Background: This study compared the physical, physiological, and spatiotemporal responses of soccer athletes in small-sided games (SSG) in two experimental conditions: progression to the target rule (PG), in which they should take the ball to the opponent's endline to score points, and SSG with regular rules (RG), in which they should score goals to win the game.
Methods: Twenty U-20 athletes played both SSG formats. The SSG were played as four 4-minute bouts with four minutes of passive recovery in two consecutive days. Heart rate, physical (distances and accelerations), and positional data (length, width, and spatial exploration) were collected by a 10 hz GPS device and compared between the protocols using a MANOVA with Bonferroni's correction for multiple comparisons.
Results: Results showed that the RG condition demanded more spatial exploration eliciting greater occupation of the pitch width. There were higher mean and maximum heart rates and greater low-to-moderate distances and accelerations in the RG, while the PG rule increased the distances covered at the highest speed and acceleration zones.
Conclusions: The progression to the target rule should be adopted to emphasize players' ability to use the width during the offensive phase. Additionally, the PG rule should also be used to emphasize the development of speed and acceleration skills.
Keywords: GPS devices; Soccer; ecologic dynamics; physical conditioning; tactical behaviour.