A countdown with fixed time wouldn't work unless it's like half a second. Any more time and the movement of your opponents are too unpredictable. What happens if they start running away that last second? You still hold ground or do you go for it immediately?
Something that might work (but still difficulties using it in practice) is a button that you hold, giving a "wait" signal and once you release it says something like "go", similar to a commander saying "hold" and "fire" without a fixed amount of time in between. For this to work, there has to be a way to call off the attack. Sometimes you're just like "wait for signal" and then "nvm".