On 14/01/2011 09:50 AM, scott wrote:
>> I didn't practise at all yesterday, but I had a go just now. After
>> several 4s and 5s, I somehow managed to pull off 51 consecutive catches,
>> utterly /annihilating/ my previous personal best of 16. That's over 3x
>> better performance!
>
> Yeh it's funny how your body is capable of learning stuff like that,
> isn't it? Reminds me of learning to do tricks on my bike, I went through
> a similar process of how many times I could bounce on the rear wheel, at
> first it seems impossible, then before you know it you can just go on
> for as long as you want.

Partly it seems to follow from the mathematics of the geometric 
distribution. (The number of consecutive successes is not linearly 
dependent on success probability; after a certain point, potential chain 
length skyrockets.) But partly it's probably something to do with the 
inner workings of the human brain. Playing BWV590 used to seem almost 
impossibly difficult. Today I do it while not even paying attention. And 
it didn't take as long as you might imagine to reach this point.

The high throws are actually easier to catch than the low throws. 
Presumably because you have far more time to react. Indeed, the hardest 
part of catching a high throw is having the nerve to stand directly 
under an object that's accelerating towards the ground at almost ten 
meters per second squared! o_O

Also: You cannot practise high throws indoors. It doesn't work.

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