The modern history of Plyometric is somewhat brief but not relatively new. Plyometric are training techniques used by athletes in all types of sports to increase strength and explosiveness (Clutch, 1983). This technique was created by Yuri Verhoshansky, a Russian coach,in the Soviet Union, who could very well be called the "Father of Plyometric" and this plyometric was originally known as “shock training” (Kutz, 2003). Fred Wilt, a U.S. track and field coach, is credited with coining the term “plyometric”, meaning “measurable increases”.The word "plyometric" consists of two parts:"plio" meaning "more"; and "metric"  meaning "measure" (Cheatham, 2006). Plyometric training was Plyometric consists of a rapid stretching of a muscle (eccentric action) immediately followed by a concentric or shortening action of the same muscle and connective tissue (Baechle, 2007). This training involves with a jumping movement such as skipping, bounding, jumping rope, hopping, lunges, jump squats, and clap push-ups. A plyometric contraction involves three consecutive phases such as Eccentric Phase - a rapid muscle lengthening movement, Amortization Phase - a short resting phase and Concentric Phase - an explosive muscle shortening movement. (Brown, 2007) The purpose of the present study was to determine the impact of plyometric training programme on selected physical fitness variables among inter- collegiate women basketball players. To achieve the purpose of this present study, forty (N=40) basketball players were selected from Sri Ramakrishna College of Arts& Science for Women, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. The subjects were randomly selected and their aged 18-25 years. The selected groups were divided into two equal groups, namely experimental and control group. The experimental group exposed to the plyometric training and the control group were not having any specific training. The duration of the training period was restricted to six weeks and the session for six days in a week. Plyometric training program is considered as the independent variables. The physical fitness variables such as leg  explosive  power  and flexibility known  as dependent  variables. The subjects of the two groups were tested on selected variables prior and immediately after the  period . The collected data was analysed statistically through Paired Sample t test to find out significance difference with 0.05 level of confidence. The results showed that the plyometric training group had significant improvement (P ≤ 0.05) in the level of the selected criterion physical fitness variables such as leg  explosive  power  and flexibility than the control group. This study indicated that the plyometric training were significantly improved the performance of selected physical fitness variables among the selected women basketball players.

Keywords: Plyometric Training, Leg  explosive  power  and Flexibility.