Análise da utilização de jogos gêmeos em competições infantis de futebol

Abstract

The essence of sport is found in competition, and this context must be understood as an important learning environment. In this way, studies have sought to comprehend how to modify competitive environments in order to promote game contexts that are more aligned with the athletes' potential, thereby enabling greater participation time in competitive games. In this regard, various strategies have been investigated with the aim of minimizing the influence of biological factors, such as maturation, on the opportunities players have to participate in games during youth competitions, such as bio-banding. However, beyond biological factors, several other constraints impact how players interact with the game environment and express individual and collective tactical actions. Twin games strategies have been applied in an attempt to provide competitive environments that allow for more playing time for a larger number of players, where matches between teams are transformed into two simultaneous confrontations of the same teams on two fields with the same format, rules, and playing conditions. Understanding the importance and potential of twin games as strategic alternatives for the youth competition environment, the aim of this dissertation is to investigate their application in competitions for the Under-11 category. To achieve the proposed objective, the dissertation was developed in an alternative model and divided into two experimental studies. Both studies involved the participation of young players who competed in three competitions with distinct rules, conducted in a festival format in the Under-11 category. The first study aimed to analyze the impact of using twin games on the participation time of children in the Under-11 category during youth competitions. The results highlight that the implementation of twin games increased the participation time of younger children and those with lower performance levels. In turn, the second study focused on analyzing the effects of using twin games on the running performance and tactical behavior of Under-11 football players. In this study, the results emphasize that the running demands are similar in both games, and organizing athletes by performance level in twin games makes it possible to adapt the game to the player's performance level.