An MMA or UFC fighter without good hand eye coordination will find themselves in serious trouble quite quickly.
Hand eye coordination is extremely important in most sports. However, in most sports, players are trying to strike a ball or some other object, not each other. To that end, excellent hand eye coordination in martial arts is vital not only to win but also for players to keep themselves safe.
A few too many knocks to the head can result in brain damage they may never recover from! Let’s explore how better hand eye coordination can benefit martial artists.
Hand Eye Coordination in MMA Fighting
Hand eye coordination is vital to life. Without this skill, a person can’t even pick up a glass of water.
This skill refers to the brain’s ability to process information from the visual system and send a signal for the appropriate response from the motor system.
Of course, not everyone develops this skill in the same way. Some people pick it up faster than others and some people spend more time actively developing it.
Strength and speed are often the focus in training for boxing, MMA, and other types of martial arts. But without hand eye coordination, all that strength and speed will be for nothing.
Vision Skills and Hand Eye Coordination
Poor vision skills will lead to poor performance in the ring. After all, to be able to block an attack or take advantage of an opening in their opponent’s defense, fighters need to be able to see it.
However, vision skills go beyond simple visual acuity or being able to see an object. They also include:
- Depth perception: the distance to the object and understanding its trajectory
- Peripheral vision: awareness of everything around the fighter
- Visual and muscle memory: many times fighters must react to things before they can finish processing that they saw it
Keep in mind that just as the body can physically feel fatigued, the brain can feel fatigued as well. The longer a fight drags on, the slower these skills will be processed.
Of course, regular physical conditioning will help players avoid physical as well as mental fatigue.
Improving Hand Eye Coordination for Fighters
There are many ways that MMA and UFC fighters can improve their hand eye coordination, thereby improving their fighting skills. Most fighters will already be aware of several drills that are apart of their training regimen, whether they realized they help with hand eye coordination or not.
These include jumping rope, working with a double-ended bag, and speed bag drills. Other tricks players can use are learning to juggle, dribbling a basketball, and performing wall ball drills.
All of those things can get rather repetitive after a while. Training to improve hand eye coordination with a HECOstix can help to change things up.
The HECOstix is a three-legged device with a different color on each leg. Players toss the device back and forth while calling out a color. The receiver must catch the device on the appropriately colored leg.
The game can be switched up in a number of ways to make it more difficult as players improve. Check it out today and stop getting knocked around in the ring!