Handgun Reaction Time in Defensive Handgun Training
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Whether carrying a concealed handgun or a semi-automatic shotgun, it’s crucial to train your reflexes to respond faster in defensive situations. Making proper decisions helps protect you and protect others. That means you must know how to cut the time it takes to respond to a stimulus and have an accurate round on target. It’s also vital to note that reaction time depends on the sense stimulated and the complexity of the signal. If everything is working correctly and you have the proper training, you’ll be able to react within the shortest time possible.
Reaction Time in Defensive Handgun Training
Learn to ignore distractions as it takes longer to process the distractions and worsens reaction time. This post highlights the things that help improve reaction time in defensive handgun training.
Decrease Cognitive Load
The brain plays a crucial role in defensive handgun training. It’s essential to sharpen your senses, calm the mind, and relax the muscles. This is because being tensed leads to stiff muscles that lead to slow reaction times. Deep breathing and a relaxed but alert disposition will help you react quickly. Mindfulness will also cultivate a relaxed yet alert state while facilitating fast and sharp reactions.
Shot Timer
The shot timer is an essential defensive handgun training element. It measures how quickly and accurately you can fire a series of shots. It helps you understand how quickly you can draw and reload your gun and make the next shot. It’s also helpful when assessing the accuracy of your shooting positions. It’s set for a particular number of shots that start on a signal and record the time between every shot. This way, it helps you assess your progress and increases your confidence.
Take Advantage of Your Midbrain’s Speed
Your memory can disappear under highly stressful situations, making it difficult for you to think through problems you’ve not faced before. That is why you need to develop your conditioned responses stored in the midbrain. You need to work on your emotional and cognitive challenges so that you can free up the brain to deal with reacting and responding quickly. If you can make precise shooting automatically, you’ll not struggle with a defensive shooting situation, as your mental energy is freed up for other tasks.
Look at the Whole Picture
Your brain will feel less threatened if it gets more visual and accurate input. This way, your muscles will be more relaxed, and you’ll be able to react quickly. This is because vision has a vital role in reaction time. Better visual clarity will negatively affect the reaction process, but the faster you shift focus, the sooner you can start the reaction process. That means you should train your mind to process visual input.
Strobe Sport eyewear is one of the best things you can incorporate into your defensive handgun training. The glasses come with advanced technology that allows the glasses to blink and go opaque at intervals. This way, the brain has to work faster to capture and process the necessary information. The faster you process, the shorter your reaction time is. This is because the brain only focuses on the relevant information; thus, performance anxiety is reduced significantly.
