The English disease

摘要

Time was when an English footballer who missed a penalty in a tournament shoot-out could expect shame and a bit-part as a stooge in a television advert. By the time of the team's most recent failure, at the European Championship of 2012, botching penalties had come to seem an inevitable national scourge, like frequent rain or delayed trains. But failing at penalties is not an arbitrary affliction. There is a science to it, which offers lessons for other high-pressure situations, too.