Essential visual skills required for boxing: A review

Abstract

Background: Boxing requires athletes to possess specific visual skills to effectively evaluate situations and react in a timely manner. Understanding these skills is crucial for the training and development of athletes.Aim: This review aimed to summarise and analyse the essential visual skills required for boxing, highlighting their importance beyond basic visual acuity.Method: Studies were obtained from various databases, including Science Direct, Google Scholar, CISTI Source, SPORTDiscus and PubMed. A comprehensive keyword search was conducted, searching Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) ‘visual skills’, ‘hand-eye coordination’, ‘peripheral vision’, ‘eye movements’, ‘boxing’, ‘boxing rules’, ‘reaction time’, ‘speed of recognition’, ‘accommodation facility’, ‘visual memory’, ‘combat sport’, ‘depth perception’, ‘motor learning’, and ‘cognitive function’.Results: A total of 35 full-text English-language articles were included in the review after the removal of duplicates and the full-text review process. The review found that the essential visual skills required for boxing are depth perception, accommodation facility, saccadic eye movements, hand-eye coordination, peripheral awareness, speed and span of recognition, reaction time, visual memory and anticipation.Conclusion: The findings suggest that training programmes for boxers should incorporate exercises to enhance these visual skills. Further research is needed to develop specific training protocols and evaluate their effectiveness.Contribution: This review provides a comprehensive overview of visual skills in boxing, offering insights into their role in athletic performance. The study contributes to the development of more effective training strategies and highlights the need for further research in sports vision.