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Serena Williams

Innocent Choga Fitness
Speed is one of the most exciting fitness components in athletes that thrills spectators in all sports.

It is required in many sports, and like any other fitness component it is inherent, but it can also be acquired through training. Speed relates to the time it takes one to react to a stimulus and the quickness of the movement of limbs. Speed is determined by the type of fibres one’s body is composed of and the type of training one does.

The size of the body has often been regarded as an enhancing or limiting factor in the acquisition of speed. Contrary to the usual belief that muscle slows you down, muscles enhance speed.

There is a co-relation between muscularity and speed, however there are break-even points after which too much mass will start to slow the athlete down and too low levels of fat will also result in the negative state. The ideal situation is that of having the right levels of body fat, as well as the appropriate levels of fat free muscle mass carried by strong bones. This is necessary for high performance.

A bulky built is usually mistaken for muscles. The absence of a stomach bulge does not necessarily mean fat levels are low; the physique has to be detailed. Muscles are not heavier than fat, but muscle is more dense, for example a pound of muscle occupies less space than a pound of fat.

Muscularity implies the metabolism is efficient, so the system can efficiently use food for energy and vitality. A muscular individual will actually burn fat even whilst resting.

Apart from laboratory tests, the test for muscularity and fat levels can be a simple cursory glance. The veins on the forehead (can be misleading as a lone criterion) plus, the sinewy forearms and defined calves as well as the detailed midsection can reveal whether one is lean or not.

Cornelius Piroro a Physical Educationalist and sports coach said “the harmony between speed, balance and technique can only be achieved from the early stages of athletes’ development. These movements require a mix of aerobic and anaerobic energy that activates both slow and fast twitching muscles.

Such a complex system combines interrelated aspects of speed, balance, coordination and power. Perfecting the sports skills would be another extremely difficult and lengthy process”.

He added, “Adopted training activities should properly mix with the core sporting discipline and improve the athletes’ ability to use speed effectively in their sports.”

Usain Bolt

Athletes like Serena Williams, Usain Bolt and Christiano Ronaldo, Mohammed Ali and Bruce Lee have proven that muscularity aids speed. Today, we shall not talk about these usually referred to athletes, but Roy Jones Junior.

During one such discussion DJ Kelly urged me to make a research on underrated pugilist Roy Jones Junior who to him is the best boxer, considering his prime time feats. That proved to be a revelation to me. I am not qualified to rank him but I can vouch for the fact, as many people do, that in his prime time his abilities as an athlete were outstanding.

He possessed exceptional speed, power, reflexes, precision, suppleness, athleticism, and movement. He is the only boxer in the world to start his career as a light middle weight and end up in the heavyweight ranks. He holds six time world championships across four divisions.

He was muscular, lean and super fast. You dared not blink whilst watching him in action for you would miss a knockout hook. Nicknamed “Captain Hook”, he could throw five hooks in rapid succession with his left hand, all within a second. One commentator thought it was necessary to warn his opponents that “speed kills”.

“When they can’t keep up with me then they can’t beat me,” Jones bragged.

After Charles Manyuchi’s last fight a lot of people were saying that Manyuchi’s demise was brought about by showboating, but because of his blinding speed and quick reflexes, Roy Jones could afford to get away with showboating comfortably. He could throw blows at awkward angles. It was not just a matter of how many blows he threw, but the blows also hurt because he was powerful. At one time he broke an opponent’s ribs.

Some of his antics were to box, run away from the opponent, dance in circles around the opponent, do the Ali shuffle, lunge or leap back and punish the opponent.

The long range of motion of the hooks combined with the lunging and leaping had devastating effects. The leaping and lunging alone provided power, add the left hooks and his opponents would go down.

These tactics and his victory most muscular pose were derived from rooster fighting. His father was his first trainer since the age of six and they kept a lot of roosters at home for this purpose.

In one fight he had his hand behind his back, taunted his opponent and the next thing the opponent was on the canvass trying to figure out from whence the blow came from.

The distance this hand travelled created such devastating power.

Roy also had precision; he would hit his mark more often than miss. Like Ali, he could also dance in the ring; boxing experts say he was “poetry in motion” because of his mastery of movement.

They say he was a Miles Davis and a Picasso of boxing. An accomplished musician and a skilful basketball player, if he did not feel like boxing he would work out by playing basketball.

At one time he played a basketball game before a fight.

Counting the fitness components this guy was blessed with and those he acquired from the numerous activities he participated in, it is understandable why some boxing experts argue that whilst Ali was the greatest Roy was the best.

He is still fighting at an old age of 48 but naturally he has lost some of the traits that made him great. These feats seemed easy for him because he was muscular and lean.

If you want to be fast and powerful attain a body composition with a high percentage of lean mass and low fat.

Innocent Choga is a six time National Bodybuilding Champion with international experience. He is studying for a science degree in Physical Education and Sport