Effects of Traditional Game in School Going Children

Physical activity and movement are essential for the brain's healthy development. Due to a lack of time to finish the curriculum, physical education is frequently overlooked in schools. As a result, school-aged kids don't get the prescribed 60 minutes moderate-to-vigorous physical activity each day. Their sedentary classroom schedule causes physical changes like obesity and a lack of fitness. Additionally, it has been shown that children's mental and physical health improves when they regularly engaged in physical activities. This experimental study investigated the effects of traditional game Kho-Kho which is low-cost, time efficient making it ideal for resource-constrained educational settings. The traditional South Asian tag game Kho-Kho has drawn increased interest due to its possible advantages for children and teenagers' physical, mental, and social development. In contrast to many contemporary sports, Kho-Kho requires quick reflexes, strategic thinking, agility, Cognition and collaborative behavior, which makes it a fun and culturally relevant substitute for physical education classes. The aim of this study is to assess whether consistent participation in Kho-Kho leads to measurable improvements in agility and Reaction time.

The study design will be a Randomized controlled trial. The data will be collected from Gov. Girls Higher Secondary School Karewali, Kids Montessori School, Ugoki, Sialkot. The study will be completed in 10 months after the approval of synopsis. 48 school going kids age ranged 8-12 years will be randomly assigned either into an experimental group (n= 24) or control group (n=24). The intervention, Kho-Kho game, consist of 2 Innings performed 3 times per week for 6 weeks. Control group includes Free play physical activity. All the referred participants will be assessed for the eligibility criteria. Guardians of participants fulfilling the eligibility criteria will be asked to sign the consent forms before entering them to the study. Agility will be measured by "T-Test". Reaction time will be measured by "Ruller Drop Test" and participation will be measured by TEST OF ENVIRONMENTAL SUPPORTIVENESS (TOES). The synopsis will be presented to the Research Ethical Committee of Riphah International University, Lahore, for ethical approval to conduct this study. Data will be analyzed through SPSS version 21.0

Inclusion criteria

• 8-12 years of school-going children
• Give informed consent
• physically healthy and medically fit to participate in physical activity
• BMI within normal-for-age range to control for physical performance variability.

Exclusion criteria

• presence of at least one of the following conditions: circulatory, respiratory and musculoskeletal diseases, neuropsychiatric disease, exercise induced anaphylaxis, morbid obesity
• History of injury or surgery in the past 4 months
• Currently participating in other structured sports training or agility-specific coaching program, or research procedures
• Inconsistent attendance in the intervention sessions.