Perceptual-cognitive expertise in combat sports: a narrative review and a model of perception-action. [Habilidades perceptivo-cognitivas en deportes de combate: una revisión narrativa y un modelo de percepción-acción].

Abstract

Despite the many studies on physical and physiological features of combat sport athletes, there has been considerably less consideration of psychological factors. Here, we present a narrative review of literature related to perceptual-cognitive skill in combat sports that require the athlete to score points by hitting or touching the opponent's body with the hands, feet or weapon: boxing, French boxing, fencing, kung fu (wushu), karate, taekwondo and other martial arts. Based on a thorough search of literature, we synthesised findings from empirical studies on Reaction Time, Anticipation, Visual Search and Information Pick-up. Contrary to the belief of coaches, there was no clear consensus regarding Reaction Time being a good predictor of success in combat sports. However, consistent with findings from other sports, expert combat sport athletes better anticipate the opponent's actions based on information perceived before and during the attack. This is likely facilitated by experts using a gaze fixation strategy (i.e., visual pivot) that facilitates information pick-up. In the final section, we present a model that describes how the evolving perception-action relationship between the attacking athlete and opponent depends on distance, attack progression and opponent reaction. Suggestions are provided for training and for future research in combat sports.

Exploring the effects of 3D-360°VR and 2D viewing modes on gaze behavior, head excursion, and workload during a boxing specific anticipation task

“…Examining the specific locations participants were looking at in each condition would have provided a more detailed comparison. Previous research has demonstrated that experts in boxing ( Martínez de Quel and Bennett, 2019 ) and combat sports ( Zhang et al, 2022 ) utilize specific areas of interest during visual exploration. Experts tend to distribute their gaze more towards areas such as the head and trunk of the opponent, while novices tend to focus more on the forehand and pelvis regions.…”

Comparative analysis of the athletes’ functional condition in cyclic and situational sports

“…At the same time, Martinez de Quel et al [22] emphasized that there was no clear consensus that response time was a good predictor of success in martial arts. However, comparison with the results of other sports athletes confirmed that experienced martial arts athletes predict better the actions of the opponent based on information received before and during the attack.…”

How wide should you view to fight? Establishing the size of the visual field necessary for grip fighting in judo

“…In combat sports, athletes need to accurately perceive and functionally co-adapt to the behaviours of a direct opponent under high spatiotemporal constraints (Krabben, Orth et al, 2019). Many interactions in combat sports are primarily visually guided, especially when contact between combatants is limited or has not yet been established, for instance when attempting to strike or grasp an opponent whilst avoiding the opponents own attempts to do so (Martínez de Quel & Bennett, 2019). Expertise effects have been reported in visual search behaviour across numerous combat sports, including karate (Milazzo et al, 2016;Williams & Elliott, 1999), fencing (Hagemann et al, 2010), boxing (Ripoll et al, 1995), taekwondo (Perez et al, 2013), kung fu (Hausegger et al, 2019), kendo (Kato, 2020) and judo (Piras et al, 2014).…”