TOOLS / 07 OF 12 · REACTION LAB

REACTION
TRAINER.

The puck won't wait for your prefrontal cortex. Four drills, calibrated against pro-junior baselines, that train the same neural loop that fires before a tip, a poke check, or a saucer pass. Six minutes. No goalie required.

180ms

ELITE SRT FLOOR

NHL · top decile

DRILL MODES

Simple → choice → scan

REPS PER SESSION

~6 minutes a day

▸ SIMPLE REACTION FLOOR · 180MS · NHL TOP DECILE▸ A 40MS EDGE IS THREE FEET ON A 50MPH WRISTER▸ CAFFEINE MOVES SRT 30MS · SLEEP MOVES IT 80▸ YOUR EYES MUST SCAN BEFORE THE PUCK DOES▸ CHOICE RT IS 1.5× SIMPLE RT · HICK'S LAW▸ GOOD HANDS START IN THE OCCIPITAL LOBE▸ NO STIMULUS NO REP · DON'T GUESS THE FLASH

DRILL SELECT

PICK A MODE · OR RUN ALL FOUR FOR A FULL PROFILE

● SIMPLE REACTIONDRILL D1

PUCK DROP

Stage goes red. Hold. The instant it flips to ICE — press. One stimulus, one input. Your raw reaction floor.

REPS00/8

STAGE · D1_PUCK-DROPIDLE

READY

PRESS START

PRESS SPACE OR TAP STAGE WHEN GREEN

REP 01/08

CALIBRATE BEFORE EACH SET · 30s · DEEP BREATH

SESSION · LIVE

ID EHQ-RXN-0000

◆ REACTION INDEX

0/100

NO DATA

TOTAL REPS

BEST RT

—ms

DRILL BREAKDOWN

PUCK DROP

— ms—

GOALIE READ

— ms—

WHISTLE

— ms—

PERIPHERAL

— ms—

SAVE THIS PROFILE→

RECENT REPS

LAST 10

NO REPS YET · PICK A DRILL ABOVE

HOW THE LAB WORKS

STEP 01 · WARM THE LOOP

CALIBRATE

Sit your shoulders. Both hands ready. We run a couple of warm-up reps before the timer counts — the first stimulus is always 30–50ms slower than your true floor.

STEP 02 · WATCH · DON'T GUESS

STIMULUS

The stage arms on a random delay between 0.7 and 2.4 seconds. Guess the timing and you trigger a false start — same as twitching on the goal-line at a face-off.

STEP 03 · BENCH VS PROS

GRADE

Every rep gets graded against three reference lines: NHL top-decile, junior-pro, and competitive amateur. Your average across all four drills becomes the Reaction Index.

WHAT EACH DRILL MEASURES

REFS · BAKER (2022) · LARKIN (2018) · MANN (2007)

D1 · SIMPLE REACTION

PUCK DROP

Pure simple reaction time (SRT). Pros sit around 180–200 ms. Caffeine, sleep, and warm-up move this 30–50 ms.

ELITE ≤180·GOOD ≤220·AVG ≤260

D2 · CHOICE REACTION

GOALIE READ

Hick's law: with four options you should land roughly 1.5× your SRT. Below 400 ms is junior-pro tier.

ELITE ≤360·GOOD ≤440·AVG ≤540

D3 · GO / NO-GO

WHISTLE

Go/no-go fires the same loop as taking a penalty: stop a motor program you've already started. The 25% no-go trials are the ones that matter.

ELITE ≤320·GOOD ≤400·AVG ≤480

D4 · SCAN + LOCATE

PERIPHERAL

Wide-field perception. Top scouts test elite skaters here — their eyes scan twice as fast as average juniors before puck contact.

ELITE ≤380·GOOD ≤460·AVG ≤560

COACH NOTES

◆ BEFORE YOU RUN

Cold reps don't count.

First 2–3 attempts are warm-up. Run the set twice before logging — the second number is your actual.

◆ EYES

Soft focus on the center.

Don't hunt the corners. Lock the crosshair, let the periphery come to you. Same scan you use on a 2-on-1.

◆ HANDS

Index fingers on the keys.

Left index on Q/A · right index on E/D. Both shoulders relaxed. If your wrist is tense, your RT is 40ms slower.

◆ REST

Two minutes between sets.

Reaction is metabolic — the cortex needs glucose. Sip water, breathe through your nose, then go again.

REACTIONTRAINER.

REACTION
TRAINER.