Mastering the FIG Trampoline Code of Points
The individual trampoline score in the FIG (Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique) Code of Points 2025-2028 is one line:
Score = E (max 20 pts) + H (max 10 pts) + D + T − P
E is execution, H is horizontal displacement, D is difficulty, T is time of flight, and P is penalties. Difficulty, the number most gymnasts mean when they say "my tariff," is one of five terms, and the only one with no upper limit for seniors. Everything else in the document exists to define those five terms and to decide who gets to rule on each of them.
So "mastering the Code" is mostly navigation: knowing which section answers the question in front of you, and knowing which of the five marks that section actually moves. This article covers individual trampoline under the 2025-2028 edition, approved by the FIG Executive Committee in February 2024, published 22 April 2024 and valid from 1 January 2025. The same document contains separate rulebooks for synchronised trampoline, double mini-trampoline and tumbling, each with its own difficulty table, so a value read from the wrong chapter will not match.
How the Code of Points Is Organised
The Code is split into Part I, the rules themselves, and Part II, the appendices that most people actually use day to day.
| Your question | Section |
|---|---|
| How many elements is an exercise? | Part I, TRA §4 |
| What must be written on the competition card? | Part I, TRA §6 |
| What counts as tuck, pike or straight? | Part I, TRA §13 |
| When does a skill count as a repeat? | Part I, TRA §14 |
| How is one element's difficulty built? | Part I, TRA §17.1 |
| How do the marks combine into a score? | Part I, TRA §17.2 |
| Who decides what I actually performed? | Part I, TRA §21 |
| The difficulty principles, tables and notation | Part II, sections B, C and J |
An exercise is ten elements (§4.1). The general description opening the trampoline rules asks for continuous feet to feet and feet to back, front or seat jumping, without intermediate straight bounces. In senior individual events every exercise is voluntary (§4.1.2), so the ten elements are yours to choose.
How One Element's Difficulty Is Built
Difficulty is not looked up as a single number. It is assembled from separate additions in §17.1, and each addition has its own rule. Take a 1½ in 1½ out double somersault in the straight position, written 833/ in trampoline notation:
| Term | Rule | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Somersault rotation | §17.1.1.3: a completed double (720°) is worth 1.0 | 1.0 |
| Twist | §17.1.1.6: 0.1 per half twist, and this skill has six | 0.6 |
| Twisting-double bonus | §17.1.6.2: past 720° of twist, 0.1 per additional 180° | 0.2 |
| Position | §17.1.5: 0.1 per somersault for pike or straight at 720° or more | 0.2 |
| Backward bonus | §17.1.6.1: 0.1 for a backward double somersault | 0.1 |
| Element difficulty | 2.1 |
Three half twists in each of the two somersaults is 1080° of twist in total. That is 360° past the 720° threshold, so two additional 180° units at 0.1 each. The same skill in tuck is 1.9, because the position term drops to zero: tuck is worth 0.0 per somersault in the Part II B base table, while pike and straight are each worth 0.1. The backward bonus stays either way. It is indexed on somersault count and direction only, not on shape, which is why a plain tuck double back is 1.1 rather than 1.0.
The DD guide shows these same five terms as a live breakdown if you want to see them move as a skill changes.
A Ten-Element Routine, Added Up
Below is an illustrative senior exercise, not a recommended progression and not anyone's actual competition routine. No element may be repeated in an exercise (§14.1), so all ten are distinct. Every difficulty value was produced by running the routine through Trampigo's own scoring logic, which implements this edition of the Code.
| # | Element | FIG numeric code | DD |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Half out, tuck | 8 - 1 o | 1.1 |
| 2 | Rudy out, tuck | 8 - 3 o | 1.3 |
| 3 | Full half, tuck | 8 2 1 o | 1.3 |
| 4 | 1½ in 1½ out, straight | 8 3 3 / | 2.1 |
| 5 | Full in full out, tuck | 8 2 2 o | 1.5 |
| 6 | Double back, straight | 8 - - / | 1.3 |
| 7 | Triple back, tuck | 12 - - - o | 1.8 |
| 8 | Half out triffis, tuck | 12 - - 1 o | 1.7 |
| 9 | Half front half, tuck | 12 1 - 1 o | 2.0 |
| 10 | Double full, straight | 4 4 / | 0.9 |
That sums to 15.0. Under §17.1.7 it does not stop there for every gymnast. An exercise with more than two elements of 1080° or more of somersault rotation earns 0.3 for each additional such element in women's competition; in men's competition the threshold is more than five. This routine has three triples, one past the women's threshold and well under the men's:
| Category | Routine bonus | Total D |
|---|---|---|
| Women | 0.3 (one element past the threshold of two) | 15.3 |
| Men | none (three elements, threshold is five) | 15.0 |
Two gymnasts performing identical ten-element exercises can therefore carry different D scores, which is why a tariff quoted without a category is incomplete. Build the same routine in the routine builder and it shows both numbers whenever they disagree.
