Effects of regular and conditioned small-sided games on young football players’ heart rate responses, technical performance, and network structure

Purpose
The purpose of this original work was to analyse the effects of different formats and task conditions in regular small-sided games (SSG) and small-sided conditioned games (SSCG) on heart rate profile and tactical-technical performance (measured by Network and Team Sport Assessment Procedure) among young football players.

Methods
The total of 16 male elite young players (age: 11.6 ± 0.8 years; practice: 3 ± 1.4 years) were tested. Each participant played in six different formats, namely three 3-a-side games and three 5-a-side games: (i) regular SSG, (ii) attacking contentspace SSCG, (iii) defensive content-concentration SSCG. Each game lasted 5 minutes, and 3 minutes of passive recovery between games was adopted.

Results
Different formats did not result in statistical differences in heart rate responses. Nevertheless, significant differences were found between formats in technical performance (p < 0.05) and collective organization measured by network (p < 0.05). No statistical differences were observed between task conditions with tactical content in technical performance and collective organization.

Conclusions
The conditions used in this study may enable coaches/teachers to carry out a more quality and specific training, helping to understand the real effects of SSG/SSCG: smaller formats increase the tactical-technical participation, time in high intensity heart rate, and network density.