Assessment of Self-Concept of Badminton Players Belonging to High and Low Performance Ability

Badminton is a game which although played in a relatively small area, involves almost continuous movements in the court and thereby puts considerable demands on the cardio-vascular system of the players. To enable badminton players to maintain their speed, reflections and agility for long duration at high level of competition, cardio-vascular fitness plays an important role. Success in competitive sports places high psychological demand on the participants. Physical fitness at one hand and psychological at other are equally important to maintain the equilibrium of the individual. Self concept is the most important single attribute and key to understand the behaviour of an individual, the importance and role of self concept as a determinate of human behaviour and its acceptance as a critical factor of performance is increasingly realized. The teams are prepared not only to play the game but to win the game and for winning the game it is not only the cardio-vascular fitness which brings victory but more important is the spirit of the players with which they play and perform their best in the competition.

Thirty male badminton players (fifteen district level and fifteen state level) who had participated recently in their respective competitions were randomly selected for this study. All the players were residing at lucknow city and their age ranged from 19-25 years For finding the self concept of badminton players a questionnaire prepared by G. P. Sherry and others was used, which has 48 questions, each having 5 possible answers and corresponding scores. The scores made by subject on the 48 questions were added to obtain his final self concept scores. To compare the self concept of high and low level badminton players “t-ratio” was applied and the level of significance was set at 0.05 levels.

‘t’ ratio needed to be significant at 0.05 level with 28 degrees of freedom is 2.05. The analysis of data in table-1 shows that there is no significant difference between high and low level badminton players of Lucknow district in their self-concept as obtained’ ratio of 0.14 is less than the required ‘t’ value of 2.05.

Basically badminton is an expensive game; hence, mostly players from high and upper middle class play this game. As they belong to almost same socio-economic status, they acquire almost same experience on and off the field, which are responsible for the development of self-concept of an individual. Hence, their way of thinking, attitudes and behaviour pattern develop in the same direction. This may be the reason for the insignificant difference in self-concept of high and low performance level badminton players.

Alderman, R.B. Psychological Behaviour in Sports. (Philadelphia : London, Saunders Company, 1974). But Lusan Dorcas, Psychology of Sports (Network : Van Nostrand Reinhold Company) Edn.2. Cratty Bryant J., Psychology and Physical Activity. (New Jersey Englewood Cliffs, prentice Hall Inc., 1965). Kamlesh M.L. Psychology of Physical Education and Sports (New Delhi : Metropolitan Book Co. Pvt.Ltd., (1983). Kane J. E. Psychological Aspect of Physical Education and Sports (London, Boston : Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1972). Sherry, G.P., Verma R.P. and Goswami P.K. “Manual for Swatwa Bodh Parikshan” (Agra: National Psychological Corporation)