Journal of Advances in Sports and Physical Education (JASPE)
Volume-4 | Issue-05 | 125-130
Original Research Article
Effects of Four Weeks Intervention of Yogic Practices on Cricket Specific Motor Fitness
Subhashis Biswas, Ankur Biswas, Nita Bandyopadhyay
Published : May 26, 2021
Abstract
The potentiality of yogic practices to improve physical and mental ability is well-known. The inclusion of yogic practice in cricket training protocol is a controversial topic. Plenty of research literature suggested that yogic asana improves physical fitness and controls competition pressure as well as match stress. So, the study was carried out to find out the effect of yogic practice schedule on cricket specific motor fitness. Thirty male district level cricketers with a mean age of 17.8 ± 1.6 years were selected and randomly divided into two equal groups. One group underwent through selected yogic asana practices along with their regular training and another group did not include yogic asana practice in their training schedule. Basic physical and physiological parameters along with some cricket specific motor fitness components were measured before and after four weeks of yogic practices. The basic physical appearances of two groups were merely similar and a low resting heart rate has been observed among cricketers. Four weeks of yogic practice significantly improved the muscle endurance, agility and balance. A positive effect has also been observed in the predicted V̇O2 max. The study revealed inclusion of yogic practice in training sessions for cricketers plays an important role to improve motor fitness which is a key factor of performance.