Interrater Agreement of an Observational Tool to Code Knockouts and Technical Knockouts in Mixed Martial Arts

OBJECTIVE: Interrater agreement evaluation of a tool to document and code the situational factors and mechanisms of knockouts (KOs) and technical knockouts (TKOs) in mixed martial arts (MMA). DESIGN: Retrospective case series. SETTING: Professional MMA matches from the Ultimate Fighting Championship-2006-2012. PARTICIPANTS: Two nonmedically trained independent raters. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The MMA Knockout Tool (MMA-KT) consists of 20 factors and captures and codes information on match characteristics, situational context preceding KOs and TKOs, as well as describing competitor states during these outcomes. The MMA-KT also evaluates the mechanism of action and subsequent events surrounding a KO. RESULTS: The 2 raters coded 125 unique events for a total of 250 events. The 8 factors of Part A had an average κ of 0.87 (SD = 0.10; range = 0.65-0.98); 7 were considered "substantial" agreement and 1 "moderate." Part B consists of 12 factors with an average κ of 0.84 (SD = 0.16; range = 0.59-1.0); 7 classified as "substantial" agreement, 4 "moderate," and 1 "fair." The majority of the factors in the MMA-KT demonstrated substantial interrater agreement, with an average κ of 0.86 (SD = 0.13; range = 0.59-1.0). CONCLUSIONS: The MMA-KT is a reliable tool to extract and code relevant information to investigate the situational factors and mechanism of KOs and TKOs in MMA competitions.