My cousin is a 100m sprinter, and he wants to know whether it is possible to improve reaction time to the starting gun.
- Is there evidence that reaction times can be improved?
- If so, how?
Thanks.
Real bullets?
Seriously, though, I’m not sure there’s any way other than pratice. He’d probably get more benefit out of improving his form coming out of the blocks, or doing strength training to improve his acceleration.
Unless his reaction time is horrendously high, there’s not much that can be done. Like Sublight says, speed off the block is key here, and that comes from leg power.
Former track coach here.
Yes, he could improve that. But first you’d need to find out what the problem is. It might not be reaction time if he’s slow out of the blocks.
Lots of times it’s an improper first stride out of the blocks. The most common mistake is to stand up during the first stride, and this often results from the runner looking up.
I used to train sprinters to keep their eyes down on the ground and explode forward in a lunging motion out of the blocks, and stay down through the first few strides.
If it really is simply reaction to the gun itself - practice, practice, practice. Once the kids knew how to leave the blocks, THEN I would have them practice with the gun. I would simply vary the time before the shot so they had to react and not anticipate. Went through a lot of blanks, but it was good practice. Saved a lot of false starts during the season.
Thanks for the tips.
He’s got the fitness, form, starting strides, etc. covered. He was just hoping to improve his reaction time this year. He’s doing about 11.2 currently (he’s 16), and wants to crack 11.0 this year.