杏吧原创

TOP soccer players needn鈥檛 waste time getting the ball onto their 鈥渟tronger鈥�
foot. Psychologists who analysed play at the last World Cup found that although
players prefer to use their stronger foot they are just accurate with the other
one.

Professionals practise every day so that they can shoot and pass the ball as
accurately with their left foot as their right. 鈥淭wo-footedness is important for
success in soccer and gives players a strategic advantage,鈥� says David Carey, a
sports psychologist at the University of Aberdeen.

Carey and his team studied videos of all the games in the 1998 World Cup in
France. Every time one of the 236 players passed the ball or took a shot at goal
the researchers assessed how accurate he was. They then analysed the
circumstances in which players chose to use their left or right foot.

The players went to enormous lengths to move the ball to their preferred footbefore passing or shooting, Carey found. But when circumstances forced a player
to use their weaker foot, they did as well as they did with their stronger one.
Almost 90 per cent of shots and passes were on target, and there was no
difference between the accuracy of the left and right-feet. 鈥淪ports commentators
often excuse poor shots by saying they were hit with a player鈥檚 weak foot, but
it appears there is no such thing,鈥� says Carey.

But it could be difficult to improve the confidence of players in their
鈥渨rong鈥� foot. 鈥淧eople who train to be ambidextrous will unconsciously revert to
their preferred foot when under competitive pressure,鈥� says David Collins,
professor of sport at the University of Edinburgh.