The effects of tapering on vo₂ max among intercollegiate cricket players in pondicherry university

The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of tapering on vO₂ max among intercollegiate cricket players in pondicherry university. Thirty intercollegiate cricket players were chosen at randomly from Pondicherry University. They were at the age group of 18 to 25 years. The variable chosen for this study was vO₂ max. All the selected subjects were randomly divided into two groups of fifteen each (n = 15). Initially (pre-test) cooper test was conducted for both groups and score was recorded. All the subjects were underwent specific training for eight weeks. After completion of eight weeks training, the cooper test (mid-test) was conducted for groups and score was recorded. Experimental group 1 given linear tapering for 12 days and experimental group 2 was not given any training (detraining). After 12 days, the final test cooper test (post-test) was conducted for experimental group 1 and experimental group 2. The collected data were analyzed through paired T-test to find out the differences among the groups. During the day before competition, vigorous training leads to muscle pain and tired or fatigue. Detraining is also leads to poor performance as it involves loss of fitness gains. Further, it will take more time to regain the earlier fitness level. Therefore this study will provide insight into tapering and its benefits for athletes to maintain their performance and also useful for physical educationist, sports professionals, coaches and trainers. further research can be designed to explore the influence of training programmes based on gender, age and other fitness variables (like speed, endurance, etc.) and using different types of taper.