The effects of man-marking on work intensity in small-sided soccer games

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of manipulating defensive rules: with and without man-marking (mm and nmm) on exercise intensity in 3 vs. 3 small-sided games (ssgs). twelve adolescent soccer players (age: 16.2 ± 0.7 years; body mass: 55.7 ± 6.4 kg; body height: 1.70 ± 0.07 m) participated in this repeated measures study. each participant performed in four different ssgs formats: 3 vs. 3 mm with and without goals and 3 vs. 3 nmm with and without goals. each ssg lasted 3 × 4 minutes interspersed with 4 minutes passive recovery. the percentage heart rate reserve (%hr reserve) was recorded continuously during ssg and session-rating of perceived exertion (session-rpe) after the ssg. manova showed that defensive rule had significant effects on intensity (f = 5.37,p < 0.01). specifically,mm during ssg induced significantly higher %hr reserve compared to nmm (goal: 80.5 vs. 75.7%; no goal: 80.5 vs. 76.1%; p < 0.05,effect size = 0.91-1.06),irrespective of the presence or absence of goals. however,only mm with the presence of goals induced significant higher session-rpe compared to nmm (7.1 vs. 6.0; p < 0.05,effect size = 1.36),whereas no difference in session-rpe was observed between mm and nmm (7.4 vs. 6.9; p > 0.05,effect size = 0.63) when no goals were used. higher intra-class reliability and lower coefficient of variation values were also reported in mm as compared to nmm. this study in youth soccer players shows there is ~4.5% increase in heart rate response by using the man-marking in 3 vs. 3 ssg thus the intensity of ssg can be significantly increased when using man-marking tactics. © journal of sports science and medicine.