Ear Time: The Strange Technique That's Taking A Kiwi Trampolinist To The Rio Olympics

Once Dylan Schmidt starts rubbing his ears, you know he's in the zone.

At that moment, he knows there's no point wondering if he did enough training, or planning. No point thinking about the gym, and the ability of his body to contort. No reason worrying if his routine is good enough to beat fellow competitors.

When Schimdt starts rubbing those ears, the Kiwi trampolinist is resetting.

He's blocking out the nerves, noise and hype - and telling himself there's just one question left to answer.

"[Rubbing my ears], that's my anchor - that resets me," the 18-year-old Kiwi trampolinist tells VICE Sports AUNZ.

"Once I've done that, my mind is clear. I say to myself, 'how well can I do this routine?'

"That's not to put the pressure on being actually doing the routine. I know I'm going to do it – but how well will I do it? That's what I'm trying to do."

Regardless of well it turns out, what Schmidt will inevitably do is create history in Rio next month.

The Australian-born athlete will become the first-ever Kiwi Olympic trampolinist, in a sport that only introduced to the Games in 2000.

Schmidt, officially selected in May, will be part of a three-strong New Zealand Olympic gymnastic team for Rio, along with regular gymnasts Courtney McGregor and Misha Koudinov.

The trio are New Zealand's first Olympic gymnasts since 2000, and form the biggest Kiwi gymnastic contingent to travel to a Games since 1964, in Tokyo.

Though a small number of medals have been won at the Commonwealth Games over the years, New Zealand is yet to notch up an Olympic podium finish in gymnastics.

Schmidt certainly has the recent results, and credentials, to indicate he could be an outside chance of doing something even more historic in Rio than just competing.

After taking out gold at 2014 Youth Olympics in China, the Kiwi really put himself on the trampolining map with a ninth place at last year's World Championships in Denmark.

Schmidt followed that up with a silver medal at the Olympic test event in Rio in April, which sealed his qualification for the Games.

"All the pressure I held back, and competed really well," he says, of the test event silver.

"It fell into place, and, well, I finished second. So, yea, I was pretty stoked."

Olympic trampolining is split into two routines, from the preliminary rounds. The first is judged on height achieved, and general difficulty of jumps.

Competitors get the chance to use their second routine if they reached the finals, which encourages a more freestyle approach over ten different skill categories.

Men's trampolining has been dominated by Russian and Chinese athletes since its Olympic inclusion. Both nations are expected to be the heavyweights again in Rio.

Schmidt, who is aiming for a top eight finish in Rio, believes the clarity of his mindset – trigger by that rubbing of his ears – is his biggest asset heading into the Olympics.

"It's all muscle memory," he says, of his routines.

"I try to clear my mind as much as I can before I get on, but when I'm on the tramp, honestly, it goes by in a flash.

"Sometimes I get off the trampoline, and I can't even remember what happened. It's just muscle memory, and keeping my mind as blank as possible. Usually it pays off. That's my biggest attribute, I think, is my mental state going into competition."

"There's a lot that can go wrong," he continues.

"It's a cut-throat sport like that; if you fall off or do something wrong, you fall off and it's over for you."

"So for me, having a strong mindset … separates the good from the great athletes. Getting good scores, but not just doing it once. Doing it every single time."

Born in Australia, Schmidt moved around a lot as a kid due to his father's job as a tunneling engineer.

First stop was the South Island town of Te Anau, before the family moved up to Waihi. Both are mining towns, and Schmidt's father got work working on local tunnels. The family moved to Auckland two years ago.

Dylan Schmidt competing at the 2015 World Championships in Denmark

He originally picked up trampolining in Te Anau after attending a club with his brother and sister, but his interest took off in the North Island.

His mother would drive him to Auckland four times a week – a three-hour drive each way - to train. The rewards of his dedication came quickly.

"I just played on the trampoline at home, and, honestly, just went from there," he says.

"I went to my first World Championships in 2009, and ending up winning that. I was 12, then.

"A few years after that, I put all my other sports on hold and started doing trampolining full-time. I've had the goal of going to the Olympics as long as I can remember."

Given Kiwi gymnastics' limited Olympic pedigree, the sport, at large, has received only small amounts of Sport New Zealand (Sport NZ) funding since 2000.

While assistance from Sport NZ has increased over the last year, Schmidt admits much of his career has been bankrolled by his family.

"It's definitely been really difficult," he says.

"It's been fully self-funded. Going to Europe and all these other places is very expense. My parents have been pretty amazing in everything they have sacrificed for me to get where I am – and I'm grateful for that."

"But now that I've done the hard yards and done all the slogging, and to finally get some good results in the senior divisions, that has got me noticed by the NZOC. So I've got some funding now, and that helps a lot.

"But, yea, it has definitely been hard. It's no easy task to get to this level, but I'm just grateful that I've been recognized now and we can really see what I can do."

A SkySport New Zealand mini-documentary on Schimdt.

Schmidt recognizes the opportunity his sport has with the Olympics. With him competing in Rio, it will be broadcast around New Zealand, exposing a new generation to a sport that'd likely never considered competing in.

"It's such a great sport, and it doesn't get the recognition it deserves," he says.

"I've loved every minute of it. Not only the competitions, but the social side, the travel – and getting to meet some cool people. I've made some amazing friends over the years.

"Hopefully with my achievements, going to the Olympics, it will bring the sport onto a higher key in New Zealand. Hopefully, some more kids will get into it, we can find some more talent – and keep the legacy alive for New Zealand tramploninists."

A legacy that is starting with a two thumbs, two index fingers and two ears lobes, too.