COMPARISON OF SPEED AND AGILITY BETWEEN HANDBALL AND VOLLEYBALL PLAYERS

The purpose of the study was to compare the speed and agility between handball and volleyball players of Annamalai University. We have selected thirty (30) male students who play either handball or Volleyball from Department of Physical Education and Sports Sciences, Annamalai University. These subjects were equally classified into two groups (handball = 15 & Volleyball = 15). The selected subjects were tested on speed by 50 yard dash and agility by shuttle run which was selected as criterion variable. The collected data was analysed using independent t test to find out the significant difference between handball and volleyball players. The result of our study showed that handball players have greater speed than volleyball players (t = 5.82). However, no difference is elicited between handball and volleyball players (t = 0.82). It is concluded that speed and agility plays a vital role in both game, however handball players showed greater speed than volleyball players may be because of intermittent nature and employ sprint during attack and counter attack during the game.


Introduction
Physical education is the integral part of total education. The wealth of nation depends upon the health of the people good personality can be developed through participation in games and sports. Physical education is an educational process to improve the human performance and enhancement of human development, through the medium of physical activities. Physical education includes the acquisition and refinement of motor skills, the development and maintenance of fitness for time health and well-being, the attainment of knowledge about physical activities and exercise. Physical fitness is a matter of fundamental importance to the well-being of every individual. The people of ancient were aware of the importance of physical fitness. They did not have any systematic programme to develop physical fitness. Yet they kept themselves fit by participating in activities in their daily life.
The modern society has created sophisticated life to individuals which placed them sedentary and physically unfit. Though these changes are part, coaches and trainers have planned conditioning programs for their teams by following regimens used by teams that have successful win-loss records. This type of reasoning is not sound because winloss records alone do not scientifically validate the conditioning programs used by the successful teams. In fact, the successful team might be victorious by virtue of its superior athletes and not its outstanding conditioning program. Without question, the planning of an effective athletic conditioning program can best be achieved by the application of proven physiological training principles. Optimizing training programs for athletes is important because failure to properly condition an athletic team results in a poor performance and often defeat.
Handball is a sport with great anaerobic demand. During the game, tasks such as pushing and blocking require high power and strength levels in the limbs and trunk regions (Gorostiaga et al. 2005;Izquierdo et al. 2002; Wallace and Cardinale 1997). Gorostiaga et al. (2005) reported that stronger players with higher body mass have an advantage in handball because the requirements of the game, such as throwing the ball with power and speed, are met through jumping and physical contact with the opponent.
The characteristics of volleyball, including speed, jumping for spikes and blocks at high intensities over a short period of time result in fast and agile athletes who possess a high level of muscular strength and aerobic fitness (Gabbett et al. 2008). Adolescents are selected for this sport based on their skills, performance levels, physique and muscular strength (Benetti et al. 2005). In this two games require a periodic fast sprints and change of direction quickly and frequently. This study allows them to realize their potentials and also it benefits the beginners who can improve their fitness. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to compare the speed and agility between handball and volleyball players of Annamalai University.

Subjects and Variable
Fifteen (15) handball and fifteen (15) volleyball players were selected as subjects from Department of Physical Education and Sports Sciences, Annamalai University, Chidambaram, Tamilnadu. There ages ranged from 19 to 25 years and had minimum four years of playing experience. The selected subjects were tested on speed by 50 yard dash and agility by shuttle run test which was selected as criterion variable.

Statistical technique
The collected data was analysed using independent t test to find out the significant difference between handball and volleyball players on speed and agility. SPSS statistic software package (SPSS Company, America, version 17.0) was used. The α value of 0.05 was set for statistical significance.

Results
Table 1 clearly show that mean value of speed for handball and volleyball players were 7.51 and 9.15 respectively. The obtained t ratio on speed is 5.82, which is greater than the required table value for df 28 is 2.05 significant at 0.05 level of confidence. This shows that handball players show greater sprinting character than volleyball players.  Table 1 clearly show that mean value of agility for handball and volleyball players were 11.16 and 11.35 respectively. The obtained t ratio on agility is 0.82, which is less than the required table value for df 28 is 2.05 is not significant at 0.05 level of confidence. The differences in speed and agility are presented in the figure 1 & 2.

Discussion
The present findings of the study showed that speed differs significantly between handball and volleyball players but agility remained unchanged between the groups. Shuttle run test was administered to measure agility of handball and volleyball players, which shows no significant difference. Although handball are more agile than volleyball players which is supported by Rani, Singh & Kalsi (2013) that agility is a crucial factor of an players in taking a fast, precise and accurate decision.
The present study assessed the speed of the handball and volleyball players using the sprint test, which measures maximum speed that can be applied to any movement and depends on the development of agility, dynamic force, muscle elasticity, movement frequency and coordination as well as the domains of the movements employed. In the current study, handball players performed better in this test compared to volleyball players. The reason for the difference in speed between handball and volleyball players may be because of intermittent characteristics and employs sprint speeds during attack and counterattack actions in the handball game, whereas volleyball generally utilises reaction speed (Castagna et al. 2009;Gabbett and Georgieff 2007).

Conclusion
Compared players who played handball and volleyball, which showed handball players scored higher scores in speed but no difference in agility. The results of the study help coaches of Annamalai University to identify the talents and to understand the speed and agility affected by the practise of these sports.