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Research Article

Chronological age-based vs. Bio-banded friendly football tournament: Effects on physical performance and spatial exploration behaviour in 7v7 match play

ORCID Icon, ORCID Icon, ORCID Icon & ORCID Icon
Received 21 May 2023, Accepted 03 Mar 2024, Published online: 14 Mar 2024
 

ABSTRACT

Biological age-based competitions have been suggested to mitigate maturation bias among youth football players. This study analysed the physical demands and spatial exploration behaviour when playing football matches against biological or chronological age-based opposition. One-hundred and sixteen U-13 and U-14 male regional-level football players were recruited from five Portuguese football academies. Each player completed eight games, four per condition (chronological and biological-based), on the same day. Games were played in 7 vs. 7 formats, with 20-min duration, and conformed to standard officiating and rule procedures. The following variables were considered from GPS-data in each game: distance covered, high-intensity accelerations and decelerations, body impacts, and average and peak speeds. Furthermore, average, and peak heart rates (HRpeak) and spatial exploration index were collected. Players covered significantly less distance (ES = 1.11), performed fewer decelerations (ES = 0.82), achieved lower average speeds (ES = 1.15), had fewer body impacts (ES = 0.94), and recorded lower HRpeak (ES = 0.56) in the biological age-based competition compared to the chronological-age-based. No significant differences were found between the two formats in spatial exploration. Both game formats offer distinct physical demands at the external and internal levels. Finally, practitioners can manipulate the type of opposition to get distinct physical demands to mitigate the effect of maturation bias during development.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported that there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

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