decrease in the braking time and accuracy of the limbs in rapid ballistic movements (62). Therefore, strength balance is needed to break the agonists succinctly in rapid limb movements. When one muscle or movement action is stronger than its antagonist's, performance may be compromised. This is likely to provide the athlete with a greater source of motivation to develop the posterior musculature than that of reducing the risk of injury alone.In addition, strength training, unlike sports training (e.g., pad work, sparring), will train the eccentric phase of movement skills. This enhanced eccentric strength may have defensive benefits through absorbing blows (20). For example, impact to brain depends on the acceleration and rapid turn of the head (20). A stronger neck, especially eccentrically, can help absorb forces. This is also likely to be true of the arms that are often up to guard the face. Specific to the former point, it may be concluded that Muay Thai athletes perform exercises specifically for the neck. As well as preventing injury, this may also prevent the occurrence of knockouts. Cordes (20) also suggests that knockouts resulting from blows to the thorax or abdomen may be less likely with the addition of strength training.The S&C coach is also advised to check for movement dysfunctions within the kinetic chain. For example, much research has centered around gluteus medius dysfunctions (8,26,38,39,83,89,98). However, this, along with many other factors that are likely to contribute to the occurrence and reoccurrence of injury within this sport, is beyond the scope of this paper.STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING PROGRAMThe following program (Tables 4 and 5) is based on 2 S&C sessions per week (as this anecdotally appears to be the mean training time allocated/available to S&C training for these athletes) and has been developed based on the reviewed research. Plyometrics (to develop the SSC mechanism) or carryover training (see previous text) is performed during most rest intervals and the selected drills should be alternated to avoid neural monotony, thereby ensuring the neuromuscular system is continually challenged to develop. This complex training approach (performing ballistic exercises in the rest period) is a valuable tool to S&C coaches who are limited to 1 or 2 S&C sessions per week as it enables them to effectively use the rest period without detriment to performance (28). As previously described, plyometric drills should be logically progressed to ensure appropriate overload and an ethos of quality over quantity should be enforced.Strength exercises should be prescribed at intensity slightly below the maximum intensity for that prescription of repetitions. This point was concluded in a meta-analysis conducted by Peterson et al. (81) where it was revealed that training to failure does not elicit greater gains than not training to failure, and in addition, athletes are less likely to overtrain. Finally, for all power exercises, the load should be varied as this will also vary the velocity and further increase sport specificity. Although it is well understood that peak power output occurs at 80% 1RM in weightlifting (namely the power clean, 22) and using body mass only for squat jumps (22,76), it is