Abstract
This study aimed to explore the effects of playing different unbalanced ball possession small-sided games on external workload (distance covered while walking, running, and sprinting, and max speed), tactical individual actions (number of passes with dominant and non-dominant foot), and internal load (rating of perceived exertion, RPE) in under-23 soccer players. Participants played 4v2, 4v3, 4v4, 4v5, and 4v6 small-sided games (SSGs) on a 30 × 25 m playing area. Data were analyzed under an opponent-based perspective, by fixing one team (4vX), and by cooperation-based perspective according to teammates (4v2+X). Global Position System (GPS) monitors were used to collect and compute external workloads and individual tactical actions, and Borg Scale CR10 was used to evaluate RPE. High-Superiority (4v2), Superiority (4v3), and Very Low-Cooperation (4v2+0) formats allow players in balanced teams to cover more distance while walking; on the other side, Inferiority (4v5), High-Inferiority (4v6), and Very High-Cooperation (4v2+4) allow players to sprint more and practice more tactical individual actions as a resultant emergent behavior; all players in SSG conditions with a lower number of conditions, perceived the exercise as more intense, especially in situations with less than two players. Overall, playing in high inferiority situations (4v2 and 4v6) may be used to increase physical demand for the outnumbered team, while coaches may use low superiority situations to adjust the task complexity when developing the players’ tactical individual actions.
Highlights
Performance in soccer is related to a player’s ability to interact with the environmental information (Travassos et al, 2012), where each player with or without the ball can continuously reach new solutions to destabilize the relation with opponents inside a collective idea of play (Davids et al, 2005)
Differences were found between High-Sup and Balance formats (4v2 vs 4v4), with a moderate effect size on walking [−0.9 (−1.7 to −0.1), Cohen’s d with 95% confidence intervals] and large effect size in both running [1.4 (0.7 to 2.1)] and Rating of Perceived Exertion scale (RPE) [1.9 (1 to 2.8)]; and between Sup and Balance formats (4v3 vs 4v4), with moderate effects on walking [−0.7 (−1.4 to 0.1)]
Differences were found between VLow-Coop and Balance formats (4v2+0 vs 4v4), with higher large distances on walking [2.2 (0.7 to 3.6), Cohen’s d with 95% confidence intervals], lower large effect on running [−1.6 (−2.8 to −0.5)] and sprinting [−1.4 (−2.5 to −0.2)], on unbalanced formats (4v2+0); and lower moderate effect size on RPE [−0.9 (−2 to 0.2)], with participants perceiving the exercise as more intense in unbalanced formats (4v2+0)
Summary
Performance in soccer is related to a player’s ability to interact with the environmental information (Travassos et al, 2012), where each player with or without the ball can continuously reach new solutions to destabilize the relation with opponents inside a collective idea of play (Davids et al, 2005). The manipulation of task constraints should highlight perceptual-action relations between players and the game environment, which allows for the development of their attunement (i.e., capability to continuously pick up the information that supports players’ actions) and calibration (i.e., capability to functionally adjust each action to spatial-temporal relations with teammates and opponents) (Araújo et al, 2009). Manipulations of SSGs promote changes in players’ perception of efforts, with consequences in pacing and in the individual tactical behavior of players (Marcora, 2008, 2009)
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