Thus complicated weaves such as the ones for opening gateways or Shielding are generally depicted as being instantaneous for stronger and/or very experienced channelers while very simple weaves such as the ones to light candles or hold a target with Air occur so quickly that often a channeler is ready to do this without much thought at all.

Keep in mind, for example, that when Sammael destroyed the battle tower Rand, Aviendha and Egwene fought from, Rand only had seconds to weave while falling - he was still able to save them despite the less than ideal situation.

A mature and experienced channeler can channel just as fast as it would take a warrior to prepare to draw a weapon. We are still dealing with thoughts and the speed that your nerves fire - for a warrior, we are talking about how fast their brains can command their muscles to contract and etc, while for the channeler, it is how quickly their brain can fire off the neural pathways that enable channeling.