Effect of Agility Specific Exercise Program on Agility in Badminton Players

Abstract

Badminton is a casual outdoor sport as well as a formal game played on international level. The anatomical and physiological demands in badminton are affected by multiple factors, such as the gender, player’s style, level, equipment and surface. Physical abilities of athletes and the techniques of play influence the performance of the player. Complex skill sets require higher level of co-ordination and movement control. The complex skill sets required by badminton players are aerobic endurance, speed & agility. Agility is a key complex skill set in badminton. Agility is related to physical traits like technique, strength and power. Thus, the study hypothesized that the effect of the 6 weeks agility specific exercise program would show significant improvements on agility performance in badminton players. The primary objective was to study the effect of 6 weeks intervention on agility performance in badminton players. An experimental study was conducted in which total 62 badminton players participated. They were divided in equal numbers to experimental and control groups via random allocation method. Experimental group performed the designed protocol for 6 weeks and the control group continued their daily training of the Multi-shuttle feed training program during the same time. Agility T- test was used to assess the agility performance. The time taken to perform the agility t-test by the groups before the intervention was approximately the same with a mean difference of 20 seconds. There was a reduction in the time taken to complete the agility T-test in the experimental group after the training with a mean difference of 90 seconds between the groups. The results of comparing pre and post agility T- test readings, revealed a statistically significant difference with P<0.05. This study concluded that the 6 weeks of Agility Specific exercise program did lead to an improvement on agility in badminton players.