Response speed refers to the ability of human body to respond quickly to various signal stimuli (sound, light, touch, etc.).
People usually measure the reaction time, that is, the time required for athletes to respond to signal stimulation to evaluate the athletes response ability. The response speed of athletes to specific signals should be measured according to the characteristics of different events. For example, in sprinting, swimming and other racing events, athletes begin to compete mainly by hearing signals, while table tennis players make technical and tactical responses mainly by visual signals.
Influencing factors of reaction speed
The response speed mainly depends on the characteristics of human receptors (vision, hearing) and other analyzers, as well as the coordination between the central nervous system and neuromuscular. The quality of reaction speed is greatly affected by genetic effect. For example, the response time of people who are not engaged in special training is usually between 0.2 and 0.3 seconds, while a well-trained athlete can only reach 0.1 to 0.2 seconds. Therefore, in the process of training, the increase of reaction speed is very small.