Pulling Punches: A Non-parameteric Approach to Punch Force Estimation and the Development of Novel Boxing Metrics

Boxing has seen limited advancements in way of quantification of the sport during live professional fights. The PunchR system is an automated measurement system to collect information about a fight in realtime with fine-grained temporal resolution. The system employs nonintrusive accelerometers placed on the insides of boxers' wrists beneath their gloves to wirelessly relay acceleration data to a ringside laptop. Statistical models process the data for realtime estimates of fight metrics to quantify the action taking place in the ring including punch count, punch speed, punch force, and punch type. There are no new risks provided to the boxers during the fight nor do these accelerometers affect either of the boxers' physical performances.;The statistical methods used to construct these statistical models are non-parametric in a sense that the data is really driving the modeling procedure without any notion of a structure prior to model construction. Data for the models is collected in a controlled experimental boxing setting or through video review of live fights. Model features are derived from the acceleration profiles of punches combined with boxer physical measurements to create a complete feature set to train the models.;Primarily, the boxing metrics are largely tangible quantities that already are commonplace in boxing discussions (count, speed, force, and type) but have no prior method of measure. Methods are also developed to measure number of counterpunches and flurries using the timing of certain punches. Newly proposed metrics not in typical boxing terminology are either combinations of the common punch metrics or other measures taken from the acceleration data. These metrics attempt to measure a boxer's aggression and different measures of overall punch quality. The groundwork for these new contributions to boxing metrics and resulting visualizations for these metrics arise through the study of 65 professional boxing matches. Two complete fight summaries illustrate how a fight narrative can be told through use of the new metrics and visualizations. The PunchR system has been developed to begin the higher level quantification of boxing.