THE EFFECTS OF TASK CONSTRAINTS ON THE HEART RATE RESPONSES OF STUDENTS DURING SMALL-SIDED HANDBALL GAMES

Task constraints used by the teacher to guide students during small-sided games in a physical education context can be a factor to improve the quality of the students' practice. One of these task constraints is the number of players present in small-sided games. Therefore, this study aims to analyse the influence of the number of players on the students' heart rate intensity. Thus, eight male students (18.25 +/- 1.04 years old) voluntarily participated in this study. The mean heart rate results were obtained in three sub-phases of the game (2 v 2, 3 v 3 and 4 v 4). ANOVA test showed statistically significant differences (F-(2,F- 1077) = 25.661; p-value 0.001) between them. The results confirm the importance of task constraints in the management of practice intensity so as to simultaneously promote the opportunity to develop the game's technical and tactical contents as well as the students' fitness. Therefore, the teacher needs to carefully consider the number of players per task in order to develop the main goals of the lesson correctly.