In just over a week, Kent’s Kat Driscoll will take on some of the world’s top gymnasts at London 2012. But arguably her biggest challenge was to teach the KM’s Olympic correspondent ALEX HOAD how to jump up and down in the air.

The term ‘extreme sport’ conjures up images of snowy peaks, plastic kites and single-engine aircraft. It doesn’t immediately bring to mind a large building off Mill Road in Gillingham.

However that is where I headed to meet Britain’s Olympic trampoline hopeful Kat Driscoll – a 26-year-old originally from Walderslade.

The reigning British champion secured TeamGB a single place at London 2012 by reaching last year’s World Championship final and then made it her own by seeing off competition from other British hopefuls in a four-round qualification process earlier this year.

It all began for Driscoll at Jumpers Rebound Centre and it was there that I went for some expert coaching from the woman herself, with not quite a spring in my step, more the resigned walk of a man heading to the gallows.

I was welcomed by Jumpers chairman Martin Laws and his assistant – Kat’s dad Mike Driscoll – and shown around the huge hall.

There were trampolines as far as the eye could see. Every surface seemed to be squishy and soft. Even the floor at the far end was stuffed full of foam.

It was not long before we were joined by the woman of the hour, fresh from a stint in front of TV cameras, and my trepidation reached new levels as I swapped my work clothes for t-shirt and tracky bottoms ahead of my lesson.

Now the first thing you notice is that these trampolines are high. Very high. I’m 6ft-plus but it took me what felt like a full minute to clamber onto the side of the thing, with all the grace and poise of a manatee on a unicycle. I eventually managed to stand up and stepped cautiously onto the bed. And then it all got interesting...

Okay so it might be 100 times scarier than the four-foot-square blue and yellow plastic tramp in your neighbours’ garden, but I’d wager it was 100 times more fun too.

With an expectant crowd of (two) coaches, celebrities (Kat) and media (KM photographer) gathered by the side of the trampoline, it was my time to shine with a routine.

I say routine, I basically started doing what Mike told me. Jumping up and down, using my arms to balance and then eventually bending my knees on landing to stop.

Job done. This was easy. I don’t know why people make such a fuss.

Next stop, jumping higher. Okay, not so bad. This is what the view looks like if you’re Peter Crouch. As I jumped progressively higher and higher I could feel the butterflies growing – you know the feeling when you drive over a steep bridge too quickly? Like that!

But it would seem that just jumping up and down is not that impressive, and so I was tasked to jump, land on my backside and spring back to my feet.

All I can say is that if I was able to do it first time, I’m not sure why Didier Drogba still can’t.

But then it got serious. Kat demanded I add a twist to the backside bounce. Now, co-ordination has never exactly been my strong suit. I still can’t pat my tummy and rub my head simultaneously.

However I eventually fathomed it out. It was pretty much spinning in a circle. I could do that. But then she had to go and raise the stakes by leaping up like only a gymnast could and joining me for a petrifying climax to my dazzling ‘performance’.

We stood facing each other, separated by approximately two feet, 10 inches in height, 10 stone in weight and 20 years of practice.

It was explained that all I needed to do was hit the bed and spin again, but in the opposite direction to Kat, so we’d perform some kind of spectacular stunt which would wow the crowd and surely see me usurp Amanda Parker as Kat’s chosen synchro partner on the international trampoline stage.

However, I was paralysed by fear. What if I landed on her? What if my lack of co-ordination and monstrous bulk crushed Britain’s shining Olympic hope so she was unable to compete again?

I am deadly serious. This is what I was thinking when we began to bounce in unison. One, two, three...

Time slowed down. My feet flew forward and my rump headed for the bed. After impact I came back up, arms in front of me, perfect poise, and I began to use what little core strength I have to twist my body in the direction which I had been told.

Or which I thought I had been told.

Disaster struck. Kat and I pirouetted in the same direction. My tree trunk legs slashing through the air towards her, only narrowly avoiding a catastrophic mid-air collision which could have sent her flying and sent me to the Tower for high treason against a national treasure.

That was pretty much the end of the lesson. I returned to earth with a bump, as well as a new-found respect for the physical exertion and subtleties of the sport.

As an encore I was eventually permitted to take a running jump and dive into the massive foam pit – it was all in the name of rescuing a three-foot Spongebob Squarepants you understand.

I then proceeded to watch Kat do her thing, unaccompanied this time, and my word, did it make me feel inadequate.

The height, the precision, the incredible speed at which she can contort her body in midair... it shows what an abundance of natural talent and a lifetime of dedication can do.

Kat has to be the best advert for her sport that there is.

She explained: "When you’re on the trampoline, you get a feeling that makes you want to come back all the time.

"You’ve got to be a little crazy to do it because you jump pretty high in the air – you’ve got to have a bit of daredevil in you.

"There are not many sports that can give you that adrenaline rush every time, literally every training session. Another appeal of trampolining is that you don’t have to be a five-year-old kid to enjoy it, anyone can."

I can vouch for that.

She added: "I train six days a week and I never wake up and think that I don’t want to trampoline that day. I want to keep doing trampolining until I get that."

Here’s hoping that doesn’t happen before Saturday, August 4, when Kat will climb onto the Olympic trampoline at the North Greenwich Arena and try to become the first British woman ever to make an Olympic trampoline final.