The effect of perceived control reinforcement on male amateur penalty shootout performance

Objectives: Anxiety is the most significant contributory factor to performance failure in penalty shootouts. The extent to which one believes they can control the outcome of an event may have a role to play in performance breakdown in pressurised circumstances. The present work investigated whether the introduction of a perceived control reinforcement programme would influence subsequent performance of penalty takers. Design: Penalty practice was completed in two conditions; Perceived Control (PC) vs Normal Practice (NP) using a between-participants experimental design. Methods: Following a baseline test consisting of 10 penalties each, twenty male amateur footballers (26±1.3 yrs.) were equally assigned to either a PC (intervention) (n=10) or NP (control) (n-10) group based on performance. Penalty training was conducted over a four week acquisition period, immediately after a 90 minute weekly football training session, and a retention test was conducted one week later under pressure conditions. Results: A 2 (Group) x 4 (Trial) RM ANOVA indicated main effect for Group (F(1, 18) =6.07, p = 0.024, p2 = 0.25). Bonferroni post hoc tests showed the NP performed significantly (p < 0.05) better in acquisition sessions: 1 and 3, 1 and 4, 2 and 3 and 2 and 4. The PC group performed statistically better (M=19 ±9.05) than the NP (M=4 ±13.76) in the final retention test: t(18) =2., p = 0.049. (82% v 63% success). Conclusion: Practice using PC reinforcement positively affected penalty performance under pressure. Perceived control appears to be a critical and trainable characteristic that warrants further investigation.