Perceptual-cognitive expertise in combat sport: from scientific research to training

摘要

Performance in combat sports has been widely studied from the point of view of physiology,anthropometrics or biomechanics. Thus, conditional training is usually based on physiologicalresearch and techniques are evaluated from a biomechanical perspective. However, combat sportexperts also differ from novices in their psychological characteristics. In fact, many trainers suggestthe difference between a good athlete and a champion is the ability to make the right technique atthe right moment, and that this requires expert perception, cognition, decision making, and tacticalawareness. Given the importance of psychological characteristics, it is somewhat surprising thatthey are usually trained using methods based on the experience of the coach more rather thanscientific research. Our aim, therefore, was to review relevant scientific literature on combat sportsexpertise in a selection of perceptual‐cognitive variables and then to provide some guidelines fortraining.