Some call it “the yips.”

University of Washington assistant coach Tim Reilly called it “confidence doldrums.”

Amanda Moll put it plainly.

“I was struggling with a mental block,” UW’s standout sophomore told The Seattle Times on Wednesday.

Consider the circumstances. Amanda and her twin sister, Hana, were the greatest high-school pole vaulters in U.S. history. While earning identical 4.0 GPAs at Capital High School in Olympia, they repeatedly revised the record books. Amanda became the first prep competitor to clear 15 feet, making 15-1½ at the UCS Spirit National Pole Vault Summit in January 2023. Hana then casually cleared 15-3, becoming the youngest of 138 athletes on Team USA’s world championships roster in 2023.

At their best, Reilly said, “all the yellow lights on the dashboard are gone. It’s all green. All trust.”

At their age, no one (ever!) has been better.

Which made that mental block all the more maddening.

It’s a common occurrence in pole vault, afflicting Olympic champions and beginners with equal animus. A pole snaps, or an injury occurs, or a bad fall festers, and the commitment required to sprint, plant and soar — to trust — is suddenly tainted.

Take Steve Hooker. In 2008, the 26-year-old cleared the competition, setting an Olympic record with a vault of 5.96 meters (19.6 feet). The Melbourne native was Australia’s first men’s track and field gold medalist in 40 years, an unblemished beacon of ascendant success.

First, he flew.

Then, he fell.

Months before finishing 14 ^th in the 2012 London Olympics, Hooker admitted in an essay : “The confidence I require to stand at the end of the runway and then charge down, land my pole and soar almost six meters into the air has left me for the time being.”

Midway through her senior year at Capital High, Amanda was waylaid by her anxiety. While 18-year-old Hana earned ninth place at the world championships in Budapest, Amanda’s green lights were gone.

“It’s hard to not be able to do something that you know you can do,” said Amanda, a business student at UW. “It really took, step by step, building back my confidence in myself and not giving up. Because some days I could not see myself jumping high. When I was at the world championships, it was really hard. Because I was watching Hana, and it was hard to visualize myself there with her.”

So how do you barrel through a mental block?

If there was an easy answer, it wouldn’t be a block.

It took time, and baby steps, and belief.

And a platform next to the pit.

“It bothered her to bend the pole for a while,” said Reilly, who has worked with the Moll sisters since middle school. “I said, ‘Well, let’s just bend it from the platform. There’s no running involved.’ It was baby steps back.”

While Amanda embraced the baby steps, her sister continued to sprint. Last March, Hana became the first freshman to win a pole-vault title at the NCAA Indoor Championships, and just the second UW woman to capture a national vault title of any kind.

While Hana earned the spotlight, Amanda stacked silent strides.

Added Amanda: “What helped me tremendously was a really cheesy quote: ‘It’s not how many times you fall down. It’s how many times you get back up.’ That really helped me spin a positive mindset in a really difficult space and work through that. It allowed me to focus on positives.”

First, she flew.

Then, she fell.

Then, she flourished.

Not just back.

Better.

Last weekend, at the Don Kirby Elite Invitational in Albuquerque, Amanda returned to the record books. She cleared 15-7 1/4 on her first attempt, snatching an NCAA record (15-7, held by Stephen F. Austin’s Demi Payne) that had stood since 2015.

Then she cleared 15-9 ¼ on her very next jump, replacing that record.

Then they raised the bar to an even 16 feet.

Before Saturday, the only American women to clear that height was a trio of Olympic medalists: Jenn Suhr, Sandi Morris and Katie Moon. The winning height at the 2024 Paris Olympics was 16-0 ¾ (4.90 meters), and only Australian Nina Kennedy cleared it.

On her first jump, Amanda missed.

On her second, she soared.

When she landed, Amanda lifted her hands to her mouth and emitted a glowing grin. She was tackled by her teammates, Hana included, as a third consecutive NCAA record was announced at the Albuquerque Convention Center.

It’s the top height in the world in 2025.

It’s not a ceiling. It’s a start.

“It just opened up a whole new perspective for me,” Amanda said. “I’ve always kind of had my sights on 17 feet. I think that’s a barrier for women that will be broken. If it’s not me, it will be someone else. Clearing that height, I have more belief that that’s possible for me.”

The world record of 16.60 feet (5.06 meters) was set by Russia’s Yelena Isinbayeva in 2009 .

Granted, that’s a gaudy goal.

But so was 16 feet.

“Whatever is possible, I think they’re going to find it,” Reilly said of the Moll sisters. “I would be shocked, at the end of this adventure, if we say, ‘I don’t think they realized the possibilities.’ I think they’re going to realize them. I just do.

“I don’t know when. I think they’ll break the five-meter mark when they’re still in college. That’s not hard to imagine at all. Will they be American record holders before they leave college? I think they will be. I’ve said since they were younger, ‘I think I’m looking at the two best pole vaulters ever to walk on U.S. soil.’ I don’t know if there’s any reason not to say they’re potentially the two best pole vaulters we’ve ever seen at all.”

The green lights are glowing in Amanda Moll’s soul.

She had to fly to fall. And she had to fall to flourish.

“It wasn’t easy, but I’m really grateful that I went through that, because I’m a much better vaulter now — and a [better] person in general,” Amanda said of her mental block. “I think I’ve grown so much as a person, going through that. It’s life skills for everything, not just pole vault, that I was able to learn.”