Hone Your Reflexes

 

"You must learn many systems because every system has its specialty."

-Leung Kay-chi

"When you believe you can- you can!"

-Maxwell Maltz

 

Reflexes are perhaps one of the most integral elements in martial arts when it comes to conflict management.

A lot of people train to be fast, but do not train how to have fast reflexes.

One of the methods I use, because I work in retail and usually with food, is during the summer time to catch flies.

I've been doing that for a few years, and have gotten pretty good at it. I apologize for the quality of the video, but this is what I am talking about;

 

 

Catching a fly is interesting. They don't have very large brains of course, and are completely instinctual as animals. When something is coming towards them, such as a predator or say, my hand, their brains are wired to instantly calculate the exact angle or direction of flight they need to avoid or escape the encounter. Combined with eyes that allow them to see 360 degrees, this makes it very hard to nab them. The second your hand comes within proximity their brain has already redirected them in the exact path necessary to avoid you.

 

"Using high-resolution, high-speed digital imaging of fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) faced with a looming swatter, Dickinson and graduate student Gwyneth Card have determined the secret to a fly's evasive maneuvering. Long before the fly leaps, its tiny brain calculates the location of the impending threat, comes up with an escape plan, and places its legs in an optimal position to hop out of the way in the opposite direction. All of this action takes place within about 100 milliseconds after the fly first spots the swatter..."

 

-http://phys.org/news/2008-08-scientists-flies-hard-swat.html

 

 

 

That's where reflexes come in; you have to beat them at their own game. While the work is done subconsciously, you actively have to figure out where they are going and then grab them at that location at the exact time they will be there.

 

In a way its predicting. And perhaps it may also be luck. I have heard of some people without looking catching a fly.

 

Whether or not I believe they have does nothing to discount that their story may be true. It certainly doesn't seem impossible to me.

 

One must move faster than they can, and react faster than 1/1,000th of a second. I assure you this is possible.

 

"However, the MIT team found that although overall performance declined, subjects continued to perform better than chance as the researchers dropped the image exposure time from 80 milliseconds to 53 milliseconds, then 40 milliseconds, then 27, and finally 13 — the fastest possible rate with the computer monitor being used."

 

-http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2014/in-the-blink-of-an-eye-0116

 

 

 

When you can catch flies with ease, I have a harder task I challenge others to try; it takes speed to catch a fly. But it takes skill to catch a fly without hurting it.

 

The usefulness of being able to do this is in direct relation to being able to quickly perceive oncoming threats. It's not necessarily the person who is faster that will land the strike the first, but really the one who quickly analyzes the situation and reacts accordingly. They could have all the speed in the world, but if you see it coming, and your strike is already where they are going they will in the end be the one struck instead of you.

 

This is where the argument of evading vs. dodging comes into play, but that is for another article.

 

Now to get some chopsticks and do it with those. Never tried, but that's what we do in martial arts; we clear one level and move on to a deeper one.

 

 

 

 

 

"Man who can catch fly with chopsticks can accomplish anything."

-Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita)