Now, I would like to turn to information on human reaction time. Assuming that the spotter has the skill and the strength to catch a falling gymnast, the spotter must be capable of detecting a flawed performance, select an appropriate action, and then implement the action. A spotter must implement the concepts of information processing in order to perform a rescue spot effectively. The concepts of information processing in the case of rescue spotting primarily involve the carious types of reaction time. You are probably familiar with reaction time from driver education courses that often provide tables and explanations of how long it takes the driver to hit the brakes once a threat has been identified.
Reaction time is important in many aspects of sports, particularly rescue spotting.
The first stage, stimulus-identification, occurs when a spotter perceives the gymnast. An array of sensors from vision, hearing, and balance must act in concert to quickly and correctly inform the spotter that the gymnast is in danger. Practice is also important in stimulus-identification. It is important that a spotter attend to what is relevant in the execution of a skill and filter out irrelevant information that is present. This can be a very difficult information processing skill to learn particularly when one doesn't often perform rescue spots on all skills, or for all gymnasts.