An investigation into the physical, physiological and technical demands of small sided games using varying pitch dimensions in Gaelic football

Shane Mangan, Kieran Collins, Con Burns and Cian O’Neill

International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport, 2019, vol. 19, issue 6, 971-984

Abstract: Introduction: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of pitch size on the physical, physiological and technical demands of small-sided games (SSGs) in a sub-elite Gaelic football setting. Methods: Thirty-four sub-elite adult male Gaelic football players completed tailored Gaelic football SSGs on three different pitch sizes (40 x 20 m, 60 x 20 m, 80 x 20 m) in a 4v4 format, resulting in 312 individual player observations over the course of the 2018 season. Results: Participants performed significantly greater high-speed running (>17 km∙h−1) (p ≤ 0.001) and sprinting (>22 km∙h−1) (p ≤ 0.001) on the 60x20 m pitch compared to the 40x20 m and 80x20 m pitches. Pitch size had only trivial effects on the average heart rate and the peak heart rate recorded in games. Games played on the 40x20 m pitch resulted in more scores per team (p = 0.062; η2 = 0.071), no-score entries (p = 0.075; η2 = 0.067) and possessions per team (p = 0.015; η2 = 0.106), while ball-in-play percentage was moderately higher (p = 0.040; η2 = 0.082) on the 80x20 m pitch. Conclusion: Coaches should consider pitch size and the associated effects on physical and technical demands when planning training games, with specific reference to the stated objectives of each respective session.

Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/24748668.2019.1689003 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:rpanxx:v:19:y:2019:i:6:p:971-984

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/RPAN20

DOI: 10.1080/24748668.2019.1689003

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport is currently edited by Peter O'Donoghue

More articles in International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().