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Effect of Pilates on Lower Limb Strength, Dynamic Balance, Agility and Coordination Skills in Aspiring State Level Badminton Players
YC01-YC06
Correspondence
Sheetal Kalra,
SGT University, Gurgaon, Haryana, India.
E-mail: sheetal.kalra@sgtuniversity.org
Introduction: Badminton, considered as one of the fastest racquet sports in the world requires excellent strength, dynamic balance, quick reflexes and coordination. Pilates is a form of training that focuses on strengthening core muscles of body and achieving mind body connection. Traditionally Pilates has been used for posture training and enhancing core strength. Now-a-days it is increasingly being incorporated into athletic training programmes for injury prevention and enhancing performance.
Aim: To evaluate the efficacy of Pilates on lower limb strength, dynamic balance, agility and coordination skills in aspiring state level badminton players.
Materials and Methods: Forty male aspiring badminton players in the age group of 17-28 years were included in this experimental study and randomly divided into two groups- Experimental and control group with 20 players in each group. Experimental group (Group A) received Pilates training along with conventional training whereas control group (Group B) was given conventional training only that included warm up, cool down and sports specific exercises. All players were evaluated for lower limb strength, agility, dynamic balance and upper limb coordination with Vertical Jump Test, 10 m Shuttle Run Test, Star Excursion Balance Test and Hand-Eye Coordination Test respectively. Both groups received training for 5 weeks twice a week, for 60 minutes. ANOVA and Student t-test was used to compare the intergroup difference in the analysis of the data collected for all variables at 1st week, 3rd week and last day of the 5th week of intervention.
Results: Both groups improved significantly at the end of 5th week but experimental group showed highly significant difference for lower limb strength, dynamic balance, agility and coordination as compared to Control group (p<0.05).
Conclusion: Pilates is an effective method for improvement in lower limb strength, agility, dynamic balance and coordination skills in badminton players.