No abstract

Objective: Recently, Indian has adopted many policies to promote health, wellness and sports culture in the country. Though these policies have been implemented nationally, limited research is available about the health-related fitness status of children in the Indian Himalayan region. Therefore, the present study was conducted to survey the health-related fitness status of school-going girls in the Indian Himalayan region. Materials and methods: A total of 563 school-going girls had participated in the study, 166 were from the age group of 10-12 years, 164 from the age group of 13-15 years and 233 from the age group of 16-18 years. Administration manual of Khelo India Fitness Assessment in Schools-version 2.0 was followed for data collection for five health-related physical fitness components. Simple descriptive statistics and One-Way ANOVA test were employed as statistical tools for the study. Results: The study showed a moderate level of health-related fitness among school-going girls in the Indian Himalayan region. The height and weight of the participants were found at lower 50 percentiles as per the growth chart of IAP. One-Way ANOVA test and pairwise comparison revealed the presence of variance in the fitness components between different age groups. Conclusion: It was suggested to involve parents and elders to change the sedentary habits of the children. Proper execution of sports infrastructure development programmes can further help in promoting health, wellness and sports culture in the region.

Purpose: This study aimed to examine the effects of two sessions per week plyometric training on different surfaces on the counter movement jump height, take-off force, and maximum concentric power of collegiate athletes. Material and methods: Male collegiate athletes (n=24, age=18.46±1.14 years, weight=64.88±5.61 kg and height=1.72±0.07 metres)) from a physical training centre were randomly and equally assigned to three groups, each trained on different surfaces (synthetic, cinder and sand). The training intervention was implemented twice a week and lasted for 8 weeks. The athletes were tested before and after the intervention to assess changes in the performance of counter movement jump height (CMJHT), take-off force (CMJTOF) and maximum concentric power (CMJMCP). Results: Results showed that overall measurement of CMJHT, CMJTOF and CMJMCP improved significantly (p≤0.05, Δ %=10.50; p≤0.05, Δ%=11.11; p≤0.05, Δ%=11.41). However, training surfaces have no significant effect on the improvement of the selected variables (CMJHT:F(2,21)=2.37, p=0.118, ηp2=0.184; CMJTOF:F(2,21)=1.28, p=0.299, ηp2=0.109; CMJMCP:F(2,21)=0.061, p=0.941, ηp2=0.006). Further, for the synthetic track surface group CMJHT, CMJTOF and CMJMCP improved significantly (p≤0.05, Δ%=16.36; p≤0.05, Δ%=17.50; p≤0.05, Δ%=17.99); for the cinder track surface group CMJHT and CMJMCP improved significantly (p≤0.05, Δ%=9.15; p≤0.05, Δ%=10.33) and for the sand surface group only CMJHT improved significantly (p≤0.05, Δ%=5.68). Conclusions: The findings suggest that plyometric training on different surfaces can effectively improve athletic performance, but the specific surface type does not appear to impact the outcomes significantly. The study further suggested analysing the injury risk associated with plyometric training on various training surfaces and discovering the optimal training surface for minimising injury risk while maximising performance gains.