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Introduction

Factors Affecting Performance How does having home team advantage affect sporting performance? Introduction In order to find out how having home team advantage affects sporting performance I have decided to undergo the role of a sport psychologist in order to get an outside view as this will help me to see how home team advantage affects sport on the whole, in particular my sport of choice which is football. This way I will not just be seeing the affects home team advantage has on just myself but on everybody. Home team advantage has been something that has affected me as I seem to play better when playing in front of a crowd that is supporting me. I would like to find out if it is the constant encouragement I receive when playing in front of a home crowd or if it is that I did not want to let anybody down who was supporting me which makes me perform better. Research Findings Team P Home Away Pts Goal Diff W D L F A W D L F A Man Utd 36 15 2 1 46 11 13 2 3 37 15 88 57 Chelsea 36 12 5 0 36 10 12 4 3 27 13 81 40 Liverpool 37 14 3 1 37 5 6 4 9 18 20 67 30 Arsenal 37 12 6 1 43 16 7 4 7 20 19 67 28 Everton 37 11 4 4 33 ...read more.

Middle

and low quality (70 teams). The major finding was that the majority of teams in the NHL won a greater percentage of their home games than their away games. The teams won an average of 17.3 per cent more games at home than away. There was no difference in the home advantage between the different classifications of team. The team with the greatest home advantage actually won 52.5 per cent more of their games at home than away. This study demonstrates the importance of the home environment for sports teams and indicates that it is strongly linked to winning. The 12th man is a term commonly used to describe the fans within a stadium during football matches. The rules of football allow a maximum of eleven players per team on the playing field at a time, the term 12th man means the attempt of a team's fans to help their team. Due to the very nature of fans, their presence can have a good impact on how the teams perform. A great example of a team that thrives off home team advantage is Chelsea who have not lost a game in the English Premiership at their home ground of Stamford Bridge in almost three years. Application to Performance In order to prove the advantages of being the home side I dedcided to carry out my own experiement to prove this. ...read more.

Conclusion

home team advantage doe have a positive effect on a teams performance as they have higher win rates at home whatever the standard of the team. I thought my research was useful in the fact that it answered the question I set out to answer of how home team advantage affects sporting performance. Although I never found any research to make me believe that home team advantage did not occur, the research I did find convinced me that home team advantage is an important aspect of a good team. This is obvious just at looking at ground density, for example, Man td have the biggest stadium in the division, have the best home record in the division and have just won the division, which is clear evidence that home team advantage has a great affect on a team. In conclusion I appreciate that the topic of home team advantage is an important factor for me to understand my sport of choice. This is because I now know why a team and an individual perform better when playing at home. Therefore I can now, when playing away from home, prepare myself mentally and hopefully now perform away from home as good as I would at home, as it is only psychological reasons why an individual performs better at home. Therefore I will become a more consistent performer which will in turn make me a better player. WORD COUNT = 1481 (Excluding Tables) Michael McDonnell ...read more.

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