Anticipation of professional soccer goalkeepers when facing right- and left-footed penalty kicks

The purpose of this study was to examine the anticipation of professional soccer goalkeepers when facing right- and left-footed penalty kicks. Subjects were shown a videotape of 10 right-footed and 10 left-footed penalty kicks. A standard temporal occlusion paradigm was used, with each penalty being presented at 3 occlusion points, 2 frames before foot-ball contact, at the moment of foot-ball contact, and 2 frames after foot-ball contact. A a-way (foot x occlusion point) analysis of variance (with repeated measures) indicated that anticipation to right-footed kicks was significantly better than that to left-footed kicks. There were no other significant results. Post hoc interviews indicated that the subjects claimed to use angle of approach to the ball, foot position at contact, and hip position at the time of foot-ball contact as the main cues to aid anticipation.