Gaze Behavior of Elite Soccer Goalkeeper in Successful Penalty Kick Defense

The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences in the ability of soccer goalkeepers to anticipate the direction of penalty kicks. Six elite goalkeepers with more than 10 years of experience participated in this experiment. Participants were required to press a reaction button as soon as they could estimate the direction of the ball while watching videos of penalty kicks. For this experiment, an eye movement tracking system (EMR-8), a reaction system, videos, a beam projector, and a screen were prepared. To analyze the goalkeepers' gaze fixation, the kicker's kicking motion was divided into two sequential phases: the approach and the kick swing. The major conclusion from this experiment was that the gaze fixations of elite goalkeepers in successful defense are different than ones in cases of failure. Successful defense of penalty kicks involved fewer gaze fixations of longer duration than unsuccessful defense. Also, there was a significant difference in the way that elite goalkeepers gazed at the kicker's shoulder zone during the approach phase and at the upper trunk, the zone between the ball and non-kicking leg, during the kick-swing phase. In conclusion, successful defense seems to be based on a target control strategy, which consists of eye fixation on a single location, from which it is possible to grasp events around the visual fixation point. Thus, the accuracy of anticipation depends on the ability to shift visual attention from one location to another by identifying the useful cue in the visual field and using peripheral vision.