Visio-Spatial Skills in Amateur Taekwondo Athletes Compared with Non-Athletes: A Cross-Sectional Observational Study

Background: Visio-spatial skills (VSS) are fundamental perceptual-cognitive capacities that enable athletes to process dynamic visual information, interpret spatial relationships, and execute precise motor responses under competitive conditions. In taekwondo, where scoring actions are executed within milliseconds and success depends on the rapid detection and anticipation of an opponent's movements, well-developed VSS are considered a functional prerequisite for performance. Method: This cross-sectional observational study examined differences in VSS between amateur taekwondo athletes (n = 50) and non-athletes (n = 50) recruited from the King Cetshwayo Municipality District, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Six VSS were assessed using standardized, validated instruments: accommodation facility (AF), saccadic eye movement (SEM), speed of recognition (SR), hand-eye coordination (HEC), peripheral awareness (PA), and visual memory (VM). Between-group comparisons were performed using the Mann-Whitney U test, with effect sizes reported as rank-biserial correlations (r). Results: Taekwondo athletes demonstrated significantly superior performance across all VSS domains (all p ≤ 0.05), with a large effect observed for SR (r = 0.91), HEC (r = 0,87), SEM (r = 0.78), and AF (r = 0.74), and moderate effect for VM (r = 0.58) and PA (r = 031). The largest between-group percentage differences were observed for SR (79.43%), HEC (48.13%), and SEM (33.33%), with smaller but significant differences in AF (31.05%), VM (14.92%), and PA (4.23%). Pearson correlation analysis revealed a dense, globally integrated VSS network in non-athletes anchored by AF, contrasting with a sparse pattern in taekwondo athletes, in which SEM showed the greatest number of moderate or stronger associations with other variables. These within-group correlation structures are presented as preliminary and descriptive observations only. Intraclass correlation coefficients were excellent for five of the six VSS (ICC ≥ 0.963), with PA yielding a point estimate of ICC = 0.853, characterized by a wide confidence interval. Conclusions: These findings indicate that amateur taekwondo athletes show superior perceptual, oculomotor, and visuo-motor performance compared to non-athletes. Within-group VSS correlation pattern differs descriptively between the groups. The cross-sectional design cannot determine whether these differences reflect training-associated perceptual adaptation, pre-existing trait-based self-selection into taekwondo, or a combination of both mechanisms. Both interpretations carry applied implications for talent identification and vision training program design. A longitudinal investigation is required to establish causal directionality. SEM and AF are proposed as the most diagnostically informative VSS markers for taekwondo screening, under either interpretation.