As far as equipment, cestas and the like, I couldnt really say
as my playing experience consists of trying to throw the ball
around maybe 3 times in my life, but I'd imagine it could effect
players substantially.
I think Perry summed it up pretty well, there might be some influence
on players in differences between canchas, but it would be fractional
and probably relatively easily adjusted to by great players.
In the days when Miami had the really low upper screen, most people
always thought that would be a big hinderance for Dania players
in the Dania/Miami challenge, particularly the backcourters, while
both frontons involved tended to have some "home court advantage"
it wasnt like Dania backcourters in the challenges went down to
Miami and chucked everything into the roof.
I do however, think there are, in some small measure, differences
that would effect a players overall effectiveness, but again,
I think its slight.
As an example, take Goico, who I view as the best player in the
world. I think the Miami court is more suited to his game, with
his height and reach and desire to play all over the court, the
Miami court, which still has the lower top screen and the different
bounces, allows him to play very deep for a frontcourter and dictate
more play than Dania frontcourters generally can. At Dania, with
the higher top screen, more moonball left sides coming from the
backcourt, and bigger bounces to the frontcourt rebote, I dont
think he could play as deep as he likes to at Miami. Would he
still be the best player at Dania? In my opinion, absolutely yes,
he would, but maybe not quite as dominant as he is at Miami, and
he'd have to get used to letting his backcourter play more than
he tends to at Miami.
On the flip side, I can think of some backcourters at Miami (Garro
and Pedrouzo come to mind) that are excellent catchers and place
the ball reasonably well, but arent particularly powerful and
because of the lower arc thats forced in Miami, get more shots
cut off by frontcourters than they might at Dania.
Basically, I think that ultimately the talent shines out. I remember
when Arregui came to Dania from Palm Beach, the Palm Beach cancha
was shorter and wider than Dania, and a lot of people thought
that because he didnt have a big power game, and his game revolved
so much around 2 walls, that he was going to be significantly
hindered, obviously anybody who looks up his career stats knows
that hasnt been the case.
