Scientist takes a hadoken to the face and lives to tell about it.

[highwind]

Re: Scientist takes a hadoken to the face and lives to tell about it.

ALTERNATELY LIFTING BIG TOES ARE THE ULTIMATE DEFENSE.

[Czechs Mex]

Re: Scientist takes a hadoken to the face and lives to tell about it.

Science vs. Basketball

If a basketball player starts hitting many of his shots, you hear announcers say all the time that he has the "hot hand", and that the players should pass him the ball and let him start taking control.

(i.e. "HE'S ON FIRE" in NBA Jam.)

Funny thing is, despite the intuition of Midway Entertainment, NBA announcers, coaches, and players at all different levels, the "hot hand" effect doesn't actually exist. In other words, when someone starts nailing 3-pointers, he is not "feeling it", and will not hit his next shot with any greater probability than usual. He just happened to hit a few shots in a row, and we incorrectly see a pattern in that.

I found this very surprising the first time I heard it.

http://www.rawbw.com/~deano/articles/aa121896.htm

[ErikaFuzzbottom]

Re: Scientist takes a hadoken to the face and lives to tell about it.

That video ended with "But there is another explanation." But they didn't say! Or maybe they did, but it was simply cut out of the video, like a lot of things seemed to be.

But man, that part at the end. He had his tongue positioned wrong? Literal

[Drazus]

Re: Scientist takes a hadoken to the face and lives to tell about it.

I believe in Chi energy, but that guy is most likely fraud. I've seen Xiaolin monks in China take blows to the head with a wooden pole and not even flinch, not even leave a mark. But this guy's just weird. The pressure points are more believable though.

Also, on the basketball thing, you forgot about psychological factors. If I'm feeling good, either from confidence or adrenaline, I notice I do stuff more efficiantly. The chance of a good or bad outcome is affected a small bit by the person themself.

[Denmo]

Re: Scientist takes a hadoken to the face and lives to tell about it.

It's all about a state of mind, not this invisible energy. Xaolin monks train constantly to center their focus on the task at hand, whether it be meditation, breaking a brick, or sustaining a blow.

It just goes to show, mind over matter.

[Magus]

Re: Scientist takes a hadoken to the face and lives to tell about it.

OR PCP OVER MATTER M I RITE

[Czechs Mex]

Re: Scientist takes a hadoken to the face and lives to tell about it.

Also, on the basketball thing, you forgot about psychological factors. If I'm feeling good, either from confidence or adrenaline, I notice I do stuff more efficiantly. The chance of a good or bad outcome is affected a small bit by the person themself.

That's the thing; the study is saying none of these factors exist. They took the statistics of the Philadelphia 76ers for a season and a half, and calculated
1. The probability that player A makes a shot
2. The probability that player A makes a shot, GIVEN that he just made his last shot (or 2 shots, etc.)

What they found is these probabilities were not statistically different. So hitting your last X shots does not provide any further information about whether you will hit your next shot.

You may feel more confident you will hit your next shot, but it doesn't actually make you more likely to do it.

I agree that the results are counter-intuitive, but it's difficult to argue with the statistics. I'd love to hear some reasoning against this study, though.

[JPS]

Re: Scientist takes a hadoken to the face and lives to tell about it.

Well extensive training will make you make every shot, granted all conditions are perfect every shot, because you learn how hard, the pitch, and how to throw it to make a shot using the conditions set forth, so if you have the time you can train yourself to make the basket every single time

BUT, the problem with that is so many things change so that you cannot make the shot everytime, such as temperature, humidity, wind, noise, other movement around you, etc... all of these play a role in the factor of whether youll miss it or not, so in a sense you not only have to get skilled in how to throw the ball to make the basket, you also have to get skilled into make that ball into the basket in different conditions

The more shots you make in a row the more paranoid youre going to get about missing the next one, adrenaline causes loss of focus because high levels of adrenaline causes minor muscle vibrations/spasms that can greatly increase the odds of missing

[IRC]

Re: Scientist takes a hadoken to the face and lives to tell about it.

But with such a thing as sports being confident you'll make the shot can mean a world of difference. With basketball for example, having made your previous shot might make you more likely to attempt another shot instead of passing the ball to another teammate or something.

As far as it being harnessing your chi, I don't know, but I can believe the mind's a complicated thing and we don't know what's going on. It's like that theory or whatever about how we don't have concious thought because electrical activity happens in the brain after you do something. Do our brains just perceive chemical reactions after they occur or is there some part of concious thought that we can't detect yet?

Or to put it another way, if your teacher fries your brain can you communicate with aliens through telepathy?

[Czechs Mex]

Re: Scientist takes a hadoken to the face and lives to tell about it.

Well extensive training will make you make every shot, granted all conditions are perfect every shot, because you learn how hard, the pitch, and how to throw it to make a shot using the conditions set forth, so if you have the time you can train yourself to make the basket every single time

Well, even if conditions were constant, we would not see people making every single shot they took. They would certainly get very good, but nobody is capable of having that level of control over their body.

It's like in video game bowling - even if you hit the exact same place on the power and spin meters every time, there's usually still some noise the game adds to your roll (in real life you could reduce this with practice, but not eliminate it).

The more shots you make in a row the more paranoid youre going to get about missing the next one, adrenaline causes loss of focus because high levels of adrenaline causes minor muscle vibrations/spasms that can greatly increase the odds of missing

See my response to Drazus's post. You're saying that the probability of making a shot will DECREASE after you've made a few, but what they found is that the probability remains the same as it always was.

But with such a thing as sports being confident you'll make the shot can mean a world of difference. With basketball for example, having made your previous shot might make you more likely to attempt another shot instead of passing the ball to another teammate or something.

YES. This is very true. Making your last few shots doesn't increase your probability of MAKING a shot, but it may increase your probability of TAKING a shot.

If your star player feels like he has the hot hand, he may start shooting more. Your team may start performing better, because your star player probably has a higher chance of making his shots regardless.

[JPS]

Re: Scientist takes a hadoken to the face and lives to tell about it.

Well Im sure the mind is capable of things way beyond our comprehension, we just havent learned how to harness it yet, but I dont believe the movement of physical objects without the use of physical interaction, it defies logic....and common sense

EDIT TO ADD

See my response to Drazus's post. You're saying that the probability of making a shot will DECREASE after you've made a few, but what they found is that the probability remains the same as it always was.

How can it be the same, on your first shot, youre calm, relaxed, and can concentrate on the shot, you make it....good....now 60 minutes later youre about to make the last shot of the game, if you make it, you win, if you dont, youll be ridiculed by your fellow teammates forever....youre nervous, shaking, sweating....theyre saying that the probability of you making that first shot and that last shot is exactly the same? I dont see how