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
Marco Aguiar et al. · Journal of Human Kinetics · 2012

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

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