Reaction Time Drills

[Throwdown0850]

Hello all, I apologize if I have posted this before but I have been away from the forums for a bit. I would like to hear some reaction time drills that you guys do, rather it be putting on boxing gloves and doing evasion techniques, whatever it is, I am open to all types.

[JusticeZero]

Well, when you're talking "reaction time", for the most part what you're really trying to address is awareness, decisiveness, and physical ability to react.

Awareness comes of learning to pay attention to more and more awareness of what details to pick up on - more experience, mirroring people are the main things to do there.

Decisiveness - avoiding "brown belt syndrome" is big here. Tighten up the number of primary techniques that you use by drilling a few of them them more and expanding on what they work for.

Physical ability to react - you need to wire in technique and strength here. More reps with full intention for strength, technique is best developed by drilling the movements at taiji slowness until they are fully understood and the level of competence goes up - slow movements build technical skill rapidly.

[bushido_man96]

I agree with using slower, more deliberate movements to help develop reactionary skills. I think that as you progress, increasing the speed and spontanaiety of the drill gets you to where you want to be.

I'll give a good TKD example; countering the back leg round kick with a spin back kick. Basically, we'll start out in an open stance, which means both sparrers have the opposite leg in back; one's fighting orthodox, and the other is southpaw. The attacker will throw a back leg round kick, at slower than game speed, and the defender will counter with the spin back kick. The goal here is for the defender to recognize the body shifts that come with the delivery of the back leg round kick, and as the defender sees them, he spins and counters with the spin back kick.

You can begin at the very basics by making this a block-and-counter drill. This stage is good for giving the defender time to take in all of the physical cues of the round kick attack. But, it is not a true "reaction" drill, in my eyes. Yes, the block is a reaction, but the goal is to defend/attack at the same time, not defend-then-attack. So, you try to move on to the defender seeing the shoulder movement, or the leg chambering, so that he works up to beginning the spin back kick before the round kick has reached its target. From there, you can move on to variations of the round kick, and setting up the counter from closed off stances, etc.

[Throwdown0850]

Thank you for the replies, I feel like such a newby cause almost all of my MA training has been Judo but for the time being I am going to focus a lot on my defense game ie blocks, Parrys (sp?) evasive techniques and such. I liked the kick counter technique, bushido.

[bushido_man96]

Thanks, Throwdown. The idea behind the drill is pretty basic, and once you understand the setup, you can really apply it to different techniques on both sides. Experiment, and see what you find...

[tallgeese]

There are some good core ideas to work from in the Jun Fan/Jeet kune Do Textbook that would be a good place to start. Near the rear in "Essintail Qualities" if memory serves.

[DWx]

I agree with JusticeZero and bushido_man96 in that its not reaction as such but learning to recognise the signs of an attack and then respond appropriately.

One drill we do to get people to be quicker on the draw with a technique is to get someone with a thai pad (or similar) and have them put it on their forearm. You then face off and "spar". Both people can move about and hold a guard but only the person with the pad can attack. The other person can only block and dodge and is only allowed to attack with a predetermined technique when the person moves their arm to the appropriate place. So for instance, the "defender" can only throw roundhouses and they can only do it when the person with the pad moves their arm to stomach level. Its an ok drill for getting you to react to stuff and kick/strike faster but it trains you to react to the wrong signs; you're reacting to arm rather than an opening.

[Throwdown0850]

I meant combat related.

[JusticeZero]

All of the things I saw described had at least some combat relation; what did you mean by that last comment exactly?

[Throwdown0850]

All of the things I saw described had at least some combat relation; what did you mean by that last comment exactly?

I said that because my thread name is "reaction time drills" and I meant more of a combat related exercise, you and the other posters didnt do anything wrong, it was my mistake. so it was to not cause anymore confusion for the future posters on this thread.