be made to the sports coach.RAPID WEIGHT LOSSResearch investigating the consequences of making weight in combat sports such as wrestling (42,54,56,65,67) and boxing (48) has shown that RWL is associated with concurrent decrements in performance. This may be because of dehydration (97), depleted glycogen stores (19,94), reduced lean muscle mass (66), and negative mood (48,66,91). Significant to the latter factor, mood has been shown to be an effective predictor of performance in combat sport with 92% of winning and losing performances in karate correctly classified from precompetition mood (95). Losing karate performance was associated with high scores of confusion, depression, fatigue, and tension coupled with low vigor scores (95). There appears an evident paradox, therefore, between the combat athletes' perception that RWL is associated with good performance, and the research that consistently demonstrates that athletes perform significantly below expectations. This perception may be explained by the fact that an athlete can win a contest despite performing below expectations (48). After all, both contestants likely underwent a RWL interventionPERFORMANCE TESTINGTesting enables coaches to identify the physical capabilities of their athletes. This further enables coaches to monitor the efficacy of the programs (allowing adjustments accordingly) and make predictions on competition performance. Based on the needs analysis conducted above, a suggested battery of tests has been identified and is illustrated in Table 3.It is important to conduct the tests in the order described in Table 3 as this will reduce the negative effects of accumulated fatigue as the athlete progresses through the testing battery. This is in agreement with Harman (49) who suggests that for these reasons, tests should be conducted in the following order: nonfatiguing tests (e.g., anthropometry), agility, maximum power and strength, sprint tests, local muscular endurance, anaerobic, and then finally aerobic capacity tests.RISK OF INJURYAgain deductions must be based on empirically similar sports. For example, within wrestling, injuries occur predominately at the knee, shoulder, and ankle (63). Within boxing, injury is more likely at the shoulder, elbow, wrist/hand, low back, and neck (30). This is corroborated by Cordes (20) who suggests that injury occurs primarily at the hand and wrist, followed by shoulder then elbow. However, the knee, ankle, leg, and foot are also at risk.The author is of the assumption that many of the athletes from whom these data were gathered were not undertaking efficacious S&C programs. With this assumption in mind, strength training may have reduced the incidence of these injuries through its positive adaptations on the structural integrity of all involved joints. For example, as well as an increase in muscle strength, tendon, ligament, and cartilage strength would also increase along with bone mineral density (35,37,92). Furthermore, boxers tend to use (and therefore develop) the anterior musculature more than the posterior (2), thereby leaving them exposed to muscle strains in the weaker muscles. S&C training can ensure the development and maintenance of proper ratios. Most significantly and pertinent to performance, increasing antagonist muscle strength may increase movement speed and accuracy of movement (62). This has been hypothesized to occur because of alterations in neural firing patterns, leading to a