Perceptual and Motor Performance of Combat-Sport Athletes Differs According to Specific Demands of the Discipline

Abstract

The specific demands of a combat-sport discipline may be reflected in the perceptual-motor performance of its athletes. Taekwondo, which emphasizes kicking, might require faster perceptual processing to compensate for longer latencies to initiate lower-limb movements and to give rapid visual feedback for dynamic postural control, while Karate, which emphasizes both striking with the hands and kicking, might require exceptional eye-hand coordination and fast perceptual processing. In samples of 38 Taekwondo athletes (16 females, 22 males; mean age = 19.9 years, SD = 1.2), 24 Karate athletes (9 females, 15 males; mean age = 18.9 years, SD = 0.9), and 35 Nonathletes (20 females, 15 males; mean age = 20.6 years, SD = 1.5), we measured eye-hand coordination with the Finger-Nose-Finger task, and both perceptual-processing speed and attentional control with the Covert Orienting of Visual Attention (COVAT) task. Eye-hand coordination was significantly better for Karate athletes than for Taekwondo athletes and Nonathletes, but reaction times for the upper extremities in the COVAT task-indicative of perceptual-processing speed-were faster for Taekwondo athletes than for Karate athletes and Nonathletes. In addition, we found no significant difference among groups in attentional control, as indexed by the reaction-time cost of an invalid cue in the COVAT task. The results suggest that athletes in different combat sports exhibit distinct profiles of perceptual-motor performance.

Differences in visio-spatial expertise between 1st division rugby players and non-athletes

“…Hand-eye coordination was found to be superior in the present study's first-division rugby players and is supported by the findings of Chen et al (2017) and Halder and Saha (2013). This is expected in an open skill sport such as rugby, due to players being required to process information in a rapidly changing, unpredictable environment, which may lead to superior performance of hand-eye coordination skill and also result in developing more flexible visual attention, decision making and action execution when compared to non-athletes (Lees, 2003;Taddei et al, 2012).…”

“…In this regard, this study proposes the notion that rugby players perform significantly better in most, but not all VSI components, as with visual memory in this study. This finding indicates that research should move away from tests that focus on basic visual function and develop sport specific vision testing methods, which has been happening in more recent vision-related studies (Barret et al, 2017;Chen et al, 2017;Halder and Saha, 2013).…”

The perceptual – Cognitive skills of combat sports athletes: A systematic review

“…An extensive number of investigations examined the perceptual -cognitive skills of combat sport athletes by means of paradigms such as the Posner-like one, GO/NO-GO task, visual perception speed, and choice reaction time tasks (Bianco, Di Russo, Perri & Berchicci, 2017;Bianco, Ferri, Fabiano, Giorgiano, Tavella, Manili et al, 2011;Bianco, Ferri, Fabiano, Scardigno, Tavella, Caccia et al, 2008;Chen, Song, Chou, Wang & Goodbourn, 2017;Cojocariu and Abalase, 2012); Di Russo & Spinelli, 2010;Del Percio, Babiloni, Infarinato, Marzano, Iacoboni, Lizio, 2009;Fontani, Lodi, Felici, Migliorini, & Corradeschi, 2006;Guizani, Tenenbaum, Bouzaouach, Kheder, Feki & Bouaziz, 2006;Kim & Petrakis, 1998;Lesiakowski et al, 2013;Mori et al, 2002;Muiños & Ballesteros, 2013, 2014Nougier, Ripoll & Stein, 1989;Sanchez-Lopez, Fernandez, Silva-Pereyra, Martinez-Mesa & Di Russo, 2014). These experiments were aimed at understanding the basic cognitive processes of skilled fight sport athletes when compared against less skilled…”

Atenção visual no esporte: uma revisão

“…Importante também enfatizar que o presente trabalho é resultado de um levantamento realizado no ano de 2014 no âmbito de uma disciplina eletiva do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Psicologia da UFPE. Logo, diante da demanda de atualização, importante identificar que foram evidenciadas produções no ano de 2015, com Iatismo (Pluijms et al, 2015, Tênis (Piras et al, 2015), modalidades escolares (Kauffman et al, 2015), entre outras (Pearce et al, 2015, Leong et al, 2015, bem como no ano de 2016, com modalidades diversas (Schättin et al, 2016;Chen et al, 2016;Goble & Christie, 2016). No presente estudo, foi possível perceber que existem muitas especificidades atencionais que se estabelecem na relação do atleta com estímulos provenientes do ambiente esportivo, fato que torna a temática deste trabalho difícil de ser esgotada.…”