Ali Shuffle - Agility Ladder Drill

This page provides details for the agility ladder drill known as the Ali Shuffle. This agility exercise uses an agility ladder drill in order to improve an athlete's student's agility, footwork, speed, etc. In this agility ladder drill, the martial artist stands sideways to the ladder (versus facing straight forward at the ladder). The martial artist will "shuffle" his feet in and out of the ladder as he moves laterally along the ladder. Below are a couple of instructional videos as well as a video that shows Muhammad Ali performing the original Ali shuffle.

The ability to move laterally and diagonally is useful in martial arts sparring in order to avoid an opponent's attack and position yourself for an effective counterattack. However, if you can not do it with speed, you will find the counterattack "opening" will have closed before you could launch your strike.

For more agility drills, please visit the main Martial Arts Agility or Agility Ladder Drills sections.