at the same time, of course), at midnight. We played “how high can we make someone bounce if we all work to increase the rebound together.” In the dark. Surrounded by cinder block walls, concrete steps, cactus and basalt shard gravel.
That’s it. Nothing actually happened, but as a parent, I look back at that night in absolute horror…and as a rational human who thinks too many padded corners were the start of the absolute weenie culture we have, I would do it again.
I think we all need Springfree trampolines. The vast majority of the risky parts of trampolining are mitigated by Springfree’s design, and the joy of the activity is still 100% there. Have a strict “one jumper at a time, no exceptions” policy. Now your kids are at greater risk every time they get in the car. And instead of rotting their brain in front of a screen, they’re benefitting from the fresh air, the exercise, as the pure joy of jumping around like a lunatic. Without the lunacy.
Death trap . As a gymnastics coach in California I know personally that the injury caused on backyard trampolines and Tramp parks have made the insurance costs astronomical for actual qualified gyms to operate.
Ok, I realize i’m in the minority here but here goes… we have a trampoline that is staked to the ground and 8’ netting all around. The springs are completely covered and we put pool noodles as extra padding around each pole. Our grandkids are under 10 yrs old and bounce one at a time in the middle (or walk/run around/roll around the edges). We also attached a sprinkler to the top rim so that kids can run around and get wet when it’s hot outside (and make them wear water shoes), and a mini basketball net/ball occasionally attached to one side. We have a highly visible (and LOUD) timer mounted to a tree and ALWAYS have an adult watching to supervise kids and enforce the 5 minute rule. If toys are taken on to the trampoline, toys MUST be 100% rubber and no jumping is allowed. Kiddos also use the trampoline as a campout site, a reading spot, a pillow parlor, and as a doll village or soldier mobilization play area. We have a rope tied across the trees above the trampoline (about 2 ft higher than net height) that is the maximum height anyone is allowed to jump, adults included. Two kids MAY be allowed on the trampoline at once if there is NO jumping or bouncy-walking AND if the kids are of relatively similar size/weight so one kid doesn’t inadvertently bounce the other one around. Taking turns to jump is the law around here. With all our rules and safety precautions, we have been fortunate enough (so far, at least) to have had no accidents. Needless to say, kiddos ADORE the trampoline. A little jumping and a lot of imagination go a loooooong way. I know it sounds like a LOT of rules, but kids don’t seem to have any problems following them — and still have a ton of fun!
Above ground trampolines are death traps. In ground trampolines are much safer. Well they're safer as long as you don't surround them with boulders. Or pitchforks.
I'm at work today, I'm a gymnastic coach in Ontario Canada. Backyard Trampolines and Trampoline Parks should be avoided at all costs. Number one, unless you have a million dollar insurance liability you should not let anyone outside your household on your trampoline. More importantly injures occur mainly because there is no certified coach to watch and control the participants. Main cause of trampoline accidents is what we in the industry call a double bounce. This usually happens when more than one person at a time, but can also happen with just one person. Trampolines go up and down. If you happen to be coming down when the trampoline is going up, this is a double bounce. The force created by the trampoline coming up is similar to having a concrete slab slam you in the feet which usually results in a buckle fracture. A certified coach makes sure the gymnast is not too fatigued, is centre in the trampoline and jumping with control. I tell all my clients DO NOT GET A TRAMPOLINE, OR GO TO A TRAMPOLINE PARK
I am now terrified of trampolines. Science is scary.
🤣🤣🤣
I'd believe what Blether says! She's the voice of experience here. With 4 of your own daughters all wanting to jump at the same time, there will either be major fights or injuries or both. Also, you know their friends will show up & want on. That's where that insurance policy comes into play. It's a must. Insurance companies have a special phrase for it like having a pool - it's considered a neighborhood nuisance or something similar. Our neighbors in Hawaii had one for awhile and at every opportunity, my kids were either on it or trying to get on it! And my daughter was only 18 months old! Also, I'm not familiar with your weather, but in a high wind it will likely be picked up and thrown somewhere that causes damage. Check Google images or possibly YouTube views of where they land. I saw one pic with the legs of one embedded in the end of a neighbor's house. Also common, tangled in electrical wires which thrills your neighbors when their power goes out! Yes, people tie concrete blocks to them and sometimes the rope breaks or the knots fail. Nope, just nope. They are fun until something or someone gets hurt!
Dangerous fun. We've had tramps for years. When they were younger, our kids (and all their friends) had hours of fun on them. In the past few years, though, they've outgrown them --- but our GOATS haven't. Yep, goats bounce and play king-of-the-mountain using our tramps. Now THAT is fun on a whole 'nother level!
