How Can I Improve My Reaction Time?

[5Shot]

I posed this question to Brian and this was the response:

Are there any specific ways to improve reaction time (to the buzzer) or is practice the best means?

Any books or videos that deal with that specific subject?

I have read your book, which is helping in other areas, but I find that when I am doing my dry fire practice that I am not really "focused" as you describe in your book. I get to thinking while waiting for the buzzer - "should I focus on the buzzer or the target?" As a result, my reaction is poor.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

John

You accurately described the problem. If you're truly "waiting" - you cannot be thinking. If you're thinking about anything at all, you will always be slow to respond. So you must train you brain to know what it feels like to "just wait." Or just be watching. Have your pre-draw routine firmly ingrained BEFORE you push the timer's start button: You've checked everything, you're looking at the target, you push the start button, which triggers you to bring your focus back to where your sights are going to appear - and all you are doing is waiting to see them appear. Period. Don't think when you should be observing.

This would be a good question to share with everyone.

be

Brian -

After reading your response again, I have to ask for a little clarification.

When I am truly "waiting" and only focusing on where I want the sights to appear (my first target) - how do I make sure that my Audio Awareness is peaked for the upcoming buzzer?

Is that something that just comes with practice?

Thanks,

5Shot

[Loves2Shoot]

If there is nothing else in your brain the buzzer will be the first thing there.

If you have other things in the way, ie. desire, fear, anticipation, the sound of the buzzer has to get around that before it registers. That my take anyways.

[5Shot]

If there is nothing else in your brain the buzzer will be the first thing there.

If you have other things in the way, ie. desire, fear, anticipation, the sound of the buzzer has to get around that before it registers. That my take anyways.

Ahhhh, I see.......no, hear!

5Shot

[HSMITH]

I don't know a whole lot about anything, but I will share my version.

You will know when you are really tuned in to nothing, you might even draw and shoot on the buzzer in the next bay over. The conversations going on behind you, the shooting in another bay, all of that just stops when the RO says 'stand by'. For me, and I am damn near deaf, the buzzer could be two bays down.

When he says 'stand by' just relax and know that you know what to do when the buzzer sounds. The other sounds will fade out. Be INTENSELY focused on exactly the spot where the first bullet will land on the first target, but without thought. Just burn a hole into that spot with your eyes, nothing more.

The first time I saw/heard/realized what I needed to do I was just standing there and all of a sudden my sights were aligned on the first target and I had not thought about anything, I looked at them and didn't really know what to do. No one yelled stop, so I started shooting, it was totally in slow motion in my mind. Flubbed the stage since I didn't know if I should be shooting or not was in my mind the whole time, but it was my first sub one second draw in a match. I realized on the way home that I wasn't really thinking about anything, I had a solid plan for the stage, knew what I was going to do and was just waiting to let it happen. It happend, luckily for me, pretty early in my ipsc shooting but at the same time it scared the hell out of me to purely 'react'.

Confidence in HOW and WHAT you are going to do during the course of fire was a real key for me. Without that confidence I don't think I would have been able to just sit back and wait for things to happen. When I don't have that confidence I am not able to clear my mind at the 'stand by' command. When I have a solid plan that I trust to get what my ability level allows me to get I have a good reaction time and a good draw, when I don't I can add a couple tenths to my time before the buzzer even sounds.

Really cool things happen when you don't try to make really cool things happen. That is the hardest part of this whole thing, trying often makes it worse. Trust and confidence does more than a railcar load of trying.

[XRe]

Here's a simple drill to get you hearing "quickly". I'm kind of surprised someone hasn't mentioned it, yet. You need a buddy and a timer.

Load up, and point the gun downrange - you don't actually need a target for this dril, but use one, if you like. Have your buddy give you a standby, and then a beep. At standby, prep the trigger to take up pre-travel, etc. At the beep, break the shot as fast as possible. Do several times, trying to improve each time - you will have to hear and react to the front edge of the beep. You'd like to eventually get your times below, say, .20.

Now, take that focus, and start working on other skills - go back to this drill occasionally to work it, and see where you're at, etc...

[j2fast]

you will have to hear and react to the front edge of the beep.

This is something that I've related to my shooting that I learned during my years in school running hurdles to my years of coaching that followed. I trained religiously to listen for the beginning of the crack of the starters pistol. On the track part of this training was having someone stand about 12-15 feet behind my blocks with a penny. They issue the verbal commands and then instead of firing a pistol would drop the penny from waste high. My goal was to break from the blocks at the sound of the penny first hitting the track not the subsequent bounce(s).

For dry-fire practice I use the simulated timer with par times from Matt Burkett's site and turn the volume down as low as posible with it still being audible. Once I hit the range the real timer is obviously much louder and I'm catch the front edge of the beep (at least I'm trying too).

[Bigbadaboom]

I had an epiphany in this area of my shooting and when I realized it and started meditating and working on it my draw times sank into the sub 1.0's.

It came to me one morning when waking up to my alarm clock. My alarm clock went off and I awoke and hit the snooze button at 5:30 and 1 sec.. I had reacted to the alarm in under 2 secs. from a dead sleep.

