The data is mixed between the best penalty run up technique. One of the largest study on penalties to date was done in a 2020 paper from Mikael Jamil, Perry Littman and Marco Beato at School of Health and Sports Sciences, University of Suffolk.
In the study which watched over 1,700 across Spain, England, Germany and Italy the length and style of penalty had a direct corelation with the result of the penalty.
Run ups of 1 step did not provide the penalty taker with any advantage however medium run ups between 2-5 steps and long run ups of 6+ steps with a slight deacceleration provided an advantage.
World Cup 2026 Has Produced a Historic Penalty Slump
BBC Sport researched this World Cup's penalties and found that a staggering 35% of all penalties including shootout penalties were missed, meaning for every 3 penalties 1 is missed.
Statistically based on this you'd want to take 2nd and you'd win the shootout 4-3 after 5 penalties. 35% of penalties missed is the worst of any World Cup since records began in 1966.
11 of the 26 stutter step penalties have been missed during this World Cup. This displays a shocking 57% conversion rate which has seen elite players such as Mbappe and Messi miss penalties.
When compared to natural penalty run ups there is an 11% increase in conversion rate. This shows that natural run ups are performing better then stutter step penalties at this World Cup.
However, due to both percentages being so low it's an unfair reflection on both especially as an earlier study provided evidence arguing the opposite.
When mastered, stutter step penalties are still by far the best penalty technique. Players such as Jimenez, Jorginho and Toney have all added their rendition on that style of penalty which resulted in 43 of Jimenez's first 45 professional penalties finding the back of the net. The Wolves striker also held a perfect Premier League record at one stage too due to these penalties.
Why Stutter-Step Penalties Still Work
As Professor Geir Jordet’s research showed, stutter step penalties provide up to a 10% improvement in conversion over his multiple season Premier League research. The goalkeeper has 400 milliseconds to react once the ball is kicked.
However the stutter step penalties require the goalkeeper to delay their dive for as long as possible which returns the advantage to the penalty taker which gives the attacker a further advantage.
Stutter step penalties are actually scored more often and gives the penalty taker about a 4% higher chance of scoring the penalty. However due to the availability bias theory fans remember the unusual penalty misses more then they remember the routine conversions.
This is why Baggio's penalty miss against Brazil in World Cup 94 is so famous. The fact he blasted the ball over the bar was so unusual for a player of his quality it remains burned into all Italian fans who watched it. However, when Kane missed against France at World Cup 2022 it was forgotten about.