Want to spot a soccer diver? Look at the arms, neuroscientist says
Maybe it really does take a brain scientist to figure out what diving is and isn’t in soccer.
University of Victoria neuroscientist Paul Zehr says it’s really pretty easy to figure out if a player has gone down on their own: look at what they do with their arms.
His research has shown this is the key in spotting fake falls.
In an article for Psychology Today, Zehr explains there are three body positions referees should keep an eye out for: “the platoon,” “the photo finish” and “the belly flop.”
Sometimes you’ll see all three at once, he notes.
“It’s bothered me for years,” he told Postmedia News on Tuesday. “I just got really frustrated. We’ve done all this research on how people fall.”
Zehr has been studying human motion for 25 years, learning about what people in motion do with their legs and arms after contact with the foot occurs.
“They ’re automatic, they ’re happening without you thinking,” he said.
When you’re tripped, your body automatically moves to protect itself from a fall.
“This means keeping your legs moving if at all possible and putting your hands out in front of you to protect your body as you may go down to the ground,” he explains in his article.
None of the three body moves he named and defined happen in reaction to a trip; they ’re all voluntary, he said.
“Here’s what you don’t do if you are tripped. You don’t throw your hands over your head or behind your body. You also don’t leap into the air, nor do you pull both feet away from the ground to become airborne.
“Those reactions are not consistent with protection, but are fantastic drama to call attention to the ‘contact.’”
His inspiration for the three motions suggesting a dive are all straightforward: the platoon reminds him of how Willem Dafoe’s character Elias in the 1986 movie Platoon throws his hands over his head, the rest of his body going limp, when he’s killed; the finish line is when the player all of a sudden makes like a sprinter at the finish line, arms straight back, body thrust forward; and the belly flop is similar to the photo finish, except the player throws their hands up above their head.
“Much safer in water than on land,” he comments about the third one.
Now, in talking about his research, Zehr is quick to point out that the problem of diving in soccer shouldn’t entirely lie at the feet of the players: “to be fair, it’s a chicken or the egg thing.” Referees and soccer authorities are too tolerant of this. They fall for obvious dives far too often.
Take away the incentive and also punish the cheats, and you’ll see a collapse in how often it happens, Zehr said.
“Once (diving) started being punished in hockey, players quit doing it,” he said.
The solution is to reset the system, he said. And go heavy on video review dives.