Four Simple Principles of Hot Hand Research

1	Players and teams go on streaks (e.g., a basketball player hitting 10 straight shots or a baseball team winning 12 straight games). No one disputes this.
2	Announcers and fans often assume some kind of special psychological or physical state on the part of the athlete(s), such as seeing the ball better or being "in the zone."
3	Even random processes with inanimate objects, such as coin-flipping, can yield occasional long steaks (e.g., eight straight heads).
4	Hot hand research seeks to determine whether sports streaks are more pronounced than what might occur by chance.