Do professional fights go too long?: A video review of concussions and their consequences in professional boxing and MMA matches

ObjectivesDetermine, through video reviews, how often concussions occur in combat sport matches, how well non-medical personnel can be trained to recognize concussions and how often fights are judged to continue too long.MethodsThis is a retrospective video analysis by an 8 person panel of 60 professional fights (30 boxing and 30 mixed martial arts). Through video review, medical and non-medical personnel recorded details about each probable concussion and determined if and when they would have stopped the fight compared to the official stoppage time.ResultsA concussion was recorded in 47/60 fights. The fighter that sustained the first concussion ultimately lost 98% of the time. The physician and non-physician raters had 86% agreement regarding the number of concussions that occurred to each fighter per match. The mean number of concussions per minute of fight time was 0.08 (0.06 for boxers and 0.10 for MMA). When stratifying by outcome of the bout, the mean number of concussion per minute for the winner was 0.01 compared to the loser at 0.15 concussions per minute. The physician raters judged that 24 of the 60 fights (11 boxing [37%]; 13 MMA [43 %]) should have been stopped sooner than what occurred.ConclusionRecognizing that the losing fighter almost always is concussed first and tends to sustain more concussions during the fight, along with the demonstration that non-physician personnel can be taught to recognize concussion, may guide policy changes that improve brain health in combat sports.

Drinking during marathon running in extreme heat: a video analysis study of the top finishers in the 2004 Athens Olympic marathons

Objective. To assess the drinking behaviours of top competitors during an Olympic marathon. Methods. Retrospective video analysis of the top four finishers in both the male and female 2004 Athens Olympic marathons plus the pre-race favourite in the female race in order to assess total time spent drinking. One male and female runner involved in a laboratory drinking simulation trial. Results. For the five female athletes, 37 of a possible 73 drinking episodes were captured. The female race winner was filmed at 11 of 15 drinking stations. Her total drinking time was 23.6 seconds; extrapolated over 15 seconds this would have increased to 32.2 seconds for a total of 27 sips of fluid during the race. Eighteen of a possible 60 drinking episodes for the top four male marathon finishers were filmed. The total drinking time for those 18 episodes was 11.4 seconds. A laboratory simulation found that a female athlete of approximately the same weight as the female Olympic winner might have been able to ingest a maximum of 810 ml (350 ml.h-1) from 27 sips whilst running at her best marathon pace whereas a male might have drunk a maximum of 720 ml (330 ml.h-1) from 9 sips under the same conditions. Conclusions. These data suggest that both the female and male 2004 Olympic Marathon winners drank minimal total amounts of fluid (<1 litre) in hot (>30ºC) temperatures while completing the marathon with race times within 2.5% of the Olympic record.