In junior sports, equipment, pitch dimensions, and team sizes are typically modified to better suit the action system of younger athletes (for a review, see Buszard et al., 2016). These modifications are aimed to attain the same dynamics and task constraints in youth games as in adult games (Limpens et al., 2018). For example, the Dutch Football Association (KNVB) recommends that children under 10 years of age play soccer in a 6 v 6 format on a reduced pitch measuring 42.5 by 30 meters, about half the size of an adult pitch, and with goals sized at 5 by 2 meters. According to sports organizations like FIFA, these adjustments benefit both stakeholders and players. For stakeholders, smaller pitches are more economical to build and maintain, while for players, the smaller format encourages frequent ball touches and greater involvement, enhancing enjoyment, skill development, and overall engagement with the sport (FIFA, 2013). As a result, sports programs increasingly use these modifications to support participation and talent development (Buszard et al., 2022). However, the guidelines for (re-)designing youth sport environments remain unclear and often are arbitrary (Buszard et al., 2016), raising significant issues. For instance, the absence of a conceptually coherent and standardized framework for these modifications has created inconsistencies, with sports organizations varying in their guidelines and frequently updating their standards (FIFA, 2013). To address these issues, Broadbent et al. (2021) recently proposed a body-scaled approach for sports modification, suggesting that adjustments to pitches or equipment should reflect the anthropometric relationship between children and adults (see also Limpens et al., 2018; Azmi et al., 2024; for a review, see Buszard et al., 2016). In this opinion paper, we first discuss the advantages and limitations of the body-scaled approach in youth sports modifications and then propose an action-scaled approach. Additionally, we highlight two often-overlooked aspects of youth sports that are also brought into focus by the action-scaled approach and warrant further attention.
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