Research
Mixed
Reducing pitch size in soccer small-sided games increases technical actions like shots and tackles, while larger pitches increase aerobic metabolic demands.
Use pitch size to target specific training goals. If you want to improve shooting and defensive actions, use a smaller pitch to increase proximity and contact. If you want to build aerobic endurance and lactate threshold, use a larger pitch to increase displacement and metabolic load.
ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
Kelly and Drust (2008) found a high number of shots and tackles in the smaller pitches... Blood lactate variation due to different pitch sizes suggests that drills played in a bigger pitch resulted in a more aerobic activity
Why this rating
Review paper noting lack of consensus on physiological responses but agreement on technical differences.
Source
A Review on the Effects of Soccer Small-Sided Games
Marco Aguiar et al. · Journal of Human Kinetics · 2012
DOI 10.2478/v10078-012-0049-x
narrative_reviewCited 371×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Reducing the number of players in soccer small-sided games (SSG) increases physiological intensity, specifically heart rate and blood lactate, compared to larger formats.Moderate
- Continuous small-sided games (SSG) elicit higher maximum heart rate and RPE than intermittent SSG, but intermittent SSG allows for higher sprint ratios and total distance at high speeds.Moderate
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