I use 3x3 and 2x2 for my 5th grade rec team. The players absolutely love it and it makes a huge difference in getting our weaker players ready to play. We are not more talented or any deeper than the other teams we play, but the difference is every player on our team is ready to PLAY when the get on the floor. I find that the weaker players grow faster playing 3x3 on teams with the stronger players because they have to find a way to keep up. It does wonders for the kids’ confidence in themselves and each other, which gets them sharing the ball more in 5x5 games as well.
Like many other concepts, the SSGs got overused in the UK in some environments. Every other aspect of training was abandoned in the name of specificity. Some things (strength, power and speed) are hard to develop within games for well conditioned athletes. They need to be developed outside of the sport and then applied within the sport.
Hamstrings are an example of a muscle group in football (soccer for you) that work differently at top speeds compared to sub-maximal runs. The injuries occur during top-speed runs in matches: perhaps because players are unused to running at top speeds?
But SSGs are great for all the reasons you mention.
I use 3x3 and 2x2 for my 5th grade rec team. The players absolutely love it and it makes a huge difference in getting our weaker players ready to play. We are not more talented or any deeper than the other teams we play, but the difference is every player on our team is ready to PLAY when the get on the floor. I find that the weaker players grow faster playing 3x3 on teams with the stronger players because they have to find a way to keep up. It does wonders for the kids’ confidence in themselves and each other, which gets them sharing the ball more in 5x5 games as well.
Like many other concepts, the SSGs got overused in the UK in some environments. Every other aspect of training was abandoned in the name of specificity. Some things (strength, power and speed) are hard to develop within games for well conditioned athletes. They need to be developed outside of the sport and then applied within the sport.
Hamstrings are an example of a muscle group in football (soccer for you) that work differently at top speeds compared to sub-maximal runs. The injuries occur during top-speed runs in matches: perhaps because players are unused to running at top speeds?
But SSGs are great for all the reasons you mention.