Think about this: Have you ever had your alarm clock go off while you were in the middle of a dream and you heard the alarm in your dream and it took you a while to recognize that it was the alarm. This is because your mind is preoccupied and it has to compute the alarm into all the other data going on there, but when your alarm goes off while you are in a sound sleep with your mind clear you wake right up and react to it. This is because you have no other data going on so your mind doesn't have to think "around" anything else.

This realization told me to stop training to react to the timer and start training to clear my mind after L.A.M.R..

Edited March 3, 2006 by Bigbadaboom

[JFD]

I love Loves2Shoot's answer.

I have always been slower (draws) in practice compared to matches. I read how everyone else (it seems like it anyway) is faster in practice than they are in a match, and it's always frustrated me.

At a match I make my plan in advance, then just wait for the "beep" so I can implement the plan. No need to think about it, I just focus on the first target once I hear "standby". In practice I'm thinking about all kinds of crap, and hope that's what slows me down.

I've shot several super short round count stages in IDPA and outlaw matches where my total time for the stage was faster than my draw in practice (rarely lower than 1.4 seconds - seems to be reaction time more than mechanics).

[Bruce]

I don't want to complicate this but do have an observation based more on other sporting things I have done than shooting

I think one of the most overlooked aspects of preparing for a sporting event is training yourself to get ready to be ready. One cannot just walk out of a life filled with static, noise, problems, bad drivers, travel woes, etc., and BAM automatically be ready for an event that requires a mind focused on nothing---which is where the best reaction times come from.

I found my ability to really be sharp was in direct proportion to how I got ready, ie., how I warmed up. To me there was several reasons to warm up---to the point of having a good sweat going. One, for muscle purposes, ie., prevent injury. Two (and most important here) was to slowly get the mind down to it, so to speak. My focus went from the very broad (crowd, gear, travel, registration, etc) sloooooooowly down to the narrow: Just doing what I was there to do. Once I came to terms with it, and with terms of how to get where I needed to be, I did far less freaking and just kinda relaxed into it. I think it is important to understand that there is a process to reaching a point...and you just have to become friends with the process. Trust it, and yourself.

[5Shot]

Thanks for all the tips - I am going to try the reaction time drill that XRe suggests to help on that end of things.

As for getting things going on the Starting Line - I am going to absorb all of the other suggestions made and turn them into better shooting! I hope that doing specific drills for each area that needs improvement will culminate in better reaction at the buzzer. My focus will now be on the first target and nothing else. If my drills work, every aspect of my shooting should benefit. I guess that gets back to the TRUST/CONFIDENCE issue.

Thanks again,

5Shot

Edited March 3, 2006 by 5Shot

[benos]

5shot,

I'm glad you posted that - you got some great responses!

[XRe]

I think one of the most overlooked aspects of preparing for a sporting event is training yourself to get ready to be ready.

+1 !!!

Once I came to terms with it, and with terms of how to get where I needed to be, I did far less freaking and just kinda relaxed into it. I think it is important to understand that there is a process to reaching a point...and you just have to become friends with the process. Trust it, and yourself.

And everyone's way is a little bit different - so you have to find your own... but it helps to know what others have done, and maybe try some of them out, and you'll get there.

What Scott says is very true - if your mind is clear, it will be very sharp to react. What I've noticed for me is that I have had to learn how to not just be clear, but also be roughly the right amount excited and be right on the front edge of things. I can have a clear mind, but not be sharp - if you understand what I mean. So, for me, it's easy enough to *say* that, but doing it was another story. Brian talks about similar stuff in his book, too...

So, the drill helped me start to focus on the front edge of the beep. After that, I had to drill to start *everything* on the front edge of the beep. The beauty of the stuff in Steve Anderson's book is that it *all* has you reacting - and you start to get used to doing that, and that whole process of clearing the mind, etc, becomes quicker and more confident over a very short period of time (for me).

[Catfish]

Something else to improve your reaction times would be to relax at LAMR and not tense up. Relaxed muscles move quicker than tense muscles.

[Clay1]

On Matt Burkett's "how to train" DVD he talks about something that has some bearing on this conversation. One instead of trying to burn a hole in the target the whole time from load and make ready, he focuses on the target stand at load and make ready. When the "Are you ready comand is given he shifts his focus to the exact spot on the target. Some times our focus can't be held for so long. By building in a "down time" by looking at the target stand and then having a trigger for your focus (Are you ready?) and flipping the switch can help your attention span and your reaction time.

I do the drill that XRE talks about. I prep the trigger and wait for the beginning of the beep. Many times I will do this drill combined with my reload drill. Beep, fire first shot, reload then fire second shot. I can get my reaction time to the beep and my reload speed from shot to shot. While doing this drill I vary the distances. An A zone shot, reload and then another A zone shot is different at 4 yards than 10. I keep these numbers in a shooting log as well.

Good luck on your training.

