What is the clinical evidence from this study?

Study design: RCT. Population: Healthy elite youth football players (n=29). Intervention: 8 v 8 small-sided games vs. 3 v 3 small-sided games. Primary outcome: Total distance covered (meters) (ES 0.71, p=<0.01).

January 1, 2022Open Access

Internal and external load during 8 v 8, 5 v 5 and 3 v 3 in Chinese elite youth male football players

Q: What are the key findings of this study?

Small-sided game formats with more players (8 v 8 and 5 v 5) increased total distance covered by 8-10% compared to 3 v 3 formats, without significant differences in heart rate or blood lactate.

Key Result

Small-sided game formats with more players (8 v 8 and 5 v 5) increased total distance covered by 8-10% compared to 3 v 3 formats, without significant differences in heart rate or blood lactate.

Study Design

Type

RCT (n=29)

Blinding

Open-label

Randomization

Randomized crossover order

Multicenter

Structured PICO

Does the game format (8 v 8, 5 v 5, 3 v 3) affect internal and external load in elite youth male football players?

Population

29 healthy elite male U-19 football players from a Chinese professional academy participated in a randomized crossover study of three small-sided game formats.

Intervention

Small-sided games (SSG) in three different formats: 8 v 8 on a 40 x 32-m pitch, 5 v 5 on a 32 x 25-m pitch, and 3 v 3 on a 24 x 20-m pitch (all equalling 80 m2 per player), each lasting 20 minutes

Comparator

The three game formats (8 v 8, 5 v 5, 3 v 3) were compared against each other in a randomized order

Outcome

External load (total distance, high-speed running, very high-speed running, peak speed, accelerations, decelerations) and internal load (mean heart rate, peak heart rate, blood lactate)surrogate

Larger small-sided game formats increase external load (distance and speed) without significantly altering internal load (heart rate and lactate) in elite youth football players.

Main Result

Standardized Mean Difference: 0.71

Absolute Event Rate: 1627% vs 1477%

p-value: p=<0.01

Limitations

Only male U-19 players from a single academy were included, limiting generalizability.
Peak heart rate may have been underestimated, potentially affecting relative internal load measures.
Short duration of small-sided games (20 min) may not fully reflect match demands.

Abstract

Aim to investigate internal and external load in three different game formats (8 v 8, 5 v 5, 3 v 3 with 80 m 2 per player) of small-sided games (SSG) in Chinese elite youth football players. Twenty-nine elite male football players (age: 18.3 0.5 years (mean SD), height: 175 6 cm, weight: 65.5 6.3 kg) participated in randomized order in the three formats. Each session consisted of 20 min: 3 v 3 on a 24 20-m pitch, 5 v 5 on a 32 25-m pitch, or 8 v 8 on a 40 32-m pitch all equalling 80 m 2 per player. Each player was recorded once in each format. Using GPS-units and heart rate belts and blood lactate measured the two kinds of load. 8-10% higher total distance (P 14 km/h) in 8 v 8 and 5 v 5 than 3 v 3 (154 94 m and 133 59 m vs. 77 35, ES = 1.09-1.15), whereas very high speed running distance (> 21 km/h) was higher (P < 0.01) in 8 v 8 than 5 v 5 and 3 v 3 (15.2 19.5 vs. 5.3 6.7 and 1.0 0.4 m, ES = 0.69-1.03) and in 5 v 5 than 3 v 3. No difference was found between game formats in the number of intense accelerations nor intense decelerations. Blood lactate (3.5 2.3 vs. 2.8 1.9 vs. 2.4 1.5 mmol L -1 , P = 0.201) and mean heart rate (155 21 vs. 160 11 vs. 157 17 bpm, P = 0.254) was not different between 8v8, 5v5 and 3v3 game formats. Distance covered in total and in highest speed zones was higher in SSG formats with more players, which, however, did not lead to differences in internal load measured by heart rate and blood lactate.

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