Abstract:
This study examined the effects of the numbers of players involved
in small-sided team games (underloading and overloading) on
opportunities for maintaining ball possession, shooting at goal and
passing to teammates during training. These practice constraint
manipulations were assumed to alter values of key performance
variables identified in previous research, such as interpersonal
distances between players and time to intercept shots and
passes. Fifteen male soccer players (age: 19.60±1.99 years) were
grouped into three teams and played against each other in
different versions of small-sided soccer games, in which the
number of players was manipulated in three different conditions: 5
vs. 5, 5 vs. 4 and 5 vs. 3. Dependent variables were the values of
interpersonal distance between an outfield attacker and nearest
defender (ID), and the relative distance of a defender needed to
intercept the trajectory of a shot (RDishot) or pass (RDipass).
Statistical analyses revealed that mean ID values were significantly
lower in 5 vs. 5 than in 5 vs. 4 and 5 vs. 3 conditions, and
significantly lower in 5 vs. 4 than 5 vs. 3. They also revealed that
mean values of RDishot were significantly h...