Position: The gates can be mounted upright magnetically to a suitable surface, or laid flat on the floor facing upward, depending on the space available and the demand you want to create. Gate placement determines the emphasis of the drill: positioned close to the athlete, the drill tests pure reaction speed with minimal movement. Spaced further apart, the athlete must scan, turn their head and locate the lit gate, adding a visual search and decision-making demand. Set the athlete up centrally, ready and facing the gates.

Cue: "Watch the gates. As soon as one lights up GREEN, trigger it immediately. Don't guess or anticipate, the delay between lights is random. If the gates are spread out, keep scanning so you can find the light quickly. Reset and get ready for the next one straight away."

Step 1 – Position your V3 Timing Gates, either mounted upright magnetically or laid flat on the floor facing upward. Set them close together for pure reaction speed, or spaced further apart to add head turning and visual search. Ensure all gates are powered on.

Step 3 (updated to include master gate allocation):

Step 3 – On the Gate Setup screen, tap Scan to connect your gates. A master gate must be allocated by pressing the button on the side of that gate. Once allocated, it appears at the top of the Gate Layout list marked as Master, and the remaining gates are numbered in order (2, 3 and so on) as they connect.

Step 4 – Confirm the gate order. Use the drag handles beside each gate to reorder them so the numbering matches your physical layout. Use Settings to adjust the drill configuration if required.

Step 5 – Tap Start Drill. Position the athlete ready and facing the gates.

Step 6 – During the drill, a random gate lights up GREEN. The athlete triggers that gate as quickly as possible to clear the round. After a short unpredictable delay (0.5 to 1 second), the next gate lights up. This repeats for the set number of rounds.

Step 7 – When the session is complete, review the results screen. The app displays:

Rounds completed, shown as Session Complete.

Hits and Misses, showing how many lights the athlete successfully triggered.

Avg Reaction, the athlete's average reaction time in milliseconds.

Reaction Distribution, a bar chart of reaction time (ms) for each round.

Round Analysis, a round-by-round list of individual reaction times.

Step 8 – After reviewing:

Tap Save Trial to store the result.

Tap Redo if you want to retest without saving.

Interpreting the results:

Average reaction time gives the headline number, but the round-by-round data is often more informative. Look at the Reaction Distribution chart for consistency: a tight spread suggests reliable, repeatable reaction speed, while large spikes indicate lapses in attention or anticipation errors. Misses are equally important, as they show the athlete failed to trigger the lit gate in time.

Because reaction times are influenced by fatigue, arousal and familiarity with the drill, compare an athlete to their own baseline across sessions rather than to an external standard, and allow a familiarisation trial before recording data you intend to track.

Using the Simple Reaction Drill in rehab and performance:

In a performance setting, this drill isolates the perceptual and decision component of agility from movement ability. An athlete with strong change of direction scores but slow reaction times may be limited by processing speed rather than physical capacity, which guides whether to program reactive work or movement mechanics. It is also useful as a low-load, high-frequency measure that can be run often without accumulating physical fatigue.

In a rehab and return to sport setting, the drill is valuable because it can be introduced early, before an athlete is ready for high-speed change of direction. It allows you to train and monitor reaction and attention while physical load is still restricted, and to track whether fatigue or cognitive load is degrading reaction speed as the athlete progresses. Later in the process, comparing Simple Reaction results with reactive agility results (such as the Y Reactive Agility Drill) helps separate a perception limitation from a movement limitation.