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Unit 5 Research Project
Worthing College Sports Science
[Tommy Dennis]
2015

Assessment Criteria
Pages 3-17 & 27-38
• P2: carry out sport science or exercise science-
based research
• P3: collect and record data from the research
project conducted
• M2: correctly analyse collected data, describing
techniques used
• D1: correctly analyse data, explaining techniques
used
• P4: produce a full research report using a
standard scientific structure

To investigate whether a
relationship exists between the
height of a goalkeeper in the top 5
divisions in Europe and their
penalty saving record
By Tommy Dennis
P2: Carry out / P4: Produce

Abstract
I have researched and conducted this research project in order to find out whether a
relationship exists between the height of a goalkeeper in the top 5 leagues in Europe
and their ability to save a penalty. In order to qualify for my project the goalkeeper
must have faced three or more penalties in their last respective domestic season.
My reasoning behind me wanting to find out whether this correlation exists is due to
the process of talent ID. In the top 5 European leagues the position of goalkeeper is
vital for success and this is why they are paid huge amounts of money. Therefore I
thought it would be helpful for me to find out whether the height of a goalkeeper
affects their ability to save a penalty as this could then be used in scouting processes
across Europe when a team needs to buy a new goalkeeper.
After collecting all of the necessary data from websites such as SQUAKA and BBC Sport
I was able to make an excel spread sheet using the process of spearman's rank to
show that there is in fact a correlation albeit a moderate one of 0.57 between my two
variables. this was very close to a strong correlation however as to qualify for this It
needs to be 0.6.
The results of my work hence show that when choosing a goalkeeper height is a
necessary factor to take into place if you wish them to be better at saving penalties.

Contents: GeneralPage 1: Title
Page 2: Assessment criteria
Page3: Main aim title page
Page4: Abstract
Page 5: Contents
Page 6: Appendices contents
Page7: figures and tables contents
Page 8: Acknowledgements
Page 9: introduction
Page 10: literacy review
Page 11:Project hypothesise
Page 12: method
Page 13: Data collection
Page 14: data analysis
Page 15: results
Page 16:discussion
Page 17: Conclusion
Page 18: Assessment criteria
Page 19: review (1/3)
Page 22: Future recommendation (1/5)
Page 25:Future recommendation (4/5)

Contents: Appendices
Page 27: appendices title page
Page 28: Squaka.com- changing the criteria to
alter the search
Page 29: Squaka.com- an example search
Page 30: ESPN.com- an example player bio

Contents: Figures and Tables
Page 31: figures and tables title page
Page 32: Spearman’s Rank order correlation
table
Page 33: Original data collection of heights and
saving percentage- finding the average
Page 34: Scatter graph showing correlation with
line of best it

Acknowledgements
I would firstly like to acknowledge Paul Cox for
his constant advice when I was stuck, and for
directing me to useful websites to help aid my
research project. I would also like to
acknowledge my classmate Sam Murray who
helped show me how to use the spearman's
rank excel spread sheet after I had missed the
tutorial lesson due to being on holiday

Introduction
My research project is based solely on the question; whether the height of a
goalkeeper in the top 5 leagues in Europe affects heir ability to save a penalty. In order
for a goalkeeper to be included in my project was whether they had faced 3 or more
penalties in their last respective domestic season (2013/14). The reasoning behind this
was to ensure that no anomalies would ruin the validity of the project. For example a
6’6 goalkeeper may have only faced 1 penalty and not saved it giving him a 0% penalty
saving record which would bring the average % of saving a penalty for his height
category down massively.
The aim of the project was to find out whether a correlation between these two
variables exists by using the process of spearman's rank. The reasoning behind
choosing this aim is due to the process of talent ID. In the top 5 European leagues the
position of goalkeeper is vital for success and this is why they are paid huge amounts
of money. Therefore I thought it would be helpful for me to find out whether the
height of a goalkeeper affects their ability to save a penalty as this could then be used
in scouting processes across Europe when a team needs to buy a new goalkeeper. My
general interest in Football helped persuade me towards choosing football as the basis
of my study.
The timescale of the study was throughout the 2013/14 domestic season in each of
the countries e.g England, Italy, Spain etc. The reasoning is because I have started the
project when the 2014/15 season has already began meaning their would be new data
to include each day and not many goalkeepers would have faced over 3 penalties
already this season.

Literature Review and References
https://worthingsportscience.wordpress.com/20
15/02/27/tommy-dennis-literacy-review/
A link to my literacy review is included below. The link will take you to the
Worthing college sport word press.

