The pacing of mixed martial arts sparring bouts: A secondary investigation with new analyses of previous data to support accelerometry as a potential method of monitoring pacing

Purpose: Body worn accelerometry has previously been shown to be reliable and used to measure the external load of mixed martial arts (MMA) via the Playerload metric. These measurements were only reported on a round-by-round basis, providing little indication of how load changes on a minute-by-minute basis. Understanding these changes may provide a proxy measure of fatigue, readiness and the onset of non-functional overreaching in this population. It is also unclear as to what Playerload is measuring in MMA sparring. Therefore, this study was a secondary investigation with new analyses of previously reported data to provide a more detailed description of the minute-by-minute changes in external load in MMA. Methods: 6 male, competitive MMA participants each took part in a 3 x 5 minute sparring bout wearing a Catapult Minimax x3 which recorded accumulated Playerload throughout. Bouts were video recorded and time motion analysis was used to determine: total active time; total inactive time; high intensity time; low intensity time; standing time; grounded time; striking time; non-striking time. Results: Bayesian repeated measures ANOVA found statistically relevant differences in accumulated Playerload for each minute of sparring (BF10 = 410) with no statistically relevant differences between winners and losers. Bayesian correlations found a direct, nearly perfect relationship between accumulated Playerload and total active time (r = .992, BF10 = 9,666). No other relationships between Playerload and time motion analysis results were found, despite Bayesian t tests finding differences between standing time and grounded time (BF10 = 83.7), striking time and non-striking time (BF10 = 1,419). Conclusions: Playerload reflects overall active movement in MMA and is sensitive enough to measure changes in active movement minute-by-minute but cannot distinguish between different modes or intensities of movement. This should be investigated further as a potential measure of fatigue and non-functional overreaching during MMA training