Muhammad Ali is recognised as one of the greatest boxers of all time. This is worthy tag given Ali’s achievements inside the ring being a four- time universally recognised Heavyweight Champion of the World. But Ali’s eventual popularity was gained primarily for his accomplishments outside of the ring; coming from a minority and demonstrating an individualism and self-belief which was unprecedented. Ali transcended sport in the same way of a Michael Jordan, or a Tiger Woods.

However, given Ali’s overall portrait of a person, one must not forget what a great athlete this man was. I personally have never seen a natural heavyweight with the athletic capabilities that a prime Ali possessed. Roy Jones Jr may have had superman athletic abilities at heavyweight; however he was undersized and coming from an initial natural weight of 160lb (middleweight). It has been said many times that Ali possessed the power and size of a heavyweight, with the speed, movement and agility of a lightweight. What a sight it was.

When taking a look at a prime Muhammad Ali one can pencil in his four main athletic attributes as being agility, speed, coordination, endurance and power.

Agility
Ali possessed a valuable asset for a heavyweight in the ability to avoid punches by keeping a comfortable range from his opponent. This was done in the form of lateral and in and out movement, with changes in direction within a split second. Ali was also able to move remarkably well for a man his size from the waist, bobbing a weaving away from punches. With large men trying to chase him down, many times Ali was able to wear his opponent down from the mere hunt. Additionally, much of Ali’s reaction time – an important athletic quality – was made possible due to his great agility.

Speed
Undoubtedly Ali’s most recognisable attribute was his hand and foot speed. Given Ali’s ethnic background as a black African American he had a genetic pre-disposition towards fast twitch muscle fibres; therefore giving him the ability to create tremendous hand and foot speed. Given that Ali was a heavyweight, a man who weighted over 200 pounds, it was of significant advantage to have such speed against the much slower opponents. Additionally, it must be noted that Ali’s handspeed was both in the form of the sniper like one to three punch combinations, as well as the nonstop punching of a sustained attack. Ali’s handspeed was the combination of a Roy Jones Jr meets Jeff Fenech.

Coordination
An asset often over looked in many sports is coordination; the ability to process movements with a signal coming from the brain which is then sent to the skeletal muscles to create the required movement. Coordination is the symmetry of movement. Recognised by golfers - although labelled as touch and feel- coordination is often what sets apart elite athletes from the also rans, especially boxers. Ali had tremendous coordination. He could be mistaken as a competition dancer in the ring, with movement seemly scripted. This great neural efficiency made all the necessary required movement easy for Ali to attain victory on many occasions.

Endurance
At the start of Ali’s career his great endurance was characterised by his ability to maintain the three above listed attributes over a long period of time during the course of a fight, making them even more significant. But after his three year forced layoff due to rejecting drafting into the United States Military to fight in the Vietnam War – and the subsequent legal proceedings, it was Ali’s resilience in absorbing punishment from his opponent which stood him apart. For good or bad, it was this endurance that allowed Ali to still implement the great speed and coordination he still showed, even in stationary positions and after receiving such punishing blows from his opponents. The classic example of this was his bout against the feared George Foreman, labelled as the Rumble in the Jungle, taking place in Zaire, Africa. Ali surprised all by laying on the ropes against the power punching and much larger reigning champion Foreman. Fighting in sweltering heat Ali wore out Foreman who was unable to stop Ali, despite a large overall punch volume. In the eighth round Ali was able to come back and eventually display a smooth and beautifully coordinated combination of punches which dropped Foreman to the canvas. Foreman was counted out, and Ali - thanks to his great endurance - was able to reclaim the title.

Power
Ali’s power was generated through a combination of speed, coordination and strength. Ali was trained by legendary trainer Angelo Dundee, and was heavily influenced early in his career by Sugar Ray Robinson, consequently Ali was an exponent of what we now term as old school training; long early morning runs, high volume of sparring, heavy bag work and bodyweight exercises. We now know through modern science that neural and therefore muscle strength is gained by lifting a progressively overloaded weight (changing frequency, intensity, time or type) with compound or multi-joint movements in the repetition range of 1 to 6 at moderate to slow speed with breaks between sets of up to five minutes. This training structure allows for the body to make adaptations in the increased efficiency of fast twitch muscle fibre recruitment. Ali completed none of this style of weight training, and the bodyweight exercises he would have completed would have achieved nothing more than increased muscular endurance – despite at the time popular belief. It could be stated that Ali’s strength was primarily genetic, however I believe that much of his strength – and therefore power – was gained from using the heavy bag. Utilising the heavy bag is not seen as an efficient way to increase strength in modern training; however I believe that Ali is a classic example of the strength and power – not to mention chiselled physique- that working the heavy bag can achieve.

Muhammad Ali can be considered one of the greatest athletes across all sporting genre in modern history. His achievements inside the ring undoubtedly characterise this, especially a three year lay-off in the middle of his career which could have been seen as his best years as an athlete.

I personally consider Ali to be a benchmark of what makes a supreme athlete. His athletic attributes lay the platform for athletes and coaches – across all sports – to design and implement programs which create superior sporting performance. Additionally, these same athletic qualities can be applied to fitness enthusiast seeking weight-loss and improved general conditioning.

Muhammad Ali set the bar high in athletic performance. It is part of his legacy which is a gift to us all to acknowledge and learn from these physical attributes.