How to improve reaction time in sport

To be able to write, walk and to score a goal you need the same thing: a connection between your brain and your body in order to process the information and then react and carry out the actions. 

This connection is key when doing sport because if you don't have your brain and body trained as a whole, and you only have a prepared body, your reaction will be delayed, and you won't be able to get the most out of it. Do you want to know how to improve your reaction time?

At A-Champs we prioritize mind-body training to get the most out of your abilities. Keep reading to learn more!

 

What is reaction time?

To be a true expert in the world of sports and thus know how to improve reaction time, we first need to make clear what exactly is reaction time and how it works. 

Reaction time is often forgotten among human skills, and more specifically in sport. In fact, even its definition or the understanding of the term is often wrong. We can say that reaction time is the time interval between the presentation of a stimulus and the initiation of a response to that stimulus.

To understand how it works and thus, how to improve reaction time, we need to know that it depends on the Central Nervous System (CNS) who is in charge of noticing the inputs and giving the instructions from the brain to the extremities or mental responses. 

 

Why is it so important?

In order for us to act, we depend on the reaction time given by the CNS. In this way, even the smallest act that we humans carry out, such as scratching our nose, has to do with these types of cognitive reactions. 

This makes the most difference in the sports field, since when it comes to actions or games aimed at competition, the better the reaction time, the more advantages you will get against the opponent and the better you will perform.

Thus, knowing how to improve reaction time in a certain sport can provide a competitive advantage over the rest, as this quick reaction time can help an athlete respond to an opponent or game situation in milliseconds.

 

Which factors affect my reaction time

Since it is a reaction of the body to the inputs that the brain receives, in order to know how to improve the reaction time, it is very important to know what factors are determinant for it. 

So, before you know how to train your reaction time, you should know that your lifestyle, as well as your age, the amount of alcohol you consume, the amount of water you drink on a daily basis and the sports routine you follow, will directly affect your reaction time.

But don't worry, if you aren’t as fast as you wish to be right now, or if you see that your teammates’ reaction time is shorter than yours; at A-Champs, we have created an innovative technology that will help you increase your reaction time and achieve all your goals.

 

Why learn how to improve your reaction time

But do you think that knowing how to improve your reaction time is only going to help you become a better athlete and give you an advantage over your competition? 

The answer is no. Because it is something much more complex that affects every act that we carry out. Getting a good reaction time is also a very important aspect for health. Since it not only helps to improve mobility, but it can also prevent possible injuries that could have been significantly worse if it wasn’t for that quick reaction time.

 

7 tips on how to train reaction time in sport

Knowing how to improve reaction time is very important in sports. Nowadays, many elite athletes are becoming aware of the importance of speed and agility in terms of reaction time. As said before, it can be a great advantage against the team or the opposing user, depending on the sport you are focusing on. Here are some ways to improve reaction time and become a true elite athlete:

 

1. Do cognitive exercices

One of the techniques that most athletes are adopting and adapting to their training in recent years are the exercises focused on cognition. A technique that aims to train reaction time and challenge the brain to improve it through constant visual and auditory stimulation to the brain so that it responds as fast as possible. These exercises are very entertaining, since the brain understands it as a kind of repetition game.

 

2. Eat well

Another factor that helps if you want to know how to train reaction time is lifestyle in terms of nutrition. Research has shown that maintaining a healthy, balanced diet, rich in essential nutrients, can help maintain optimal cognitive function. 

This type of diet, which should be complemented with a good hydration follow-up, will make you feel more energetic and your body, along with your cognitive functions, will have enough energy to work perfectly as a whole.

 

3. Get a proper sleep hygiene

One of the most important tips to know how to make your reaction time faster, is to understand the importance of the quality of sleep you get, since keeping the brain rested is key for it to be able to generate quick responses. 

During sleep, the brain regenerates and recovers from daily wear and tear, as well as processing what it has learned during the waking hours. So keeping the brain and body rested will improve reaction time considerably.

 

4. Learn to meditate

On the same note, and to help you keep the brain rested and free of worries or external outputs that may affect the reaction time, we recommend a good meditation routine to maintain a good quality of life in terms of stress or worries that may affect concentration.

In addition to helping the improvement of reaction time, we must keep in mind that meditation can increase sensory awareness, which can improve the ability to detect and respond to external stimuli. Increased sensory awareness can help identify and respond to situations that may require a quick response.

 

5. Train specific physical exercises

In order to make your reaction time faster, it is important to maintain good training routines based on specific exercises to achieve a better reaction time. These exercises to improve reaction time will also help to increase cognitive processing speed and responsiveness.

Exercises such as coordination, agility or reaction are the most optimum type to train the brain and make it more agile. 

 

6. Pick a sport and practice

If you want to know how to improve your reaction time in a specific sport, it’s especially important to choose correctly what exercises you are going to focus on, in order to train and improve the skills required. In this way, you will be the one with the shortest reaction time in your field! 

Do you want to know how? Next, we’ll tell you all about how you can adapt your cognitive training to your sport in order to show you how to improve your reaction time.

 

Football training

The importance of reaction time in one of the sports par excellence is well known. You can have a great technique but, to be the best, you also need to have a fairly fast reaction time. If, after all your hard work and all the hours dedicated to your football training, you don’t react fast enough, your effort and capabilities won’t shine as they should. 

Modern football requires players to train these cognitive skills in order to be able to perceive, make decisions and react in an agile and efficient way on the field.

 

Squash training

If you want to get better at one of the sports that requires the fastest speed and agility, such as squash, you must have a good training focused on how to improve reaction time in order to be able to efficiently perform in this type of sport. 

Some of the skills to take into account when training cognition are speed, change of direction, cognitive mobility and reaction speed, among many others.

 

Boxing training

Boxing is a very sacrificial training because, in order to obtain victory, the brain and the body must be perfectly in sync, since you must not only have a good control of the eye-hand reaction time, but also with eye-leg.

 

Hockey training

The mind-body connection is one of the protagonists also in sports such as field hockey, as it requires players to perceive, process and react quickly to external information.

Some of the specific cognitive-motor skills that field hockey requires are: 

• Perception
• Focus
• Decision-making
• Reaction speed
• Agility
• Spatial awareness

 

Fitness training

To achieve the activation of movement and the set of exercises that include the fitness world, it’s essential to have good agility and a good and fast reaction capacity. More functional exercises can help build a better athlete profile and the connection between the brain and the body will increase.

 

7. Download the A-Champs App and learn how to increase your reaction time

At A-Champs we are aware that sport goes beyond a simple training session or a game, we believe in performance at a higher level, maintaining a connection between the brain and the body, thus creating an optimal reaction time. 

That is why, we have created an innovative technology based on exercises designed on the concept of perceiving, processing and reacting through cognitive stimuli that will turn you into a true elite athlete. Download our free app on the App Store or Google Play and start training with our programs, you will see the difference in no time. 

 

Final thoughts

As you have seen, learning how to improve reaction time is absolutely beneficial in many areas if you are a training athlete, but not only that, it can also bring benefits in your everyday life.

Our method, combined with the tips above, will help you achieve your goals in a healthy and structured way. We take pride in our way of doing things, and if you want to learn more about how this is the best way to learn how to increase reaction time, we invite you to take a look at the science behind our project. 

Are you ready to improve your reaction time?