Why do teams shoot worse on the road?

[bills0]

Here is someting I have been trying to figure out for a while. Why do teams shoot lower percentages on the road? For sports like football I can kind of see why playing on the road makes a difference, but for basketball the hoop is exactly the same shape, and exactly the same hight above the court. The court is exactly the same size and shape and marked in the same manner. So it seems to me that if you master the art of shooting a basket from say 15' on one court it should translate very well to identical courts elswhere.

Anyone have any theories as to why it dosn't?

[JuanCaca]

well, remember that they are traveling... trying to rest in a hotel/airport/plane ...

and dont forget the psycological stuff... when i was fighting in front of my people, on my current city, or the city where i grew up, always was more active/motivated than when we traveled to other cities... (talking taekwondo) ...didnt know how to explain, but i really can feel that extra stamina...

[Ddm5]

I think of it like staying at a friends house out of town. No matter how nice their bed is for you, it does not beat your own bed. Why? You're used to your surroundings. Your body adjusts to it and is conditioned to react a certain way in that setting. Same thing on a basketball court. A hoop is just a hoop but the surroundings can slightly alter how you respond.

[mckennaspur1]

I'll take the "surroundings" idea one step further. The basket may be the same height everywhere, but the visual background is slightly different in every arena.

If you play 42 games on your home court, your eye sees the same thing every time. When you're on the road, you constantly readjust when looking up. That sense of body orientation gives the home team an advantage...

[Trey]

a lot is about depth perception...especially with the way the crowd/seats are set

I remember reading that a lot of teams had problems in the alamodome

[Grego]

Remember that for most, shooting is about rhythm and routine. On the road, you only see that place twice to 4 times in a year. When you are a role player, you tend to not get a lot of shots so you have even more pressure to bring it when you take the shot.

You also have the other factors mentioned above as well.

[Jason R]

In conjunction with depth perception, there's a reason why they used to call it the "Alamodoom".

[bills0]

Originally Posted by mckennaspur1

I'll take the "surroundings" idea one step further. The basket may be the same height everywhere, but the visual background is slightly different in every arena.

If you play 42 games on your home court, your eye sees the same thing every time. When you're on the road, you constantly readjust when looking up. That sense of body orientation gives the home team an advantage...

That is what I was thinking, it has to something to do with the visual cues that the players are used to. But this is a problem. If this is true, then maybe the players need to practice shooting with varying backgrounds and lighting. If they had to practice shooting baskets and the background was constantly changing, maybe they would learn to shoot ignoring the background. Larry Bird was one of the best shooters (% wise) in the history of the NBA. I read somewhere that he practiced his shooting in low light conditions. Maybe this is a way of cancelling out the background information in the visual field.

[ProjectGSX]

Unfamiliar sight lines.

[Eddy from Austin]

Let's move back to the Alamodome for the playoffs!

[dunkman]

Crowd hostility and noise.

[rooster]

It is because most players these days just don't work hard enough on their outside game, all they want to do is DUNK and look good doing it.