en فيزيولوژی ورزشی و شاخه‌های وابسته بدان Sport Physiology and its related branches مقاله مروری Review Article <div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Background. </strong>Combat sports place demands on athletes&rsquo; visual systems due to the need for rapid perception, anticipation, and decision-making under conditions of temporal pressure and physical threat. Visual hardware and software skills are, therefore, considered critical contributors to performance.<br> <strong>Objectives. </strong>The objective was to systematically synthesize existing research on these skills in combat sports, identify their relevance to performance, and highlight methodological strengths, limitations, and gaps within the current evidence base.<br> <strong>Methods. </strong>Studies were obtained from various databases, including PubMed, ScienceDirect, Google Scholar, and SPORTDiscus. The search focused on systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and empirical studies published between 1990 and 2025.<br> <strong>Results. </strong>A total of 21 articles were included in the review after the removal of duplicates and the full-text review process. The reviewed literature demonstrates that combat sport athletes generally show superior performance in several visual domains, including reaction time, anticipation accuracy, visual attention, depth perception, and hand&ndash;eye coordination, compared with non-athletes or less skilled counterparts. Both visual hardware and software skills were consistently associated with sport-specific performance indicators. However, findings were limited by small sample sizes, male-dominated cohorts, cross-sectional designs, laboratory-based tasks with limited ecological validity, and inconsistent reporting of effect sizes and protocols.<br> <strong>Conclusion. </strong>The evidence supports the central role of visual skills in successful performance in combat sports. While current findings justify the integration of visual assessment and training into combat sport preparation, stronger causal evidence is required. Future research should prioritize longitudinal and intervention-based designs, standardized and sport-specific visual assessments, and more experimental studies on diverse combat sport athletes.</div> Visual Skills, Combat Sport, Reaction Time, Visual Hardware Skills, Visual Software Skills 0 0 http://aassjournal.com/browse.php?a_code=A-11-2545-2&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Moeketsi Robert Mohlakoana mohlakoana.keke@gmail.com 100319475328460017719 100319475328460017719 Yes Department of Human Movement Science, University of Zululand, KwaDlangezwa 3886, South Africa Lourens Millard MillardL@unizulu.ac.za 100319475328460017720 100319475328460017720 No Department of Human Movement Science, University of Zululand, KwaDlangezwa 3886, South Africa Gerrit Breukelman BreukelmanG@unizulu.ac.za 100319475328460017721 100319475328460017721 No Department of Human Movement Science, University of Zululand, KwaDlangezwa 3886, South Africa