Comparative investigation of hand and foot reaction ability between the basketball and handball players

Reaction ability is the ability to react against a signal quickly and effectively. An auto-dynamic reflex movement is the quality of reaction ability. It plays a vital role in fast-moving games like basketball and handball to meet the high competition demands.

The study aimed to investigate the admissible standard of hand and foot reaction ability and analyze the significant relationship between basketball and handball players.

Thirty (30) basketball and handball players between 20 and 30 years of age who participated at least in state level and above tournaments from Manipur were randomly selected. Whole Body Reaction Type IV (Takei Kiki Kogyo Co. Ltd) was administered to collect the data for hand and foot reaction ability and recorded at 100 of a second. The descriptive analysis and independent ‘t' test were used to determine the significant differences in hand and foot reaction abilities between basketball and handball players.

There were found the same mean, i.e., M = 0.25 ± 0.05, in hand reaction ability (HRA) between the basketball and handball players. For the foot reaction abilities (FRA), M = 0.29 ± 0.05 and M = 0.29 ± 0.08 were the means of basketball and handball players, respectively. No significant differences in hand and foot reaction abilities between basketball and handball players were found. The result of the ‘t’ test showed insignificant differences (p > 0.05) in hand (t = 0.286) and foot (t = 0.105) reaction ability at 0.05 level of confidence. The results revealed a similar standard of reaction ability between the basketball and handball players.

The basketball and handball games have a similar nature, intensive motor qualities and competition demands. Therefore, insignificant differences in hand and foot reaction abilities are found between the basketball and handball players. The two games have similar levels of competition demands.