Reaction Time Training

This page is for players to focus on improving their reaction times.

This is important for goalies and people taking the draw certainly. Girls on the draw circle can really benefit from this as well since the speed of your reaction on the circle very much determines if you win control. Just about every aspect of the game can be influenced by your ability to have a faster reaction time than your opponent. A split second is all that you need.

There is an old saying: "You don't have to be faster than the bear, just faster than your friend."

So try the reaction time tester. Try it a couple of times. Take your best average and submit it below. Read the article below and see if you can improve your average. I think you will find that with the right frame of mind you can be faster than your friend and that could save your life.




http://www.gamefudge.com/Reaction-Time-Trainer

Reaction Time

Reaction time itself is an inherent ability, but overall response time can be improved by practice. Coach and athletes need to analyse the type of skill and the requirements of their sport and decide where overall response gains can be made. Consider the following:

  • Detecting the cue - in a sprint start, focusing on the starter's voice and the sound of the gun and separating this from background crowd noise and negative thoughts
  • Detecting relevant cues - a goalkeeper learning to analyse body language at penalties
  • Decision making - working on set pieces and game situations
  • Change in attention focus - being able to switch quickly from concentration on the opponent to concentration on the field of play in invasion games
  • Controlling anxiety - which slows reaction times by adding conflicting information
  • Creating optimum levels of motivation - 'psyching up'
  • Warm up - to ensure the sense organs and nervous system are ready to transmit information and the muscles to act upon it

Anticipation

Anticipation is a strategy used by athletes to reduce the time they take to respond to a stimulus e.g. the tennis player who anticipates the type of serve the opponent will use (spatial or event anticipation). In this case, the player has learnt to detect certain cues early in the serving sequence that predicts the potential type of serve. This means the player can start to position himself or herself for the return earlier in the sequence than usual and thus give themselves more time to play the shot when the ball arrives. Obviously, there are dangers for the tennis player in anticipating in this way but the advantages of getting it right are great.

Factors influencing response time

Response time is the sum of reaction time plus movement time. Factors that may influence the performer's response are:

  • Gender and age (see figure opposite)
  • Stage of learning
  • Psychological state
  • Level of fitness
  • Number of possible responsesReaction Graph
  • Time available
  • Intensity of the stimuli
  • Anticipation
  • Experience
  • Health
  • Body Temperature - colder the slower
  • Personality - extroverts react quicker
  • State of alertness
  • Length of neural pathways