New models for teaching sports have arisen in the last years, characterised by the use of more contextualised situations, modified games, tactical awareness, transference of technical–tactical learning and different teaching progression, among other aspects. In this regard, small-sided games must be highlighted, due to their ability to integrate physical fitness, technique and tactical behaviour stimuli in similar conditions to the real game. Therefore, the aim of this systematic review was to analyse and describe the methodological possibilities that SSGs can provide regarding the teaching of technical–tactical aspects in team sports at young ages. The guidelines of the PRISMA declaration were followed with the purpose of conducting a systematic search. The search was performed in the databases Pubmed, Web of Science, Scopus and SportDiscus. From the 451 identified in an early phase, plus the 20 found in the references of other studies, only 47 met the inclusion criteria and were selected. The results yielded scientific evidence that justifies the use of small-sided games as a methodological resource for sports teaching at young ages. Among the main reasons, it can be highlighted that a reduction in the number of players and in the size of the pitch area increases the total ball contact per player and, therefore, the number of technical actions. Moreover, the intentional modification of certain rules helps to develop some sport training fundamentals.

The question of how games should be taught is still a controversial subject. There has been a growing number of studies on teaching games and coaching sports since the first publication of Bunker and Thorpe on Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU). In this sense, the present systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to systematically review the scientific literature about the effects of technical and tactical approach interventions on skill execution and decision making, and to examine the influence of the teacher/coach management style. A systematic literature search was carried out in accordance with PRISMA guidelines in Web of Science (WOS), PubMed (Medline), Scopus, and SportDiscus electronic databases. A total of seven and six studies were deemed to meet the inclusion criteria for decision making and skill execution, respectively. Meta-analysis results showed that tactical interventions achieved significant improvements in decision making (effect size = 0.89 with 95% confidence interval (CI) from 0.12 to 1.65), but they did not show significant improvements in skill execution (effect size = 0.89 with 95% CI from −0.45 to 2.23) compared to technical approaches. However, the heterogeneity of interventions was large and the quality of evidence was low according to GRADE. In conclusion, tactical approaches are recommended to teach games and sports in order to develop technique, understanding, tactical knowledge, and decision making, which are demanded in game play. These findings could be useful for teachers and coaches to improve these aspects of their players and students.

The aim was to review the effects of cooperative learning interventions on intrinsic motivation in physical education students, as well as to conduct a meta-analysis to determinate the overall effect size of these interventions. The PRISMA guidelines were followed to conduct this systematic review and meta-analysis. The PEDro Scale was used to assess the risk of bias and the GRADE approach was used to evaluate the quality of the evidence. A total of five studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria and they were included in the meta-analysis. Effect size for intrinsic motivation of each study was calculated using the means and standard deviations of the Perceived Locus of Causality Scale (PLOC) before and after the intervention. The overall effect size for intrinsic motivation was 0.38 (95% CI from 0.17 to 0.60) while the heterogeneity was large. Although four of the five studies reported significant within-group improvements in intrinsic motivation, only three studies showed significant between-group differences in favor of the experimental group. The findings showed that program duration and participant age may be relevant factors that must be considered by educators and researchers to conduct future effective interventions. Cooperative learning interventions could be a useful teaching strategy to improve physical education students’ intrinsic motivation. However, given the large heterogeneity and the low quality of the evidence, these findings must be taken with caution.

In recent years a special interest in developing a theory of knowledge related to the teaching of sports has emerged. The comprehensive model of sport teaching or Teaching Games for Understanding Model and its variants have stood out. This focus is related to cognitive and constructivist theories of learning and to situated learning, and it is considered to be innovative in the teaching of sport. The objective of this work was to describe and analyse the basis on which the comprehensive teaching of sport is built, and, to achieve this, a systematic revision of the bibliography was carried out. Data indicated that the comprehensive focus is based, fundamentally, on premises related to the theories of cognitive, constructivist and situated learning. In this sense, some elements stand out. They make a reference to sport as teaching content (games modified, contextualized teaching, transfer of learning and technical-tactical teaching); to the student/player (learner/player-centred, existing knowledge and motivation); and to the teacher/coach (role of the teacher/coach, progressive teaching, problem-solving and questioning).

RESUMENCon el objetivo de analizar el proceso de formación deportiva de los judokas españoles de élite, se diseñó una entrevista semiestructurada de 52 preguntas agrupadas en 6 dimensiones (entorno social, entorno deportivo, psicológica, técnico-táctica, condición física y otros aspectos). Se llevó a cabo un análisis cualitativo y cuantitativo mediante la valoración de 10 expertos. Se analizó la validez de contenido a través del coeficiente V de Aiken, estableciendo un intervalo de confianza del 99 %, y el coeficiente de variación. Para conocer la fiabilidad se pasó la entrevista a judokas de alto nivel en dos momentos distintos y se analizó la consistencia interna por el método del Alfa de Cronbach (0,915) y la fiabilidad test-retest utilizando el coeficiente de correlación intraclase resultando 0,843 (p<0,01). La entrevista reúne suficientes propiedades como para ser considerada una herramienta válida y fiable para estudiar y analizar el proceso de formación de los judokas de élite.