Quickness

How fast are you?
How quick do you need to be?

You do not have to be the fastest that you can be. You only need to be quicker than your current opponent. Speed is relative.

Types of speed

Perception speed or intuitive recognition. The speed at which you perceive an imminent attack. It may be increased by repeatedly exposing yourself to situations that require instant analysis, such as free sparring.

• Visual Perception. This is your ability to spot small body movements and behaviors or expressions that indicate intentions (telegraphing), spot openings, and track movements.
• Tactile Perception. This is your ability to use touch to detect movements or imminent movements. For this to work, you must be in contact with the opponent. I once played Judo with a blind black belt who would detect your intentions and tell you what you were planning to do before you even did it.
• Auditory Perception. This is your ability to hear critical things, such as breathing, shuffling, steps, grunts related to pain, etc., that may help you react to an attack.

Reaction speed. The speed at which you react to an identified threat. You react quicker to expected attacks, such as when sparing you know what types of kicks to expect due to practice and the sparing rules. In unexpected attacks, such as in self-defense situations, you do not know what the attack may be but you do know the attack is meant to harm you, so this limits the choices of attacks.