Effect of Sedikuchi silambam practice on selected Biomotor variables among college girls

Silambam fencing is a martial art native to the soil of Tamil Nadu. It has been originated from 3000 B.C and practiced by the pre-historic Dravidian Tamils who were dwelling from the Mohan-ja-daro & Harappa regions and is still practiced today. Today the great martial art of Tamilnadu is just reduced to a demonstration art in public gatherings and folk art festivals despite the effort of many well wishers. Silambam has the potential to be included as a mainstream activity in the physical education curriculum as it is simple, inexpensive and also has the capability of improving all the major biomotor abilities. There is very few literature available on the effects of silambam practice on these selected variables among Indian population in general and girls in particular. The purpose of the study was to find out the effect of Sedikuchi Silambam practice on selected biomotor variables among college girls. To achieve the purpose of this study, 40 sedentary college girls were selected as subjects. The age of the subjects were ranged from 18 to 20 years. The subjects were further classified at random into two equal groups of 20 subjects each. Group-I underwent Sedikuchi Silambam practice for three days per week for sixteen weeks and group-II acted as control. The selected criterion variables namely muscular endurance, explosive strength, cardiovascular endurance and agility were assessed before and after the training period using standard testing procedure. The collected data were statistically analyzed by using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). From the results of the study it was found that there was a significant increase in muscular endurance, explosive strength, cardiovascular endurance and agility among the experimental group when compared with the control group.