eng Science and Education Publishing American Journal of Sports Science and Medicine 2333-4606 2015-04-16 3 2 28 34 10.12691/ajssm-3-2-1 AJSSM2015321 article D. Berdejo-del-Fresno daniberdejo@gmail.com 1 R. Moore 2 M. W. Laupheimer 2 3 England Futsal National Squad, The Football Association and The International Futsal Academy (United Kingdom) Research Fellow, Sport Industry Research Centre, Sheffield Hallam University (United Kingdom) Futsal is a high-intensity, intermittent sport where accelerations and short sprints are performed at maximal or sub-maximal intensity. These efforts are interspersed by brief recovery periods, during 2 halves of 20 minutes stopping clock. Aerobic endurance inevitably plays a key role in the players' performance. The aim of this study was to analyse the VO2 max progression and the agility (with and without ball) of English futsal players during a 6-week period of small-sided games practice. Two teams volunteered to participate in this study; an experimental group (EG), which performed a specialised small-sided training regime and a control group (CG) (normal training regime). VO2max was estimated from the results of the 20-metre Multi-Stage Fitness Test. The VO2max of the futsal players in the EG improved significantly (58.73±2.41 ml/kg/min vs. 60.11 ± 2.99 ml/kg/min, p=0.04). The same player's agility and agility with ball performance did not report any significant changes in either group. The results showed that periodisation, training sessions and methods based on small-sided games, which implied a change in the number of players, the size of the pitch and the task constraints, were adequate to increase aerobic endurance. http://pubs.sciepub.com/ajssm/3/2/1/ajssm-3-2-1.pdf team sports intermittent exercise indoor soccer aerobic endurance physical condition