Comparison of reaction time between beginners and experienced fencers during quasi-realistic fencing situations

This study aimed (I) to investigate the impact of the number of stimulus-responses alternatives on reaction time (RT) under quasi-realistic fencing situations, and (II) to elucidate whether the regression slope based on the RT and the number of stimulus-responses alternatives could distinguish between beginners and experienced fencers. Ten beginners (7 men) and 10 experienced (6 men) fencers participated in the study. A video-based method was used to present four typical fencing movement techniques (i.e. "stimulus") after which the participants had to perform an offensive (high or low attack) or defensive (high or low defence) action (i.e. "response"). The simple-RT (specific stimulus known in advance), 2Choice-RT (only defensive or offensive stimuli), and 4Choice-RT (all possible stimuli) were evaluated. The increase in the number of stimulus-responses alternatives was associated with higher RT (4Choice-RT > 2Choice-RT > Simple-RT; p < 0.05). Beginners always presented higher RT compared to fencers (range: 25.5-34.8%; p < 0.05) and also showed a steeper slope of the relationship between RT and the number of stimulus-responses alternatives (range: 35.2-55.2%; p < 0.05). These results suggest that the capability to quickly respond to specific fencing stimuli increases with training experience, being the differences accentuated with increasing number of stimulus-responses alternatives.