hops (Caption 1), which enhance the stiffness of the ankle joint, as overall leg stiffness has been reported to largely depend on ankle stiffness (4,31,32). Of course, the S&C coach must determine safe and conducive plyometric intensities (e.g., drop height). It may be appropriate therefore to first practice landing drills by jumping up to a box (Figure 14) or simply jumping forward along the ground, as the intensity of each is less than when dropping from a box.FORCE GENERATION CHARACTERISTICSBoxing movements (i.e., punches) involve contraction times of 50-250 ms (1). As described earlier, GCT during double kicks and knees should (anecdotally) resemble that of sprint running where this has been reported to be 101 ms (77). Muay Thai motor skills therefore, like the vast majority of athletic movements, occur within 250-300 ms (93,104) and the opportunity to develop peak force, which may require up to 600-800 ms (29,68), is not a time luxury afforded to these athletes. This therefore suggests the need for these athletes to develop power.It is hypothesized that if the time available for force development is less than 0.3 seconds (as is the case in Muay Thai), training should focus on improving RFD (80,87,105). Because RFD is a function of neuromuscular activation (86) and is representative of an individual's ability to accelerate objects (87), many authors recommend ballistic (explosive) training to improve this quality (10,43,45,46,103). It is generally recognized that although heavy resistance training improves the final height of the force-time (F-T) curve, ballistic training improves the slope of the initial portion of the F-T curve, specifically within the first 200-300 ms (45,80) when striking is most likely to occurBallistic exercises can best be described as explosive movements (rapid acceleration against resistance) whereby the body or object is explosively subjected to full acceleration. Reviews by Flanagan and Comyns (34) and Hori et al. (58) recommended the use of plyometric training and weightlifting, respectively, to train RFD, as in addition to their ability to be adapted to the specifics of the sport, they encourage full acceleration with zero velocity achieved only by the effects of gravity. In addition, weightlifting produces some of the highest power outputs of any exercise modality. For example, Garhammer (40) reported that the snatch and clean and jerk exhibit much greater power outputs compared with the squat and deadlift. For example, the relatively slow velocities involved in powerlifting (i.e., back squat, deadlift, and bench press) produce approximately 12 W/kg of body weight (40). However, during the second pull phase of both the clean and the snatch, an average of 52 W/kg of body weight is produced (40).It should be noted that a high and positive correlation exists between peak power and maximum strength (r = 0.77-0.94; 6), illustrating the significance of strength training as a prerequisite to power development. With this in mind and because strength levels may only be maintained for approximately 2 weeks (60), it is advisable to include strength sessions throughout the entirety of a periodized program so as to optimize and maintain high levels of power output. In further support of using