Abstract

The purpose of the study was to find out the effect of sand running on speed and cardiorespiratory endurance. To achieve this, 30 male students studying in the Department of Physical Education and Sports Sciences, Acharya Nagarjuana University, Nagarjuna Nagar, Andhra Pradesh, India, were selected as subjects at random. The age of the subjects ranged from 18 to 24 years. The selected subjects were divided into two equal groups of 15 subjects each, such as sand running group and control group. Group I underwent sand running programme for 3 days/week for 12 weeks. Group II acting as control group did not participate in any special training programmes apart from their regular physical education activities per their curriculum. The following variables such as speed and cardiorespiratory endurance were selected as criterion variables. All the subjects of three groups were tested on selected criterion variables prior to and immediately after the training programme by using 50-m run and Cooper's 12-min run/walk test, respectively. The analysis of covariance was used to analyse the significant difference, if any, between the groups. The level of significance to the test ‘F’ ratio obtained by the analysis of covariance was tested at 0.05 level of confidence, which was considered appropriate. The results of the study revealed that there was significant difference between sand running group and control group on selected speed and endurance parameters, namely speed and cardiorespiratory endurance.