Features of the manifestation of psychophysiological functions in qualified athletes of different combat sports

Abstract

Purpose: to determine the specific features of the manifestation of psychophysiological functions in qualified athletes representing different combat sports. Material and Methods. The study involved 25 qualified combat athletes (Candidate Master of Sports of Ukraine, Master of Sports of Ukraine): freestyle wrestlers (n=11; 17.5±1.04 years) and taekwon-do athletes (n=14; 17.6±0.76 years). To assess psychophysiological functions, five mobile tests were used: «Visuomotor Choice Reaction» - choice reaction; «Reaction Go/No-go» - inhibitory reaction; «Test ST Memory» - short-term visual memory; «Spatial Perception» - spatial perception; and «Size Test» - reaction to changes in object size. The following integral indicators were analyzed for each test: reaction time (ms), standard deviation (SD, ms), percentage of errors (%), accuracy of task performance (%), and task duration (s). Statistical analysis was performed in RStudio (version 2026.01.0+392). Descriptive statistics were presented as mean (Mean), standard deviation (SD), median (Me), and the first and third quartiles (Q1, Q3). Between-group differences were assessed using the Mann-Whitney U test, with statistical significance set at p<0.05. Results: the results of psychophysiological testing in qualified combat athletes were obtained. It was found that the distributions of the integral psychophysiological indicators in taekwon-do athletes and freestyle wrestlers were generally similar. In taekwon-do athletes, the median reaction time values in the Go/No-Go, Spatial Perception, and VCR tests were slightly lower, indicating a tendency toward faster sensorimotor responses. At the same time, freestyle wrestlers demonstrated slightly higher median values of overall short-term visual memory accuracy. In general, the results showed substantial overlap of the interquartile ranges in the two groups, confirming the similarity of the studied indicators. According to the comparison of the integral psychophysiological indicators between taekwon-do athletes and freestyle wrestlers using the Mann-Whitney U test, no statistically significant between-group differences were found (p>0.05). This indicates an overall similarity in the level of development of the studied psychophysiological functions in athletes of both groups. Conclusions. The obtained results indicate the absence of statistically significant differences in the level of development of integral psychophysiological functions between qualified taekwon-do athletes and freestyle wrestlers (p>0.05), which points to their overall similarity. At the same time, a tendency toward higher sensorimotor response speed was observed in taekwon-do athletes, whereas freestyle wrestlers demonstrated slightly better short-term visual memory indicators. The substantial overlap of interquartile ranges confirms high individual variability of psychophysiological characteristics within each group. The identified features may be associated with the specificity of competitive activity and the nature of the training process in different combat sports. The obtained data should be taken into account when individualizing training and improving the system of pedagogical control of athletes.