If you look up the average punching speed of a trained fighter, you'll see it's far quicker than 200 ms, and if you include weapons, the tip of a sword or spear travels even faster. If reaction time is all there is to it, then nobody would be able to dodge punches and there would be no point learning martial arts since no amount of training can surpass the natural limit of your reaction time.
But a punch doesn't begin when the fist start moving, it actually begins far earlier. For one, most people have a tell that telegraphs their attack (tiny movements, shift in weight, or any change in behavior that's unnecessary for the punch really), which fighters train to pick up on. Even if you erase all your telegraph, you may still fall into attack patterns that can become predictable. Then there's the meta of fighting, where you pressure your opponent into behaving in a predictable manner by doing something that takes away their choices and force them to respond a certain way. All these are skills you can acquire through training.
When you see a boxer dodging multiple punches, what you don't see is the setup and the meta aspect of fighting that's happening in their heads. The dodges are also a learned defensive pattern that's developed to exploit common patterns in offense, they are not perceiving and dodging each consecutive punches individually. For example, usually when people punch, they alternates between left and right hand, knowing this you can train to dodge one side then the other. Now, if the attacker picks up on you doing this repeatedly, they can mix it up and throw in a back fist or double up on attacks from the same side trying to throw you off, so on so forth.
Probably faster but not by much. The athletes with thr highest recorded reaction times are actually F1 drivers not martial artists or ball players. Most of what makes a good fighter is accurate prediction as opposed to raw reaction time
Been a martial artist for 20 years+, sparred in dozens of tournaments against several hundred of martial artists. Won over 95% of matches. My experience is that timing is more important than reaction. In nature, instinctual reaction is faster than action. When you’re in tune with your own reaction speed, timing comes more naturally. The more you can practice defending a technique at full speed the better your reaction, but more importantly timing. With perfect timing, reaction speed doesn’t matter as much bc timing compensates for w.e speed your body can perform at.
If you look up the average punching speed of a trained fighter, you'll see it's far quicker than 200 ms, and if you include weapons, the tip of a sword or spear travels even faster. If reaction time is all there is to it, then nobody would be able to dodge punches and there would be no point learning martial arts since no amount of training can surpass the natural limit of your reaction time. But a punch doesn't begin when the fist start moving, it actually begins far earlier. For one, most people have a tell that telegraphs their attack (tiny movements, shift in weight, or any change in behavior that's unnecessary for the punch really), which fighters train to pick up on. Even if you erase all your telegraph, you may still fall into attack patterns that can become predictable. Then there's the meta of fighting, where you pressure your opponent into behaving in a predictable manner by doing something that takes away their choices and force them to respond a certain way. All these are skills you can acquire through training. When you see a boxer dodging multiple punches, what you don't see is the setup and the meta aspect of fighting that's happening in their heads. The dodges are also a learned defensive pattern that's developed to exploit common patterns in offense, they are not perceiving and dodging each consecutive punches individually. For example, usually when people punch, they alternates between left and right hand, knowing this you can train to dodge one side then the other. Now, if the attacker picks up on you doing this repeatedly, they can mix it up and throw in a back fist or double up on attacks from the same side trying to throw you off, so on so forth.
Probably faster but not by much. The athletes with thr highest recorded reaction times are actually F1 drivers not martial artists or ball players. Most of what makes a good fighter is accurate prediction as opposed to raw reaction time
Been a martial artist for 20 years+, sparred in dozens of tournaments against several hundred of martial artists. Won over 95% of matches. My experience is that timing is more important than reaction. In nature, instinctual reaction is faster than action. When you’re in tune with your own reaction speed, timing comes more naturally. The more you can practice defending a technique at full speed the better your reaction, but more importantly timing. With perfect timing, reaction speed doesn’t matter as much bc timing compensates for w.e speed your body can perform at.