The effects of game types on intensity of small-sided games among pre-adolescent youth football players

The aim of this study was to examine the effects of variations in pitch dimensions on pre-adolescent youth soccer players' physiological responses during two different types of small-sided games (SSG). Sixteen young soccer players (age: 13.2 0.6 years; body mass: 52.5 7 kg; height: 163.4 6 cm) participated in this study. They performed 4 vs. 4 stop-ball SSG (SB-SSG) vs. small-goals SSG (SG-SSG) with 44 min and 2 min of passive recovery in between, using 3 different pitch sizes (small: 1015, medium: 1520, and large: 2025 m). Heart rate (HR), lactate concentration ([La -]), and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) were measured during each session. The results show that SB-SSG induced higher HR responses than SG-SSG for the 3 pitch sizes: for HR (167.23.0 vs. 164.53.0, 172.32.9 vs. 169.23.1, and 175.43.1 vs. 171.12.7 bpm; P<0.05, for small, medium, and large, respectively) and [La -] (7.11.0 vs. 6.51.04, 7.31.0 vs. 6.81.2, and 7.80.9 vs. 7.10.8 mmoll -1 ; P<0.05 on small, medium, and large pitches, respectively), whereas RPE scores were significantly higher during SB-SSG compared to SG-SSG (6.21.0 vs. 5.80.9; P<0.05, respectively) on the small pitch. In the present study higher physiological responses were observed in SSG in pre-adolescent young soccer players when using the stop-ball conditions in comparison with the small-goal rule for all pitch sizes -small, medium, and large. Stopball conditions in comparison with the small-goal rule for all pitch sizes -small, medium, and large.