What is the worst NHRA reaction time?

Reaction time?

• Hey guys! In your opinion, how many days a week can an athlete spend developing reaction time (if he has REALLY poor reaction time)? Is 6 days a week the fastest way to improve (taking the 7th day off for a complete physical and psychological rest), until reaction time improves? Or is less better, due to more recovery time? *i.e. perhaps 3 days a week with a day of rest between reaction time drills* Any feedback will be highly appreciated. Thanks!

• Answer:

  You've asked for feedback, so I'll do my best. There are basically 2 types of reaction time: One is 'simple reaction' time; the other is "choice reaction" time. Generally simple reaction time could be associated with "closed sports" activities. In these types of activities, you basically have to be "blessed" with an efficient body system. These types include reacting to a starter gun in a race. It is hard to train for improvement. In the more open activities, such as a hockey game, or football, there are lots of changing factors about which a choice must be made, when disposing of the ball or other device. But there are also reaction times that involve learning to better and more efficienty access possession of a ball, etc. Much in these situations re reaction time can be trained for and improved. Personally, in terms of 'how often', I think as my experience shows, that as long as you are still enjoying your 'exercises' for improvement, and you are still making and finding them novel and motivating, I think even 5 or 6 times per week is quite as good as any format. It depends ... it depends on when it starts to become "labor" on your part, because once your motivation tires, you can start to affect your performance negatively. So, if your mind and body are fit, and you have a strong inner desire for constant improvement, you can train quite regularly, and maintain or keep improving your performance, provided you mix up the nature of your activity ... and if you are both mentally and physically still motivated, your body will also likely be less susceptible to injury - due to the stress that is associated with repetitive activities. But one thing that can even help that too is to constantly change and engineer new ideas into the specific training activity ... move it around. Keep coming up with new ideas and new challenges; this will allow you to tain more often without injury, etc. Now, I am not sure exactly what sports you are wanting to improve for ... but I used to improve response times by bouncing balls in dirt and stony territory; then you have to respond quickly to the unexpected. Also, oval footballs [American, rugby, Australian]: smack them up against a brick wall, etc., and try to capture them as quickly as possible; you also learn to "read" the bounces of the balls. Another is to learn to 'read the play' during actual matches. Funnily enough, I learned that learning to think about others and learning to think empathetically, and learning to 'see a situation' from another's viewpoint, were exceptionally helpful skills, even in various open sports and balls games ... and as I see you have an interest in combat sports, these latter approaches certainly also help even in those types of activities, but you could cut yourself up an obstacle course also for martial arts