Speed Explainer:How Fast things work

Brought To You By The BlackBerry Bold

The Other Type of FastHow can you make yourself quicker?

By Marc TracyPosted Monday, Dec. 8, 2008

There are types of speed beyond how fast you can move your whole body (or have your whole body moved). There is also the subtle quickness associated with rapid reflexes. How can you improve these?

The same way you get to Carnegie Hall: be endowed with natural talent, and then practice, practice, practice.

First off, you must distinguish between what truly are reflexes--largely involuntary tendon-based actions, such as the kick that inevitably follows a tap to the right part of the knee--and what we frequently call reflexes but are better thought of as "reaction times"--mostly voluntary actions such as the ability to anticipate where a fast groundball is coming and to move your glove to the correct spot. The first kind of reflex originates in a spinal process that is largely shared among all people without backbone damage, so there's really not much room for improvement. The second kind, however, does differ from person to person and can be improved through repetition.

From a neuroscientific perspective, the center of reaction times is in the basal ganglia (the plural of "ganglion"), in the center of the brain, and the circuits that run among them. This is the part of the brain that controls motor skills, among other things; it is troubled in those who suffer from Parkinson's disease.

Depending on what you require the reaction time to do, other functions, such as hand-eye coordination and visualization, can come into play. In all cases, some people are born quicker than others. And, generally, the way to do whatever it is you want to do--play a video game; catch a fly with your bare hand--more quickly is to practice it over and over.

Explainer thanks Professor Seth Pullman of Columbia Medical School