A Comparison of Selected Biomechanical Parameters of Spike Serves between Intervarsity and Intercollegiate Volleyball Players

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare the selected biomechanical parameters of spike service between intervarsity and intercollegiate level volleyball players. Twelve (6 Intervarsity and 6 Intercollegiate level) male volleyball players were selected as the subjects for this study from Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India. The mean age, height, body weight, arm length and leg length of intervarsity players were 22.25 years (SD 0.94), 178.33 cm (1.06), 69.67kg (1.29), 59.74 cm (1.05) and 87.74 (1.73) respectively, whereas intercollegiate players were 21.92 years (SD 0.66), 173.56 cm (1.65), 67.50 kg (1.38), 57.17 (1.25) and 86.32 (1.83) respectively. All subjects were right-handed volleyball players. The players were allowed to have warm-up and trials. Each subject was asked to do the spike service. Five services were recorded from one side of the body with a high speed camcorder (Canon Legria HF S10) operating at 1/2000 with a frame rate of 60 frames per second. Data were collected from the movement onset until the ball crosses the net (successful). The camcorder was placed on a tripod at the height of 6 feet on the right angle of the subjects at a distance of 12 meters away to the side-line. Recorded data were digitized with the help of Silicon Coach Pro7 motion analysis software. The selected kinematics variables were ball height, jump height, hand velocity and ball velocity. The other segmental angles were also be studied in this study those were ankle angle, knee angle, hip angle, shoulder angle, elbow angle and wrist angle. The t-test was used for statistical analysis of the data by using SPSS-18 version software. The results revealed that insignificant difference exits between intervarsity and intercollegiate level male volleyball players in the spike serve performance.