That is amazing on every possible level. Now I have to Google goats on trampolines.
We've lost some of these goats in the intervening years, need to take a new video. But here they are / were: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOOIHKmCyqg
Hi James. They could be wonderful, but they hardly can be "harmless". Last month, the daughter of a friend of mine broke her arm just for falling from one. And that's more. She was pushed down the trampoline by another girl, so they not only are death traps, but they can be actively weaponized by some children.
Your experience with trampolines exactly lines up with mine.
Amazing how many "death trap" people are out there. Of course they're dangerous. So are swimming pools, cars, and electrical sockets. So much danger in so many areas if not properly regulated. I think they're fun, but you need to make kids hyper aware of how they can avoid serious injury.
Definitely a death trap. Even with all the safety features modern trampolines have (nets, cushion guards over the springs, etc.) you can easily injure yourself or even kill yourself.
A friend of mine had one when we were growing up back in the early to mid 90s. It was a much older one, rectangular, rusty as all get-out, flakes of lead-based paint peeling off. Her parents had a very solid rule: if you wanted to jump on the trampoline, you needed to bring a note signed by your parents, stating that they will not hold the friend or her parents responsible if you were injured or died. I came close to serious injury a couple of times, but I managed to live.
If I had a kid, though, I would NEVER buy a trampoline. Some homeowners' associations actually forbid it, and some home insurance policy providers will either raise your rates big time, or else refuse to cover you, if you have one.
I didn't even think about getting sued. Once again, not buying my kids something was the right call.
I don't think any parent ever does, because they would expect the other kids' parents to be as sensible as they are. Kids are gonna get hurt. Even if you put all of the safety precautions you can think of in place , they're going to find a way to get themselves hurt. You could wrap them up in a 5-foot thick layer of bubble wrap, followed by 5-foot layers each of fiberglass insulation and duct tape, and they're still going to find a way to injure themselves. It's the nature of the beast.
But, a lot of modern parents out there think their children are delicate, fragile things, like porcelain dolls or crystal figurines. And if their kid gets hurt, it's never the kid's fault, it's always somebody else's fault, because they didn't watch them or take the necessary measures to protect them.
I’m a grandparent (of the helicopter type believe it or not ) and I actually wanted to get one for our very active grandkids, ages 9 and 7. Rule #1: only one person at a time so you can only kill yourself, not the sibling. No one actually wants to kill themselves, at least that was my thought process. Rule #2: The trampoline replaces my son’s plan to buy them hoverboards which actually are killing machines. Btw, I lost this argument, the kids got hoverboards for Christmas and my granddaughter immediately fell off of it, hit her head on the corner of the fireplace mantel and knocked herself out cold.
Remember, you survived your trampoline experience and I survived the 1970s version of yard darts. 😬😳😜
We got a hoverboard a few years ago and I can confirm they're mobile death traps.
Deb, my 1974 son got hit in the temple with a 7", rusty, muddy dart on Oct 9, 1976. It was embedded a half inch. Of course, his Navy father was at sea and had to be helicoptered back. After middle of the night emergency surgery (it took hours for them to find a pediatric neurosurgeon that would come to the Navy hospital in Oakland, CA) and a week in the hospital (missing his own bday party), he was fine other than missing half of his beautiful baby hair! Darts terrify me! If it's a choice of even the big lawn darts or a tramp, I'd take the tramp!
Death trap 100%. That’s why kids like them so much.
There's is a 1 to 1 correlation between fun and danger.
This question comes up in my household all the time, as nearly every garden in Sweden has a giant trampoline, often without a net. I’m pleased to see that 99% of the answers so far are Death Trap. I have failed at convincing my children not to go on them at friends, but we have succeeded in rebuffing all pleas to buy one. To be fair, I loved going on a trampoline at camp when I was a kid (and don’t think there were nets then!), so I get the appeal, but as a parent, they terrify me. Especially when other parents don’t have a 1-kid-at-a-time rule, which sadly is often the case. So far, no injuries...and my kids are outgrowing trampoline age.
We had a huge trampoline for our two boys. They and their friends spent hours upon hours on it. Not one bone was ever broken and no injuries requiring a doctor visit. All of our grandkids have trampolines and no injuries, just hours of exercise and fun. We made sure they were all taught safety procedures and made sure they followed the rules we gave them. Not a death trap!!
That is the best possible outcome. I suspect your children are more durable than mine.
