Can heat stress affect the psychophysiological responses and locomotor demands of young soccer players during small-sided soccer games?

by Ersan Arslan, Yusuf Soylu, Ana Filipa Silva, Osman Yilmaz, Bulent Kilit, Neslihan Akçay, Lukasz Radziminski, Ladislav Batalik The study compared the effects of three different heat stress conditions on the psycho-physiological responses and locomotor demands of young players in different small-sided soccer games (SSGs). Sixteen soccer players (age: 16.5 ± 0.5 years) performed 2-a-side and 4-a-side SSGs under three environmental heat stress conditions: low environmental heat (LEH) ≤ 23.9°C, moderate environmental heat (MEH) 24.0–27.9°C, and high environmental heat (HEH) 28.0–32.9°C.

Players’ heart rate (HR) responses and total distance covered (TDC) were continuously monitored for all SSGs; the rating of perceived exertion (RPE) and visual analog scale (VAS) were used after each bout. Tympanic temperature (TT) was recorded daily before and after the SSGs.

The results demonstrated that for both 2-a-side and 4-a-side SSGs, significant main effects of temperature were observed for HR, %HR max , RPE, and VAS responses (all p max , RPE, and VAS responses (all p < 0.05), suggesting that responses to heat stress varied across repeated bouts.