Throughout your coaching journey you will have come across the format of small sided games (SSG), whether it be in foundation age groups (5-11), or youth development age groups (12-16). Within the senior game SSG’s are also used for many different purposes, that will be highlighted below.

Foundation age groups

The match format widely used for these age groups is 5 vs 5 and 7 vs 7, including the goalkeepers. A 9 vs 9 format is used at the latter end of this process.

Youth Development age groups

The match format used for these age groups in 9 vs 9 and 11 vs 11, including the goalkeepers.

Senior age groups

The match format as we know, is 11 vs 11 including the goalkeepers.

A SSG can be defined as smaller format teams (3 vs 3, 4 vs 4) with different methods of scoring. This could be;
Goals
End lines
Gates

By having a directional practice and a reference point to score, you can then coach players within a context, that is seen closer to the match day. Without a goal at each end of the practice area, it will reduce the decisions a player can make and that of the realism, on the main stage.

Here are some benefits for using SSG;

More touches of the ball
Quicker turnovers
Higher speed of football actions
To overload players

By understanding the above 4 points (there are plenty more), you can see that there is an increase in demand, of what a player will have to do.

More touches of the ball – there are less players on each team, so a higher chance of getting ball contact
Quicker turnovers – the playing area will be smaller, thus enforcing less space and time
Higher speed of football actions – by having pressure applied quicker, it will enforce a decision to be made sooner
To overload players – fatigue will set in a lot quicker, so they player will have to control their thinking

The benefits that SSG are clear to see. But, if you don’t have a scoring system, you may fall into the trap of conditioning another type of behaviour.
Typically you could end up using a scoring system, based upon how many passes a team make. The issues with this, are that you’re conditioning the players to think that passing will score you a goal. Passing is just a tool to use in game play and doesn’t guarantee, that it will end up in creating a goalscoring opportunity.
In SSG there are many opportunities to pass the ball, most probably over shorter distances, so the success rate maybe higher. It could seem easy to reward this, but as a coach can you guide your players to use this tool, in order to create the goalscoring opportunities.

The next time you plan to use a SSG within your training session, consider the above points and see if it has any positive effects on your outcomes.