Analysis of the impact of playing area size on ball retention time and number of touches in soccer and ice hockey possessions: A case study

Abstract: Does a change in training organization affect to play? In soccer, coaches often require players to pass a ball quickly. This speed includes the speed of the ball. In many cases, players must shorten their time on the ball and switch to the next play with as few touches as possible. How can such quick passing training be achieved? Coaches point to quick passage using language, but the critical factor in whether a player can execute it is considered to be the organization of the training: for example, the practice environment, such as the size of the playing area.The size is a factor in the organization of training to elicit appropriate play. For example, whether the playing area players want to familiarize is 5 or 10 meters is extremely different. Thus, providing the playing area which is different from the size of the entire soccer field may encourage players to a specific practice. One of the types of passing training described above involves players who do not have a ball and taking the ball away from the other players of the team who do. This training is called possession and considered to be widely used by modern soccer teams in various forms. How could the play be changed? Research areas, such as motor learning, have shown that humans and animals unconsciously shift their movement from a specific pattern to another by changing parameters. For example, a horse change the manner in which it moves its legs from walking to running. As the walking speed increased, the foot changed to running at a certain speed. Such changes in movement are not consciously caused by the humans or animals, but can be regarded as bodily knowledge. By this physical knowledge, coaches may induce the plays they want their players to execute by altering the practice environment.In this study, we examined how ball or puck in ice hockey retention time and the number of touches changes if the size of the playing area changes during 3-on-1 possession training in soccer and ice hockey.If the distance between each player is sufficient, it is expected that the possession players will have more time to hold and touch a ball because the defending players who do not control the ball will have time to apply pressure. However, as the distance shortened, the time it takes for the defending players to use pressure decreases; therefore, it is expected that possession players will have less time and fewer touches on the ball. This is a case study of gradual changes in training organizations. However, it is unclear that whether players can intentionally implement quick passing and adaptively play. We want to examine the training organization necessary to enable the metacognition of physical knowledge and adaptive changes in play.

Keywords: Body Intelligence, Training organization, Ball possession training

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1004693

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