George Silver, True Times and the Blink of an Eye! Part One©

Author’s note -- since few people today use swords in combat or otherwise engage in hand to hand combat, most modern research involves the use of handguns of the ability to brake a vehicle, however this fact does not change the conclusion reached in this article.  

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What can be done in a second?  George Silver, an early British swords master, wrote Paradoxes of Defence, in 1599.  In it he talked about the “true times” of a fight, which described which combination of body parts moved faster or slower.  The “true times” are just as accurate today as they were in 1599 and the principles behind them can be used to estimate how many seconds or fractions of a second, different actions take to complete.  But just how many seconds or fractions of a second are we talking about?

 

A second doesn’t seem very long, but in a fight, it is an eternity.  In fact, a blink of an eye might be the difference between life and death itself!  We are talking fractions of a second, since the average human blink lasts only 0.1 to 0.4 seconds, or on average about 0.25 of a second. 

 

Interestingly, the average human reaction time to visual stimulus is also 0.25 seconds, giving a bit of scientific credence to the saying “blink and you miss it”.

 

But before you can decide to take an action, you must first observe and understand the situation, and this is called “reaction time”. 

 

Reaction time is defined as the time between a visual, audio, or touch stimulus and a response.  It is the time that it takes your brain to observe, decide and react to a situation.  For complex tasks or responses, human reaction time is measured in three different phases: the “perception phase”, the time it takes to perceive or observe a danger; the “decision phase”, the time it takes to decide on the correct response; and the “response phase”, which is the time it takes to respond.

 

And while on average, for simple responses, human reaction times are about 0.20 seconds, for complex tasks they can be much longer.

 

Researcher J. Peters Blair, et al., noted the average reaction time for trained individuals to shoot a pistol when prompted by a light was 0.31 seconds and of this time, 0.23 seconds was taken up with deciding whether to shoot or not shoot and the remaining 0.08 seconds with the actual physical motion of moving the finger from a resting position to a firing position.  Additionally, he found that this is consistent with other reaction time research which has shown that reaction time to simple visual tasks is about 0.20 to 0.30 seconds, while the reaction time to complex tasks almost doubled, increasing to 0.56 seconds.  

 

Human reaction time can be complicated by a lack of situational awareness, attentiveness, line of sight, sensory overload, fatigue, and other factors.  Someone who is mentally distracted or unaware may never observe that they are in danger or must take an action.

 

By the way, reaction time should not be confused with reflexes.  Reflex responses are not controlled by your brain, your spinal cord is in control of reflexes, and reflex responses are much faster than an action decided by the brain.

 

So, once you have reacted and decided to do something, just how long does it take to complete an action, what can be done in a second, and just how does it apply to George Silver and his true times?

 

Come back next week for George Silver, True Times and the Blink of an Eye! Part Two©

 

I hope that you enjoy learning from this resource!  To help me to continue to provide valuable free content, please consider showing your appreciation by leaving a donation HERE.  Thank you and Happy Trails!

 

I hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me on YouTube at BandanaMan Productions for other related videos, HERE.  Don’t forget to follow me on both The Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE, and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube.  If you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either site.  I announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.

 

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

 

  

Sources

 

ARCCA; “Human Reaction Time in Emergency Situations”, October 1, 2021, https://arcca.com/blog/human-reaction-time-in-emergency-situations/, accessed December 18, 2024

 

Backyardbrains.com, “Experiment: How Fast Your Brain Reacts To Stimuli”, [© 2009-2017 Backyard Brains], https://backyardbrains.com/experiments/reactiontime#:~:text=Looking%20at%20your%20data%20you,seconds%20for%20a%20touch%20stimulus, accessed December 21, 2024

 

Blazepod; “What is a normal reaction time?”, November 26, 2024, https://www.blazepod.com/blogs/all/what-is-a-normal-reaction-time, accessed December 18, 2024

 

Irving, Phil; “Human Reaction Must be Taken Into Account”, The Age, May 18, 1954, page 10, https://books.google.com/books?id=1vZjAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA6&dq=%22reaction+time%22&article_id=6806,2382176&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjXm7yP1buKAxVsFlkFHe8AIbg4ChDoAXoECAsQAg#v=onepage&q=%22reaction%20time%22&f=false, accessed December 22, 2024

 

J. Peter Blair, et al.; “Reasonableness and Reaction Time”, Police Quarterly, Vol. 14, No, 4, pages 323 to 343, https://alerrt.org/r/21, accessed December 21, 2024

 

Jones, Roy D., Col.; “Gun Fighting Police Doom Gangsters”, Popular Mechanics, September 1930, page 456, https://books.google.com/books?id=deIDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA452&dq=break+down+of+the+time+it+takes+to+draw+aim+and+fire+a+pistol+seconds&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiPl6atobmKAxUnElkFHaeQE-EQ6AF6BAgGEAI#v=onepage&q=break%20down%20of%20the%20time%20it%20takes%20to%20draw%20aim%20and%20fire%20a%20pistol%20seconds&f=false, accessed December 21, 2024

 

Lewinski, Bill, Ph.D.; Biomechanics of Lethal Encounters Officer Movements, The Police Marksman, November/December 2002, Vol. XXVII, No. 6, page 19 to 23, http://rochester.indymedia.org/sites/default/files/biomechanics.pdf, accessed December 22, 2024

 

Remsburg, Chuck; Force Science News, March 3, 2010, [© 2024 Force Science, Ltd.], https://www.forcescience.com/2010/03/excessive-shots-and-falling-assailants-a-fresh-look-at-ois-subtleties/, accessed December 22, 2024

 

Unknown; “Reaction Time”, St Petersburg Times May 28 1964, page 35F, https://books.google.com/books?id=lYAmAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA79&dq=%22reaction+time%22&article_id=5954,4670543&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjXm7yP1buKAxVsFlkFHe8AIbg4ChDoAXoECAgQAg#v=onepage&q=%22reaction%20time%22&f=false, December 22, 2024