8 Tips To Improve Your Mental And Physical Reaction Time
For video game professionals or high performance athletes, the response time they can have is what makes the difference between success and failure. In that vein, tips to improve your reaction time are useful in multiple ways.
To start, the reaction time —also called RT or TR— is defined as the period or period in which the response is prolonged after a stimulus. This outcome has as its main protagonist the central nervous system, which receives sensory data and sends it to the brain.
On the other hand, reaction should not be confused with reflection. And the first is a voluntary movement that can be perfected with practice. Meanwhile, the reflex is an involuntary, immediate and instinctive act of mobility.
What can reaction time depend on?
To determine the best way to increase your physical and mental reaction time, the fundamental pillar is to know the factors that surround the whole process. Thus, the following components have a direct impact on the response speed:
- Perception: it is related to the reception of stimuli such as hearing, seeing and feeling. The greater the security in perception, the reaction time will be shorter.
- Processing: the concentration that is achieved to assimilate and understand the environment causes the signals to be answered with greater speed. This consists of the precise understanding of the activity that is being carried out.
- Answer: it is associated with agility and motor lightness. However, this point is largely conditioned by the performance of the previous two.
In addition to this, other elements that make reaction time variable are age, the difficulty exhibited by the stimulus, prior knowledge of the activity, hydration, general health and the type of stimulus (visual, auditory or sensitive. ).
5 tips to improve your mental reaction time in video games
If you are looking for a substantial increase in mental reaction time for video games, discipline and patience are aspects that should not be lacking. Likewise, the application of these 5 tips allows improvement in performance.
1. Hands warming
Hands are the best ally of gamers – together with the eye – and preserving them at a warm temperature translates into greater mobility. In other words, the maximum speed is reached in the cellular oscillation that favors the sensory response.
Therefore, it is preferable to have a warm environment in the playing space or, failing that, to implement comfortable gloves that do not impair freedom of movement.
2. Recurring practice
Practice makes a master. In this case, repetition triggers a higher reaction rate. Why? Well, as the perception of the activity and the processing are optimized, automation is created in the responses.
Besides this, it becomes a good idea to practice as many scenarios as possible.
3. Add quality equipment
When you reach professional status and practice has brought you to a preeminent level, the feasible way to improve reaction time is with the use of top-quality equipment. Undoubtedly, this measure supposes a high amount of money.
The two neuralgic considerations in choosing the new plugins are Hz (update of the image on the monitor per second) and input delay (time from when the command is sent using the controller until the game recognizes it).
4. Relaxation
The sharpening of each captured stimulus that comes from the environment is connected with the tranquility that one has. Therefore, relaxation techniques, regular meditation, and breathing exercises are effective in reducing reaction time dramatically.
5. Sufficient rest
The necessary rest of each person in relation to their age is a promoter of cognitive functioning. In that sense, complying with a sleep schedule that accommodates between 7 and 9 hours a day will have favorable consequences when playing video games.
3 tips to improve your physical reaction time in sports
Some of the tips above are adaptable to sports. However, we leave 3 specific recommendations that, used correctly, lead to a shorter reaction time.
1. Work peripheral vision
In contact sports it is an inexorable requirement to have a wide range of vision. Therefore, what we know as peripheral vision must be worked on.
To achieve this, the trick is to fix objects that are within 180 degrees that are covered, so that the ability to act against obstacles is exercised.
2. Diet that includes tyrosine
Foods rich in tyrosine are a great option, because this amino acid has the particularity of improving the communication of the brain with the muscles. In short, anything that saves time to execute a movement is good news in our objective.
Among the foods that can be chosen are eggs, spinach, avocado, banana, chicken, sesame seeds, butternut squash seeds and milk, among others.
3. Irregular career
Improving reaction time in sports is a task that requires adapting to new scenarios in a short period of time. Therefore, improvisation and speed in the analysis is decisive. How do you get it? One of the easiest ways is by racing in uneven areas or terrain.
The fact of not knowing what awaits you in the next step is a condition that forces you to think quickly and react as soon as possible. Practice should be done conscientiously so that no injury from wrong movement occurs.
Mental and physical reaction time can be improved
Along with applying the aforementioned tips, it is recommended to evaluate reaction time with exercises, such as preventing an object from falling and measuring the height at which it was caught. As for the period, a standard reference for human reaction is between 200 and 300 milliseconds.
Regular training causes results to appear, but it is not an immediate process. In fact, it usually requires several sessions to feel a greater evolution. Finally, eliminate alcohol from your habits if you really want to improve. Reaction to!
