Investigation of the effects of football player's eye movement strategies on penalty kicks performance performed in different conditions

In this thesis, it is aimed to evaluate the successful, unsuccessful, accurate, and inaccurate penalty shootouts performed by football players with different experience levels in different conditions [(1) no goalkeeper, (2) goalkeeper does not know the direction of the shot, (3) goalkeeper knows the direction of the shot, (4) goalkeeper is still] in terms of ball speed and eye tracking strategies. 20 football players (Amateur, n=9; Elite, n=11) were included in the study voluntarily. Equal number of random penalty shots were taken towards one of the two targets placed to the upper corners of the goal in 4 different conditions. During the penalty shootout, the athletes' visual search strategies (number and duration of focus) were recorded with the Tobii Pro Glasses 2 Eye Tracking System. In the study, factorial variance analyses were performed in the SPSS package program to analyze whether ball speed has an effect on the group (Amateur, Elite), condition (1,2,3,4), shooting direction (Right, Left) factors and whether the interactions of all factors with each other are significant. To determine the difference between the factors, Post-Hoc and Temhane T2 multiple comparison tests were used according to the homogeneity of variance. In the research findings, it was observed that the goalkeeper's actions, or even the goalkeeper's mere presence, can negatively impact penalty success. Athletes, regardless of their groups, were found to have performed more successful shots in Conditions 1 and 4 compared to Condition 2 and Condition 3. Furthermore, it was found that the fixation times of elite group football players were longer compared to amateur group football players. As a result of the research, it is thought that quiet eye (QE) training, which optimizes the visual attention (gaze) control of novice football players, will benefit the athletes. It is thought that these trainings will enable football players to learn to direct their gaze to the designated target point and the ball before and during the shot.