SportLogia
Vol. 14, Issue 1, June 2018.
COMPARING POSSESSION CHARACTERISTICS BETWEEN 12, 15, AND 18 a SIDE GAMES IN JUNIOR AUSTRALIAN FOOTBALLERS
Zac Cross1, Shane Pill1, Kym Williams1
1Flinders University College of Education, Psychology and Social Work
Original scientific paper
doi:10.5550/sgia.181401.en.cpw
UDC: 796.332-053.6
Abstract
The purpose of this investigation was to compare the effects of altering the number of players during ‘small sided games’ on the possession characteristics within a youth under10 football setting. Two modified ‘small sided game’ versions of 12 a side and 15 a side in accordance to the Australian Football League (AFL) junior match policy were used to compare against the 18 a side game used in a junior football association. Possession characteristics were coded using IPad installed with the application Dartfish Easy Tag across 4 game periods of 24 minutes for each game format. It was found that the additional players in the 18 a side version led to more tagged events on average, however, there was a decrease in the number of tagged actions per player compared to 12 a/side and 15 a/side. It was also observed that there were more possession characteristics for kicking and handballing per player during the 12 a/side and 15 a/side versions. The findings suggested that the 12 a side game version of Australian Football is more appropriate for under 10 than the 18 a side format, as it provides players with greater involvement and therefore potentially greater enjoyment, engagement, and technical game-based development. This uniquely aids player development, skill acquisition and participation levels in junior Australian footballers.
Key words: football, small sided, juniors, participation, player engagement.
References
Agnew, D., Pill, S., & Drummond, M. (2016). Investigating the elements that encourage or inhibit the participation of children and youth in Australian Football. Annals of Leisure Research, 19(1), 27-46.
https://doi.org/10.1080/11745398.2015.1036898 [CrossRef]
Australian Football League. (2016a). 2016 Annual Report. Retrieved from
http://www.afl.com.au/afl-hq/annual-reports
Australian Football League. (2016b). The coach: The official AFL level 1 coaching manual. Retrieved from http://www.aflcommunityclub.com.au/index.php?id=370
Australian Football League. (2017). Australian Football Match Policy. Retrieved from http://www.aflcommunityclub.com.au/index.php?id=32
Bradley, P., O’Donoghue, P., Wooster, B., & Tordoff, P. (2007). The reliability of ProZone MatchViewer: a video-based technical performance analysis system. International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport, 7(3), 117-129.
https://doi.org/10.1080/24748668.2007.11868415 [CrossRef]
Burton, D., Gillham, A., & Hammermeister, J. (2011). Competitive engineering: Structural climate modifications to enhance youth athletes' competitive experience. International Journal of Sports Science and Coaching, 6(2), 201-217. https://doi.org/10.1260/1747-9541.6.2.201 [CrossRef]
Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. Hilsdale. NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates. https://doi.org/10.1002/bs.3830330104 [CrossRef]
Crane, J., & Temple, V. (2015). A systematic review of dropout from organized sport among children and youth. European physical education review, 21(1), 114-131.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1356336X14555294 [CrossRef]
Dartfish. (2017). Dartfish EasyTag. Retrieved from www.dartfish.com/easytag
Drummond, M., Agnew, D., Pill, S., & Dollman, J. (2013). SANFL youth retention project. Adelaide, AUS. Flinders University.
Elliott, S., & Pill, S. (2016). Competitive engineering in junior Australian football: perceptions and experiences of parents, children and coaches of 9-a-side football in an Under-8 competition. South African Journal for Research in Sport, Physical Education and Recreation, 38(1), 43-57.
Gratton, C., & Jones, I. (2010). Research methods for sports studies. London, GBR: Taylor & Francis.
Gray, A. J., & Jenkins, D.G. (2010). Match analysis and the physiological demands of Australian Football. Sports Medicine, 40(4), 347-360.
https://doi.org/10.2165/11531400-000000000-00000 [CrossRef]
PMid:20364877
Katis, A., & Kellis, E. (2009). Effects of small-sided games on physical conditioning and performance in young soccer players. Journal of Sports Science and Medicine, 8, 374-380.
https://www.jssm.org/hf.php?id=jssm-08-374.xml#
Liu, H., Hopkins, W., Gómez, A. M., & Molinuevo, S. J. (2013). Inter-operator reliability of live football match statistics from OPTA Sportsdata. International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport, 13(3), 803-821.
https://doi.org/10.1080/24748668.2013.11868690 [CrossRef]
McCarthy, P. J., Jones, M. V., & Clark-Carter, D. (2008). Understanding enjoyment in youth sport: A developmental perspective. Psychology of sport and exercise, 9(2), 142-156.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2007.01.005 [CrossRef]
O’Shaughnessy, D. M. (2006). Possession versus position: strategic evaluation in AFL. Journal of sports science & medicine, 5(4), 533-540. https://www.jssm.org/hf.php?id=jssm-05-533.xml
Owen, A., Twist, C., & Ford, P. (2004). Small-sided games: the physiological and technical effect of altering pitch size and player numbers. Insight, 7(2), 50-53.
Patton, M. (2015). Qualitative research and evaluation methods (4th ed.). Los Angeles, USA. Ca: Sage.
Phillips, P., & Wehner, K. (2012). Examining the AFL junior match policy for recruitment and retention report. Australia. Deakin University.
Pill, S., & Elliott, S. (2015). Effects of altering the number of players and the dimensions of the playing area on the possession characteristics in youth Australian Football. Sport Science Review, 24(3-4), 171-192.
https://doi.org/10.1515/ssr-2015-0014 [CrossRef]
Robertson, S., Gupta, R., & McIntosh, S. (2016). A method to assess the influence of individual player performance distribution on match outcome in team sports. Journal of Sports Sciences, 34(19), 1893-1900.
https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2016.1142106 [CrossRef]
PMid:26853070
Scanlan, T. K., Simons, J. P., Carpenter, P. J., Schmidt, G. W., & Keeler, B. (1993). An introducion to the sport commitment model. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 15(1), 1-15.
https://doi.org/10.1123/jsep.15.1.1 [CrossRef]
Small, G. (2006). Small-sided games study of young football players in Scotland. Independent Consultation Paper; Dundee, UK. University of Abertay.
Wisbey, B., Montgomery, P. G., Pyne, D. B., & Rattray, B. (2010). Quantifying movement demands of AFL football using GPS tracking. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 13(5), 531-536.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsams.2009.09.002 [CrossRef]
PMid: 19897414
To cite this article:
Cross, Z., Pill, Sh., & Williams, K. (2018). Comparing possession characteristics between 12, 15 and 18
a side games in junior Australian footballers. Sportlogia, 14(1), 1-11. doi:10.5550/sgia.181401.en.cpw
Received: 01.02.2018.
Accepted: 20.06.2018.
Corresponding Author:
Dr Shane Pill
Flinders University, South Australia
GPO Box 2100
Adelaide, South Australia, 5001
shane.pill@flinders.edu.au
