Can penalty-taking be trained?

[Nani Nana]

There was a recent rift at the French national team with head coach Didier Deschamps arguing penalties cannot be trained. That the psychological and physical setup of a penalty shootout at the end of a World Cup Final cannot be replicated in training.

Yet on the other hand there are some examples of players who improved their penalty-taking, such as Kylian Mbappé who missed one at Euro 2021 and scored several in the 2022 World Cup Final.

Do you reckon one can become good at taking penalties through training?

 

[tomaldinho1]

Deschamps is a moron.

Of course you can't replicate the atmosphere/pressure but I would bet my house if you took the same player and one had 1000 penalties practised and the other 0, the former would be more likely to score.

 

[LawCharltonBest]

Absolutely

 

[Pass and Move]

Of course you can/should practise them. The pressure in a World Cup final will be a lot less if you know you’ve buried a 1000 in training already.

 

[Scandi Red]

Penalty taking is 90% psychology in my opinion, but I also believe that it's possible to improve in this aspect even if you can't replicate the scenario on the training ground.

I think the best thing to do is to practice 3-4 different penalties until they become a part of your muscle memory. And then you try your best to block out the audience noise and pressure when stepping up to the penalty spot. Easier said than done of course, but surely something that can be taught.

 

[Gandalf]

The French Southgate, company man with no real ideas or inspiration who lucked into a team full of generational talents.

 

[2cents]

Not if you’re left-footed.

 

[Eric_the_Red99]

If you practice enough, I guess muscle memory would kick in, which would obviously be an advantage when it comes to the real thing. But whether that would actually be an effective or efficient use of training time is another question.

 

[Jev]

Deschamps is a moron.

Of course you can't replicate the atmosphere/pressure but I would bet my house if you took the same player and one had 1000 penalties practised and the other 0, the former would be more likely to score.

To be honest this is probably exactly what he means and it’s not as binary as the OP suggests. Because this is obviously the only answer.

 

[Withnail]

Not if you’re left-footed.

As for the OP, when the pressure comes on you're better off having the muscle memory to rely on than not. It's a ridiculous notion that you shouldn't bother practicing them because you can't replicate the pressure. The same applies to literally every other skill in football, although not to the same level. You don't train in front of a baying mob either so why bother training at all.

 

[giorno]

You can train penalties, you can't train penalty shootouts

 

[Snow]

Ruud penalties would have a huge success rate these days with keepers being stuck on the line. Just hit the ball into the sidenet and don't lift it.

You train specific scenarios so when you hit a high pressure version of it you can go into muscle memory mode.

The thing about penalty shootouts is not just only the psychological factor but the fact that you're taking a penalty after having played 120 minutes so you'd need to practice penalties when tired as well.

 

[adexkola]

You can train penalties, you can't train penalty shootouts

Threaten to kill a random civilian for every penalty missed in training, unless you're a sociopath, you'll rapidly improve

 

[giorno]

The thing about penalty shootouts is not just only the psychological factor but the fact that you're taking a penalty after having played 120 minutes so you'd need to practice penalties when tired as well.

Yep. But also the psychological factor is huge. Guys who've trained taking penalties might just shit themselves anyways. You go with the guys who want it, regardless of whether they worked on penalties or not

 

[Stack]

Yes absolutely it can be trained.

 

[Abraxas]

If the basic technique can't be trained then there's no point turning up to training every day because it's a basic application of kicking a ball in a direction. If none are refining that skill whether it's in shoorting or passing then they may as well sit in front of a powerpoint presentation instead of going on the pitch.

The mental application can be trained too. Like every other sport where psychology plays a role. People can use techniques and get consultancy on improving their decision making and thought processes in key moments, so they come up better. It happens all the time in sport.

But you're not going to go from shit to Matt Le Tissier, no - probably not. Not least because if you're shit you're never going to be in a position to regularly apply the skill in pressure situations because there are better options.

 

[Oranges038]

Penalties can be buy.

 

[kaiser1]

To be honest this is probably exactly what he means and it’s not as binary as the OP suggests. Because this is obviously the only answer.

If that's what he meant, it doesn't even make it any better/less silly. Its similar to saying training for anything you do is not important as you cannot reproduce that real life experience in a tight match

How else do you know a player is good to play for you in a world cup, CL, league final if not through what he does in closed door zero-pressure trainings?

 

[chomsky89]

Ruud penalties would have a huge success rate these days with keepers being stuck on the line. Just hit the ball into the sidenet and don't lift it.

It probably would have, but it's still saveable as shown against Haaland today. Relatively hard, all the way in the corner while shaving the grass, but the keeper legally saved it.

 

[FootballHQ]

They all get them on target nowadays, hardly anyone just runs up and smashes it over the bar Chris Waddle style.

Was refreshing at least watching AFCON recently and seeing penalty shoot outs that were European standard in the 2000s.

Teams really train properly for them nowadays compared to even a decade ago.

 

[Gio]

English managers took the same view in the 90s - how did that work out for them?

I’m not sure it worked out that well for France either given Lloris looked like he’d never practiced saving a penalty in his life at the World Cup in 2022.

 

[ArbeitervonWien]

I'm with Deschamps on this point. It's like playing an instrument. You can't replicate the pressure of playing in front of an audience, so there is obviously no point practicing your clarinet.

Didn't Bruno recently tell in an interview how he learnt taking penalties by simply training it?

 

[André Dominguez]

Yes. /thread

 

[Ayoba]

Yus, it can.

 

[zizi]

Yes you can train so you have the ability to score the penalty, it's doesn't mean you will be a good penalty taker though.

On the training pitch the premier leagues players will bury penalties time after time after time.

There's videos with average players scoring whilst blindfolded. It's 12 yards with no interference for a pro.

The hardest part by far is the psychology and the pressure. Not the technique.

 

[NLunited]

Of course they can be trained! You can automatize and perfect your run up, shots, and learn to wrong foot the keeper.

Raising your level in training will raise your level in performance under pressure as well.

 

[Wonder Pigeon]

You demonstably can because in most penalty shootouts we see now even the lump centre backs are taking penos with better technique compated to their counterparts 20 years ago.

 

[Snow]

It probably would have, but it's still saveable as shown against Haaland today. Relatively hard, all the way in the corner while shaving the grass, but the keeper legally saved it.

Yeah true, that was a good save. Nothing wrong with that penalty except maybe being too telegraphed. Keeper has to pick that spot to save that shot though so you're giving yourself a good chance.

I know a lot of people don't like those slow penalty run-ups from players but it works because they're reading the keeper instead of the other way around.

The absolute best penalties are up in the corner but that's obviously a much higher risk.

 

[Sniper007]

The pressure scenario and psychological side of stepping up is hard to train.

The technical striking of a penalty can absolutely be trained.