Study on Yogic Practice and Physical Exercises on Selected Psychological Variables among Male College Cricket Players

Abstract:

The purpose of the study was to determine the impact of training in yogic practice and physical exercises on selected psychological variables among male college cricket players. To achieve the purpose of this study, forty eight college cricket players studying in various colleges affiliated to Bharathidasan University were randomly selected as subjects. Their age ranged from seventeen to twenty years. The selected subjects (N=48) were divided into three equal groups of sixteen and named Group–I as yogic practice group, Group–II as physical exercises group and Group–III as control group. Subjects in the Group-I underwent the yogic practice, subjects in the Group-II underwent the physical exercises and subjects in the Group–III did not go through any specific yogic (or) physical exercises but their regular practice. During the training period, both the yogic practice and physical exercise were given for both the experimental groups, for a duration of twelve weeks. The practice was for forty five minutes a day on five days per week under the supervision of the investigator. The psychological variables were cognitive, somatic and self confidence. The psychological factors were measured by standardized questionnaire namely competitive state anxiety questionnaire-II (CSAI-2) developed by Martens, Burton, Vealey, Bump and Smith (1990). To make the study more scientific, the subject reliability, reliability of data, instrument reliability and tester reliability were established. The data was collected before and after the experimental treatment. Analysis of Covariance (ANACOVA) was used to analyze the collected data. Scheffe’s test was followed as a post hoc test to determine the level of significant difference between the paired means. All the statistical analysis tests were computed at 0.05 level of significance. The cricket players in the yogic practice group and physical exercises group had shown significant changes in all the selected psychological variable when compared to control group. The control group did not show significant change in any of the selected variables.

Author Name : Dr. N. S. Sivakumar

Keywords: Yogic Practice, Physical Exercise, Cricket, Anxiety, Self Confidence.