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"Americans were really great statisticians when it came to baseball 20 or 30 years ago, but now fans have moved more towards entertainment, such as watching these characters in the NBA." (And in case you're curious, yes, Amy can dunk a basketball.)<br>Speaking of stats, the world standard in the high jump for women is 6' 10 1/4". However, Amy believes that the women's high jump is experiencing a "changing of the guard" because jumpers hit their peak in their late 20s and early 30s, and the current world record holder is about to exceed that age range. "Right now it's pretty much wide open, and there's not really anyone who has stepped up to assume the role of the dominant jumper yet."<br><br><br>When Beauty Meets Brawn<br><br>To become the best requires commitment, so Amy approaches her sport as a full-time job. "There's only a week out of the whole year when there's no workout, and when I'm not competing I'll be running and lifting." But in the history of high jump training, Amy admits that such discipline and dedication was considered the exception rather than the rule.<br>"In the past there was more of a laissez-faire attitude toward high jump training, and a lot of the jumping workout would be occupied by sunbathing on the high jump pit," says Amy. She recalls one story of two German high jumpers who entered a competition in the 70s. When they found out that the meet was going to take several hours, they left the meet and went down to a local coffee shop and had a few cigarettes and several leisurely cups of coffee. Says Amy, "When they came back to the meet they sounds. In fact, the Air Force Academy tried to incorporate these types of push-ups during a toughness training ritual called  Recognition Week that every cadet must endure. However, after the cadets had performed dozens of these push-ups, we received a callfrom the supervising officer to stop them because the cadets upper bodies were too exhausted to continue the remainder of their physical tasks!<br><br>Power Training<br><br>What the medicine ball is especially good for is power development. Power can be defined as  work performed over time. Medicine balls take the strength developed from high-tension lifts such as the squat and teach the body and mind to use that strength faster. In sports, you have only a fraction of a second to return that tennis serve or to break that tackle. This is exactly why athletes who excl in the weight room often may be outplayed by physically weaker opponents who can apply a given level of strength more quickly.<br>For most athletes, especially beginning-level and most high school athletes, power cleans and push jerks can produce significant improvements in power. And with limited amounts of time available to most of these athletes, the basic BFS system s perfect. However, athletes who have extra time or who are at especially high levels of ability may be ready for more sport-specific power movements using medicine balls.<br>For example, a volleyballpayer will want to achieve maximal jumping ability. If the player does a serie of squats using a barbell, the weight slows down, achieving zero velocity at the end of the movement. This is necessary for safety purposes. But in jumping, there is an increase in velocity, with peak forces occurring near the end of the movement. This difference in velocity curves may not mean much to a 12-flat sprinter trying to lower their time to 11.9, but such training details mean a lot to a 10.4 sprinter trying to lower their time to 10.39. <br><br>Testing<br><br>In addition to their use in developing power, medicine balls are a great tool to determin