Imperceptibly Off-Center Goalkeepers Influence Penalty-Kick Direction in Soccer

Masters, Rich S. W.; Kamp, John van der; Jackson, Robin C.

doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01878.x

Cited by 72 publications

(123 citation statements)

References 4 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

105

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…It is possible that contextual information could differentially influence anticipatory judgements made by the perceptual and motor systems (see Masters, van der Kamp, & Jackson, 2007 for a demonstration of this effect in a different task). The level of anticipatory skill found when performing perceptual judgements tends to underestimate that found when performing motor actions (Farrow & Abernethy, 2003;Mann, et al, 2010), and so it might be reasonable to expect that knowledge about action preferences could lead to even stronger changes in response accuracy when producing a motor response, particularly when the time constraints imposed by the task become more demanding.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Action preferences and the anticipation of action outcomes

2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Skilled performers of time--constrained motor actions acquire information about the action preferences of opponents in an effort to better anticipate the outcome of that opponent's actions. However, there is reason to doubt that knowledge of an opponent's action preferences would unequivocally influence anticipatory responses in a positive way. It is possible that overt information about an opponent's actions could distract skilled performers from using the advance kinematic information they would usually rely on to anticipate actions, particularly when the opponent performs an 'unexpected' action that is not in accordance with his or her previous behaviour. The aim of this study was to examine how the ability to anticipate the outcome of an opponent's actions can be influenced by exposure to the action preferences of that opponent. Two groups of skilled handball goalkeepers anticipated the direction of penalty throws performed by opponents before and after a training intervention that provided situational probability information in the form of action preferences (AP). During the training phase participants in an AP--training group anticipated the action outcomes of two throwers who had a strong preference to throw in one particular direction, while participants in a NP--training group viewed players who threw equally to all directions. Exposure to opponents who did have an action preference during the training phase resulted in improved anticipatory performance if the opponent continued to bias their throws towards their preferred direction, but decreased performance if the opponent did not. These findings highlight that skilled observers use information about action preferences to enhance their anticipatory ability, but that doing so can be disadvantageous when the outcomes are no longer consistent with their generated expectations.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Action preferences and the anticipation of action outcomes

2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Although large manipulations may not be ecologically valid, even small changes may impact upon the salience of this distracting stimulus. For example, previous research has demonstrated that even a marginally off-center goalkeeper may influence kick direction (Masters et al, 2007). Furthermore, research by van der Kamp and Masters (2008), examining the effect of the goalkeeper's arm positions while standing (arms by side, or stretched out) found that this affected penalty shot judgments.…”

Section: Attentional Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…He stood directly in the center of the goal with knees bent, arms by his side and hands in front of his body before each shot (see Figure 1). His location and posture were standardized in this way because these variables have been shown to affect performance in penalty taking (Masters, van der Kamp, & Jackson, 2007; Van der Kamp & Masters, 2008). These instructions sought to ensure that participants did not attempt to anticipate the goalkeeper's movements, but instead select their own goal-directed target locations.…”

Section: Task Setupmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anxiety, Attentional Control, and Performance Impairment in Penalty Kicks

Wilson

Wood²,

Vine³

2009

Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology

173

148

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The current study sought to test the predictions of attentional control theory (ACT) in a sporting environment. Fourteen experienced footballers took penalty kicks under low-and high-threat counterbalanced conditions while wearing a gaze registration system. Fixations to target locations (goalkeeper and goal area) were determined using frame-by-frame analysis. When anxious, footballers made faster first fixations and fixated for significantly longer toward the goalkeeper. This disruption in gaze behavior brought about significant reductions in shooting accuracy, with shots becoming significantly centralized and within the goalkeeper's reach. These findings support the predictions of ACT, as anxious participants were more likely to focus on the "threatening" goalkeeper, owing to an increased influence of the stimulus-driven attentional control system.

show abstract

“…The expert athlete pursues a difficult strategy to the limits of what is possible. For the skilled goalkeeper, this may also include acting to subtly entice the penalty taker into kicking in a certain direction (e. g., Masters, van der Kamp, & Jackson, 2007; Kamp & Masters, 2008). These are very complex interactive dynamics indeed, but-importantly-affordancebased control gets them into view.…”

Section: Future Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%