Right or left handed?

George,

I am am right handed, my Dad is left handed.  My son however writes left handed, but plays guitar and tennis right handed.  When he plays rugby or football he favours his left hand or foot. Confused?  It does not seem to bother him in the slightest.

Regards

Nic

I was forced to write right handed at school but as I get older (53 now) I find I do more things left handed without realising it.

Just let nature take its course as the body and mind will always revert back to type.

Left or right handed or a bit of both does not matter and at least these days kids are not forced to comply to the assumed right handed norm.

George,

I have always been right-handed. Curiously though, I favour my left leg over my right leg,eg. when kicking the cat, out of frustration at not being able to afford Naim (only joking!). I wonder if people are usually totally "one-sided", or if it is common to favour the use of a leg on the opposite side to the hand? I have always had a lazy right eye - don't know if that may be significant.

Peter

It is interesting to watch this developing in our daughter who was five months old yesterday.

Both Sarah and me are right handed, but Ella (our daughter) definitely favours he left had when pushing food into her mouth, and also grabs her toes better with that hand.

Interestingly in the baby bouncer she tends to lift her left leg and use her right leg to push herself up and make her bounce.

Perhaps it is too early for any definite pattern to have developed, but we do suspect that she will be a 'south paw'.

My twins sons are oposites, one left the other right handed.  I am told that is common with identical twins - I wonder how common that might be?  any one has some experience on this.

The lefty is a mixture, writes left, eats right, gets on a bike as a right hander & can do a lot of stuff ambidextrous. He has a left handed son who is completely left sided, he is mad about football (shame) & is very good at it,  but only has one foot.  We remain in the hope he will see the light & go for the oval ball.

I' fully right handed but am both footed with rugby & hit a cricket bat both sides, my left side is textbook perfect for straight bat defensive stuff.     

I masturbate right handed but hit a cricket bat left.

I was forced to write right handed in infants and junior school but mercifully was free to  write left handed at secondary school.

Tennis, squash, fencing - left handed

Cricket - bowl left handed - bat right handed

Football,rugby - left footed

Judo - used to throw either side

Boxing - orthodox (usually the other way round for a left handed person)

cycling - either way with no problem

Golf - (not that I would be seen dead playing that ridiculous game) right handed.

PC mouse - right handed

guitar - right handed

sawing - left hande

painting - either hand

Nice information Jim,  

What happens when you get to 99,  but I guess you struggle counting big numbers.

Totally right handed for everything.....except I catch much better with my left hand.

Willy.

I'm left-handed for writing but right-handed for guitar playing, cricket & golf. Left handed for tennis and fishing, left-footed for football etc.

My grandfather used to tell my dad off for allowing me to write "Cack-handed" as he called it. Apparently forcing someone to write with their less dominant hand can cause stuttering. Left-handers are generally more creative & have better proprioception (the ability to follow objects in motion) hence the relatively greater percentage of left-handed tennis players. But then we tend to be more neurotic...

One of my wife's elderly and slightly dotty patients saw her writing left handed and said 'That means your brain is on the wrong side of your head you know.'

One skill my wife has she associates with being left handed is to be able to mirror-write with complete ease. She reminds me she shares that trait with Leonardo Da Vinci (but the similarities tend to end there).

I also note that my Father (who is now  80) was repeatedly beaten at school for showing left-handed tendencies. As a result he writes and eats Rt handed but naturally uses his left for skilled tasks. He also stammerred as a child.

Bruce (utterly Rt dominant)

Another right hander here. I can do somethings left handed if required.

My father in law was another one who was beaten at school because he wrote left handed, I don't know whether he ever stammered.

Sorry, meant to type stammering rather than stuttering.

I read somewhere that although roughly 80% of europeans are right-handed, in certain parts of the world people are predominantly left-handed.

What is the difference, please?

None.  They are just 2 different terms for the same thing.

Back on topic, one of my sisters was right handed until the age of 2 when she developed polio (this was before the days of immunisation) and was left with a paralysed right arm.  Since then she has, of course, functioned as a "leftie".  Doesn't seem to have done her any harm, and she even managed to get pass her SRN exams and work as a ward sister. 

We weren't off topic as it is directly linked to the OP's question. 

left handed

Right handed, particularly for anything requiring any strength. I broke my left arm badly when I was 12 (back of my left hand was sitting on my left elbow) and it took ages and three ops and a metal plate to fix so it's still much thinner than my right. I can easily sign my name simultaneously with both hands though, in reverse with the left.

My younger son is a leftie, I guess from his maternal grandfather.

I am indisputably left-handed by nature. As the world in general is designed for right-handed people, I think all left-handed people to a lesser or greater extent tend to end up doing some things right-handed.

I have always eaten with a knife and fork the right-handed way simply because that is the way it was laid out, but as a child I can remember instead of cutting my food with the knife, tending to use the knife as an anchor and tear the food away with my fork. I have noticed my left-handed son doing the same thing. Also if I eat with just a spoon or fork on its own, I always hold this in my left hand.

Similarly, I use a computer mouse the right handed way; as I have to use computers in a variety of locations it is generally too much hassle to change it.

I also learnt to play guitar right-handed although I always use this as an excuse for my limited ability!    

I'm always puzzled by why, when presented with a guitar, violin etc. we tend to use our less dominant hand to hold the neck & do the fingering of the frets.

With regard to stammering vs. stuttering, I felt stammering was more specific to an individual; stuttering these days tends to be used also for skipping CDs and the like.

Dear Tony,

Through the stopping of the strings for the violin group of instruments with the [usually] left hand means that the less accurate hand is used, it is the bow which creates the sound quality to a very large extent [though left hand technique must be good for clear tone].

But the dominant right hand is more valuable for creating tonal and dynamic gradations, and creating the "touch" - the degree of legato or stacato - as well as controlling rhythm. Some left handed players actually use a left handed instrument, and thus are able to use their dominant left hand for the bow.

At least on fretless instruments, the technique is based on hours of practice with scales and arpegios to make a muscular memory, so that the notes can be accurately in tune with minimal correction by ear. Of course a good ear is also necessary, and an agile left hand to correct any small errors so fast that the listener may not even hear the correction.

Hope that helps a little.

ATB from George

Thanks for that George. I must admit the holding of instruments like the violin and guitar always puzzled me, as it did for Tony.

I also always wondered if anyone had ever made a 'left handed piano', ie. where the high notes ae to the left of the keyboard. It would seem from your explanation that it would not give any particular advantage.

If my daughter turns out to be left handed, the one thing I did think might be a hassle is if she wishes to play my drum kit, she would probably want to have it set as a mirror image. Not too hard to do, but all the memory locks would have to be juggled around. I hold hopes that she will play guitar, or perhaps bass. Sarah would like her to play piano. I suspect she will get plenty of opportunity to try different instruments and make her own choice.

Dear George,

I understand the points you make regarding the fine control one needs to have over the bow when playing a violin, yet the puzzle remains; if you hand someone the instrument for the first time, be it guitar or violin, even though they have never held one before, they will nevertheless adopt the position of fingering with the less dominant hand. Odd...

Not too sure about that Tony

My left handed grandson picked up my trumpet first time (aged 3) the wrong way round, fingers on the left - his dominant side.  With my guitars he always goes left handed, fingering on right - non dominant side. 

No answers but just like you say - odd