From the Field to the Mat The Benefits of Yogic Practices for Football Performance

The aim of this study was to find out the effect of yogic practices on selected physical fitness components and skills of football players. For this experimental research, 50 male football students under 21 years' of age form MIT Engineering College, Pune were selected using simple random sampling technique, 25 of which formed the control group and 25 formed the experimental group. They were assigned to pre-test post-test non-equivalent group design. In this research, the experimental group underwent every day one hour yoga training program for 8 weeks, which was designed by the researcher. The control group underwent any pleasure activity expect football activity in the same duration. The score was obtained before implementing the yoga training program i.e. pre-test score and after 8 weeks training program i.e. post-test score. For physical fitness components, sit and reach test, leg strength test, 12 minute run-walk test and 50 Mt. dash test were used and for football skills, Mc-Donald soccer skill test, SAI kicking accuracy test and SAI 30 Mt. running with the ball test were used as data collection tools in the present study. These data collection tools were used to measure the performance of physical fitness components i.e. Flexibility, muscular strength, cardiovascular endurance & speed and football skills i.e. kicking accuracy, kicking efficiency & ball control of both the groups.