Action Bias Among Elite Soccer Goalkeepers: The Case of Penalty Kicks (original) (raw)
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The interplay of goalkeepers and penalty takers affects their chances of success
Research in penalty kicking has primarily focused on spatial decision making, while temporal decision making has largely been neglected, even though it is as critical for success. Temporal decision making concerns goalkeepers choosing when to initiate their jump to the ball during the penalty taker's run-up (i.e., jump early or wait long), and penalty takers deciding where to kick the ball, either prior to the run-up or after the goalkeeper has committed to one side. We analyzed penalty takers' and goalkeepers' behavior during penalty shoot-outs at FIFA World Cups and UEFA European Championships to scrutinize if temporal aspects of decision making have an impact on penalty kick success. Results indicate that the likelihood of a penalty kick being scored depends on the combination of penalty takers' and goalkeepers' temporal decision-making strategies. Hence, moving early more often seems fruitful for goalkeepers, while penalty takers should consider varying penalty kick strategy between attempts.
Taking the goalkeeper’s side in association football penalty kicks
Approximately 70% of penalty kicks in men’s professional football are scored, hence being decisive in increasing the chances of winning, since matches have only 2.5 goals on average. This study assesses the improving chances for the goalkeeper to save penalty kicks, using actual shot speeds in computer simulation and considering actual and experimental data. Simulated kicks were directed at the goal divided in nine areas. The goalkeeper’s movement was chosen to start at five different times before, at and after the instant of the kicker’s impact on the ball. Chances of saving were analysed through logistic regression taking into account area of the goal, ball speed and moment of goalkeeper’s reaction. Saves were found to depend essentially on the beginning of the goalkeeper’s motion according to the area. In the central areas of the goal, saves were statiscally independent of ball speed and time of reaction. The goal region further away from the centre, where real shots are frequently saved, presented highest dispersion. This suggests that saves depend mainly on the goalkeeper’s reaction time but also on the ball speed. Finally, chances are low (but not inexistent) near the posts.
Frontiers in Psychology
The present research analyzes the relation between the height of penalty kicks in association football and (a) the probability that goalkeepers stop the ball, (b) the kinematics of the kicker, and (c) the movements of the goalkeeper. We reanalyzed movement registration data that were collected in an experiment (with professional and semi-professional players) that focused on the horizontal direction of the penalties (Lopes et al., 2014). We also digitized and analyzed regular videos of the goalkeepers that were recorded by Lopes et al. but not analyzed. The present research complements the current understanding of the penalty kick with three main observations. First, goalkeepers save penalties at middle heights more often than low and high penalties. Second, the height of penalties is predicted less clearly than their horizontal direction from the kinematics of penalty takers. Third, goalkeepers tend to initiate the horizontal component of the saving action before the penalty taker contacts the ball, but they initiate the vertical component of the action about 245 ms after the contact. Taken together, these results support the view that goalkeepers make the left-right decision at least partly focusing on the kinematics of the kicker, and that they dynamically decide the vertical aspects of the movement later, focusing on the ball trajectory.
On the use of situational and body information in goalkeeper actions during a soccer penalty kick.
This study investigated the contribution of situational information about a player's preference to kick to either side of the goal on the goalkeeper's performance in a soccer penalty kick. Nine goalkeepers were tested under different situational information conditions: a non-probability, an equal-probability (i.e., 50% of the kicks to either side of the goal), and two high-probability conditions (i.e., 80% to the right or left side). In the high-probability conditions, the goalkeepers' performance tended to increase and significantly improved in terms of diving to the same side as the ball was directed. In addition, goalkeepers initiated their dive earlier in the high-probability conditions. Gaze analysis in four participants suggested that goalkeepers who relied more strongly on body information profited less from situational information. In conclusion, soccer goalkeepers can benefit from situational information about a penalty taker's preferences, but these benefits may depend on the individual goalkeeper's information-using profile.
On the use of situation and body information in goalkeeper actions during a soccer penalty kick
International Journal of Sport Psychology, 2013
This study investigated the contribution of situation information about a player's preference to kick to either side of the goal on the goalkeeper's performance in a soccer penalty kick. Nine goalkeepers were tested under different situational information conditions: a non-probability, an equal-probability (i.e., 50% of the kicks to either side of the goal), and two high-probability conditions (i.e., 80% to the right or left side). In the high-probability conditions, the goalkeepers' performance tended to increase and significantly improved in terms of diving to the same side as the ball was directed. In addition, goalkeepers initiated their dive earlier in the high-probability conditions. Gaze analysis in four participants suggested that goalkeepers who relied more strongly on body information profited less from situational information. In conclusion, soccer goalkeepers can benefit from situational information about a penalty taker's preferences, but these benefits may depend on the individual goalkeeper's information-using profile.
Journal of sports sciences, 2015
The aim of this study was to examine whether perceptual variables can provide informational constraints for the goalkeepers to intercept the ball successfully in 1v1 dyads. Video images of 42 actions (1v1 in direct shots) were selected randomly from different matches and divided into conceded goals (n = 20) and saved actions (n = 22) to investigate interceptive actions of 20 goalkeepers in the English Premier League in season 2013-2014. Time to Contact (TTC) of the closing distance gap between shooter and goalkeeper was obtained by digitising actions in the 18-yard penalty box. Statistical analyses revealed that, in sequences of play resulting in an intercepted shot at goal, goalkeepers closed down outfield players in the X axis, whereas when a goal was conceded, there was a significantly delayed movement by goalkeepers toward the shooters in this plane. The results of canonical correlations showed that a decreasing distance between a shooter and goalkeeper, and accompanied reductio...
Penalty kicks in soccer: an empirical analysis of shooting strategies and goalkeepers’ preferences
Soccer & Society, 2009
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Progress in brain research, 2009
This chapter discusses penalty kicks in soccer, interpreted within the framework of behavioral economics. We present two behaviors of professional soccer players during penalty kicks that seem nonoptimal, and possibly indicate biases in decision making. We ask whether, despite the huge incentives involved in professional soccer and the possibility of learning through feedback from the outcomes of previous penalty kicks, goalkeepers and penalty kickers are not optimizing their actions. We suggest that they do indeed learn to optimize, but have a different utility function; goalkeepers are not solely interested in minimizing the chances of the goal, and kickers are not solely interested in maximizing these chances. We believe that, in general, in cases where decision makers have the ability to learn through feedback about the outcome of their actions but exhibit behavior that seems nonoptimal, it is possible that they do optimize, but that their utility function is different from the ...
Journal of Sports Sciences, 2006
This field experiment investigated the relative merits of approaching the penalty kick with either a keeper-independent or keeper-dependent strategy. In the keeper-independent strategy, the shooter selects a target location in advance and disregards the goalkeeper's actions during the run-up. In the keeper-dependent strategy, the shooter makes a decision resting on the anticipation of the goalkeeper's movements during the run-up. Ten intermediate-level soccer players shot at one of two visually specified targets to the right and left side of the goal. In the keeper-independent strategy condition, participants were told that the visually specified target would not change. In the keeper-dependent strategy condition, participants were told that in half of the trials the visually specified target would change side at different times before ball contact, indicating that the direction of the kick needed to be altered. The results showed that penalty-taking performance was apt to be less than perfect in the keeper-dependent strategy condition. A decrease in the time available to alter kick direction resulted in a higher risk of not only an incorrect but also inaccurate shot placement. It is concluded that anticipating the goalkeeper's movements may degrade penalty kick performance, mainly due to insufficient time to modify the kicking action.