The hot hand phenomenon, the conviction that an athlete is more likely to make a great shot if the previous shot was great, has been the subject of much debate. Is it real, or is it another sports myth kept alive by know-it-all spectators? Now comes research from Yale University suggesting that it really does work. A Yale news release reports that in October, computational biologists found a significant increase in basketball players’ chances of hitting the second free throw in a two-shot series if the first shot was a hit. Now the scientists have applied the theory to bowling, When the researchers analyzed large amounts of data from the 100 top bowlers in the Professional Bowling Association, they found that bowlers who had good results in the first eight frames of a game had a greater chance of bowling a strike in the last two frames. How does that work? More research is needed. Read more from Yale University.