The first academic research to deliver a quantitative evaluation of the potential risks linked to competitive slap fighting serves as a foundation for discussions aimed at safeguarding the long-term health and safety of participants.
Experts from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine examined visible concussion symptoms in individuals engaged in professional slap fighting contests, with their findings published in JAMA Surgery this week. This first-ever quantitative study of the risks involved in this activity sparks essential conversations regarding the implementation of regulations to protect participants’ long-term health and welfare.
“While slap fighting can be entertaining for spectators, as medical professionals, we noticed several concerning aspects of these competitions,” stated Raj Swaroop Lavadi, the lead author and a postdoctoral research fellow in Pitt’s neurosurgery department. “Our ultimate aim is to enhance safety across all professional sports for the neurological health of athletes. Although prohibiting a sport is challenging, raising awareness about its associated risks is feasible. We were intrigued by the idea of using video analysis to identify signs of concussion in a competition not previously examined.”
Slap fighting, primarily an underground sport, is rapidly increasing in popularity, drawing millions of viewers online. Competitors, positioned at waist height on a podium, face off and take turns delivering powerful open-handed strikes to one another’s faces. According to the official rules, opponents have a brief recovery time between blows, and the competition continues until one fighter is knocked out or the judges declare a winner.
The medical field has raised significant concerns regarding the potential risks of head injuries and brain trauma faced by participants, yet no peer-reviewed study has previously attempted to document and quantify these dangers.
To evaluate the risks associated with professional slap fighting, trained reviewers analyzed videos of slap fight competitions and observed 333 slaps. They noted visible signs of concussions, which varied from reduced awareness of surroundings to complete unresponsiveness, and recorded the frequency of those occurrences.
The analysis revealed that more than half of the slap actions resulted in fighters showing visible signs of concussion. By the end of their matches, nearly 40% of the slap sequences led to indicators of poor motor coordination, about one-third of the events produced participants displaying a blank stare, and a quarter of sequences involved fighters who were slow to rise after being struck. Almost 80% of the participants exhibited at least one visible sign of concussion throughout the matches.
The results present a concerning outlook for the long-term health of these competitors.
“Clinically, concussion symptoms can manifest in various ways, all of which carry the potential for short- or long-term disabilities and socioeconomic challenges,” expressed Nitin Agarwal, M.D., the study’s senior author and associate professor of neurosurgery at Pitt. “As a physician with a background in martial arts and a strong interest in combat sports, I am genuinely worried about the prevalence of evident concussion symptoms among slap fighters.”
The research team is currently engaged in measuring and assessing the physical force from an average slap using mouthpieces similar to those utilized by professional football players. These insights, along with the aggregated video analysis data, will aid in advising participants, officials, and ringside medical personnel, while also setting the stage for improved safety regulations in the future.
