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You need that for fans to identify with a track-and-field athlete," says Amy. "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 found that they had misjudged the time and there was only one jumper left before them, so they had to warm up in a hurry. They ended up jumping pretty well because they were great natural talents, but these were athletes who really didn't take care of their bodies, and you wonder what they could have done if they had taken better care of themselves."<br>A major portion of Amy's training is the Olympic lifts, but she also performs several auxiliary lifts for the lower back, abs and the upper body. "It's important to keep the upper body strong for coordination," says Amy. "At the takeoff you really have to move the upper body--you can't just be a limp noodle." She also says it's important for jumpers to perform specialized exercises for their ankles. "You get a lot of power from your feet, and if your ankles are hurting you're going to suffer. I do all kinds of ankle strengthening, such as picking up sand and running on the toes to strengthen the arches, surgical tubing exercises, and rocker boards--I work on my ankles a lot."<br>For younger jumpers, Amy believes in the importance of being exposed to a variety of sports. "You learn a lot through other sports and through competition. It's just like your academic studies--you need to become a student of your sport and learn all there is about it. The high jump takes a lot of technique, but you can't stop there. You need to learn the mechanics, the physics and the ps