Pitch Size, Player Numbers, and Playing Rules: How Small-Sided Game Constraints Shape the Training Demands in Male Academy Soccer

Olthof, S ORCID: 0000-0002-7660-8448, Ferrandis, J, de Dios, V and Riboli, A (2026) Pitch Size, Player Numbers, and Playing Rules: How Small-Sided Game Constraints Shape the Training Demands in Male Academy Soccer. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. ISSN 1064-8011

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Abstract

Small-sided games (SSGs) are part of daily soccer practice and usually manipulated in pitch size, player number, and playing rules. The aim of this study was to identify constraints that significantly affect the physical demands in SSGs in youth elite soccer players. Training sessions from an under-18 Spanish academy team were monitored, including 87 SSGs. Small-sided games were labelled for area per player (ApP), number of players, type of game, playing duration, goal size, use of floater players and goalkeepers, and number of touches. Relative physical demands were measured as total distance (TD), high-speed running (HSR), sprint distance (SD), and acceleration (ACC) and deceleration (DEC) distance. A linear mixed-effects model analysis was performed estimating the effects of SSG constraints (α set at 0.05). Greater ApP consistently increased TD, HSR, SD, ACC, and DEC. By contrast, increasing the number of players and longer playing duration reduced TD, HSR, ACC, and DEC. In addition, specific playing rules, such as the use of floater players, limited touches, and small goals primarily affected ACC and DEC. These findings highlight the important role of ApPs in shaping physical demands, while also showing that team size, playing duration, and specific playing rules contribute to the physical demands of SSGs. Understanding the magnitude and direction of these manipulations allows coaches to design SSGs more effectively to meet training objectives

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	1106 Human Movement and Sports Sciences; 1116 Medical Physiology; Sport Sciences; 3202 Clinical sciences; 3208 Medical physiology; 4207 Sports science and exercise
Subjects:	R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC1200 Sports Medicine G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GV Recreation Leisure > GV561 Sports > GV711 Coaching
Divisions:	Sport and Exercise Sciences
Publisher:	Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins
Date of acceptance:	8 October 2025
Date of first compliant Open Access:	9 February 2026
Date Deposited:	09 Feb 2026 09:57
Last Modified:	09 Feb 2026 09:57
DOI or ID number:	10.1519/JSC.0000000000005351
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/28017

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