Gaze behaviour and shooting strategies in football penalty kicks: implication of a keeper-dependent approach

It has been suggested that when footballers take penalty kicks they generally focus on the goalkeeper, ignoring the target area. In experiment 1, we tested the implications of this strategy by constraining gaze centrally while asking participants to hit distal locations. When gaze was constrained, resultant shots became signifi-cantly centralised despite the partecipants striving to hit distal locations. In experi-ment 2, the gaze behaviour of kickers was analysed when taking penalty kicks with a goalkeeper present. Three distinct shooting strategies were identified and the most prominent strategy implemented was a ‘keeper-focused strategy. Individual analyses revealed that the utilisation of these strategies is highly variable within and between participants. However, better shooters used a target-focused approach more frequently, while the poorer shooters used a ‘goalkeeper-focused ’ strategy. Implications and future research directions are outlined. KEY WORDS: Aiming, Perception-Action, Quiet Eye, Soccer, Visual attention. Investigation of visually guided movement tasks has revealed that the pattern and duration of eye movements are temporally and spatially coordi-nated with subsequent limb movement (see Land, 2009). It has been demon-strated that the information gained from preceding eye movements is impor-tant in maintaining performance. For example, research by Vickers and colleagues has demonstrated that in far aiming tasks, fixating on the target for an optimal period prior to the initiation of movement (quiet eye; Vickers, 1996) provides important information regarding target location and the force needed for the production of the ensuing motor response (see Vickers, 2007 for a review). Other researchers (e.g., Savelsbergh & van der Kamp, 2000) have discussed the importance of considering this ‘perception and action ’ perspective, where information evolves over time, and where action is continuously coupled to the perceptual information presented. The objectiv