Correlations between the dimensions of fatigue and the kicking performance of soccer players during penalty shootouts.

<ns3:p>Background: Failures in penalty shootouts have been solely attributed to various psychological constructs with minimum attention given to the players' physiology at the moment of the shootouts. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of mitigation on fatigue of soccer players and the effect on their Kicking Performance (KP) during penalty shootouts after 120 minutes of intensive soccer using General Fatigue (GF), Physical Fatigue (PF), Reduced Activity (RA), Reduced Motivation (RM), and Mental Fatigue (MF) as fatigue proxies. We hypothesized that the levels of the 5 Fatigue dimensions would correlate with the KP (Kicking Accuracy [KA], Kicking Velocity [KV], and Kicking Quality [KQ]) of the players in the experimental and control groups after subjecting them to the protocol.Methods: A two-group pre-test–post-test quasi-experimental research design was adopted for this study. 30 male soccer players with a mean age of 19.172.68 years were assessed on fatigue and KP before and after playing soccer for 120 minutes with interventions on the experimental groups. The results were compared among the players and with some international values. Results: There were statistical correlations between GF and KP (τb = .377, p = .041), MF and KP (τb = .372, p = .042) as well as the Overall Fatigue (OF) and KP (τb = .458, p = .016). There were no statistically significant correlations between all the other variables. Conclusion: It was determined that extreme fatigue correlates with and affects KP in penalty shootouts after 120 minutes of playing soccer. It was also concluded that good and periodic supplementation is important to remedy the effects of GF, MF, and OF to maintain the kicking performance of soccer players during penalty shootouts.</ns3:p>