Effect of Specific Yogic Asana on Mental Toughness and Stress Level of College Cricketers

Abstract

Today we see that yoga is being applied in not less than 20 fields quite successfully including other sports like Kabaddi then why not other sports. Remarkably it is also true that many top sports stars are already practicing yoga postures and taking the best advantage. Cricket is long duration playing game which needs mentally strong and tough players to win matches and championships. Due to paramount importance of mental toughness in sports and particular in cricket that present paper focused to compare. Yoga has both preventive and therapeutic benefits. It has been shown to offer both physical and mental benefits to the body and the mind. , the present study was based on a pre-test, post-test design, a total of 100 male subjects were randomly selected from various colleges of Agra university. The subjects were College level batsman, with minimum 5 years of playing experience. The age of the subjects ranged between 20 to 22 years, the mean age was found to be 20.8 years. A pre test was taken of all the selected sports persons on the selected variables of Attention level and stress level, thereafter a yogic Asana program was implemented for 8 weeks and a post test is taken. For the collection of the data mental toughness was checked by Dr. Alan Goldberg (2004) Mental Toughness Questionnaire and stress questionnaire developed by Dave Hompes (2001) were selected. . The collected data was analyzed by computing descriptive statistics followed paired sample t test. A significant difference has been found in the pre and post test values of mental toughness and stress level of the Cricket players due to the yogic practice.