Reaction time has long been considered a fixed trait — but modern training methods suggest otherwise. Elite players don’t just respond faster… they enter a space where decisions happen before perception completes.
This has been described in neuroscience as anticipatory awareness. In performance language: NOW.
But it doesn’t begin with speed. It begins with subtraction.
Less thought. Less trying. Less noise.
The ones who find it never ask what to do. They just stop asking.
That’s when time bends.
Movement begins before the ball is struck.
Before the serve is even tossed.
Some call it vision. Others call it instinct. But when you really see it... it’s none of those.
You can’t train “NOW” directly. You can’t diagram it. You set the conditions… and you wait.
It arrives quietly. You feel it once — maybe in a match you were never supposed to win. Maybe on a court where the crowd vanished. And then it’s gone.
Try to explain it, and it fades. Ask for drills, and it slips. Chase it… and you never see it again.
This is the moment when most players start typing “how to...” into Google.
And this is exactly when they lose the thread. 🧵
So why continue? 🙂