Penalty Taking Capability Maturity Model

Saw an email... CMM!!! So serious...
(a colleague from sgp initaited a poll to the world, yes, the world, on "Who will win the World Cup 2006" on Fri)

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Richard

In this context I feel I must raise the issue of penalties.

In England, we often hear about the 'lottery of a penalty shootout' - indicating that either team could win it - and it is just a matter of luck. Rubbish!!

1.We should understand the importance of penalties in major competitions. By my reckoning, in every World Cup since penalties were introduced, one (or both) of the finalists ave had to either win a penalty shootout, or win a match through a penalty (eg. France in 206). The one exception I think was 2002.

This means that the capability to score penalties is very important.

2. It is not a matter of chance. The penalty taker is in full control of what happens (as soon as the referee blows his/her whistle (Jamie Carragher please note). The penalty taker determines where the ball travels, in terms of direction and speed. Germany have a 5-0 record in penalty shootouts: would you make it a 50:50 bet if they had a shootout against England?

3. The way to succeed here seems to be as much a mental and psychological issue as being able to kick the ball in the right direction at a certain speed. The look in Frank Lampard's eyes as he walked up to take his penalty for England in 2006 meant it was a 95% guaranteed miss. In each of the penalties that Germany scored against Argentina, you were 95% sure they would score, just through the body language and the look in the eyes: the player also seemed to assume they would score.

Building on a previous thread, it would seem to me that whereas England are at 'level 1' in the PCMM (Penalty Taking Maturity Model) - Germany are at level 5. The PCMM looks like this:

Level 0: Random (kickers chosen at random, players do not regularly practice penalties)
Level 1: Practiced (players practice during a tournament)
Level 2: Repeatable (the cycle of penalty practice is repeated season round - and players can score regaularly in practice)
Level 3: Measured (analysis is done of own penalty success - in practice and in matches, opposing goalkeepers are analysed in detail)
Level 4: Winning (use mental visualisation, advanced self-hypnosis, relaxation and anchoring, generally win in matches)
Level 5: Optimised (continually improvement in the practice and execution of penalties at the micro level of mind/body).

Regards, David.