Rick

[Pierruiggi]

On Matt Burkett's "how to train" DVD he talks about something that has some bearing on this conversation. One instead of trying to burn a hole in the target the whole time from load and make ready, he focuses on the target stand at load and make ready. When the "Are you ready comand is given he shifts his focus to the exact spot on the target. Some times our focus can't be held for so long. By building in a "down time" by looking at the target stand and then having a trigger for your focus (Are you ready?) and flipping the switch can help your attention span and your reaction time.

Right, you actually lose clarity if you fixate your eyes for too long on one spot.

I consciously blink at the "standby" command.

[5Shot]

I tried the reaction time drill today - aiming at a blank target, focusing only on the start of the beep, I was able to consistently break 0.20's, and I had several 0.16's and even a 0.14.

What is a good time?

I know I have a long way to go, since drawing from an IDPA holster and putting a shot in the A Zone at 7 yds my time is 1.5+. The reaction to the beep is just a small part of it, but at least now I have a practice drill for that. Back to "Perfect Practice" for some more drills.

Thanks for all the input,

5Shot

Edited March 6, 2006 by 5Shot

[Bigbadaboom]

Now try it without concentrating on the "beep". Try it concentrating on nothing. Have a friend hold the timer and tell them to wait as long as they like but to wait at least 10 seconds before activating the start signal. This will get the "3-5 second" anticipation out of your head. I did this back around Christmas and my brother would wait for up to 2 minutes before activating the start signal. My reaction times were too fast for the timer to register (I was using an older Speed Timer). I haven't done this with my CED8000 yet but I will the next chance I get.

[XRe]

What is a good time?

You want to be less than a .20 - and around .15 is good to go.

Now - take that focus on the beep, and apply it to other things. Visually focus on the first thing you need to do - if just drawing, focus on the exact point where you want to go, etc - and open your hearing for that beep....

[5Shot]

Thanks guys - that gives me something to work on this weekend.

5Shot

[Radical Precision Designs]

I like to observe people and their actions and reactions to various happenings. You will learn more from observing and disecting what you see than from just "blankly" reacting to yourself.

Catfish made a remark that is a true gem about relaxing rather than tensing up. I have noticed some shooters that literally "jump" out of their skins at the sound of the buzzer. Not just their hands but the entire body. It sure as heck looked fast untill you do a reality check and find that it only "looked" fast but it was not. On the other hand I have observed some shooters that look like slow "poetry in motion", very casual but deliberate, relaxed, but actually blinding fast.

Focusing can be carried to the extreme of creating "anxiety", and then freezing up or stumbling in your evolvement of the stage. Not always can you "burn" a hole in the target. Such as when starting behind a barricade that blocks your view of the first shot ... Having a plan of action with "knowledge" as to the whereabouts of your "initial point of start-up"is where your concentration should be. Should you focus exclusively on your first "burning hole", it will leave you without a timely follow up or transition. Quickly take a physical inventory of the location of your targets, as to where you will start and where you will end, and focus on the entire course, as no part of it is less important than the others. The buzzer/timer is only an indication/switch of when to get going. If you have not worked out your affinity and familiarity with your equipment, tensing and burning a hole will not speed you up or improve your "non-existing ability" to either hit the first target and follow through. Practice without the "freaking" timer untill you have achieved that "poetry in motion" fluidity between your body and your equipment, knowing their interaction. When you are ready to start your stage, don't just burn a hole with your eyes (especially if the target is not "physically" visible), but actually see that target and point of impact with your entire body, as to where it will be placed when that shot breaks ... and follow through. A good drill is to place a target behind a barricade or do a "turn-around" start, and do it with your eyes closed, after taking a visual center check. (use an empty gun please, untill you are proficient!) And when you finally turn on the timer on, "act in coordination with the timer, rather than in reaction to it."

Relax, work up to it, then open up your eyes and realize what you priorly visualized. And, hey, try "seeing Alpha's". Maybe you'll get them? Now, did that buzzer meant I was supposed to start shooting? By the way, "distracting" yourself by pretending nothing else is going on around you while you shoot, or start to shoot means only that you are not "secure" in your priorities. Develop your confidence in your abilities as they grow, and then take in some "vitamins", (ha, ha!) -PRACTICE-

[benos]

... Act in coordination with the timer, rather than in reaction to it.

+1. Very nice.

be

[Bigbadaboom]

I did my reaction drills with my "NEW" replacement CED8000 timer this evening. The way I do them is; I stand in my garage and load a piece of empty brass with a live primer "From my pulled bullet box". The primer activates the timer just fine without me needing to set the sensitivity so low that it picks up echos (I also do my draws this way). I set the timer at random and did it 10 times and the lowest I got was .08 and the highest was .10.

[artisanx]

Here’s another timer related tip.

I recently discovered a handy way of testing reaction times with my Pact MK IV timer. If you place the muzzle of an unloaded pistol against the timer where the microphone is located, dry firing the pistol will register as a shot. I accept no liability whatsoever for the harassment you may receive when someone sees you apparently shooting your timer.

[AlamoShooter]

Very Cool but put tape over the horn or you will not have a happy home.

[Powder Finger]

The fastest way to a quick reaction time is to start playing slug bug or something

similar with a real big person .