Rate of Fore Development powerThe rate of force development (RFD) is a measure of explosive strength, or simply how fast an athlete can develop force. Athletes with higher rates of force development have been shown to perform better during numerous physical performance tests. This, therefore, highlights the potential importance this value has in the role of athletic development. Whilst many forms of training have been shown to improve the rate of force development in untrained individuals, only resistance and ballistic training have shown to enhance this quality in trained athletes. Lastly, though there are multiple ways to measure the rate of force development, the time-interval sampling windows appear to be the most reliable.The rate of force development (RFD) is a measure of explosive strength, or simply how fast an athlete can develop force – hence the ‘rate’ of ‘force development’. This is defined as the speed at which the contractile elements of the muscle can develop force (1). Therefore, improving an athlete’s RFD may make them more explosive as they can develop larger forces in a shorter period of time. Developing a more explosive athlete may improve their sporting performance. In fact, higher RFDs have been directly linked with better jump (2-8), sprint (9), cycling (10), weightlifting (5, 6), and even golf swing performances (11).The RFD is commonly believed to be manifested during the stretch-shortening cycle (SSC). Depending upon the duration of the stretch-shortening cycle (SSC), exercises are classified as either slow- (≥250 milliseconds) or fast-SSC (≤250 milliseconds) movements (12). For example, a countermovement jump (CMJ) is classified as a slow-SSC movement as the duration of the SSC lasts approximately 500 milliseconds (3). On the other hand, sprinting is classified as a fast-SSC movement as the duration of the SSC lasts between 80-90 milliseconds (13). Table 1 displays the SSC durations of some common exercises.