Project Hypothesis
1) At the end of my research project I expect to
see a positive correlation between the height
of a goalkeeper and their ability to save a
penalty

Method
1) As my project is primarily based on secondary research, firstly I browsed the internet for a
suitable website that is a reliable source to provide me with the data I need in order to
complete my project. I decided www.squaka.com and www.espn.com were the ones i was
going to use.
2) On Squaka I set the search criteria to find goalkeepers who had faced 3 or more penalties in
the 2013/14 season and I recorded this information on an excel spreadsheet. I did this for
goalkeepers in the top 5 European leagues (see appendix 1&2).
3) I then found the height of the goalkeepers included in my project and by using espn (see
appendix 3) and added this information to the spreadsheet.
4) The next step I did was finding he average amount of penalty saving percentage for each
height category from 5’11 to 6’6 so I had 1 figure for each height. (see figures and tables 2)
5) With this information I needed to see if their was a correlation so I ranked the data and
followed the steps to making a spearman's rank excel page (see figures and tables 1)
6) Then using this excel table I was able to produce a scatter graph to show the correlation
between the height of a goalkkeper and their percentahe of penalty saves (see figures and
tables 3)
P3: Collect and record / M2: Correctly analyse & describe techniques / D1: Correctly analyse & explain techniques

Data Collection
The type of data technique I am using is secondary research as I am using data that is
already available online from websites such as sqwuaka. This data is secondary as I
have not collected the information myself somebody else has collected it as primary
research for a different purpose. From these websites I will be finding out which
goalkeepers faced 3 or more penalties in the 2013/14 season and what their saving
success rate is. I will record this information firstly on paper with their heights as well
before putting this data onto a Microsoft excel spread sheet displaying the results in
graph form. As I will be using results in graph form and my research is based on stats it
is therefore quantitative data rather than qualitative.
My data classifies as nominal data. This is because the participants are categorised
into what height they are rather than being an individual in my research project. The
categories will be every height from 5’11 to 6’6 as every goalkeeper in my study falls
between these two limits.
The design of my research project is experimental. This is because my aim is to find
the effect of one thing on another (independent variable on dependant variable). In
my case the goalkeepers’ height is the independent variable and the amount of
penalties they save is the dependent variable. This is the effect of a goalkeepers height
on their penalty saving record.

Data Analysis
To arrange my data appropriately I used rank order distribution which allowed
me to place my data in an ordered list. I then used the excel function of
finding an average to find the average amount of penalty saves for each
height. The next bit of analysis I did was using the process of spearman's
ranks which shows your data to be of 5 categories; very weak, weak,
moderate, strong, very strong (see figures and tables 1). After I had worked
out the correlation of my data which turned out to be moderate but on the
brink of strong I could then put this information into a scatter graph and add a
line of best fit the show the result (see figures and tables 3)

Results
After collection and analysis were complete I was able to look at whether my
hypothesis was correct and the height of a goalkeeper affects their penalty saving
percentage. From using the use of spearman’s rank I was able to see the correlation
between the 2 variables as a figure which was 0.57 which fits into the category of
moderate correlation. This was only 0.03 off of being a strong correlation (see figures
and tables 1). This shows that my first hypothesis was correct and as taller goalkeepers
therefore have a better chance of saving a penalty. If I was to continue this research
and add more players to the study it may increase the rank and enter the strong
positive correlation sector.
Although my research suggests that height does affect the penalty saving record there
is also many other factors that affect whether the penalty goes in such as factors
affecting the player rather than thee goalkeeper so my research doesn’t necessarily
mean that height always affects the ability for a penalty to go in which is what I will
talk about in further lines of research.

Discussion
I found out that there is a moderate correlation between the height of a goalkeeper in the top 5 leagues
in Europe and their ability to save a penalty. Although I had previously estimated that a correlation
would exist the reason we cannot just take my research and say yes this statement is true is due to
many other factors that affect a penalty. Factors such as the players run up or what footed they are and
the ability of the goalkeeper and player may have a major affect on the outcome. Mcmorris studied
about how different footed players can have an effect on whether the goalie has a better chance of
saving the penalty or not. For example Leighton Baines has scored 14/15 penalties in the premier
league which shows that even if you had the tallest goalkeeper the odds are still in his favour to score
due to him being a brilliant penalty taker. This could also be due to him being left footed. This also
works the other way round because if you have someone who isn’t very good at penalties taking one,
then the height of a goalkeeper may not affect their ability to save the penalty as they will probably
miss it anyway. In my citation review I also included van der kampfs (2007) work who said about the
posture of the goalie having an effect on the saving percentage. Therefore this could mean that in my
study even if one of the smaller goalkeepers makes them self look big it would work the same way as if
they were taller in the first place. Another key factor is the scenario of the game as this has a massive
effect. If its 1-1 in the 90th minute away from home, the penalty taker could feel extremely nervous and
this could mean he has much more of a chance in missing the penalty than a player taking a penalty 3-0
up already on 2 goals in front of a home crowd. When researching into this before my work I could not
find any research already available on this so it is something I could look into in the future. Therefore
what I must take forward from my research is that height does have an effect on the goalkeepers ability
to save a penalty but there is many other factors affecting the goalkeeper as well as factors affecting the
penalty takers chance of scoring. O’Callaghan had researched into how no goalkeeper factors can affect
the chances of a player scoring and how they should always score.

