How many times have you heard that penalty kicks in football are like a lottery? A goalkeeper’s nightmare, but even more for the shooter? A part of the game where luck decides?
Lottery or quality preparation for taking penalty kicks?
If penalty kicks were truly just a lottery where chance decides, then it wouldn’t make sense to practice taking them at all, would it? And yet, almost everywhere in the world, the periodization of football training includes practicing penalty kicks. The very fact that penalty kicks are practiced suggests that they are not merely a lottery, luck, and chance. Logic dictates that we become better with practice. Of course, only if we practice in the right way. That’s the trick. 🙂
Mental demands of penalty kicks
In any case, taking a penalty kick is not an easy mental task. Indeed, the stakes are high, expectations too, and the tension rises as fans bite their nails and cover their eyes with scarves. The goal appears to shrink in the eyes of the shooter and to grow in the eyes of the goalkeeper. For these reasons, the athlete’s mental readiness is clearly visible during penalty kicks.
*A study by Norwegian scientists showed that the heart rate of a penalty taker in a football championship is equal to that of a warrior in a combat situation. Life or death, scored or missed penalty, the physical reactions obviously look very similar…
Thanks to our national football team, we have had the opportunity to test our nerves multiple times. However, most of the time, after the tension, we celebrated.
But how can a footballer reduce the uncertainty that penalties bring? How to increase the probability of successfully taking a penalty? Of course, as psychologists, we do not intend to talk about the technical aspects of taking penalties, but about the mental game that takes place between the shooter’s ears.
Penalty routines – how to beat the opponent in your head
What can help any shooter is to adopt a certain penalty routine that they then practice in training and repeat every time they take a penalty in a match. If you pay attention to certain world athletic stars, you can see that some of them take every penalty or free kick with the same preparation ritual.
Indeed, rituals/routines bring us certainty, security, controlled conditions, and familiarity with the situation. They “enclose” the athlete in an imaginary bubble where they enter a good state and are more resistant to various distractors. Distractors can be thousands of fans, both their own and the opponent’s, but the biggest rival is the one in the athlete’s head. Rituals sometimes have a direct impact (leaving a clear mark on some dimension of sports preparedness – focus, emotional state, confidence), and sometimes an indirect impact (without directly affecting performance, but their execution creates a long-term sense of stability and security).
What are good penalty routines?
The rituals/routines that shooters have before taking a penalty are, of course, a matter of personal style, and it is least useful to copy someone else. Especially when only the visible behavior is copied, without understanding the underlying reasons. With all the uncertainty that penalties bring, shooters need the control they achieve by always following the same preparation, and the goal of that preparation is to reach an optimal state before taking the shot. Of course, the optimal state is individually determined for each athlete. Some athletes perform better with high levels of arousal, while others prefer lower levels.
*Generations obsessed with football will remember Šuker’s penalty against Romania when he controlled his pulse just before taking the shot to put himself in the ideal state for execution.
Of course, it is very difficult to always practice such high-pressure situations because they are rare. What athletes can help themselves with is the visualization of taking penalties. .
Steps for mental preparation for taking penaltiesAlso, many of the steps are performed simultaneously.
The mentioned steps are just a framework that should not be followed blindly, but within it, one should find the best possible personal way of execution. Also, many of the steps are performed simultaneously.
- Control the intensity/arousal – try some breathing exercises or other shallow relaxation exercises to calm down a bit. To start, practice calming yourself in situations that are not stressful and gradually progress to those real battles that await you.. You must master your arousal and have a method/technique to calm yourself.
- Visualize how you will take the shot – repeat the penalty plan in your head. You need to see with your own eyes how the ball enters the imaginary part of the goal. Also, it is good to remember that one penalty you scored – this puts you in a good state.
- Determine focus cues – 1 or 2 things you can focus on during the penalty. Short, clear, precise. Without much philosophy, a few things that are most important for you to score the penalty.
- Use positive self-talk – encourage yourself, say something positive, something that puts you in a calmer state. Even though you can’t be sure if you’ll score, you still have a choice – will you despair or be positive?
- Find a movement/keyword that will be your signal to stop thinking and start automatic movement. This part serves to give your brain a clear signal that thinking is over and automatic execution follows. It can be anything, from patting your thighs, a single word, a specific run-up…
- Celebrate the goal!!! 🙂
Try different methods, find your best routine, and then practice it endlessly because, the next time you find yourself in this situation, you’ll regret it if you haven’t used what you’ve read!
Luka Škrinjarić, MSc in Psychology
Mental Training, Director