The effect of 10 sessions mental training compared with physical training on foot joints and accuracy of soccer penalty kick

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of mental training compared with physical training on on foot joints and accuracy of instep penalty kick in soccer. Method research was a quasi-experimental. 33 male students of Mazandaran University organized in three groups (physical training group, mental training group and control group). After pre-test, mental and physical training groups did their practices and then participated in post-test. Kinematic data were recorded with a camera (JVC, 200HZ), and each penalty score was considered as an indicator of accuracy. Lower extremity joints (hip, knee and ankle) angle in sagittal plane and ball to foot velocity index were calculated with MATLAB2010 software. To find differences, ANOVA and tukey test was done with SPSS18 (α=0.05). Range of motion of hip and ankle joints had positive significant effect with accuracy (r=0.415 and r=0.562 respectively), but there was no significant effect between knee range of motion and accuracy. Regard to this research, we could propose to soccer trainers both practice manners depend on their conditions.