Wednesday 13 May 2020 16:37, UK
England's footballers' ability to deal with the pressure of penalties will be no longer be questioned.
Beating Colombia on penalties at the World Cup has seen to that. Previously, starting from the World Cup in 1990 when they famously lost to West Germany in the semi-finals, England had gone out of six tournaments, from a total of 12, as a result of a penalty shootout, the last being Euro 2012 against Italy.
It is not purely a question of skill. England have produced some of the game's great goalscorers and penalty-takers. Matt Le Tissier has the best Premier League penalty conversion rate ever (96.2 per cent) having scored 25 of his 26. Former England captain Alan Shearer could have an argument to be the best English spot-kick taker ever. From the record-breaking 67 penalties he took in the Premier League he scored an impressive 83.6 per cent. More recently Frank Lampard (43 of 50) and Steven Gerrard (32 of 41) have also been pretty lethal from 12 yards out.
England international Sue Smith told Sky Sports: "I had a sports psychologist who gave me coping techniques. When you go up to take a penalty you're saying to yourself: 'I've scored five penalties in training'."
So why has this not translated to the international stage for the men's team and how can the current squad prepare better for Russia to help save the nation's nerves? Well they could do worse than look to the grass courts of Wimbledon and to seven-time Wimbledon champion Serena Williams for inspiration.
The link may not be immediately obvious to football fans but thanks to some detailed and ground-breaking analysis from IBM, Official Technology Partner to The Championships, Wimbledon, we have some new insights that might be useful to Gareth Southgate and his team.
Tennis is a game that is determined in a few critical moments. In the hours they spend on court it is a player's ability to save or convert break points that will make the difference between being a great champion or being someone who almost made it. Ultimately it comes down to a handful of high-pressure situations. What is it then beyond just skill that defines a great?
Serena is renowned for having a strong serve. Yet in her time at Wimbledon she has faced 374 break points on her own serve but managed to save 244 of them (65.2 per cent). Impressive? Well that is some six per cent better than an average Wimbledon player, although average at Wimbledon still means the best players in the world. When it comes to going for the killer shots and seeing off her opponents to win a break of serve her stats are equally impressive, she has converted 396 of 830 break points (47.7 per cent), a full seven per cent better than the "average".
But what makes the heart race faster; needing to rescue a break point on Centre Court or taking a penalty in a big match? For Serena every one of those points could be the difference between winning or losing. Of Le Tissier's 26 penalties, only three contributed to a narrow win, with two more adding gloss to eventual 3-0 and 4-1 victories for Southampton.
Smith remembers her most pressurised moment: "In the FA Cup semi-final playing for Leeds, I had had the best game, the manager asked who wanted to take a penalty. I looked down, not wanting to take one. I took it and thankfully I scored - I remember all the psychology but thankfully I put the ball in the back of the net."
So what makes the difference for Serena? Her personality, according to IBM studies, is as integral to her seven championships as any physical ability. Using their Artificial Intelligence platform Watson, IBM analysed all the interviews and articles written about Wimbledon champions from across the media outlets and wimbledon.com dating back to 1995. From this they could analyse her personality traits but also her ability to perform under pressure.
Based on what was written in the media articles, Watson could identify when there were pressure matches. In those key matches Serena had the best win-loss ratio of any player analysed, men and women. Simply put she was the best able to deal with those match-winning moments. Which begs the question: Why?
Based on her Wimbledon interviews she demonstrates a low emotional range, showing that she is able to control her emotions helping her cope with a variety of situations without it affecting her performance. Indeed, the greatest pressure applied to her comes from within. She willingly piles pressure onto herself as part of her preparation and has learnt how to channel and thrive on that knowing that it is vital to her success.
"The only pressure that's on me is the pressure I put on myself," Williams said to wimbledon.com in 2008 (already as a two-time champion). "Like I said, I'm a perfectionist and I want everything to be right. I've been really trying not to do that and just relax."
Notice the similarities in what Williams told wimbledon.com in 2016, already as a six-time champion: "I've just felt a lot of pressure, I guess. I put a lot of that pressure on myself. Obviously I've had some really tough losses. One thing I learnt about last year is to enjoy the moment. I'm definitely going to enjoy this."
But Sky Sports' Mark Petchey adds context, saying: "Tennis players have an unfair advantage over footballers because we're always taking penalties. Federer has played 1,400 matches and in only 12 per cent he has not faced a break point."
The seven-time Wimbledon champion Williams has an unrivalled ability to deliver in pressurised moments as she has trained not just her body but her mind to know what to expect and how to cope when it really matters. If only England's penalty takers could do the same…
