Abstract:

The purpose of this study was to analyze the isolated effects of aquatic exercises on explosive power and flexibility among women volleyball players. To execute the investigation, thirty (n=30) college women studying undergraduate engineering volleyball players from Vellor Institute of Technology, Chennai, Tamilnadu, India were randomly selected as subjects. They were divided randomly into two groups of fifteen each i.e., (n=15). Experimental group-I had undergone aquatic exercises and group-II was act as control group. The control group would not take part any physical activity or aquatic exercises other than regular routine work and their age ranged from 18-23 years. The experimental group had undergone respective training period for six days per week for twelve weeks for aquatic exercises and the number of sessions per week was also confined to six in the morning session. The dependent variables selected for this study were explosive power and flexibility. The explosive power was measured by standard vertical jump in centimeters and flexibility was tested by sit & reach test in centimeters. Aquatic exercises trained in a swimming pool while approximately 70 % of their body was floating down the water. The temperature of the swimming pool was kept consistent at 27˚c or 28˚c. Each exercise session lasted 45 minutes and every session started with a 5-min jogging, a 5-minutes stretching and ballistic movements to warm-up and 5-minutes of stretch movements to cool-down. The sufficient recovery was 30 to 60 seconds rest between the sets and 2 to 3 minutes between each jump on per session. The subjects performed the aquatic exercises with a maximum ability and capacity for each session. All the subjects were tested prior to and immediately after the experimental period on the selected dependent variables. The data obtained from the experimental group before and after the experimental period were statistically analyzed with analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). Whenever the “F” ratio for adjusted post-test mean was found to be significant, the Scheffe‟s post hoc test was applied to determine the paired mean differences. The level of confidence was fixed at 0.05 levels for all the cases. The result of the study revealed that there was significant improvement on selected explosive power and flexibility among women volleyball players after the isolated effects of aquatic exercises however the control group had not shown any significant improvement on any of the selected variables such as explosive power and flexibility.

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