Volleyball stunk this evening--not enough good players. Then everyone decided to leave early.

I wasn't anxious to leave, and, caught up in the spirit of March madness, I decided to shoot basketball for a bit.

As I picked up the ball, a curious thought popped into my head: "Wouldn't it be neat to make ten free throws in a row?"

So I started shooting from the foul line.

Unsurprisingly, I was rusty at first (I shoot very infrequently), but I expected to rapidly regain the old shooting touch.

As I continued, I started hitting more shots, but I couldn't get any rhythm in my delivery. The hits and misses were far too random to sustain streaks. After 100 or so shots, I had manage to hit eight in a row once, and five in a row a few times, but the ten-shot milestone didn't seem any closer than when I started. It doesn't take an MIT mathematician to figure out that if you're shooting ~60% it could take a long time to hit 10 shots in a row.

But brushed aside the negativism and kept shooting, scientifically analyzing my mechanics and hoping to get hot.

At last I started feeling it. I made not 10 shots in a row, but 16!

What's the lesson here? If you ever feel like you're up against an insurmountable physical challenge, keep trying. Think of Velo Vol nailing the free throws and it will propel you to victory.

The end.

P.S. I retain the rights to this inspiring story in the event it is picked up by Hollywood.