Pressure : lessons from the psychology of the penalty shoot out

I can score penalties in my sleep, so why not that one?' Marcus Rashford after the final of Euro 2020The penalty shootout is the most intense drama in sport.

The anxious wait, the building dread, the lonely, heavy-legged walk towards the penalty spot.

One kick on which so much can hinge. And all this while the eyes of the world are bearing down.

Even football's most casual observers respond to the palm-tingling tension.

What happens to players' brains and bodies in this cauldron of pressure?

Why do some thrive while others choke? When the game goes to penalties, what ultimately separates success from failure, and triumph from disaster?

In this ground-breaking book, sports psychologist Professor Geir Jordet dissects each agonising element of the shootout's duel and the universal human stress mechanisms that it triggers and illuminates. Drawing on two decades of studying the atomic nuances of performance under pressure, Jordet shares revelatory case studies and stories from his work with top national teams and some of the world's greatest players.

He shows how in the penalty shootout, as elsewhere in life, it's often the tiny, invisible decisions that make the difference between winning and losing. After reading this book, you will watch sport's ultimate stress test with enhanced insight - and understand pressure in a wholly new light.