The mere presence of a goalkeeper affects the accuracy of penalty kicks

Abstract

The keeper-independent strategy, in which a football penalty kicker selects a target location in advance and ignores the goalkeeper's actions during the run-up, has been suggested to be the preferable strategy for taking a penalty kick. The current in-field experiment investigated the question of whether the goalkeeper can indeed be ignored. Ten intermediate-level football players were instructed to adopt a goalkeeper-independent strategy and to perform penalty kicks directed at one of two targets located in the upper corners of the goal under three conditions: without a goalkeeper, in the presence of a goalkeeper (who tried to save the ball), and in the presence of a goalkeeper who was informed by the penalty kickers where they intended to direct the ball. The mere presence of a goalkeeper impaired shot accuracy. The shots were more centralised, that is, biased toward the goalkeeper. The effects were enhanced for the condition in which the penalty kicker knew the goalkeeper was knowledgeable about ball direction. The findings were consistent with the response activation model that holds that aiming at a target can be biased toward salient visual non-targets. The implications for adopting and practising goalkeeper-independent strategies are discussed.

Attention towards the goalkeeper and distraction during penalty shootouts in association football: a retrospective analysis of penalty shootouts from 1984 to 2012

“…The central aim of the present study was to test performance consequences of directing attention towards the goalkeeper in association football penalty shootouts that have exclusively been shown in previous laboratory penalty kick studies (Navarro et al, 2013;Wilson et al, 2009;Wood & Wilson, 2010a). Most importantly, the present analyses showed that kicks that were categorised as predominantly gazing towards goalkeepers resulted in more saves and better performance by goalkeepers.…”

“…Pertinent to this theorising, Wood and Wilson (2010b) demonstrated that constraining penalty takers gaze to the centre of the goal resulted in shots significantly more centralised despite the participants' striving to hit distal locations. In addition, Navarro, van der Kamp, Ranvaud, and Savelsbergh (2013) showed that the mere presence of a goalkeeper impaired shot accuracy as shots were more centralised, i.e., biased towards the goalkeepereven in the absence of anxiety. If gaze is directed towards the goalkeeper prior to and at the moment of foot-ball contact, then accuracy is likely to decrease because goal-directed movements have been shown to profit from accurate and timely information derived from the foveated target (Land, 2009;van der Kamp, 2006).…”

Efeitos de estresse e treino na latência e acurácia de respostas motoras a estímulos visuais.

“…Also, according with studies previously discussed (see Introduction, section 2.4.3, particularly the response activation model), it seems that penalty kickers' perceptions might be implicitly influenced by the goalkeeper. The results of this experiment have been published (Navarro et al, 2013).…”

“…Chapter 3 provides an overview of research questions. Chapters 4-6 provide an introduction, objectives, methods, results, discussion and conclusion for the three studies completed, two published (Navarro et al, 2012(Navarro et al, , 2013 and one submitted (Navarro et al, Submitted). Finally, Chapter 7 provides a general discussion and summary of all findings, considering theoretical and practical implications.…”

“…The third experiment (Navarro et al, 2013) investigated whether penalty kickers where able to fully adopt the keeper-independent strategy, particularly to aim for the indicated target areas with enough force and to ignore the goalkeeper (if present). The results revealed that the mere presence of a goalkeeper cannot easily be ignored by the kicker, and is likely to adversely affect kicking accuracy.…”