Tips for explosiveness/reaction?

I’ve just taken up fencing. Among other things, I’ve discovered I have fast reflexes but SLOOOOWWWWWW reaction times. I’m looking for some training advice or drills on two things:

  1. Speed up reaction time, i.e. reduce the time between seeing a stimulus and actually initiating an (any) action to it.

  2. Conditioning so that when I lunge, I lunger faster, harder and stronger. Nearly all of the drive is from the back foot (left).

Just to clarify, for #1 above, I’m looking to speed up my reaction. At the moment I don’t react. At least if I reacted with the wrong decision, I could work on getting it right. At the moment, I just stand there and don’t see anything.

Thanks in advance.

For number one I suggest meditation. When I was a teenager and doing kickboxing it really helped me but when I quit the effects stopped. You can either meditate to stop thought or meditate to become unattached to your thoughts. I have tried both. PM me if you’d like more info…or post under the Dawg Log thread in the strength forum/

#2 you might try explosive lunges, box squats. But definitely increase your ham/glute strength as ham’s are the speed muscle. A modified Westside program would help you IMHO. I know it has increased my sprinting speed.