Back to school 2026: 5 exercises to improve reflexes, coordination and reaction times

The start of the new academic year marks the return to school, but also to training, clubs, and sports activities. After several weeks with a different rhythm, it's often the time to gradually get back into the swing of things.

We naturally think of endurance, strength, or technique. However, another component also deserves our full attention: the ability to perceive information, make a decision and react quickly.

Football, basketball, handball, tennis, combat sports… In many disciplines, a few fractions of a second can make all the difference.

So, how do you gradually get your reflexes and coordination back to work after the holidays? Here's how. 5 simple and fun exercises to get this new sports season off to a good start.

Why work on your reflexes at the start of the school year?

In everyday language, we often talk about "reflexes" to refer to an athlete's ability to react very quickly.

In reality, many sporting situations involve a much more complex chain of events: perceive a stimulus, identify it, choose a response and then trigger the appropriate movement.

A goalkeeper, for example, must analyze the trajectory of a ball before making a save. A basketball player must perceive an opponent's movement and adapt their actions accordingly. A tennis player must constantly anticipate the speed and direction of the ball.

It is therefore a whole system combining, in particular attention, visual perception, decision-making, coordination and movement which comes into play.

The good news? These abilities can be used and trained.

1. The play of colors

Here is a very simple exercise to start with.

Assign an action to each color:

• red = right hand;
• blue = left hand;
• green = both hands.

Next, throw a Formiball against the ground or a wall. Upon impact, the ball lights up randomly: the player must identify the color and perform the corresponding action as quickly as possible.

The advantage is not knowing the answer in advance. The brain must perceive, decide, then act.

To gradually increase the difficulty, replace simple movements with more complex instructions: touching a cone, making a lateral movement, changing direction or performing a technical gesture.

2. Reacting to an unpredictable rebound

A traditional ball generally has a trajectory that is relatively easy to anticipate.

The Formiball, on the other hand, was designed with a deliberately irregular and moderate rebound.

The goal is therefore not to achieve the consistent bounce of a classic ball. This unpredictability forces the player to adjust their positioning and use their body more to retrieve the ball.

Position yourself about one to two meters from a wall, throw the ball and try to catch it after it bounces.

You can then gradually increase the distance or impose an additional constraint depending on the color that appears.

3. Linking travel and decision-making

Place three cones in front of the athlete: left, center and right.

Next, match each color to a plot.

The partner throws the ball. As soon as the color appears, the player must identify the signal, move to the corresponding cone and then return to retrieve the ball.

This exercise adds a particularly interesting dimension: the reaction no longer only concerns the hands, but the entire body.

For team sports, it can also be adapted with specific movements: side steps, short accelerations, changes of direction or defensive position.

4. Work in pairs

Reaction exercises become even more interesting when done in pairs.

One player throws the ball while the other must react to the color and its bounce.

The partner can gradually vary the direction, distance, and power of the throw.

The goal isn't necessarily to go ever faster. It's primarily about forcing the practitioner to to remain attentive and adapt to a situation that he does not completely control.

It is also a fun way to incorporate a few minutes of cognitive and motor work at the beginning of a workout.

5. Create your own back-to-school challenge

For the last exercise, let your imagination run wild.

Choose three actions corresponding to the three colors of the Formiball. For example:

Red : touch the ground and then retrieve the ball.
Blue : to perform a lateral movement.
Green : turn around before retrieving the ball.

Next, perform a series of 10 throws and count the number of correctly executed reactions.

One week later, repeat the exact same challenge.

The goal is simple: to do better than oneself, rather than systematically comparing oneself to others.

For children in particular, this approach makes it possible to transform reflex and coordination training into a real game.

Even a few minutes can enrich a training session.

Working on reaction time does not necessarily mean adding an extra long session to the program.

A few minutes can easily be incorporated into a warm-up, a technical session, or an activity at home.

The main thing is to vary the stimuli and the expected responses so that the practitioner cannot simply mechanically reproduce the same movement.

This is precisely one of the ideas behind Formiball: to introduce an element of uncertainty into the exercise through the random light signals with unpredictable rebound.

A sporting return under the banner of play

The start of the new academic year often means new goals: getting back into sports, progressing in one's club, regaining physical fitness, or simply moving more.

But athletic performance does not depend solely on muscles.

Observe, analyze, decide and act are also part of the movement.

Whether you are a child, an amateur athlete or a competitor, working on these skills through games adds a different dimension to training.

And above all, it reminds us of something essential for this new season: Progress can also be fun.