Effects of Yogic Practices on the Hand Steadiness of Male Shooters

The transcendental meditation, as revived by Maharishi, is remarkably simple. It deals directly with the activity of mind thinking but in a way that is mechanical, abstract, and precise rather than intellectual or reflective. It is basically a procedure for experiencing the Mechanics of thinking process in a new direction. Normally one is aware of a thought all at once, in its fully developed form. Obviously, there must be prior stage in the development of thought, it is somehow possible to bring these stages to conscious awareness in a systematic way? The procedure of doing so consists essentially of two elements; a type of thought optimal of this purpose; and a method to experience it at successive prior stages of its development (Note that we are speaking not of the “unconsciousness” as it is usually conceived in psychology, but rather of the actual mechanics of the thinking process. Proponents of the Transcendental Meditation technique state that these simple mental processes bring about increased efficiency in action after meditation. The purpose of the study was to see the effect of Transcendental Meditation on the performance of hand steadiness of male shooters. The study was delimited to Hundred (100) male shooters in the age group of 16 to 35 years. The study was also delimited to the players of Pistol Shooting and Rifle Shooting of National Level/State Level. The study was further delimited to selected technique of Transcendental Meditation

Selection of Subjects: Hundred male shooters in the age group of 16 to 35 years were selected as subjects for the study. Then the subjects were divided into two equal groups (fifty each). One group served as experimental and other as control groups. Selection of Variables: The shooting requires a high degree of development of psychomotor components especially the eye hand coordination. Thus the hand steadiness was selected as dependent variables for the study- and the Transcendental Meditation was chosen as independent variable. Administration of Test for Hand – Steadiness Purpose: To measure the hand steadiness ability of the subject. Equipment: Hand Steadiness tester. Procedure: This apparatus had nine holes of different diameters arranged in sequence from big hole to small hole, four in the top row and five in the bottom row and a light indicator. For measurement of hand steadiness, the subject sat on a chair and held the key in the hand. The hand holding the key was not allowed to touch and part of the hand steadiness apparatus. When the subject was ready on the command „start‟ he inserted the key one by one in all the holes as fast as he could because the time was also clocked to complete all the holes. The stopwatch was started on the command „start‟ and stopped after key was inserted in the last hole. The test desired the subject to insert the key in the sequence in which they were given from bigger hole to small hole. Whenever the light indictor was put on, the error score of that hole in which the key was inserted at that time was noted and the total error score was recorded in this manner. Prior to the hand steadiness data collection each subject was given two trials at the beginning to facilitate orientation in to the procedure of

time score for each subject. In this test greater error score and more time taken to complete all the holes meant lack of steadiness and vice versa, and the standard scores were assigned accordingly, in a reserve manner less time for more points.

Each subject of experimental group was ready to learn Transcendental Meditation. Teacher gave a particular mantra separately to all the subject of experimental group. Thereafter Teacher briefly introduced experimental group with the introductory and preparatory speech than he conducted PUJA (Worship) of Guru Bhramanand Saraswati, father of Transcendental Meditation technique. Followed by puja all the subjects of experimental group practiced Transcendental Meditation for 20 minutes starting with a silence of half minute and finishing it with a silence of two minute in Lotus like sitting position with close eyes. The subjects of control group were asked to sit quietly eyes closed in Lotus like position. The technique to Transcendental Meditation involves the repetitions of mantra for 15-20 minute each day i.e six days in a week for 12 weeks. The mediator sit in lotus like position with eyes closed. First the initiator seeks out the most comfortable position for himself, one which allows the spine to be in an upright position either in lotus like sitting position on the floor or in a straight backed chair with feel comfortably planted on the ground with eyes closed One begins with taking a few deep and well-modulated breaths to quiet down and then proceeds to the sub vocal repetitions of the mantra of specific sound. Statistical Procedure: In order to compare the effectiveness of the Training program on the performance of hand steadiness of the male shooters t- test was employed. Also to determine the improvement pattern in both groups as a result of administration of different methods their performance was also checked after every second week i.e the initial test, after second week, after fourth week, after sixth week, after eighth week, after tenth week and finally after twelfth week. The significant difference between control group and experimental group was checked again by using t-test for this purpose also.

t – TEST FOR THE DATA ON HAND STEADINESS IN EXPERIMENTAL GROUP AND CONTROL GROUP IN ALL THE SEVEN DURATIONS * Significant at .05 level Tabulated “t” (98) is 1.98 Table -4 reveals that the experimental group exhibited insignificant difference in hand steadiness in the initial stage, after the expiry of second week however as the training programme progressed it showed the significant improvement in the hand steadiness form the expiry of 4th sixth week up to the end of twelfth week i.e. 6th week (t=2.68) week (t=3.40) 10th week (t=4.68) and 12th week (t=4.73) respectively. This was hypothesised that there may not be any significant effect of Yogic practiceson the performance of eye hand coordination of the male shooters. On the basis of above finding the hypothesis of the study was rejected as the training program which included the Yogic practices was effective in bringing about significant improvement in the dependent variable i.e. eye hand coordination of the experimental group.

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Assistant Professor, VML Govt. Girls Degree College, Jhansi