Isao Machii, a modern-day Samurai from Japan, claims he has an incredible reaction time. Stan Lee's (the co-creator of Marvel Comics) show Superhumans has Machii san perform (and prove) his ability. It is absolutely astounding what Machii san can execute:
Hopefully you watched the amazing video. My thoughts and beliefs on Machii san's superior reaction time is simple:
Dr. Durvasula states Isao Machii is on a totally different level of anticipatory processing. Being a warrior, Machii san was most likely stepping into Mushin, "the Void," the empty meditative state that all extremely disciplined warriors go to for focus. The professor described he's like a perfectly calibrated machine, that "this is about processing at an entirely different sensory level, because he's not visually processing..." and the host of the show goes on to add that Machii san disengages his thought processes, "reacting in a purely instinctive way." With steel focus and extreme discipline, mushin combines the body and mind as one, putting it in perfect harmony and (in computer gaming terms) "eliminating the ping." There is no "lag" in Machii san's connection of signals from the brain to the body, his reaction to the baseball or bb is, as it is put, purely instinctual, whereas a normal person's reaction time would be significantly lower, resulting in a likely miss of the projectile. It is outstanding how Machii san can even see the white pellet shot from the gun, and given the speed, size of both pellet and thinness of the sword, and hand-eye coordination (or, in his situation, coordination of a different level), that he was able to slice it, let alone even hit it. To make it more difficult, Machii san has to unsheath the katana first, he is not just holding it out, ready to strike. What I love is, living by the code of Bushido, he said he could slice the bullet (pellet) in half, so after the first attempt, he didn't want to fall back on his word....so he made it happen. I admire that honor and integrity.
A superb job well-done, just goes to show there is more to the human mind and body than what is commonly taught/known.
