To circumvent the limits of muscle, ultrafast movements achieve high power through the use of springs and latches. The timescale of these movements is too short for control through typical neuromuscular mechanisms, thus ultrafast movements are either invariant or are controlled prior to movement. We tested whether mantis shrimp (Stomatopoda: Neogonodactylus bredini) vary their ultrafast smashing strikes and, if so, how this control is achieved prior to movement. We collected high speed images of strike...