It's Not A Lottery: The Art and Science of Penalty Kicks
The Lead
Wondery
3.9 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 9 December 2022
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
There is perhaps no greater theater in all of sports than a penalty kick shootout at the World Cup. Players take turns walking into the spotlight with millions, if not billions of people around the world watching them, and engage in a high-stakes battle of skill and nerves with the goalkeeper. Score, and you are cheered -- miss, and your legacy might forever be tainted. And yet, despite the huge importance of shootouts, many coaches over the years have simply shrugged their shoulders and referred to them as lotteries. Soccer writer and long-suffering England fan Ben Lyttleton, who has written a book about penalty kicks, joins us today to dispel the notion that shootouts are a simple game of chance, and to explain the fascinating science and psychology of soccer's ultimate showdown.
Ben Lyttleton's book about penalty kicks:
https://www.amazon.com/Twelve-Yards-Psychology-Perfect-Penalty/dp/0143127306/
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Transcript
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| 0:07.0 | Hi there, Wondry listeners. Hannah and Sruti here from TrueCram Podcast Redhanded. |
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| 0:40.0 | Go listen to Redhanded right now on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:46.0 | As we've already seen at the 2022 World Cup, there is perhaps no greater theater in all of sports than a penalty kick shootout. |
| 1:02.0 | The Rock-O-Making, the Rock-O-Making history, and Spain, I am to the World Cup. |
| 1:11.0 | Players take turns walking into the spotlight with millions, if not billions of people watching them around the world |
| 1:17.0 | and begin an epic one-on-one showdown that can forever change their legacy. |
| 1:22.0 | You shit out of the captain steps up save me, Rock-O-Match! He made three of them. |
| 1:29.0 | Soccer writer Ben Littleton who has written a book about penalty kicks joins us today to explain the fascinating science and psychology of the penalty kick shootout. |
| 1:40.0 | And to explain why, even today, so many players and coaches still get it wrong. |
| 1:46.0 | From Wondry, I'm Anders Kultow, it's Friday, December 9th, and this is The Lead. |
| 1:54.0 | Ben Littleton, welcome to The Lead. |
| 1:56.0 | Thank you, Anders, for having me, looking forward to being here. |
| 1:59.0 | Ben, I think it's fair to say that you are one of the world's foremost experts on penalty kicks. |
| 2:04.0 | You've written a more than 300-page book about them. |
| 2:07.0 | First, tell us a little about your background and how you got so interested in, you know, how soccer players shoot a ball to goal from 12 yards away. |
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