Effects of Asanas and Pranayama Practices on Flexibility of Badminton Players

Abstract:

The purpose of the study was to find out the effects of asanas and pranayama practices on flexibility of badminton players. To achieve this purpose of the study, thirty junior badminton players in Hongkong, China were selected as subjects at random. Their age ranged between 14 to 17 years. The selected subjects were divided into three equal groups of ten each namely asanas group, pranayama group and control group. The experimental group I underwent asanas practices, group II underwent pranayama practices for five days per week for twelve weeks whereas the control group (Group III) maintained their daily routine activities and no special training was given to them. The following variable namely flexibility was selected as criterion variable. The subjects of the three groups were tested on flexibility using sit and reach test at prior and immediately after the training period. The collected data were analyzed statistically through analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) to find out the significant difference, if any among the groups. Whenever the obtained “F” ratio was found to be significant, the scheffe’s test was applied as post hoc test to find out the paired mean difference, if any. The .05 level of confidence was fixed to test the level of significance which was considered as an appropriate. The results of the study showed that there was a significant difference exists among asanas, pranayama and control groups on flexibility. And also asanas group and pranayama group showed significant improvement on flexibility when compared to control group.

Author Name : G. D. Youvaraj & Dr. K. Vaithianathan

Keywords: Asanas, Pranayama practices, Flexibility, Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA), Scheffe‟s test.