Young players’ socioemotional experience during tag games

Abstract

This study aimed to assess the motor interactions and perceived enjoyment and competence of young players during a tag game. Twenty-one players under 13 years old of two different teams from the same football club (subgroup-A and subgroup-B) played a new modification of the tag game for 10 minutes. The motor relationships were analyzed registering the number of counter-communications (i.e. catching tries) and the involved players. The number of counter-communications differed significantly according to the subgroup of the tagger and the runner (p= .00; effect size [ES]= 0.65, moderate). The 87% of the counter-communications (51 tries) happened between same subgroup players, being the 68% of the total (40 tries) from subgroup-A players. The perceived enjoyment and competence levels were assessed using the BECS scale. The mean enjoyment was significantly (p= .03) and substantially (ES= 0.98, large) higher for the subgroup-A players (4.0 ± 0.8; coefficient of variation [CV]= 20%). The tag game could be an interesting alternative to experience the motor instability, identify the social relationships of a group and guarantee high enjoyment in young players.