INSIGHT ISSUE 3, VOLUME 7, SUMMER 2004 09

The Physiological Demands of Junior Football

GARETH STRATTON

Successful coaches of young football players have an understanding of the physical demands of the game and are able to adopt a variety of practice and game play activities to suit different ages and stages of development. Guidelines for the development of young football players are available in most nations. These guidelines promote the principle that the number of players and the size of the pitch increase with age and stage of development. In North America, matches in the under-8 year old age group are split into 4 x 12-minute quarters, progress in match duration is then made with increasing age. By 10 years of age players participate in 25-minute halves, increasing to 30-minute halves by age 12 years and 45-minute halves by age 19 years. There is a tacit need to adjust junior football games to match childrens stages of growth and development. However, are these game adaptations appropriate in terms of the physical work expected of young football players? Supporting scientific research into this aspect of the game is very limited. Only a few studies

have demonstrated that adjustments in pitch size and number of players place sufficient and appropriate physiological demands on youngsters. At adult and junior levels, the physiological demands of football depend on factors such as positional role, tactics and strategies, level of performance and playing approach used by the team. Youth football involves multiples of short sprints, slow jogging, walking, jumping, tackling, kicking and changing direction. Fast recovery from work applied to maintaining or regaining possession is essential if high intensity movement during match-play is to be sustained. These exercise bouts place significant demands on the energy systems of young players. THE DEMANDS OF THE GAME One of the few studies on the demands of pre-pubertal football used heart rate monitoring to estimate physiological stress during game play. In an attempt to measure the cardiorespiratory strain of youth football, Drust and Reilly (1997)

monitored the heart rates of 11 boys and 7 girls aged 10 years who had been playing football for 5 years. Mean heart rates recorded after playing a 10-minute game were 17018 and 16720 beatsmin-1 for boys and girls respectively. Klimt (1992) reported similar heart rates of 160-180 beatsmin-1 in German 11 and 12 year-old players. Furthermore, heart rates increased by a further 10 beats after playing an 8-a-side game on a 60 x 40 metre pitch during a second playing period of 10 minutes. These two scientific investigations suggest that adapted football stimulates high cardiorespiratory responses. Moreover, heart rate ranges of 35 beatsmin-1 reflect the intermittent nature of the game as illustrated in Figure 1. Klimt (1992) also reported mean blood lactates of 3-4 mmoll-1 during game play, supporting the view that children have a limited anaerobic capacity. Felci and colleagues (1995) revealed that the exercise intensity when children play football was below the anaerobic threshold and that youth football was highly aerobic in nature.

10 INSIGHT ISSUE 3, VOLUME 7, SUMMER 2004

210

200

10 years old; English boys 10 years old; English girls 10 years old; English boys 10 years old; English girls 11-12 years old; German boys

Heart Rate (beats min-1)

190

180

170

160

150

Boys

Girls

Boys

Girls

10 years old; English

Boys 11-12 years old; German

Figure 1 Heart Rates of Junior Age Boys and Girls during Game-Play

In the adult game the demands vary by position. In a study on youth footballers, Felci and colleagues (1995) found that heart rate and oxygen uptake (VO2) diverged and varied according to position. Heart rates are more closely related to VO2 in midfielders than forwards and defenders. This difference was attributed to the more continuous nature of midfielders running during match play. Motion analysis of elite adult football has revealed that players run distances between 8 and 13 km at about 70-80 per cent of VO2max during a game. The exercise is intermittent and varies in intensity from walking, to sprinting, jumping to passing, and tackling to heading and shooting. Players are in contact with the ball for roughly 180 seconds, turning about 400 times during the game. Comparative data from match play in different age groups are not available on an exstensive basis. Task analysis of 12 junior teams demonstrated that individual players made an average of 29 passes, received 34 passes, dribbled 5

times, made two shots on goal and attempted 20 interceptions. Losers were less successful than winners on all action categories, with particularly large differences for dribbling and shots on goal (Luhtanen, 1994). Data has also been reported on 106, 16-18 year old players from First Division clubs. Game playing time ranged from 57 to 74 min. Boys and girls engaged in 34 and 33 offensive manoeuvres, respectively. Boys also engaged in 21 defensive manoeuvres compared to an average of 24 in girls. Game understanding was better for the boys compared to the girls although movement in match-play was similar.
Further Reading

CONCLUSION The limited research on the match play requirements of youth football reveal broadly similar demands to those reported for adults. In effect the reduced pitch dimensions, game duration and numbers of players per team seem developmentally appropriate for young players. However, more detailed research using various notational and physiological methods is required before the precise demands of adapted youth football practice and game play can be better understood.

Klimt, F., Betz, M. and Seitz, V. (1992) Metabolism and circulation of children playing soccer: In Children and Exercise XVI: Paediatric Work Physiology (eds J. Coudert and E. Van Praagh). Masson, Paris, pp 127-29. Drust B., and Reilly, T. (1997) Heart rate responses of children during soccer play. Science and Football III (T. Reilly, J. Bangsbo, & M. Hughes Eds.) E&FN Spon.pp 196-200.

Dr. Gareth Stratton is a Reader in Paediatric Exercise Science at Liverpool John Moores University. He has acted as consultant to a number of childrens fitness projects and has published in areas related to childrens exercise, health and sports performance.