How do I stop a penalty?

You are never the loser! You don’t need to be stressed for a penalty shootout. You can only come out a winner.

A penalty shot is a small war that you have to fight. You have to try to influence your opponent and take him out of his concentration. The referee will quickly send you back and some will see it as arrogant, but just walk up to the penalty spot when placing the ball. Check that the ball is on the spot ;-)

You have gone back to your goal line and your opponent has put the ball on the dot and will now try to look you straight in the eye to fight his mental war. Move your arms, left and right, so that you do not allow yourself to be influenced, but are going to do just that for him If you want your opponent to shoot upwards, stand with your arms diagonally downwards. You will appear small and the opponent will think that he has the best chance of succeeding by kicking higher. Of course, the reverse is also possible. You want to get a penalty shot low Jump to the crossbar a number of times. You will appear much taller and your opponent will think that you are less likely to hit the ground.

Every goalkeeper tries to develop his own way of confusing his opponent. One will jump up and down, from left to right. The other may try to influence the penalty taker’s angle, e.g. by standing slightly off-centre. The penalty taker may then choose the corner with the most space.

In the past, looking at the eyes of your opponent was the biggest asset. You could be sure that he would always look at the angle he was going to kick, but as we have said, the past is behind us. We ourselves are no longer convinced about this strategy. Yes, there will still be players who do this, but every player nowadays finds it even more fun and especially cooler to kick blind and to look backwards rather than to where they are actually going to kick. So you have to try to assess what type of opponent he is whether you go along with this or not.

Look at the run-up. If the player is standing directly in front of the ball, the penalty shot is often hit to the right (i.e. left from the goalkeeper). If the player is standing diagonally in front of the ball, the penalty will often be shot in from the left (i.e. to the right of the goalkeeper).

Perhaps the most difficult tip, but for us the most efficient. You will not get it right the first time, as it takes some practice to see and decide in a split second. Your opponent runs up and puts his/her supporting foot back and swings the leg he/she wants to kick with As the goalkeeper, you must take advantage of this moment If the foot is right next to the ball, a right-footer will usually kick towards the left corner (towards your right corner) If the tip of the foot is slanted towards the ball Yes, then he or she can only kick out in one direction unless he or she wants to shoot over his or her own foot.