Differential effects of task-specific practice on performance in a simulated penalty kick under high-pressure Martina Navarro a, b, * , Nelson Miyamoto a , John van der Kamp b, c , Edgard Morya a, d , Geert J.P. Savelsbergh b, e , Ronald Ranvaud a a Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, University of São Paulo, Brazil b Research Institute Move, Faculty of Human Movement Sciences, VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands c Institute of Human Performance, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong d Edmond and Lily Safra International Neuroscience Institute of Natal, Natal, Brazil e Institute for Biomedical Research into Human Movement and Health, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK article info Article history: Received 7 May 2012 Received in revised form 26 January 2013 Accepted 5 March 2013 Available online 14 March 2013 Keywords: Penalty kick Attentional control theory Point of no return High-pressure Timing Individual differences abstract Objectives: The current study investigated to what extent task-specific practice can help reduce the adverse effects of high-pressure on performance in a simulated penalty kick task. Based on the assumption that practice attenuates the required attentional resources, it was hypothesized that task- specific practice would enhance resilience against high-pressure. Method: Participants practiced a simulated penalty kick in which they had to move a lever to the side opposite to the goalkeeper’s dive. The goalkeeper moved at different times before ball-contact. Design: Before and after task-specific practice, participants were tested on the same task both under low- and high-pressure conditions. Results: Before practice, performance of all participants worsened under high-pressure; however, whereas one group of participants merely required more time to correctly respond to the goalkeeper movement and showed a typical logistic relation between the percentage of correct responses and the time available to respond, a second group of participants showed a linear relationship between the percentage of correct responses and the time available to respond. This implies that they tended to make systematic errors for the shortest times available. Practice eliminated the debilitating effects of high- pressure in the former group, whereas in the latter group high-pressure continued to negatively affect performance. Conclusions: Task-specific practice increased resilience to high-pressure. However, the effect was a function of how participants responded initially to high-pressure, that is, prior to practice. The results are discussed within the framework of attentional control theory (ACT). Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. In sports, it is well-known that the pressure faced by athletes during competition, particularly when the stakes are high, can impair performance (Baumeister, 1984; Beilock & Carr, 2001; Masters, 1992). An example par excellence is the penalty kick in association football, which often decides the outcome of impor- tant football matches (Armatas, Yiannakos, Papadopoulou & Galazoulas, 2007). Although the kicker clearly has the upper hand, during international Championships they fail to convert a considerable portion of kicks (20e35%, see Morya, Bigatão, Lees, & Ranvaud, 2003). The relatively low success rate is commonly attributed to the high-pressure that kickers face in the penalty situation (Jordet, Elferink-Gemser, Lemmink, & Visscher, 2007; Jordet & Hartman, 2008; Jordet, Hartman, Visscher & Lemmink, 2007). Recent work has used attentional control theory (ACT: Eysenck. Derakshan, Santos & Calvo, 2007) to explain the adverse effects of high-pressure on sporting performance (Nibbeling, Daanen, Gerritsma, Hofland, & Oudejans, 2012; Nieuwenhuys & Oudejans, 2011; Oudejans, 2010; Oudejans & Pijpers, 2009; Wilson, Vine, & Wood, 2009b), including penalty kicks (Navarro et al., 2012; Noël & van der Kamp, 2012; Wilson, Wood, & Vine, 2009a; Wood & Wilson, 2010). ACT assumes that an athlete’s attentional control reflects the interactive contributions of two attentional systems. The first is a topedown goal-directed system that controls atten- tion based on expectations, knowledge and goals. The second is a * Corresponding author. University of São Paulo,1524 Av. Prof. Lineu Prestes, São Paulo, SP 05508-900, Brazil. E-mail addresses: m.navarro@vu.nl, martina.navarro@usp.br (M. Navarro). Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Psychology of Sport and Exercise journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/psychsport 1469-0292/$ e see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2013.03.004 Psychology of Sport and Exercise 14 (2013) 612e621