As I sit here watching Li Na in the 2014 Australian Open
tennis Women’s Final, I’m reminded that China is actually a world power in the
Olympics. It also helps that Na is more experienced, taller, and more powerful
than her opponent in this match, Dominika Cibulkova, but that’s another story.
World-class athletes have about the same reaction time in sports as each other
because they all play all the time and develop reaction time, but for amateur
sports players, it’s the great equalizer.
When I play sports, I try to be the best that I can be. I’m
not the fastest, strongest, or tallest, but one gift I’ve noticed that I do
possess that I think a lot of Chinese have: reaction time.
Reaction time is huge in a lot of sports. In almost every
sport I can think of, it factors in. Tennis you have the obvious reacting to
serves that can travel almost up to 100mph, but also hitting volleys when at
the net and the distance is cut in half. Basketball there’s rebounding,
catching passes, reacting to player movements, baseball: pitches moving up to
100mph.
It occurs to me that the sports Asians are most associated
with, net sports, almost exclusively rely on reaction: badminton and ping pong
come to mind. Those involve a high degree of dexterity and skill, but also they
are the ones that one needs to see the ball REALLY fast. Have you ever seen a
badminton match? It’s not like 2 people just casually volleying birdies at each
other. These birdies move EXTREMELY quickly, so much that I can’t even see it
(similar problem as hockey, which is why I really admire hockey goalies).
How to improve one’s reaction time: practice, practice
practice. (We talking about practice?) Seeing balls over and over again so that
eventually they seem to slow down. I think this also has to do with one’s eye
and mind adjusting to the speed of the balls. On the flip side, if one stops
playing the sports, I feel like when they come back the balls look like they’re
going going faster than they ‘ve ever gone. One can also “cheat” and look for balls coming
out of a pitcher or a thrower (in dodgeball’s) hand and anticipate the throw so
that when it does come, you’re already ready for it, and your hands have
already started. (Not sure how applicable that it is to baseball, probably lead
s to a lot of swinging strikes).
Also, get plenty of sleep. I find that ample sleep and good
performance in sports have a direct correlation for me. Final aspect: don’t be
scared of the ball. Applicable to newbies who don’t like balls coming straight
at their face and haven’t trained how to protect themselves from it. Flinching
at a ball coming right at you cuts down your ability to react SIGNIFICANTLY.
So next time you’re going into your fantasy draft and
looking for values (that’s probably an exaggeration, there’s no baseball
geometric that measures reaction time, for instance) or at least starting a
sport and looking for an edge, develop one of the only skills you have control
over: reaction time. Japanese = 反応時間 (hanno jikan)
Fantasize and React on,
Robert Yan
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