Stephen Hawking's theory on how to take the perfect penalty
With the passing of the Oxford born theoretical physicist at the age of 76, we revisit his theory on how to take the perfect penalty kick.
Back in 2014 Stephen Hawking undertook a a study in an effort to help the English national team on how to take the perfect penalty kick.
The physicist explanad that: "the England team like the rest of the human race are creatures of habit" and also put forward that other factors such as tiredness, altitude, air temperature and jet-lag come into play in a pressure situation such as a penalty kick.
When looking at the game on a whole he advocated that wearing a red kit was a help and that a 4-3-3 formation was more beneficial than a 4-4-2 formation. The origin of referee he also deemed was of significant importance with a European based match official more likely to come down on more theatrical tactics employed by many South American sides facing England with Hawking making specific reference to Luis Suarez.
Hawking also offered his theory on how to take the perfect penalty claiming that 84% of all spot kicks that are aimed at either top left or right hand corner will be scored. He deemed that the ball should be hit with the instep and struck forcefully. He also advocated that being right footed or left footed was an irrelevance when it came to the statistics of converted penalty's but blonde or bald players were likely to score from the spot. Upon being challenged on that assertion, his reply was: "that remains one of the great unsolved mysteries of science"