Have you ever wondered why some people are much better than you at sports, driving, computer games and even such simple tricks like instantly catching the ruler? How do they do that? In two words, repetition is the key, but we’ll go more in depth in this article. We’re going to discuss how a person gets better results at games, along with four simple ways that can help you improve your reflexes.
1. Develop your muscle memory!
Muscle memory or muscular memory is the act of consciously training movement, to stimulate the mind’s reactions to specific situations. In most cases, muscle memory dictates your response time and how you react. Imagine this: a professional driver is driving the race track over and over again, and slowly yet irresistibly he is getting better results. He isn’t improving his reflexes or response time, his muscle memory tells him what will happen next and what does he need to do.
2. Play musical instruments.
Muscle memory needs to develop, and there is no better way to improve it if you enjoy playing various musical instruments. That’s why there are a lot of reports of guitar and piano players that are often the best of the best in computer games. For example names LuGia and ELiam, world famous quake and unreal tournament players were playing the guitar and piano accordingly. Repetitive actions make the neurons in your brain adapt to various situations, so you generally have a better response time or at least you learn other things which involve motor memory if you play musical instruments.
3. Sports.
Well, it comes to everyone’s mind first, but when you come to think of it, this is arguably the best way to improve your reflexes. For example, although tennis isn’t a cheap sport, but it does boost your reflexes and adaptation skills, along with giving you some extra confidence, which is needed a lot in real life. And you’ll become more fit along with boosting your reflexes!
4. Computer games.
Now this is slippy. Of course, you won’t become a person with a robot-like reaction if you play tetris non-stop at work. Instead, hardcore fast-paced action games like Quake or Unreal Tournament can improve your response time, at least the one you have working with the computer. Recent research suggests that people who spend two hours playing games a day can read the screen twice as fast as people who don’t. Two hours of Quake every day can ruin your eyesight and your social life, though. Take care.
To sum this up, “practice, practice, and even more practice” applies to everything, including developing your reflexes and muscle memory.