In 1934, an American gymnast named George Nissen, inspired by watching circus acrobats fall onto flexible safety nets and use the rebound to perform acrobatic skills, constructed the first prototype trampoline out of canvas and rubber for inner tubes. Nissen called his device a trampoline after trampolín, the Spanish word for springboard. Trampolining caught on quickly as a backyard activity and was even used to teach pilots air sense in World War II. As a sport, Trampolining was slower to catch on. The first U.S. National Championships in Trampoline were held in 1948, but a World Championships in Trampoline were not held until 1964. At its first World Championships, held in 1964 at London's Royal Albert Hall, Trampoline was a sport