Journal of African Development

This study was designed to investigate the effect of conventional training and resistance training on selected skill performance variables among badminton players. To achieve the purpose of the study (N=45) forty five men badminton players were selected from Affiliated Colleges of Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, Tamilnadu, India as subjects. The age of the subjects ranged from 19 to 25 years. The selected subjects were divided into three equal groups (N=15). Group I underwent conventional training, Group II underwent resistance training and Group III acted as control group who did not undergo any specialized training program other than their daily routine. The skill performance variables such as short service accuracy, long service accuracy, smash accuracy and footwork efficiency were selected as dependent variables and they were assessed by short service accuracy test (target-based badminton service test), long service accuracy test, smash accuracy test (target smash test) and footwork efficiency test (timed movement test) respectively. The subjects were concerned with their particular training for a period of twelve weeks, three days per week. The collected data from three groups prior to and immediately after the training program on selected criterion variables were statistically analyzed with analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). The level of confidence was fixed at 0.05 for all the cases to test the hypothesis. The result of the study reveals that the conventional training groups and resistance training group achieved significant improvement on selected skill performance variables such as short service accuracy, long service accuracy, smash accuracy and footwork efficiency of badminton players