EFFECT OF SEDIKUCHI SILAMBAM PRACTICE ON BODY COMPOSITION VARIABLES AMONG COLLEGE GIRLS

The purpose of the study was to find out theeffect of SedikuchiSilambam practice on body composition variables among college girls. Silambam fencing is a martial art native to the soil of Tamil Nadu which 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. 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 SedikuchiSilambam training for three days per week for sixteen weeks and group - II acted as control. The selected criterion variables namely body weight, BMI, lean body mass, and percent body fatwere assessed before and after the training period. 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 reduction in body weight, BMI, lean body mass, and percent body fatamong the experimental group when compared with the control group.