Effects of Calisthenic Exercises on Physical Fitness Component of Speed among Players of Racket Game

Racket sports or any modified variations of racket sports are considered as ideal form of exercises for grown-up adults of various age groups. Involving oneself into playing racket sports assists in providing extraordinary level of cardiovascular fitness as well as providing strength to the upper and lower body parts from time to time. Individuals can expose themselves to playing and training for racket sports at any age, it does not require too many equipment and can be modified to fit any level of fitness (Solan, 2017). Racket games exhibits high level of technical and mental skills, physical fitness, power and accuracy. The racket games are exciting in nature thus hugely popular in form of badminton, table tennis, tennis, squash rackets, etc. Racquet games require

Since racket sports are physically demanding at times especially when the players are involved at an advanced or elite level of playing, the most neglected side of the racket sports for that matter any sports are the mental side of the game. To maintain proper harmony between the physical and the mental components proper exposure of training is required. The players often seem to lose the match even if being physically fit because of the weaker mental attitude and toughness. Racket games players should have the ability to stay calm, composed, focused and mentally tough to sustain any challenging situation. Imparting physical training should lead to performance enhancement and not to overtraining. Various kinds of physical training as per the level of players should be selected by the coaches and trainers so that players can remain physically as well as mentally fit (Hamilton, 2010). Keeping this view in mind, the present experiment was designed to explore the effects of calisthenic exercises on speed among the major racket games players.

For this study, 30 male players were selected as subjects from Lakshmibai National Institute of Physical Education, North East Regional Centre, Guwahati, Assam, with their age ranging between 18 to 22 years. The total number of subjects were further divided into two groups with 15 subjects in each group i.e., experimental & control group. The selection of subjects was done randomly from three racket sports specialization groups i.e., badminton, tennis, table tennis. The experimental group was exposed to calisthenic training program for six weeks whereas the control group continued with their daily routine activities but was not given any calisthenic training.

Based on the literature reviewed and understanding, and also keeping in mind the purpose of the study fitness component of speed was selected as the variable for this study.

The description of the test items for testing and collecting the pre and post data on the selected physical fitness variables of Speed is as follows:

• Speed – 50 Meter Dash As a part of International Physical Fitness Test, 50 Meter Dash aims to test the speed and acceleration by making an individual run single maximum sprint of 50 meters in a time recorded to conclude the sprint. Prior

Prior to the administration of the test, the researcher contacted the subjects of three racket sports specialization groups, viz., badminton, table tennis and tennis. The purpose of the research and the tests were made clear to the subjects so that they were aware of what they are expected to do. After that the subjects were randomly assigned to two groups i.e., experimental and control (N=15 each). A pretest was conducted on the subjects of both the designated groups for collecting data and testing the variable of speed. After the pretest the groups were separately exposed to assigned training and no training conditions for the period of 6 weeks calisthenic exercises training for thrice a week with a session duration of 45 minutes.Posttest was conducted using same parameters as was done in the pretest for both the groups, i.e., experimental group (N=15) and control group (N=15).

The data thus collected were put to statistical computerization for analysis, two-way ANOVA was employed as a measure for present data and tested at 0.05 level of significance along with descriptive statistics of Mean and Standard Deviation.

To start with, the result of the total sample (N = 30) in experimental (N=15) and control group (N=15) investigated on the basis of pre-test and post-test scores, their descriptive statistics and the univariate analysis on their physical fitness variable of speed has been presented in the following tables.

posttest

Total

Descriptive statistics of speed on table 1 shows that the total mean score of speed is 7.16 + 0.47. The total mean and SD of the pretest is 7.28 + 0.43. In pre test of experimental and control group, the mean and SD of speed is 7.29 + 0.34 & 7.28 + 0.52 respectively. The total mean score and SD of speed in post test is 7.03 + 0.48 where, the mean and SD of post test of experimental group is 6.97 + 0.38 and of control group is 7.09 + 0.57. The mean scores of speed for both the groups and tests are illustrated graphically in figure 1.

Contrast .988 1 .988 4.52* .038 Error 12.237 56 .219 *Significant at .05 level F.05 (1, 56) = 4.01 Table 2, shows that the obtained ‘f’ value of pretest and posttest scores in speed is 4.52 which is greater than the tabulated value. This indicates there was significant difference between the pre and post tests in the factor of speed. As there was significant difference, pair-wise comparison was done that has been presented in table 3.

Pairwise comparison of speed in the pre and post test are shown in table 3, indicates statistically significant difference between the pre & post test speed (MD = 0.257; p = .038).

Contrast .046 1 .046 .21 .648 Error 12.237 56 .219 *Significant at .05 level F.05 (1, 56) = 4.01 The ‘f’ value tested for significance for the present findings was at 0.05 level with 1,56 df. The required value is 4.01.Table 4, shows that the obtained ‘f’ value of experimental and control group in speedis 0.21 which is less than the tabulated value. This indicates that there was no significant difference between the groups in the factor of speed. As there

Table 5, shows the interaction of test and treatment groupswhere in pretest the experimental group in speed (Mean = 7.29) and control group (Mean = 7.28) reveals that the mean score of experimental group is higher than the control group. Whereas, in post test the mean score of experimental group (Mean = 6.97) and the control group (Mean = 7.09) is lower than the control group. In overall context of interaction among the tests and treatment groups in the dependent variable of speed it can be said that there was improvement in pre & post test among both the groups.

pretest experimental 7.29 .121 7.052 7.535 control 7.28 .121 7.044 7.528 posttest experimental 6.97 .121 6.732 7.216 control 7.09 .121 6.850 7.334

It was hypothesized that there would be significant effect of six weeks calisthenic exercises on the physical fitness component of speed of the racket game players. From the analysis, it can be said that the hypothesis of the study stands partially accepted, as because in the variable of speed there was significant differences seen in the test scores, whereas, no significant differences was seen between the experimental and control group. The purpose of this research was to find out the effects of calisthenic exercises on the selected physical fitness components among players of racket game. The variable tested in this study showed scientific result by getting enhanced after the subjects were exposed to six week calisthenic exercises training when compared between tests and treatments. The results of this study are in consonance to the research of Barik and Banerjee (1990) studied the effect of six week conditioning programme on some performance variables among tribal students by random sampling where 17 tribal school boys of 14-16 years were selected. All the subjects had undergone a six-week conditioning programme. The standard ratio was computed and analysis of data revealed that speed, endurance and strength increased significantly after training.

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Assistant Professor, Lakshmibai National Institute of Physical Education, North East Regional Center, Guwahati, Assam, India