Improve Fighting Reflexes

Reflexes are the way your body behaves when it needs to act without thinking. They can be either natural reflexes (such as quickly recoiling your hand when you touch something way too hot) or taught reflexes (such as not dropping that very expensive or precious cup just because it is too precious). Training your reflexes may be successfully accomplished through endless repeating of the movements. During this process, the consistent actions to certain stimulus will be converted in subconscious triggered actions (the reflexes).

Steps

1. List the attacks you want to improve your reaction against.
2. Find a training partner.
3. Ask your partner to execute the attack slowly. While your partner executes the attack, attempt to dodge or block it. Be wise to understand that certain attacks can't be blocked, for instance, blocking a punch will just get yourself hit both by the punch and by the hand or arm you chose to block with. You can also train an immediate counter-attack after successfully dodging the original attack.
4. Repeat the very same attack with the very same defense. If you think you're doing it right, then begin increasing the attack speed and the defense speed. Do this for about 10~15 minutes. Your body will learn to react to this particular situation.
5. Switch into another attack or into another defense (or both). Continue training for about 10~15 minutes. Your body will now learn to react to a different situation. Nevertheless, until here, you're always expecting the attack.
6. Continue switching until you've successfully trained about 3 or 4 attacks and corresponding defenses.
7. Ask your partner to do one of the previously trained attacks at random. Once again, begin slowly and keep increasing the attack speed if you're being successful in your training. Your body will now start to train on how to quickly identify the attack and respond accordingly.
8. Repeat it all. Repeating is the only way your reflexes will be trained.
9. Find more partners, or at least keep finding ways of using different attacks. You want to improve fighting reflexes, not improve your reflexes when someone you know punches you in a very particular way.
10. Once you've mastered this, find two more people. Have one stand on each side of and in front of you, and execute the same attacks at random (It is best to have another person call out a certain number for each person, to avoid all of them attacking you at once.)

Tips

• Join a martial arts school. You'll be doing the same as described here, with the difference that you'll have "professional" help on the best ways of dodging the attacks, of counter-attacking and a big variety of attacks is ensured.
• Eventually your muscle memory will kick in, and these will become natural. It is best to find a few moves that are most comfortable for you and come easily. There is no one way to negate any attack - Experiment, and see what works.
• Enjoy what you do. Don't train while raging or thinking about revenge of some sort as that will make your body think of the training experience as a bad experience and reject its stimulus as much as possible. While enjoying your training, your body will be more willing to learn.
• Try not to hurt yourself nor your partner. Still you may occasionally get hurt by accident...
• When blocking an attack, you don't need to really "block" it. It's better to redirect the force so that the attack does not injure you. This way you expend less energy than you would if you tried to stop all momentum of the attack. If you get really good at this, or are training with a clumsy partner, you can use the force of their attack to make them lose balance and fall over. That wouldn't be nice.

Warnings

• Warm up first, so as not to injure yourself (move a bit first)
• Make sure the people you train with aren't actually going to hurt you. If you think they will then find another partner to train with.
• Start slow, as accidents do happen

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See also

• Create Your Fighting Style
• Counterattack
• One Inch Punch
• Build Punching Power
• Condition Your Knuckles
• Improve Your Fighting Skills
• Become a Better Kickboxer
• Become a Warrior
• Start a Fight Club
• Understand the Basics of Standup Fighting

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What links here

• Improve Your Reflexes
• Successfully Counter Any Kick in Tae Kwon Do