UCF101 is an action recognition data set of realistic action videos, collected from YouTube, having 101 action categories. This data set is an extension of UCF50 data set which has 50 action categories.

With 13320 videos from 101 action categories, UCF101 gives the largest diversity in terms of actions and with the presence of large variations in camera motion, object appearance and pose, object scale, viewpoint, cluttered background, illumination conditions, etc, it is the most challenging data set to date. As most of the available action recognition data sets are not realistic and are staged by actors, UCF101 aims to encourage further research into action recognition by learning and exploring new realistic action categories.

The videos in 101 action categories are grouped into 25 groups, where each group can consist of 4-7 videos of an action. The videos from the same group may share some common features, such as similar background, similar viewpoint, etc.

The action categories can be divided into five types: 1)Human-Object Interaction 2) Body-Motion Only 3) Human-Human Interaction 4) Playing Musical Instruments 5) Sports.

The action categories for UCF101 data set are: Apply Eye Makeup, Apply Lipstick, Archery, Baby Crawling, Balance Beam, Band Marching, Baseball Pitch, Basketball Shooting, Basketball Dunk, Bench Press, Biking, Billiards Shot, Blow Dry Hair, Blowing Candles, Body Weight Squats, Bowling, Boxing Punching Bag, Boxing Speed Bag, Breaststroke, Brushing Teeth, Clean and Jerk, Cliff Diving, Cricket Bowling, Cricket Shot, Cutting In Kitchen, Diving, Drumming, Fencing, Field Hockey Penalty, Floor Gymnastics, Frisbee Catch, Front Crawl, Golf Swing, Haircut, Hammer Throw, Hammering, Handstand Pushups, Handstand Walking, Head Massage, High Jump, Horse Race, Horse Riding, Hula Hoop, Ice Dancing, Javelin Throw, Juggling Balls, Jump Rope, Jumping Jack, Kayaking, Knitting, Long Jump, Lunges, Military Parade, Mixing Batter, Mopping Floor, Nun chucks, Parallel Bars, Pizza Tossing, Playing Guitar, Playing Piano, Playing Tabla, Playing Violin, Playing Cello, Playing Daf, Playing Dhol, Playing Flute, Playing Sitar, Pole Vault, Pommel Horse, Pull Ups, Punch, Push Ups, Rafting, Rock Climbing Indoor, Rope Climbing, Rowing, Salsa Spins, Shaving Beard, Shotput, Skate Boarding, Skiing, Skijet, Sky Diving, Soccer Juggling, Soccer Penalty, Still Rings, Sumo Wrestling, Surfing, Swing, Table Tennis Shot, Tai Chi, Tennis Swing, Throw Discus, Trampoline Jumping, Typing, Uneven Bars, Volleyball Spiking, Walking with a dog, Wall Pushups, Writing On Board, Yo Yo.