Eliza McCartney not only has to physically soar over a bar in her pursuit of excellence. She also has a towering mental wall to overcome.
Strength in pole vaulting, McCartney says, is as much mental as physical. "I'd like to say it's 50-50, but a lot of the time mental strength is a huge component."
And it's the mental barriers the 19-year-old has had to lift herself above that have made her a better athlete. In fact, no other young pole vaulter in the world has soared as high as her.
"Recently I had a tough time with mental barriers and I just wasn't able to get into the mental space to jump properly," she says. "It needs constant work to get your head into the right space."
She found she wasn't 100 percent focused, which made it difficult to perform to her best. "I always knew I'd get through it, but I just couldn't take off. It was extremely frustrating."
Then McCartney discovered what worked best for her to vault over those block walls - relaxation.
She realised she needed to bring the fun back to her sport, and go back to basics in the high-pressure cauldron of international sport.
One technique she's developed in situations of intense pressure - especially as she is about to vault in competition - is "a little smile or cheeky chuckle" to herself so she's not completely overwhelmed. "It takes the edge off," she says with a grin.
There's no doubt that her philosophy is raising her to new heights. In December last year, McCartney broke the world junior record at a competition in Auckland, setting a new height of 4.64m.
With only three jumps allowed in competition, it's crucial McCartney hits her marks at exactly the right time. She uses visualisation - going through everything in her head before she jumps. It's crucial that she keeps things simple, and not confuse things..
Physical strength, fitness and flexibility is also obviously vital for McCartney, who won bronze at the IAAF World Junior Championships in 2014. She works on virtually every part of her body, spending a lot of time in the gym.
Becoming a professional athlete as a teenager has had a major impact on McCartney's life: "It's very much shaping who I am as a person."
And every time she goes out and competes in the black singlet, she always gets the same feeling. "Being out there with the best pole vaulters in the world... and be doing what you've been training for all this time... It's just the most amazing experience."