VIDEO: Kaufman talks about 2009 Wahine volleyball

It takes the University of Hawai'i senior over all but the most athletic opponents and allows her to hang there, as if floating on a cloud, until mere mortals have to deal with gravity and Kaufman can crush a volleyball or soar over a high jump bar with little opposition.

The jump had its start in simple genetics, with a family full of "fast-twitch" athletes. Father Mark Kaufman excelled at volleyball, basketball and baseball. Mother Stacy Farmer was into ballet and bikes, getting invited to the 1996 Olympic cycling trials at age 36.

But their daughter's jump has taken on a world-class life of its own with the Rainbow Wahine, thanks to years of hard work, a trail of dirty fingerprints, the help of a bunch of coaches and an affinity for Spiderman.

Growing up in San Jose, Calif., Kaufman jumped up in every doorway, trying to touch the top. Early on it was in vain, but then her fingertips started to hit the frame.

"I left dirty fingerprints all over the house," Kaufman recalled. "I was just so happy to be jumping."

To this day, no doorway is safe.

"There were fingerprints then footprints," says her mom. "She would try to touch her elbows. She would jump up in the hall and splay her feet on both sides and walk along the wall like Spiderman, suspending herself with her legs.

"You don't want your kids to put their fingers on the walls so you certainly don't want their feet on the walls. I thought that was kind of a given."

Stacy has raised an original. Going into the final home matches of her career, against Fresno State tomorrow and Utah State Sunday, Kaufman is having an over-the-top senior season in a sport she came to relatively late.

She has one of the country's most irritating serves and is hitting a ridiculous .483 — third-best nationally for the country's third-ranked team. It is 100 points higher than last season's all-WAC performance in her first year at middle blocker, and 66 points higher than the UH single-season record, held by 1996 national player of the year Angelica Ljungquist.

Against Louisiana Tech, Kaufman took eight swings and buried all eight. It seemed almost unfair as she either beat the block up or simply hovered over it, then crushed the ball. She is hitting .719 in the five matches since.

"When me and (setter) Dani (Mafua) are connecting, sometimes she just makes me feel untouchable," Kaufman said. "If the ball is out of her hands coming to me, sometimes it's going to be a kill no matter what."

When volleyball is over, Kaufman will park herself in track and field's pit. She has finished top five in NCAA high jump her first two seasons. Her performance last year qualified her for Olympic Trials, where she finished 12th.

Last spring, she cleared a school-record 6 feet 4, second-best nationally to three-time NCAA Outdoor champion Destinee Hooker — an All-America volleyball player for top-ranked Texas. Kaufman considers that her greatest accomplishment, so far.

UH track coach Carmyn James characterizes Kaufman as "fearless" and will "be shocked" if she graduates without clearing 2 meters (about 6 feet 6) and winning at least one NCAA high jump championship. The Olympic gold medalist last year went 2.05 meters.

When Kaufman is done — with track and her psychology degree — in 2011, two questions will need to be answered: What sport should she pursue on an international level, and what is the most creative way to harness her temper without killing the competitive nature that drives her.

She once punched out a high jump standard. Missing a serve, in a WAC match the Rainbow Wahine are dominating, sets her free. If she hits .700, she can't fathom why it isn't .800. One WAC coach admits her players are afraid of Kaufman not so much because of her talent but because "they think she's going to beat them up."

Amiable Amber, off the court and far from the pit, is engaging and extremely funny. Amber the Athlete breathes fire. She is harder on herself than anyone Dave Shoji has ever coached.

"She always has that potential to explode," Shoji says. "She's like a volcano, simmering. Sometimes she's dormant a while. Hopefully, she will be dormant more."

Track is solitary and quiet — "I can't be yelling and upset," Kaufman says. "I get mad, but I have to keep it in my 3-foot area."

James designs Kaufman's workouts so she can achieve a "whole bunch of successes" and remain the "happy, confident, giddy person she can be." The coach wants to avoid the spiral down, and insists Kaufman has improved immensely from her early days as an emotional yo-yo.

"I hope at some point she does find peace," James said. "On the other hand, having that dynamic personality leads to some of her successes. I don't want to calm her down into a coma, but just have her be satisfied and calm, not be so hard on herself."

Her mother jokes that when Amber had meltdowns on the soccer field at age 5 her reaction was to "pretend she's not my child." She admits "it has been a painful process ever since"— for everyone involved. Particularly her daughter, who has clearly matured but might never truly mellow. It is not in her. Kaufman has no concept of serenity or imperfection.

"I tried just about everything and most of her coaches did as well," Stacy said. "Then I just let it go as long as she never turned it toward a teammate, which she never did. We've talked about it. It's just a part of her personality and competitive nature. She expects the most out of herself and gets upset when it's not happening. She can't really process it at that time. Later, she can.

"It's been that way since she started in sports at age 5. I assumed she would be over it by the time she was 6. Clearly, I was wrong."

Her daughter does not want to talk about it anymore, and even Stacy admits, "it helps her in a strange way." To be fair, her outbursts are rarer and don't last nearly as long as they once did, in part because volleyball and track allow her to cool off in the midst of competitions.

Besides, who knows how good she would be if she wasn't so passionate, or didn't release all that negative energy?

Kaufman is better than good. She is one of the few collegiate women capable of taking her game to the top level in two sports. Hawai'i has never seen anyone quite like her.

She excels in a team sport that enjoys the greatest following in the game, and thrives on the attention. But she is much more decorated at an individual sport where she is a solitary figure taking on a skinny, motionless bar in front of very few.

Even she does not know what sport she will pursue after college.

"That's a big problem now," Kaufman admits. "It's a great problem to have, but I don't want to end up making the wrong decision. Track is definitely the smarter, easier way, but volleyball is more of a challenge and that's something that's pulling me toward it. Plus, volleyball is a little more team-oriented and I love all my teammates."

But, in typically tortured style, Kaufman can't win an argument with herself.

"Track is an individual thing. It's all on you in track," she said. "I don't like my fate being in other people's hands a lot of time. It's kind of a give and take. People ask me every day. I'll probably talk to my mom a lot about it. She knows me and what I should do because I I just don't know."

Those closest to Kaufman, including her mom, want only for her to "follow her heart" without regret, although there does seem to be a lean toward track. James tries to be objective, but comes up a little short.

"She loves volleyball and that team atmosphere," the track coach says. "This year she loves it even more. It's a blast as far as college, but I think in terms of how far she goes nationally and internationally, it's in high jump. Only because here performance dictates where she goes. In team sports there are so many other variables. In track, it's up to you. You do or you don't."

Shoji has no doubt Kaufman could play volleyball professionally, but even he is fascinated by what she could accomplish in high jump if she dedicated herself to it fulltime. But, closer to home, there is one aspect of volleyball he would like to see her master before she goes.

"There have been nights, and I'd like to see more, where she is virtually unstoppable offensively," he says. "USC last year and more than a few this year where she's hit .800 or .900. One of these nights she is going to bust through in the blocking scheme. She's really close, just a split-second from blocking a lot of balls. She's working hard at it so it's going to happen and I hope it's in the next couple weeks."

A furious finish for Amber Kaufman would anyone be surprised?