Conclusion
To investigate whether a relationship exists between the height of a goalkeeper in the top 5 divisions in
Europe and their penalty saving record
A key trend from my literacy review was that people investigated psychological factors affecting the
outcome of a penalty but I have investigated physiological factors that we cant control like height.
Therefore this is investigating something new and like I stated before can be used by scouts in the
process of talent id when finding a new goalkeeper. Another thing that differs from a lot of the research
in my literacy review was that a lot of people looked into goalkeepers in all sports such as handball
aswell as football. My research is also the only one tto use leagues across Europe rather than just
focussing on the premier league.
My results give reasonable support to my hypothesis that there is a correlation between the height of a
goalkeeper and their penalty saving percentage. This is because they show a moderate correlation exists
between the 2 variables by looking at spearmans rank. The reason behind the correlation only being
moderate is due to the fact that there is so many factors to look at when taking a penalty. Things such as
the ability of the penalty taker can often have much more of an affect than the height of the goalkeeper
which is something to look into in the future when looking at factors affecting penalties. In summary
however, I can take forward from my research and results that the height of a goalkeeper does have an
impact on the penalty takers chance in scoring albeit not a very strong one. I feel the evidence I have
conducted and produced could bee a help to many football teams and scouts. It is also useful for tall
children as this shows them that they may be best suited as a goalkeeper.

Assessment Criteria Pages 19-26
• P5: carry out a review of the research project
conducted, describing strengths, areas for
improvement and future recommendations.
• M3: carry out a review of the research project,
explaining strengths, areas for improvement
and future recommendations.
• D2: carry out a review of the research project,
justifying future recommendations for further
research.

Review (1/3)
The project conclusion met the project aims as I found out that
there is a correlation between the height of a goalkeeper and
their penalty saving percentage albeit only a moderate one. The
overall aim was to find out whether a relationship exists so this
was definitely completed by thee project as through using data
analysis methods I was able to prove a correlation is present.
Overall I am very happy with how my project turned out as I was
able to find all of the information I had planned and I was able to
present it in tables and graphs to prove a correlation was present
between the two variables. I was also very interesting finding out
for myself whether the height of a goalkeeper affects their ability
when trying to save a penalty.
P5: Describe / M3: Explain / D2: Justify

Review (2/3)
I believe one of my main strengths of the project to be my aim. This is
because I specifically chose an aim which involves a sport of which I
play and watch weekly which straight away showed I would be
interested in conducting the research and would not get bored like I
might get conducting research on different sports. I also specifically
chose an aim of which there is not available data already out there for
as this meant that I was more determined to find the outcome as I was
unware of what the actual result of the research will be.
Another key strength was using spearman's rank table and graph. This
is because this is a trusted method which has been used for years to
prove correlation between two variables and by using this on my data
it means that I have proved my findings reliably. If I had just produced
a scatter graph with a line of best fit without doing this calculation it
would not have been as reliable and my results wouldn’t have backing.
(see figures and tables 1 and 3)

Review (3/3)
A big area for improvement would be that my research doesn’t take into
context other factors affecting penalties such as skill level and pressure from
the game and crowd. This is because I just looked at how many penalties the
goalie had faced and whether they had saved the penalty or whether it had
gone in. To improve my research I should’ve separated these into whether the
penalty was important or not and whether the game was at home or away for
the penalty taker for example.
Another area for improvement could be to widen the scope of my data and I
could do this by using information from the 2012/13 season aswell as the
2013/14 season as this would mean that more goalkeeper would have faced
over 3 penalties and would therefore qualify for the project hence making it
more reliable as more subjects would be taking place un the study.

