How can I improve my reflex speed in Karate?

Question

When we do drills where the sensei calls out defenses or strikes and we do them as fast as possible, I am a little slow on the uptake! I only started recently so I know practice will help, but does anyone have other training tricks or exercises?

Answer 1

If you are looking to increase your reaction time to a specific attack, you need to run thorugh drills where the person throws that attack from either side, forcing you to quickly recognize it and the respond with the appropriate defense.

If you are looking to simply improve your striking speed (hitting when there is an opening), you should try various response / stimilus triggered drills. An easy one, that allows you to not miss any television time, is to set up a bag in the same room as the tv. Choose a character and strike the bag as soon as you here his / her / its voice. Continue until the show is through. Alternatively, you can fix it where you are watchignt he TV, and strike when the scene changes or your character appears on the tv.

Answer 2

I agree with the above answer. Get an egg timer, something with an alarm or bell, Set it for 1 min. See how many times you can strike a bag (or foam padded pole) in that time. Don't worry about slowing down. wait a while and do it again. Try this about 3-4 times a day.
Do this for about4 days and then try to beat your average time. After a couple of weeks, you should be trying to beat your best time at the start of every day. When you feel that youre not get much faster, increase the time to 2 min. and start again.
After a while you will build the muscles in your arms, improve speed a great deal, improve endurance and help with timing.

Answer 3

Your clapping pushups are very good to build up the explosive power needed for punches, any plyometric exercise like that builds speed and power. But the best thing to do to punch faster is...punch. Try to relax all of your muscles to punch as fast as you can. Tension reduces speed, although necessary in a real situation. As for kicks, don't forget about all the muscles used to perform the kick. Concentrate on the hip and core muscles to help get a fast chamber(try front, side, and back knee or leg lifts, and remember do the exercise fast, but properly to train for speed) then build up your quads and hamstrings later

Answer 4

Get a timer and do as many strikes as you can in one minute on a heavy bag or striking pad. Try to improve on that number everyday. You should become faster and more powerful with continuous practice.

Power= Mass x Speed.

Answer 5

Another good thing to do is strenghten your muscles by doing many reps with low resistance. Like pushups. Get to where you can do like 3 sets of 25 at a good pace, and you will see your hand speed improve. Don't do exercises that will give you large heavy muscles. Arm, chest, shoulder with low(ish) weights will help a lot.

Answer 6

Slow as in mentally or physically?

Mentally:
- Just takes more practice, also helps if you do brain exercises to help the mind think faster (ie call out a different colour/animal with every technique)
- drink an energy drink before class

Physically:
- Always work with a partner who is better and faster than you. This will force you to move faster.
- You need to train your muscles to move faster (this unfortunately also has to do with genentics). Plyometric training is excellent for this. Light workouts with high reps also helps.
- Make sure you breath properly too. Holding your breathe slows you down.
- Stay relaxed. Being tight and rigid slows you down.
- Practice, practice, practice

Answer 7

blindfold yourself during practice. Your slow becuase your paying attention to the other students in your class. If your new, expect to be slower then most.

If you want something to really help increase your speed play a speed based game. I suggest tennis. The above mentioning of ping pong is a very wise choice. But if you want to learn the moves and react faster get a martial arts buddy to drill you like your Master. Do not be afraid of practicing in the open too. Being in a room or in the house restricts your movements. To practice i occasionally will go to the park below my house.

PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE......

Nothing beats practice,
Silence

Answer 8

There are a series of exercises called "plyometrics". The goal of plyometrics is to give "explosion" to your punches or kicks. Search at any search engine for them. Check a bookstore. I Also have heard (not tried yet) that lift heavy enoght weight just once or twice. This will help you giving fast answers to attacks. Hope this can help :)

Answer 9

Play ping pong! Sounds silly but it works. You've got to play it with your eyes mostly closed.

You hit the ball with your eyes open, then imediatly close them, then your opponent hits the ball (your eyes are still closed) and then open your eyes at the very last second and hit the ball.

Just try it- it works really well.

Answer 10

practice practice practice