How to train reflexes

[MizuRyu]

I have an exercise that I LOVE... you can do it anywhere and it's easy.

All you have to do is keep your hands near your hips.. in your peripheral vision, and throw something from one hand to the other w/o focusing on it. Focus on a point ahead and try and track the thing you're throwing with your peripheral vision and catch it. Throw it at high arc low speed, low arc high speed... etc. Be sure to throw things of different weights and air resistances... anything you can find really. My favorite items are a little stress ball I carry around, my keys, pencils, and balls of paper.

[Anbu Alex]

man that is hard i like it

[ki master]

for a start blow some bubbles and pop them with your hands not letting them touch you.

Also get someone to swing a pole at you and when they say right move right.

when they say dunk dunk.when they say jump jump. you get what im saying. then after some practice just let them swing at you. then gradually get faster and faster with it.

[KamasandSais]

i had an instructor once who would get like 15 tennis balls and would selct 2 people two throw them at the person. the goal was to dodge them or catch them. it was fun and in sparring it made most people much faster

[lordtariel]

I've done a couple of drills lately. One you hold a wodden dowel or bean bag in your hand fully extended in front of you. You let it go and punch with the other arm, trying to catch the object before it falls. Another good one is to turn on a TV. Every time the camera angle changes you throw an attack. There's a ton of footwork drills that'll increase your speed as well, but they are difficult for me to explain without being able to show. Running backwords is a good way to work on your perhiprial vision as well.

[Mistassailant5]

Grounded reflex bags are helpful for reflexes

[Kensei723]

My father, being a former Navy SEAL, had a rather effective way to train my reflexes and overall awareness. He would periodically strike me with a small thin reed (not enough to hurt, just get my attention) or if I seemed on my game that day, he would have one of his friends do it. Over the 12 years that this went on my awareness and reflexes multiplied ten fold.

[Lee M]

Some nice drills shared thanks!

[ShotokanKid]

This is pretty cool to see a thread I started back when I was in high school resurface. I like some of the ideas I see here. Thanks everyone.

[bushido_man96]

It is a good thread idea. Cool to see something like this still active, isn't it!

One thing I would mention, is that to work reflexes, you are going to need some kind of stimuli. After all, a reflex action is based off another action, so choose a good stimuli to react to for your exercises.