ABSTRACT

When a penalty is taken in soccer, the ball may reach the goal just 0.2s after it is kicked (Chiappori et al., 2002). The reported conversion rates of penalty kicks are 63.6% (Kuhn, 1988), 76% (Morya et al., 2005) and 78.9% (Jordet et al., 2007). There is debate about the penalty taking strategy most likely to result in a goal. Some suggest that striking the ball low as close to the post as possible gives the best chance of a goal (McMorris and Hauxwell, 1997) while others suggest that shooting high is optimal (Bar-Eli and Azar, 2009).