The FIG numeric code in the middle column is the format §6.2 requires on the competition card: first digit is quarter somersaults, the digits after it distribute half twists across each somersault, and the shape symbol closes it (o tuck, < pike, / straight). Trampigo writes the same code with the spaces closed up, and drops the dashes entirely when no somersault carries a twist, so element 7 reads 12o and element 6 reads 8/.
The Rules That Reshape Routines More Than the Arithmetic Does
Repetition is not just "don't do the same skill twice." §14.2 says elements with the same rotation performed tucked, piked and straight are different elements. But §14.5 limits how many times you can use that. With up to a half twist you get three positions if there is 270° or more of somersault, so a ¾ back works in all three shapes. With 360° of twist or more you get three positions only above 450° of somersault, which is why the Code's own example lists a full twisting back somersault as one position possible, and full in full out as three. Planning a routine around the same skill in three shapes only works when the somersault count allows it.
The Difficulty Judges score the shape you gave them, not the one you intended. §13.2 defines the shapes by angle: straight is more than 135° between upper body and thighs, pike is 135° or less there with more than 135° at the knee, tuck is 135° or less at both. In a multiple somersault you may claim one position for the element, and the judges assess it on the least difficult shape adopted (§14.5.3). The Code's example is a Barani out triffis with a piked first somersault and a tucked second one, assessed as tucked.
Landing rotation counts. §21.4.3: at landing, feet rotation of more than a quarter twist is recorded as a half twist, more than three quarters as a full twist. What goes on the card is what the judges determine you performed (§21.3), not what you wrote down beforehand.
Difficulty is open at senior level and capped below it. §17.1 says the difficulty available in a single element is open in principle, except in Junior and Age Group competitions, where it is limited per the FIG Junior and WAGC Rules. Higher-difficulty elements may still be performed there but are credited at the limited value, and quadruple somersaults in Youth and Junior competitions are not allowed and result in disqualification. Those age-group limits live in a separate document from this one.
The card has a deadline and a required format. Elements go on the competition card with their difficulty values in performance order, on paper or through an electronic system (§6.1). Only the FIG numeric system is accepted, otherwise the card is not accepted at all (§6.2), and the organising committee must get cards to the Difficulty Judges at least two hours before the competition starts (§6.3).
Four Things the Code Settles That Gyms Still Argue About
A higher D does not mean a higher score. D is added to E, H and T. The Code's own rounding examples in Part II M use time-of-flight figures such as 16.23 and 17.45, so T alone can outweigh a full point of difficulty, and E starts from 20 and only goes down. Chasing tariff at the cost of form moves one term up and two others down.
Straight is not worth more than pike. In the trampoline table both are 0.1 per somersault beyond 360° (§17.1.4, §17.1.5). A back somersault is 0.5 tucked and 0.6 in either pike or straight; a double back is 1.1 tucked and 1.3 in either. The shapes differ in execution demand, not in difficulty value. Other disciplines in the same document score them differently, which is where the confusion usually starts. Tuck vs. pike vs. straight works through when a shape change actually pays.
A twisting single somersault gets no position value. A Barani is 0.6 in tuck, pike or straight. The position value in the Part II B table applies beyond 360° of somersault rotation, and §17.1.4 restricts the single-somersault bonus to elements without twist.
Shape jumps are not worth zero in this edition. §17.1.2 gives tuck jumps, pike jumps, straddle jumps and seat drops a difficulty value of 0.1 each. A plain straight jump is not on that list, since an intermediate straight jump interrupts the exercise (§15.1.3), and Trampigo's calculator scores shape jumps the same way: 0.1 for a tuck, pike or straddle jump, 0.0 for a straight jump.
What This Changes in Routine Planning
Three habits follow from the sections above. Record the category alongside any tariff, because §17.1.7 can separate two identical routines. Check a planned shape change against §14.5 before assuming it buys you a distinct element. And treat the number on your sheet as a plan rather than a result, because the Difficulty Judges record what was performed.
The arithmetic itself is the part worth automating. Build the routine in the Trampigo routine builder and each element's value updates as you change it, then check the five terms behind any single element in the DD breakdown guide. Trampigo does not flag a repeated element today, so §14 remains a manual check against your own list. For the mistakes that survive even careful manual addition, see 5 Common Errors in Trampoline Tariff Calculation; for how the planning document relates to the card you hand in, see Digital Tariff Sheets.
Which elements any individual gymnast should train toward is a judgment for a qualified coach, based on that athlete's readiness, not something the Code of Points answers.
Sources and Ruleset Note
Every rule reference above is to FIG Code of Points 2025-2028, Trampoline Gymnastics, individual trampoline: Part I sections 4, 6, 13, 14, 17 and 21, and Part II sections B (difficulty principles), C (difficulty examples), J (the FIG numeric system) and M (calculation and rounding examples). The full 2025-2028 Code of Points is available as a PDF. Difficulty values in this article were generated by running the elements through Trampigo's calculator, which implements this edition; they are difficulty computations, not official judged scores, and a judge rules on what is actually performed. Junior and Age Group limits are set by the FIG Junior and WAGC Rules, a separate document. This article does not cover synchronised trampoline, double mini-trampoline, tumbling, execution deductions, horizontal displacement or time-of-flight measurement beyond how those marks enter the total score.