PENALTY CORNER ANALYTICS
THE PENALTY CORNER CRISIS
Where have the penalty corner goals gone?
There has been an unquestionable decrease in the corner conversion rate in the past few years throughout all of field hockey. Teams have invested more resources on improving the penalty corner defense (equipment, scouting, etc.), which has led to most teams struggling to reach a high offensive penalty corner conversion.
"It's a matter of teams evolving with the game and realising if they don't pay more attention to the runners, linemen and everything, you just end up with […] best exponents (players) ripping balls... it's still happening but we got to do the homework."
Paul Revington, Men's England Coach
Read more about the global penalty corner struggles by clicking on the following pictures:
2024 Paris Olympics
This decrease on penalty corner conversion was clearly seen during the 2024 Paris Olympics, on both Men and Women tournaments. For the Men's, as shown in the following graphic, only 15.34% of penalty corners were scored, with two teams not even reaching a 10% conversion rate. On the other hand, the Women's were able to reach a slightly higher conversion rate with 15.96%, but 4 teams (33.33% of team's participating) were unable to reach a 10% goal rate and one of them not scoring a single penalty corner goal.
Is the NCAA DI also struggling?
The low corner conversion (CVR) at the college level has been consistent over the last 3 years. In fact, the average has decreased .90% in just two years.
17 teams were unable to reach a 10% penalty corner conversion rate
That is 5 more teams under this average than in 2023, including 2 teams from the ACC and 1 from the Big Ten.
Weaker Division I leaders every year
In 2022 the number 1 team in the nation reached a 30% conversion rate, in 2023 just over 24% and last year only 23%.
44 teams (53%) under the Division I average
In 2024 teams with just 15% conversion rate reached the Division I Top 25 for corner conversion. In 2022 that same rate would have ranked 36th.
"Quality of the first runners […]. The percentage of shots blocked by the first runner is about 50%. So, the first runner is stopping more shots than the goalies, […] scoring a penalty corner is much harder than it was in the old days.”
Jeroen Delmee, Men’s Netherlands Coach
Are penalty corners that relevant and decisive?
Teams on the Top 25 for APC conversion rate combined for a 300-183 record (.621), with 19 of them having a winning record.
Combining regular season and tournament championships, the Top 25 Division I teams in attacking penalty corner percentage won 13 conference trophies in 2024 (65% of championships).
Practical case
We are going to take the 67th ranked team for APC conversion in 2023, to show with a practical example how penalty corner CVR can change a team's season.
This team had a total of 178 penalty corners during the 2023 season, from which they scored 19, resulting on a 10.67% APC CVR. If this team had the conversion rate of the Division I leading team that year (24.36%), they would have reached 43.36 penalty corner goals; 24 more goals during the season, 1.2 more goals per game.
With that extra goal per game, from the 6 losses this team had during the season, 4 would have gone at least to overtime and one would have been a win during regular time. So, by improving their penalty corner CVR this team had the potential for a 19-1 season and a run at the NCAA Tournament for sure.
And what about Defensive Penalty Corners?
The logical thought is that if the percentage of offensive penalty corner goals is decreasing, the performance by defensive units is improving: LOW APC CVR = HIGH DPC SR (Saving Rate). This is completely true, but it is not a constant across all Division I teams. Between the leading team for defensive penalty corner saving percentage (92.70%) and the lowest-ranked team (71.71%), there is a 20.99 point difference. Some teams are carrying the average of Division I, while many teams are still struggling to achieve a competitive penalty corner saving rate.
- APC CVR = + DPC SR
As a closed league, where teams face each other, if the attacking penalty corner conversion rate drops, the defensive penalty corner saving rate will increase and vice versa.
7 teams under the 80% DPC SR mark (1 goal every 5 corners faced)
The worst ranked team could not reach 75% DPC SR (more than 1 goal for every 4 corners conceded).
Top ranked teams carrying the Division I average (85.85%)
In 2022, 3 teams reached a 94% penalty corner save rate. In 2023 and 2024 no team has achieved that mark.
Can defensive penalty corners be as decisive as attacking penalty corners?
- In 2024, 60% of the conference championships were won by teams in the Top 25 Division I DPC save percentage.
- In 2024, 76% of the teams ranked in the Top 25 DPC SR ranking had a winning record. These teams combined for a record of 301-186 (.618).
