VO₂max Changes in English Futsal Players after a 6-Week Period of Specific Small-Sided Games Training

D. Berdejo-del-Fresno^1, , R. Moore² and M. W. Laupheimer^{1, 3}

¹England Futsal National Squad, The Football Association and The International Futsal Academy (United Kingdom)

²Research Fellow, Sport Industry Research Centre, Sheffield Hallam University (United Kingdom)

³Senior Clinical Lecturer in Sports and Exercise Medicine, Queen Mary University of London (United Kingdom)

Cite this paper

D. Berdejo-del-Fresno, R. Moore and M. W. Laupheimer. VO₂max Changes in English Futsal Players after a 6-Week Period of Specific Small-Sided Games Training. American Journal of Sports Science and Medicine. 2015; 3(2):28-34. doi: 10.12691/AJSSM-3-2-1

Abstract

Futsal is a high-intensity, intermittent sport where accelerations and short sprints are performed at maximal or sub-maximal intensity. These efforts are interspersed by brief recovery periods, during 2 halves of 20 minutes stopping clock. Aerobic endurance inevitably plays a key role in the players’ performance. The aim of this study was to analyse the VO2 max progression and the agility (with and without ball) of English futsal players during a 6-week period of small-sided games practice. Two teams volunteered to participate in this study; an experimental group (EG), which performed a specialised small-sided training regime and a control group (CG) (normal training regime). VO2max was estimated from the results of the 20-metre Multi-Stage Fitness Test. The VO2max of the futsal players in the EG improved significantly (58.73±2.41 ml/kg/min vs. 60.11 ± 2.99 ml/kg/min, p=0.04). The same player's agility and agility with ball performance did not report any significant changes in either group. The results showed that periodisation, training sessions and methods based on small-sided games, which implied a change in the number of players, the size of the pitch and the task constraints, were adequate to increase aerobic endurance.

Keywords

team sports, intermittent exercise, indoor soccer, aerobic endurance, physical condition

Copyright

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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