The Penalty Conundrum
Penalties
in the solo game are something that happen from time to time,
especially if you use some kind of blocking rule and count all
misdemeanours by the blocking team as fouls, instead of backs.
However you play though if a penalty is awarded how do you ensure
that the kick gives the goalkeeper a chance of stopping a shot from
12.5cm without discriminating the obvious advantage to the penalty
taker. What about if a cup tie goes to penalties how does one deal
with that.
I
played a solo game recently that needed to be decided on penalties,
so I used the shots method from points along the shooting line.
Worked out OK, Buxted Park beat Staplecross Athletic 3 – 2 by this
method, so could this be the answer during a game when a penalty is
awarded. If you think it can then good for you problem solved. I on
the other hand didn’t like the idea. I wanted to see if I could
take a penalty from the spot and give the goalkeeper a chance of
saving it. Now all this depends on how you play your solo goalkeeper,
If you play normally with a rodded goalie, you could just hold the
keeper with one hand and shoot with the other, if you don't, and have
some form of barrier type goalkeeper, (examples of which can be found
in a previous post), where do you position the goalkeeper, and what
are the chances of the keeper having a chance. I’m going to try and
address this below.
A
Few Statistics
On
average for every penalty kick awarded in open play in football, 75%
to 80% result in goals, some miss, and some are saved, and
it’s the save percentage
I’m interested in here its about 15% if you don’t believe me look
it up. So to put that
into terms that relate to a solo game, one would expect 4 out of 5
penalties to be scored and
a miss or a save to
be around 1 in 5
penalties. So I started a quest to give
myself this kind of outcome.
First
Attempts
This
was simply put the ball on the spot and take the penalty, I’ll add
here that I was using a diving goalkeeper mounted in a diving
position on a coin for ballast. The Keeper was on the line and
positioned in the middle covering an equal distance between the
posts. I was finding that I couldn’t miss, taking
care with ones aim and a goal was more or less assured.
Next
I tried moving the penalty taker back to the edge of the penalty
area, a little better, I missed 2 in 30 penalties. One saved and one
hit the post. I thought that's getting better so I tried it again
later in the day this time 1 was missed. I was finding that it was
still too easy to score if care was taken.
I
then placed the penalty
taker on the “D” and tried a few penalties from there, that
seemed to get me in the ball park, consistently missing on average 1
or 2 penalties for every 10 taken.
My desired method of taking penalties, although the penalty taker does get placed further away these days.
Taking
Things A Little Further
I
have lying around, a few spare heavyweights, flat based, and
lightweight players. I hasten to add here lying around means they are
not literally lying around, because my Wife would bin them if they
were. If you think I’m joking ask her about my electric toothbrush
charger which mysteriously ended up in the bin, because it was on her
dressing table when I was in a rush and never put it away. Or a lens
cap that was on the kitchen counter when I went out for a walk with
my camera, when I came back it was missing, I questioned her, and
rescued it from the kitchen bin. If I left £10 lying around I wonder
if that would go the same way. But I digress so lets get back on
topic.
I
tried taking penalties with the spare figure types I have, and I
found that the heavyweights were giving me acceptable results, The
flat based seemed to score more consistently, and the lightweights a
little worse. All the penalties were from the spot with the taker on
the “D”. So this method seemed to work with the heavy weights. I
tried using the flat based from the shooting line to take the penalty
and that sort of gave me acceptable results, So that said to me, at
my skill level, player types were affecting the results I attained.
The
Method I’ve Decided On
So
using the results of the experiments (and I say that tongue in
cheek), on solo penalty taking I’ve indulged in, I can conclude
that I will use a heavyweight placed anywhere on the “D” to take
the penalty. Now you could still use the same method no matter what
player types you use if you have spare player types lying around
(just don’t leave them lying around in my house, or my Wife will
dispose of them for you), or maybe adjust the distance of the player
type to the ball to suit your skill level.
Another
Method I’ve Seen
One
method that I’ve heard of is the dice method. Which is if a penalty
is awarded is roll a die, if it comes up 1 its a miss any other
number is a goal, OK so what happens if the spot kick is missed?
Where does the ball end up, can the penalty taker follow up after a
save and if so how. Although the percentage may be in the right
place, the ball may not be. As much as I've contemplated this method,
as an easy way to decide a penalty decision, I cannot see how I could
integrate it successfully without a ball being kicked. But this is
solo land where anything goes. I maintain from my point of view no
matter how I play it has to feel right and be definitive to me. There
are probably many more ways to play out a penalty decision, and more
than likely, ways I’ve never even thought of. If I do I’ll share
them with you. Do you have a specific method? If you do let me know.
Keep On Flicking.
Ian
Love the blog and the experiments. I will try this PK method right away. Keep up the good work!
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