Apr-Jun(2026)

Building the Complete Cricketer: Isolated and Combined Effects of Resistance and Plyometric Training on Coordinative Abilities, Psychomotor Skill, and Playing Performance in College-Level Cricketers

Mukhtar Ahmad Wani

Research Scholar, Department of Physical Education, Rabindranath Tagore University, Raisen, Madhya Pradesh, India.

Vikas Saxena

Head of the Department, Department of Physical Education, Rabindranath Tagore University, Raisen, Madhya Pradesh, India.

Modern cricket increasingly rewards athletes who combine raw strength with explosive, well-coordinated movement, yet conditioning programmes in college-level cricket are still dominated by generic fitness routines that rarely target the specific coordinative and psychomotor qualities the game demands. This study examined the isolated and combined effects of a 12-week resistance and plyometric training programme on four coordinative abilities (orientation, rhythm, balance, and reaction) and five psychomotor variables (agility, flexibility, speed of movement, kinesthetic sense, and response time) among college-level male cricket players. Sixty cricketers (age 18-25 years) from Government Degree College, Shopian, were randomly assigned to four equal groups of fifteen: resistance training (G-I), plyometric training (G-II), combined resistance-and-plyometric training (G-III), and a non-training control group (G-IV). Each experimental group trained three times per week for twelve weeks; all nine criterion variables were assessed before and after the intervention using standardised field tests. Data were analysed using one-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) with the pre-test score as covariate, and Scheffe's test was applied post hoc wherever the adjusted F-ratio was significant at the 0.05 level. All three training protocols produced statistically significant improvements over the control group on every criterion variable. The combined training group consistently produced the largest, and in several variables the only significant pairwise advantage over the resistance-only and plyometric-only groups — most notably for balance, reaction ability, agility, kinesthetic sense, and response time. Orientation ability, rhythm ability, and speed of movement improved similarly across all three training modalities without a significant difference between them. These findings indicate that pairing resistance training with plyometric drills produces a synergistic adaptation that exceeds either modality alone, and they support the inclusion of combined resistance-plyometric blocks in the physical preparation of college-level cricketers.

Keywords: Resistance training, plyometric training, coordinative abilities, psychomotor variables, cricket, ANCOVA,
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