There’s a wide array of wonderful benefits to learning martial arts, no matter your skill level. Still, you can enjoy even more benefits—as well as a surge in your pride and self-confidence—whenever you strive to improve your performance. While boosting your reflexes is tough, it’s doable as long as you follow the guide below. 

What Are Fighting Reflexes & Why Are They Important? 

Simply put, fighting reflexes refer to your ability to physically respond to the stimuli presented to you in a fight. For example, it controls how quickly you perceive that your opponent is about to throw a punch, as well as how rapidly you decide how to deal with it and then act on your decision. It also determines the speed with which you notice an opening and take advantage of it. 

While strength, agility, endurance, and resilience are all vital skills to develop in martial arts, your fighting reflexes can make a significant difference in whether you win or lose. In the fast pace of a fight, you can’t entertain the luxury of slow reflexes.  

How Can You Improve Them? 

First, learn to stay calm during a fight. Tension and adrenaline levels may be high, but your reflexes work best with a clear mind. Master breathing and meditative self-awareness techniques designed to soothe your body and focus on them while fighting. 

Outside of fights, practice all of your moves and reactions as much as possible so that acting upon them becomes a matter of muscle memory. That way, your reflexes will be automatically applied to various situations, leaving more room in your mind to think about what you’ll do next to gain the upper hand.

To develop this kind of muscle memory, work with your martial arts instructor to practice complex combinations and drills with pads, mitts, punching bags, and other fighters. Slow sparring can be helpful with this, too, as it lets you get used to the way a movement works before you must learn to react to it. 

A reaction ball is a great tool as well. With their six sides, they bounce in unpredictable ways, forcing you to make split-second reactions to them. To practice by yourself, throw it against a wall and do your best to catch it. If you have a partner, toss the ball back and forth to each other, letting it hit the ground between you. 

 
If you’re ready to push yourself to develop excellent fighting reflexes and other essential martial arts skills, attend ATA Infinite Martial Arts in Centennial, CO. With experience training people of all abilities and ages in karate, taekwondo, kickboxing, and basic self-defense since 1969, they’ve made a positive difference in countless lives and are happy to do the same for you. Their state-of-the-art training facility is equipped with everything you could need to develop your abilities and self-confidence. For details about their classes and seminars, call them today at (303) 353-4951 or message them online.