Physical activity levels in U9 soccer

Last October I spent a day at the Lower Island Soccer Association mini fest watching U9 soccer and with the use of some accelerometers I was able to track the amount of physical activity for each player during the game. I would like to thank Stu Hackett for his help during that day as I would have not been able to do this alone!

Here is the report from that day.

Introduction

To promote healthy growth and development and to prevent physical and mental health issues across the lifespan including obesity, Canadian guidelines recommend that children accumulate at least 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) per day. Enrolling children in organized sport is a common practice by which parents hope to support their children’s active lifestyles and promote the development of positive mental health and physical literacy. However, it is unclear how participation in organized sports, such as U9 soccer matches and practices, contributes to children achieving the 60 minute guideline. This is further complicated by the fact that squad size may influence the amount of MVPA children accrue during matches.

The purpose of the report is twofold: 1) to determine how much MVPA children acquire during U9 soccer matches and 2) to investigate how team size influences the amount of MVPA accumulated.

 

Procedures

In autumn 2012, data was collected on 124 children during a single day U9 tournament in Victoria, BC. All participating children volunteered to wear an accelerometer, which is a small device (about the size of an MP3 player) that is worn on the hip with an elastic belt. The device objectively measures physical activity by assigning intensity “counts” to accelerations in movement across multiple planes over time, such that the more vigorously the wearer moves, the greater the intensity is recorded by the device. Physical activity levels, categorized into sedentary, light, moderate and vigorous, were assessed using established cut-off points.

The tournament consisted of seven matches involving 14 unique teams which varied in size from seven up to 11 players. A 6v6 format was used for all matches except one 7v7 format. Games lasted from 45 to 56 minutes with the average match lasting 52.9 minutes. Only data recorded during game time was used for analysis.

 

Results

Analysis revealed that for 6v6 game formats, U9 players spent approximately 63% of their time as MVPA. Specific activity categories are summarized in Figure 1. Furthermore, squad size significantly influenced the amount of MVPA U9 players acquired during tournament matches. It was found that children in a squad of 7 accrued significantly more MVPA than those on larger squads, which did not differ from each other in this regard.

Time spent in:

Sedentary state         25%

Light Activity           12%

Moderate Activity    33%

Vigorous Activity     30%

Discussion and next steps.

The findings indicate that for U9 soccer players, a majority of their game time is spent being either moderately or vigorously active. While game length varies, the average of 63% of the game in MVPA represents just over 33 minutes of game time; which is below the recommended guideline of 60 minutes of MVPA daily. Thus, the present data suggest that children enrolled in U9 soccer programmes acquire about half of their daily MVPA requirement during 6v6 match participation.

Squad size appears to influence the amount of MVPA recorded during game time. Specifically, it was found that children on a squad of 7 players accrued significantly more MVPA (76%) than squads with greater enrollment numbers. As well, there was no difference in MVPA accrued between any of these other larger teams, which suggests that a 7-player squad format offers the best opportunity to enhance MVPA during game time compared to larger squads.

However, the present study is not without its limitations. Primarily, squad sizes were not evenly represented. For example, data was collected from only one 7-player squad while five teams had an 8-player squad (representing 40 players total). This particular bias could skew results. Further investigation is required to assess the impact of squad size on MVPA during 6v6 game formats. Furthermore, despite the fact that the 7-player squad achieved higher amounts of MVPA, creating teams with less than 8 players would not be feasible for club organizations due to occasional player absences or injuries resulting in limited substitutions.

In addition, while game time is typically less than 60 minutes, capturing other elements of involvement, such as warm-up and cool-down activities and weekly practices may show the value of these activities for accumulating MVPA. For example, something as simple as two warm up laps and two cool down laps at the end of the game may have a significant effect on the accumulation of MVPA.  It is clear the U-9 soccer matches make a valuable contribution to children’s health by providing the opportunity for MVPA but that parents and coaches need to plan additional activities to meet the guidelines.

Moving forward, the LISA will start to investigate physical activity levels in practice sessions for players in this age category along with collecting more data from games in an attempt to identify squad sizes that will maximise opportunities for players to increase their time spent in MVPA.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Its worth noting that the sample size we used was pretty small and not big enough for us to draw earth shattering conclusions from, however its a start. Over the course of the next year I will be looking at training sessions for players in this age group to see what levels of activity they are getting from their practices, and we will also be taking a look at some U12 games in an 8v8 format alongside some U13 games in the first year of 11v11 to see what is going on at those two age groups.