Higher toe touches. Sharper arms. Stuck landings.

How high your hips traveled, measured in your own torso-lengths - the honest altitude gauge from a phone camera. More is always fine; this only scores up.

How much you sank into your set before takeoff. The sink is where the height lives - a real sit beats a quick dip every time.

Your deepest knee bend in the set - around ninety to one-ten is a loaded spring; a bend that never really happens is a hop.

How evenly your jumps repeat when you do more than one. Same set, same height, every time.

Where your best leg's ankle sits compared to your HIPS at the very top - zero means hip height. Judged against your hips on purpose: your legs earn their own credit, no matter what your chest is doing.

How closely your two legs match at the top. In a toe touch or pike they should mirror; in a hurdler we skip this read entirely - that shape is meant to be uneven.

Sit in your straddle with your back flat against a wall, hands off the floor. Lift one leg a few inches, hold two counts, lower slow. The wall keeps your chest tall, so the lift has to come from your hip flexors - exactly the muscles that put your toes up in the air.

Sit tall, legs together in front, chest proud. On a count, snap your legs out into your toe-touch shape, then snap back together. It's your air position rehearsed on the floor, where you can feel every inch of it.

One hand lightly on a wall: kick front, then to each corner, chest staying tall the whole time. If your chest dips to buy the kick height, the kick doesn't count - the rule in the air starts on the ground.

Sit with your hands pressed into the floor beside your hips. Push down hard and lift your heels an inch off the ground - knees bent to start, straighter as you get stronger. This builds the hip-flexor strength that turns a flexible straddle into a HIGH straddle.