The purpose of this study was to find the most effective movement pattern from three different types of preparatory movement(squat, countermovement and hopping) in sideward responsive propulsion task, which had the time constraint to complete the performance. 7 healthy subjects participated in left and right side movement task by an external signal, which required the subject to perform the task as fast as possible. Mechanical output and joint kinetics focusing on the lower extremities were analyzed. The results were as follows. In spite of the shortest duration in propulsive phase, the hopping condition showed no difference with other conditions in the work output done and take-off velocity. It resulted from the greatest power output generated during the propulsive phase. A significant difference was found for joint moment and joint power according to the movement conditions. The joint moment and joint power for the countermovement and hopping conditions were larger than those in the squat condition. This was speculated to be due to the extra power that could be generated by the pre-stretch of muscle in preparation for the propulsion. The hopping condition which had substantially more pre-stretch load in the preparatory eccentric phase produced considerably more power than countermovement condition in the propulsive concentric phase. Furthermore during the hopping a large amount of joint moment and joint power could be produced in a shorter time. Therefore it was deemed that the hopping movement is an effective type of preparatory movement which takes much more advantage of the pre-stretch than any other movement.