International Journal of Sport Psychology

To further examine whether gaze behaviour differences across the two
viewing conditions, as indicated by the post hoc tests, were related to
performance scores, separate Pearson correlation analyses were conducted.
For the stationary viewing condition, results revealed that watching the balland-stick
combination and performance scores were positively correlated (r
= .49, p < .05). In other words, goalkeepers who focused more time on the
ball-and-stick location saved more penalties in the stationary condition.
There were also correlations that showed trends approaching conventional
levels of statistical significance. That is, goalkeepers that tended to look at the
stopper were less successful in saving penalties (r = -.42, p = .076). Similar to
the stationary condition, in the dynamic viewing condition watching the balland-stick
combination was positively correlated with saving performance (r
= .43, p = .065). Interestingly, goalkeepers who tended to visually overshoot
the stopping location saved less penalties (r = -.42, p = .067).
Discussion
Previous research has focussed on dissociating visual information pickup
differences between skilled and less skilled goalkeepers in penalty
situations in soccer (Savelsbergh et al., 2002, 2005). While other studies also
examined visual information pick-up in ice hockey (Panchuk & Vickers,
2006; Salmela & Fiorito, 1979) and field hockey (Rendell & Morgan, 2005;
Williams et al., 2002), this is the first study that examined the differences in
visual information pick-up in field-hockey penalty corners within a group of
experienced hockey goalkeepers. Similar to Savelsbergh and colleagues
(2002, 2005), we used direct measures of visual information pick-up (i.e.,
gaze behaviour) and required more active responses (i.e., motor reactions
with a joystick when compared to, for example, button presses). The
goalkeepers were presented with video clips that were captured with either a
stationary camera that was directed towards the stopper and the drag flicker
or with a moving camera that followed the ball trajectory. Finally, we assessed
the direct relationship between goalkeeping performance and gaze measures.
Results showed that in the dynamic viewing condition (i.e., with the
moving camera), goalkeepers fixated more on the ball than in the stationary
condition. Thus, when goalkeepers had the chance to get more information
about the ball trajectory after the pusher had played the ball towards the
stopper, they tended to search for that information. Interestingly, however,
this did not seem to be a beneficial strategy. In contrast to the stationary
viewing condition, the goalkeepers tended to overshoot the stopping
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