Background: Small-sided games (SSG) and running-based high-intensity interval training (HIIT) are commonly used in soccer conditioning to improve aerobic fitness and performance. Although both modalities induce high cardiovascular stress, their acute neuromuscular, perceptual, and cognitive responses remain incompletely understood when examined within the same cohort. This study compared the acute physical, psychophysiological, and cognitive responses to SSG and Tabata-type HIIT in amateur male soccer players. Methods: Thirty-two male amateur players (n = 32; age: 20.53 ± 1.65 years) completed a counterbalanced within-subject crossover design. Participants performed a 4v4 SSG protocol and a running-based Tabata-HIIT protocol (8 × 20 s, 10 s recovery) on separate days (48 h apart). Countermovement jump (CMJ), squat jump (SJ), 20-m sprint, agility t-test, heart rate, perceived exertion (Borg CR-10), mental effort, and cognitive performance (d2 test) were assessed pre- and post-exercise. Parametric variables were analyzed using 2 × 2 repeated-measures ANOVA (time × protocol; η²p), and non-parametric data were analyzed using Friedman and Wilcoxon tests (r) (p < 0.05). Results: Both protocols elicited similar cardiovascular responses (~90% HR_max). A significant protocol × time interaction was observed for CMJ (p < 0.001), showing a decline after Tabata-HIIT, whereas performance was maintained after SSG. No inter-protocol differences were found for SJ, sprint, or agility. Perceived exertion and mental effort during recovery were higher following Tabata-HIIT (p < 0.05). Cognitive performance improved after both protocols (p < 0.001), with no between-protocol differences. Conclusions: Despite comparable cardiovascular load, Tabata-HIIT was associated with greater acute neuromuscular and perceptual strain, whereas SSG preserved neuromuscular performance. Perceptual and mental responses may therefore differ despite similar physiological intensity, which may inform soccer training prescription.

This research was carried out to determine the self-esteem and life quality levels of disabled and non-disabled tennis sportsmen; and also to set forth the relation between their self-esteem and life quality levels. The research group consists of total 44 sportsmen including 22 disabled tennis sportsmen (n (female)=9, n(male)=13) and 22 non-disabled tennis sportsmen (n(female)=9, n(male)=13). The personal information form developed by researchers, the World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale-National Short Form in Turkish (WHOQOL-BREF TR) and the Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale developed by Rosenberg (1965) and adapted into Turkish by Çuhadaroğlu (1986) was used as data collection tool in the research. Whether data showed a normal distribution or not was studied with the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test; and at the end of this study, the t-test was used for the pair comparisons because data showed a normal distribution. The Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient technique was performed in testing whether there was a significant correlation between the two scale points. The significance level was regarded to be 0.05 in the research. At the end of the research, it was determined that the life quality levels of disabled sportsmen and non-disabled sportsmen were high generally, but their self-esteem was at a medium level. In comparing the life quality levels of sportsmen in accordance with the state of disability in the sportsmen, while no significant differences were observed in the physical, social and environmental-tr areas, a statistically significant difference was in favor of the disabled sportsmen psychologically. In comparing the self-esteem levels in the sportsmen as per whether the sportsmen were disabled or non-disabled, even if it was seen that the non-disabled sportsmen’ s self-esteem levels were higher than the disabled sportsmen, this difference was not statistically significant. Furthermore, it was found that there was not any significant correlation between the self-esteem levels and the life quality levels of the disabled and non-disabled sportsmen. Key words: Self-esteem, life quality, wheelchair tennis, disabled, sport.