Future Recommendations (1/5)
Population
If the project was to be completed again I would make a number of changes.
Firstly I would change the scope of the project. Instead of looking at elite
athletes in the top 4 divisions in Europe I could look at lower leagues instead.
This would give me results for a different scope as these goalkeepers would
be of lower ability level. This would've improved my project because it would
allow me to find out the same outcome over the bottom leagues as well as
the elite leagues. This recommendation would benefit scouts in football
teams in the process of talent ID as it would allow them to look at tall
goalkeepers in leagues such as league 2 who are tall with a decent penalty
record to sign for their team. This is because the variable that we are studying
is height and this is a factor that cannot be taught or learned so pro clubs in
leagues such as the premier league could sign these tall goalkeepers for
penalty scenarios and put a pro coach onto them to improve the other
aspects of their game such as kicking and catching. This could be a major
advantage to clubs, as goalkeepers in the bottom leagues will be a lot cheaper
and could hence save the football club lots of money.
P4: Produce / P5: Describe / M3: Explain / D2: Justify

Time Scale
If I was to do the project again another thing I could change is the time scale
of the project. I would’ve preferred to have looked at data over the last three
seasons form example rather than just the last season. This is because it
would mean that a lot more goalkeepers than the ones in my current study
will have faced 3 or more penalties and will therefore be included in my work.
This would therefore mean that there is more data to get the correlation from
so the data will be more reliable. It would make my results more accurate as
any ‘one off’ results will not have such an influence on the study as they will
be more cancelled out by other representative results. This recommendation
would benefit talent ID scouts once again who want to use my research as
these recommendations would improve the reliability of the work hence
making it a better resource to use. It would be even more beneficial if the
additional goalkeepers added to the study make the correlation between the
two variables strong rather than moderate as this would make it a very useful
resource to use when scouting.

measure
If I was to re do this research project again measure is another aspect of the
work I could change. This would be by changing what bit of the goalkeepers
game we are investigating that height effects. An example is using 1 on 1’s as
a way of measuring success rate. I would break down 1 on 1 chances into
three categories; player should score, goalkeeper should save, and 50/50. by
using primary data of watching games I could then make percentage of saves
for each section. I would then follow the spearman's rank steps again to see if
a correlation is present between the height of a goalkeeper and their ability
to save a 1 on 1 chance. An advantage to carrying out this research compared
to my current study is that in a game penalties are quite rare to appear
whereas 1 on 1’s are very frequent. This is an advantage as it would be more
beneficial to see whether height has an effect on a 1 on 1 rather than a
penalty because when teams are signing a new goalkeeper they'd rather
them be more successful at 1 on 1’s due to them occurring frequently. Only
downside to this research is due to it being primary it will take a longer time
to build up a big set of results to have enough to find a correlation from.

Variables
If I was to conduct this research in the future another aspect of it that could
be changed is the dependant variable which is height. Another variable that
could be investigated, into whether it affects the ability for the goalkeeper to
save a penalty, could be power or the jump height of the goalkeeper. There
are many tests that can measure these factors such as the sergeant jump test
which measures power through jumping which is what I would use against
their penalty record. This would once again be used for the same purpose as
height which would be by talent id scouts. They could then look at
goalkeepers who have a very good score in these tests and know that they
have a better chance in saving penalties if a strong correlation is present. An
outcome of this recommendation is that even at young ages teenagers in
academies could recognise that if there is a correlation between their
power/jump and their resulting ability to save a penalty they could practice in
these areas in order to become a better goalkeeper at saving penalty kicks.

Literacy Review
Recommendations for future research can be taken from key themes from the
literacy review we created before the project. Key themes show us other aspects
that can be investigated that are similar to my own. One key theme was shown in
the research of Mcmorris (1996) who spoke about how different footed players
have an effect on the goalkeepers ability to save a penalty. This is something that
interested me and something that I think would be interesting to study into.
Mcmorris’ research was done virtually however by goalkeepers watching footage
of players taking penalties and trying to determine which way they are going to
shoot that way. My research would be first hand primary research where the
goalkeeper actually tries to save the penalty rather than just guessing the way.
Another key theme way the positioning of the goalkeeper and lots of people such
as Van der Kampf (2007) looked into this. To differ from his research I would do
mine solely on football goalkeepers whereas van der Kampf used goalkeepers
from a range of sports to find information such as handball. The first them would
benefit teams by helping them to determine which footed player is better for
them to have as their penalty taker to make it easier to score. My second them
would be useful for goalkeepers as they would benefit by knowing how to be
positioned in the goal when facing a penalty in order to maximise their chances of
saving the penalty.

Research Project Figures
and Tables

Figures and Tables 3
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
175 180 185 190 195 200
%ofpenaltiessaved
Height of the Goalkeeper
Series1
Series2
Linear (Series1)
Linear (Series2)
A Graph to Show the relationship between the height of
a goalkeeper and the amount of penalties they save

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