Recovery Kinetics After the Use of Small Sided Games With a Small and Large Number of Players and Large Pitch Area

Soccer is an intermittent sport in which the aerobic and anaerobic capacity of the players are both essential. Elite football players perform an average of 150-250 short and intense movements during a match, demonstrating the significant contribution of the anaerobic energy system. Sided-games is a tool to enhance the performance of the aerobic and anaerobic system. This training includes actions such as sprinting, changes of direction, accelerations, decelerations, jumps, and shooting, characterized by a strong eccentric component. Eccentric actions are associated with exercise-induced muscle damage (EIMD). Nevertheless, to date, EIMD responses following a session of sided games training have not yet been investigated. Therefore, the present study aims to examine the speed of recovery after training with a large-dimension pitch area with a small and large number of athletes in football.