Why can not we decide PK only for important scenes? Scientists in England clarify

England national football teamIsPK fightIt has a reputation for being vulnerable to the weak point and that the PK game at the World Cup has been completely lost so far. So did you boil down the business,University of ExeterScientists in the study focused on the gaze of the gaze, by tensionPenalty kickWe have elucidated the mechanism by which we can not decide.

Training based on this research result will be held in South Africa2010 fifa world cupYou may be able to see a historical moment where England is the first to control PK warfare.

Details are as below.Why England's soccer team keeps losing on penalty shots

Journal of Sport & Exercise PsychologyResearch by Exeter University published in the December 2009 issue of the magazine tends to concentrate on the keeper whose center of sight is in the center of the goal when the kicker is tense and from a strong relationship between gaze control and motion control, It became clear that the kicked ball also headed to the center of the goal, making it easy to save.

There are many people who have watched football's PK game and there are many who have lamented "Why so in the middle of that!", But at that time the players are more likely to have been sucked into the keeper by tension It seems.

Greg Wood, author of the article and Greg Wood at the University of Exeter at Sports Health Sciences said, "Under high stress conditions, humans are more likely to distract attention by stimulation, and focusing on the task at hand Therefore, in a stressful PK game, players are more likely to pay attention to goalkeepers, not to the best scoring zones (just inside the left and right goal posts), so the aim of the shoot It also affects the probability that the ball will face the front of the keeper, "he says.

In the research, we received cooperation of 14 athletes from Exeter College Football Team, asked us to wear special glasses to record movement of the eyes and took two sets (one player is under the circumstances of two times × two circumstances) PK I tried.

Exeter College Football Team player (left) and Dr. Mark Wilson who tried PK while recording gaze movement.

Photo: University of Exeter

In the first set of PKs, the players were only told that they "just do their best to score." In the second set, in order to raise the stress and create a sense of tension close to the PK game in the actual game, "The result was recorded and the results were announced to the other players, and for players who had the highest PK decision rate the prize 50 pounds (about 7500 yen) will be paid. "

As a result of analyzing the direction in which the line of sight of the player was aimed and the time when the line of sight was directed to various positions in the goal from the recorded eye movements, as a result of the analysis, the kicker got to the goalkeeper at an early stage It turned out that the time spent looking and watching the keeper was also significant long. Due to this change of movement of the line of sight, the ball is easy to head towards the center of the goal when you are nervous, making it easier to save.

The researchers believe that coaches who knew the influence of tension on eye movements and the influence of gaze on shoots should allow the athlete to overcome this by training.

According to Greg Wood, "According to previous studies, the best strategy for PK's kicker is to negotiate the existence of the keeper, decide where to aim in the goal, and shoot towards it By training according to the strategy, coordination between gaze and exercise will be strengthened, shoot accuracy will be increased.Inability to reproduce the tension of real PK game by training can not be a reason not to practice. Darts andsnookerDo you think that there are elite athletes who neglect practicing basic shots saying "There is no point because genuine tension can not be reproduced" in golf and golf? These skills have to be impregnated into the body so as not to bother the pressure too much. "

Football's PK is advantageous for kicker, the player who was removed is blamed, and the keeper stopped is praised, but the pressure of "this is definite" seems to work against the kicker disadvantageously. As for England national team losing streaks in PK, the enthusiasm that "I must break the jinx" and that the player who removed the PK is reported extensively like a war criminal also raises the tension and the other players It may be that the stress of the PK game is great compared to it. As Mr. Wood says "Impregnating" training, can we get results by the South African World Cup starting in June 2010?