England has always been the perennial losers when it comes to taking penalties, just looking back a few months ago England lost to Portugal in the World Cup on penalties.
So how do one take a penalty? Do you remember that Thierry Henry & Robert Pires penalty that went oh so wrong? Helder Postiga of Portugal took a beautiful penalty against England in Euro 2004, it’s one of the best i’ve seen, but of course there are quite a few out there.
psychologist Peter Naish believes there has to be more thought involved in scoring a penalty than just running up and blasting the ball.
“Penalty takers mention not thinking too deeply, yet trying to fool the goalkeeper,” he said.
“We do many things on two levels, such as thinking where to put the ball (or where to fake it) but not thinking about what the feet, legs and body will do to achieve it.
“The more we practice, the more our actions become automatic skills – unconscious memories of how to react.
“These memories take over when thinking fails, such as in front of 80,000 fans.”
And if your really interested in penalty taking this book by Rob Eastaway and John Haigh entitled “How to take a penalty” (surprise surprise!) may be a good read for you:
