ReviewFrontiers in sports and active living2025
The effect of relative pitch size on physiological, physical, technical and tactical variables in small-sided games: a literature review and practical guide.
Review in Frontiers in sports and active living, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed.
- Touch Restriction Versus Free-Play Small-Sided Games in Soccer: Acute Effects on Serum BDNF, Executive Function, and Technical Actions.European journal of sport science · 2026Trial
- Impact of Small-Sided Game Formats on Electromyographic Responses in College Students.Journal of sports science & medicine · 2025Trial
- Using the Relative Pitch Size, Internal Floaters, and External Floaters During Different Small-Sided Games in Professional Soccer in the Return-to-Play Process.Journal of functional morphology and kinesiology · 2026Article
- Position-Specific External Load Between Official Matches and Small-, Medium- and Large-Sided Games in Professional Football.Journal of functional morphology and kinesiology · 2026Article
- Match outcome influences accumulated but not relative external load in rolling small-sided games with loser rotation.BMC sports science, medicine & rehabilitation · 2026Article
- Effects of player number and pitch size on internal and external load in small-sided Ultimate Frisbee games.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Man-marking, pressure on the ball, and offside and their effect on physiological, physical, technical and tactical parameters during small-sided games.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2026Review
- Possession vs. goal scoring during small-sided games in soccer: a narrative mini-review on the effects on physiological, physical, technical and tactical performance.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2026Review
- Large-sided games do not replicate the positional worst-case scenarios of official matches in professional football.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2026Article
- Can We Replicate the Most Demanding Periods of Official Football Matches in Large-Sided Training Games?Journal of functional morphology and kinesiology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Introduction: Manipulating relative pitch size is a common practice in soccer training; however, published evidence on its true effects for practical coaching purposes has been lacking in the scientific literature. This review aimed to identify and quantify changes in physiological, physical, technical, and tactical variables resulting from increases in relative pitch size during small-sided games (SSGs) in soccer. Methods: A literature search was conducted, resulting in the inclusion of 56 articles in this review. Linear regression analysis was performed to examine the total and percentage changes in relative pitch size and its influence on physiological, physical, technical, and tactical variables collected during SSGs. Results: Linear regression revealed that an increase in relative pitch size was significantly positively associated with higher values in lactate, RPE, and Edwards' TRIMP ( Conclusion: Larger relative pitch sizes can be implemented as a task constraint in SSGs to enhance physiological (e.g., lactate, RPE), physical (e.g., total distance, number of sprints), and tactical variables (e.g., surface area). Caution should be exercised regarding the potential negative impact on technical outcomes when increasing relative pitch size. Practitioners in soccer can utilize the findings of this review to achieve desired effects by adjusting relative pitch size to target specific training outcomes.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.