The aim of this study was to assess the effect of plyometric training, game specific circuit training and its combination on spiking ability of volleyball players. To achieve the purpose of the study, 80 male volleyball players from various colleges affiliated to Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottyam, Kerala state, who had represented inter collegiate level volleyball competition were chosen as subjects. The age of the subjects ranged from 18 to 23 years and all the subjects were healthy and normal. The selected subjects (N=80) were classified into four groups of twenty subjects each (n = 20) at random. Group-I underwent plyometric training, group-II underwent game specific circuit training, group-III underwent combined plyometric and game specific circuit training and group-IV acted as control. The initial testing took place before the beginning of the training while the final testing was performed after 12 weeks of intervention on spiking ability. To find out the pre and post test mean differences paired ‘t’ test was applied. Percentage of improvement was also calculated. Further, the data collected from the four groups prior to and post experimentation on spiking ability were statistically analyzed by applying the analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). The Scheffe’s test was also applied as post hoc test. The volleyball player’s spiking performance improved 6.33% due to plyometrics (PT), 35.21% due to game specific circuit (GSCT) and 25.64% due to combined plyometrics and game specific circuit (CT) training.

Key Words: Plyometric training, Game specific circuit training, Spiking ability and volleyball players