Training perceptual skills in soccer: effects of a longitudinal protocol on predictive abilities of skilled goalkeepers

Perceptual skills are fundamental in the interaction between kickers and goalkeepers in soccer. In particular, goalkeepers need to perceive the kickers’ movements in order to predict the direction of the penalties. Previous studies suggest that non-athletes and novice players can benefit from perceptual training in soccer, but nobody reported effective results with skilled goalkeepers. We developed an home-training based on temporal occluded movies, and our aim was to test whether skilled soccer goalkeepers can benefit from it. We recruited a sample of goalkeepers playing in the academies of professional and semi-professional Italian teams. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: Experimental, placebo and control. All of them were tested at the beginning of the experiment and after eight weeks. The test consisted in the presentation of temporal occluded videos of penalties recorded from the goalkeeper perspective, and participants were required to predict the direction of penalty kicks. A 2x3 ANOVA analysis revealed a significant interaction, and a set of t-test analyses revealed a significant improvement between pre-test and post-test only for the experimental group. This outcome indicates that even skilled soccer goalkeepers can benefit from perceptual trainings, and suggest the efficacy of the adopted protocol.