Those of you who have been in a car accident, a fight, or other traumatic event will understand what a temporal misperception is.

A period of time spanning an event, in reality being relatively short in duration, but which was perceived to last much longer.

My question stems from the fact that I observed temporal illusions at least 7 times at the games in Flagstaff this past weekend. Implements which I threw (or dropped) which to me appeared to have ridiculously long hang times. I also noticed during these periods that all other senses were drowned out by my vision.

Does this happen as you get more experienced? Do you get an ability to perceive things faster than they happen?

Or do I need to go get checked for a brain tumor?

I edited this post because that freak Holmes already had an alternate definition of "temporal illusion" which is the true term describing the above phenomena. I just happened upon the YouTube video researching this.

Edited by Stanley - 7/25/12 at 10:49pm

Stan, as a retired police officer and SWAT training officer I have seen studies that have shown that during tramatic events time seems to slow down, your sight and other senses become hyper acute, an incident that last only seconds can seem to you to last for for extremely long periods of time. It is thought that this is the brains way of protecting itself, processing the smallest detail and then instructing the body to react in a certain way. You remember the slightest details, colors, smells excereta. This also seems to get further heightened with training and rep's, and this is what I think you are experiencing. Athletes sometime call it "being in the zone."

I hope that my rusty rambling have helped. Stay in the ZONE my friend.

Mr. Smith where do you find this stuff.

Do you think it would help ?????

I don't know if what you're referring to is ACTUALLY what we're referring to.

JamesBullock wrote: I don't think that someone necessarily has the ability to perceive things faster than they happen so much as you become more efficient at seeing what you are looking at. In other words, you are simply more focused.

I agree. You can't perceive things faster than they happen. However, as your body becomes more atuned it becomes able to process more information in a shorter amount of time giving the illusion of time slowing down. More focused? I guess, but also able to process more information. Not necessarily pertinent information though.

Road Warrior wrote: Stan, as a retired police officer and SWAT training officer I have seen studies that have shown that during tramatic events time seems to slow down, your sight and other senses become hyper acute, an incident that last only seconds can seem to you to last for for extremely long periods of time. It is thought that this is the brains way of protecting itself, processing the smallest detail and then instructing the body to react in a certain way. You remember the slightest details, colors, smells excereta. This also seems to get further heightened with training and rep's, and this is what I think you are experiencing. Athletes sometime call it "being in the zone." I hope that my rusty rambling have helped. Stay in the ZONE my friend.

I know the zone thing. I manage 17 people on a daily basis, and I advise 15 more. Having the ability to stay on task is part of my job, so I understand "zoning in or out". Mainly for me that is normally an auditory sense. Maybe this is the same phenomena manifesting in a visual sense. I really like being in the zone.

CHAD wrote: How much paint were you sniffing?

If sniffing paint would make me throw farther, then ..... Well you get the point. Seriously, paint is cheap, but you don't get anymore brain cells. Besides, I can kill those with alcohol.

Lance Creed wrote: Stan I think this is an experience+focus phenomenon. When I played football there came a point where the game slowed down for me and I perceived a similar time warp. What used to feel rushed to you will start to perceive sharply with distinct points in time. I've noticed it happening in some of the events for me recently and I hope it begins to happen in others! But yeah you're probably screwed, go get an MRI

I have been in more than a few fights, and I took 3 years of Tae Kwon Do and Judo as a teenager competing in light contact tournaments. I have also totaled my fair share of vehicles, so I am no stranger to the slowing of time or experiencing more than normal in a short a mount of time. The effect I witnessed on Saturday was very similar though it didn't involve adrenaline. If it's a tumor maybe I should try my future sense and go buy a lotto ticket.

jsully wrote: I don't know if what you're referring to is ACTUALLY what we're referring to.   For me.. when I first started out EVERYTHING was moving so fast I had now idea what to do. My pulls were either early or late, my footwork was way too slow, etc. As I've gotten better, my body has adapted to the movement patterns so it knows what to do. In essence, everything slows down because your body knows what to do and you're comfortable with what is going on. You can focus on smaller aspects of the throws because your body is where it needs to be at or before when it needs to be there.   It wasn't until this happened that I could figure out how to drive the weight to zero, or drive my knee on the hammers. With the stone, its still all effed up for me, haha.

Jake - what you said is what I hope is occurring. It would be very nice to be more self aware. I think that is the difference between the top and the bottom in this sport. The difference between being controlled by your surroundings or controlling your surroundings. I wouldn't say I am completely aware of where I need to be, but certainly noticeably more aware.

grasshopper wrote: Jaw-dropping moments really do make time appear to stand still

You flater me. My throws aren't that awesome. I wish they were, but they are not.

Now, being in the zone should be more of a brain training thing.  You have to build the motor neurons and brain pathways for those movements.  Basically, when you are just starting to learn something, your brain is firing off every pathway that makes sense.  Lots of reasons for that.  But what it leads to is that feeling of everything going to fast and not being able to figure what you just did.  Too many things are being thought, analyzed, etc.

Get a physical, forget the flow nonsense.

Stanley wrote: I agree. You can't perceive things faster than they happen. However, as your body becomes more atuned it becomes able to process more information in a shorter amount of time giving the illusion of time slowing down. More focused? I guess, but also able to process more information. Not necessarily pertinent information though.

It is pertinent information. The body does gain the ability to process information in a shorter time period like you said, but it is still simply a matter of being more focused as a result of becoming more skilled in what you do. It is a very interesting phenomenon but not special by any means.

Stanley wrote: I agree it is very interesting. And I hope a sign of good things. I am starting to notice things in training that I had previously overlooked. I've been told what I am doing wrong, but couldn't perceive the fix until recently. For instance leading with the shoulder vs. leading with the hip in the stone throw, I just didn't understand that until I perceived it or felt it. Weird and interesting at the same time. I am really enjoying this sport!

Amen to that.... This sport truly is amazing in every way! I love it too!

It's a fight or flight response.  You get it with an up tick of adrenaline usually triggered by a "stressor". The greater the stressor, the greater the response.  It's a good thing...to a point.  If it goes too far then you'll be functioning in what we call (in the cop/swat world) "the black". At this point you lose a lot of your fine motor skills, your vision narrows and blood is shunted away from your extemities. However, what you're focusing on you'll see in greater detail.  In a shooting situation, I hope you're focusing on the right thing...or you're dead.  We trained to deal with this and calm ourselves.  Also we trained reps after reps so if the worst case scenario hits and your mind takes a dump and you can't "feel" your feet, hands, etc you can still perform because you've done it so many times you could do it on auto pilot. 

Stanley wrote: Those practices seem now to have been a huge waste of time.