Pressure: Lessons from the psychology of the penalty shootout

by Geir Jordet

288 pages, Hardcover

Published May 30, 2024

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read not just for the football enthusiast! Geir Jordet enthusiastically reveals insights into all things penalties. However, he also shows how football is a natural laboratory for the study of pressure and human performance. I found this book therefore interesting in two ways - it will make future shootouts far more interesting to watch (totally changing the common perception of them as “lotteries”) but also practically, some transferable lessons on managing pressure.

[Tom Victor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This did a great job of making me rethink some of my own preconceptions (e.g. re relevant sample sizes) and got me thinking about other areas (e.g. length of pauses before taking a penalty, which hadn’t occurred to me to be so variable).

Couple of things I’d love to have seen the author address, purely due to my personal interests:
1. Scaloni’s history with his one shootout he had as a player in England, which he lost with West Ham while being a loanee and someone who didn’t take one of the penalties
2. The value of making late calls to bring on players to *take* penalties as well as to save them, as with England’s unsuccessful move in the Euro 2020 final

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book solely about penalties is always going to have a fairly niche readership but if you know an avid football fan like me then this would make a great Christmas present.

Looking forward to the next penalty at a match that I attend as it will be very interesting to see if I can now predict the outcome!

[Zachary Guy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely engaging and interesting book on the pressure of penalty kicks. Very applicable to not only sports but life in general