Death trap definitely. And fence/backyard destroyer when a strong storm moves through.
Deathtraps, absolutely.! My eldest son broke his ankle and his wrist on a trampoline on different occasions. My youngest son bounced off of a trampoline and head-butted a garage wall. 4 hours in Emergency Care ensuring he hadn't done any permanent damage. He hadn't, thank goodness.! My neighbour's daughter broke three bones in her foot at a trampoline park, whilst on vacation... and to top it all off, we had a small child's trampoline, where the mat is only 20cms off the ground and the dog got his tail caught in the spring while he was playing on it, even though it had a cover over the springs. Poor puppy. A year or so ago, I reminded my son of his accident on the trampoline when he was considering buying his children a trampoline. He decided against it, so at least my grandchildren will be safe from the trampoline tyranny.
Like all of life, they come with risk. Like many risks, there are ways to mitigate the risk. I was a kid in the 70’s/80’s. My best friend in high school had a sleepover when I was 14. The first time I ever had the opportunity to jump on a trampoline. She had a rectangular trampoline in the back part of her yard. Her yard, you have to understand, was divided. The 2/3 of the yard closest to the house was landscaped with a mixture of cactus and gravel (it was in New Mexico), with a line of concrete pavers that ran to the back part of the yard.
The back 1/3 - which you had to walk down a set of concrete steps to get to - was approximately 10’x18’, surrounded by a 6’ cinder block wall, with a ground covering of approximately 4 inches of basalt shard gravel (like this: http://www.imageafter.com/dbase/textures/grounds/b19grounds012.jpg ). And the rectangular trampoline. Which my friend and I - and the other three girls she invited to the sleepover - chose to go out to jump on (all at the same time, of course), at midnight. We played “how high can we make someone bounce if we all work to increase the rebound together.” In the dark. Surrounded by cinder block walls, concrete steps, cactus and basalt shard gravel.
That’s it. Nothing actually happened, but as a parent, I look back at that night in absolute horror…and as a rational human who thinks too many padded corners were the start of the absolute weenie culture we have, I would do it again.
I think we all need Springfree trampolines. The vast majority of the risky parts of trampolining are mitigated by Springfree’s design, and the joy of the activity is still 100% there. Have a strict “one jumper at a time, no exceptions” policy. Now your kids are at greater risk every time they get in the car. And instead of rotting their brain in front of a screen, they’re benefitting from the fresh air, the exercise, as the pure joy of jumping around like a lunatic. Without the lunacy.
Death trap . As a gymnastics coach in California I know personally that the injury caused on backyard trampolines and Tramp parks have made the insurance costs astronomical for actual qualified gyms to operate.
Ok, I realize i’m in the minority here but here goes… we have a trampoline that is staked to the ground and 8’ netting all around. The springs are completely covered and we put pool noodles as extra padding around each pole. Our grandkids are under 10 yrs old and bounce one at a time in the middle (or walk/run around/roll around the edges). We also attached a sprinkler to the top rim so that kids can run around and get wet when it’s hot outside (and make them wear water shoes), and a mini basketball net/ball occasionally attached to one side. We have a highly visible (and LOUD) timer mounted to a tree and ALWAYS have an adult watching to supervise kids and enforce the 5 minute rule. If toys are taken on to the trampoline, toys MUST be 100% rubber and no jumping is allowed. Kiddos also use the trampoline as a campout site, a reading spot, a pillow parlor, and as a doll village or soldier mobilization play area. We have a rope tied across the trees above the trampoline (about 2 ft higher than net height) that is the maximum height anyone is allowed to jump, adults included. Two kids MAY be allowed on the trampoline at once if there is NO jumping or bouncy-walking AND if the kids are of relatively similar size/weight so one kid doesn’t inadvertently bounce the other one around. Taking turns to jump is the law around here. With all our rules and safety precautions, we have been fortunate enough (so far, at least) to have had no accidents. Needless to say, kiddos ADORE the trampoline. A little jumping and a lot of imagination go a loooooong way. I know it sounds like a LOT of rules, but kids don’t seem to have any problems following them — and still have a ton of fun!
So preferred when the newsletter came out over night gave me something to read in morning with my coffee before leaving for work.
Above ground trampolines are death traps. In ground trampolines are much safer. Well they're safer as long as you don't surround them with boulders. Or pitchforks.
I always thought those were cool, but I've only seen them on TV. You are officially fancy in my book.
I don't have one, but for what it's worth two doctors I work with have inground trampolines.
IN GROUND trampolines?! Never of heard or seen one, but it seems that would take care of most problems. I like it!