Flicker reckons we don't practice penalties...

Aye, it 'd make sense though, if the designated penalty takers tested Luke and vice versa. Which is what you were saying, more or less.

Iwelumo's pen was a blinder, that body swerve completely sent Luke the wrong way. I bet that takes practice. Any skill, football or otherwise is perfected by repetition and refinement. Until it becomes second nature. As for recreating match day pressure - ******** to that! When I've got 80,000 fans screaming at me, I want to know exactly what I'm doing. Or 5,000 in our case.

 

Andy Gray used to take a cracking penalty. Probably his best attribute - can't remember him missing one for us.

 

If penalties don't require practice and are so easy (you compared them to a ball over the pocket in snooker or a 1 foot putt in golf) why were 50% of them missed last night? There were 18 penalties taken last night and nine of them were missed. They're clearly not the gimme you are suggesting. The main reason for that is there's a great big goalkeeper stood in between the sticks who does practice saving penalties and he's doing his very beast to stop you scoring.

If you think penalties are so easy you've clearly never watched much football. Every season there are hundreds of penalties missed and saved. If it's not that easy to score, which it obviously isn't, then it must be a difficult skill. If it's a difficult skill then it requires practice. Surely you must concede that?

If you've read any of my posts in this thread you will see that at no point do I suggest penalty taking should be practised ahead of other skills. What I am suggesting is that footballers take a bit of their spare time, of which they have hours and hours, to practice a skill which could be the difference between their team winning or losing a game. It could even be the difference between them going to Wembley or not.

 

PS

"But suggesting that she wouldn't practise because she can't recreate the pressure makes no sense."

You're damn right it makes no sense. Just like not practicing penalties.

 

The whole point I'm making is that the reason penalties are missed is because of the pressure, not because we haven't practised them.

 

Re: PS

Refer to my earlier post. Not practising shooting would make no sense.

 

Re: PS

So what happens when we do go to pens? How do we pick a order? How do we choose the 5? Do players out themselves forward like last night and miss 4 off them??

 

But we don't practice them, that's the point. Pressure is one thing, technique is something else. The first round of the tin pot home to Scunny is not a pressure match. We missed them because 4 players basically chose power over placement. O'Grady is clearly nervous, but he tucked his away nicely.

 

How many one foot putts do you see missed? How many balls over the pocket? It happens, but hardly ever. Penalties are missed all the time. You say that a penalty is as easy as these other two skills, so why all the misses in football? You say pressure. Are you suggesting that footballers are under more pressure than golfers and snooker players? If you are, I strongly disagree, although I can't prove it.

I'm suggesting golfers and snooker players practice their shots and that's why they don't tend to miss. I'm also suggesting that football players don't, as a rule, practice penalties and that's why they miss much more often.

Which argument makes more sense? There's more pressure in football than golf or snooker, or football players don't practice penalties as much as golf and snooker players practice their putts and their pots?

 

You can tell...is all I have to say.

 

I don't think footballers are particularly under anymore pressure. However, I do think that they're not used to the amount of pressure they're put under when taking a penalty. Golfers and snooker players are much more used to making these pressure shots. Miss any shot among the reds at the highest level in a snooker match and you lose the frame. Skew a shot wide in a football match and the consequences are much less dire. A snooker player has plenty of practise of making shots under pressure at tournaments, this is the practise that footballers don't and can't get. Footballers might take 5 penalties under pressure in their entire career.

I'll also say that Golfers and Snooker players don't have hundred of fans booing them and trying to put them off, or a whole stadium/nation relying on them to putt/pot/score.

In my opinion, if you're going to practise penalties you need it to mean something. Some kind of reward for scoring or punishment for missing.

 

Spot on. Life as a footballer is pretty cushy so spending a little extra time parctising an essential skill isn't too much to ask. I don't think so anyway.

Jason Scotland or the woeful attempt by Craig Davies (v Brum) before him.

 

Jason Scotland or the woeful attempt by Craig Davies (v Brum) before him.

 

Hassell

 

He never said they didn't, his '18 yard' bit was in reference to the distance to the goal.

 

We won last night, on penalties.
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Chris Dagnall buried his only two penalties last season - pressure penalties at that.
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We WON on penalties last night.
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We returned to this division, via a successful penalty shootout.
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Seriously though, some interesting stuff in this thread. Particularly liked Fired's post about the groove. Bang on.

 

Jonny Wilkinson said in his book that he practised kicking for two hours every day because he wanted to make sure that when the pressure moment came he would be prepared and feel confident.

 

You do know that we USED to practice taking penalties at that time dont you?
How do you think we were so good at them ?