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The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016)

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Re: The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016)

#221

Post by desert_rue »

nottorp wrote: post #208

Curious: any people around who trained themselves to do fine control activities (writing but not only) with their non dominant hand? How did that go? Being forced in school or because of an accident doesn't count; curious if anyone did it on their own, voluntarily.

I have an older sibling who is left Andes and challenged me to use my left hand since they could use both. So I’m at about a typical left handed person’s level of dexterity with their right hand. I switch off on tasks like shoveling or sweeping. I can write badly. Etc. I wouldn’t say it is useful, really.

Re: The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016)

#222

Post by Al-Khwarizmi »

_whiteCaps_ wrote: post #103
InMice wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Im also like that..randomly mixed. I write left, but use scissors always with right. Throw and kick are right, but swing and bat is left. Computer mouse left. Taking a phone call is always left hand on left ear...but holding phone to use or text is always right hand. Self check out? Back to left hand for that mostly Lol. If a backpack is on one shoulder it feels weird if it's not on my left shoulder despite being mor…

I thought that scissors were made to be right handed, and you need a 'reversed' pair for left handed people. Or is that a scam?

It's not a scam. My son is left-handed and his left-handed scissors don't work for me, while my right-handed scissors don't work for him.

I have never understood why, though. In my mind, if you rotate the scissors 180 degrees, they should become the other kind (assuming the handles are symmetric, not those ergonomic asymmetric ones, I mean). And I just don't see why not no matter how hard I think. I'm not a dumb person but I have always had a particular weakness to understand certain spatial-related things, e.g. that method to change the duvet cover where you roll it and unroll it and when you unroll it it ends up inside... for me, it might as well be magic :D

Re: The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016)

#223

Post by obfuscator »

zdragnar wrote: post #51

I write left handed, and use a fork in my left and knife in my right. Left hand for holding a phone or a drinking glass, and for shaving. I'm right eye dominant, though, so I throw, swing, shoot, use scissors, play instruments and use a mouse right handed. I'm not at all ambidextrous, I can't do most of those things with my other hand.

I am exactly like this. When I was learning to write I frequently changed hands, until my teacher told me, that I have 3 days to figure out with which hand I want to write. Left felt slightly better to me, but by that time I was eating like my completely right-handed family and using scissors with the right. I also play guitar as a right-handed would. I tried a left-handed bass for a bit and it was super awkward. It also means strumming is much harder for me than changing notes on the guitar. I struggled so hard with clawfinger banjo playing, that I gave it up.

All later skills, like shooting a bow, I do as a right-handed, since I am right-eyed. This is hard to do, since my left arm is much stronger than my right and you need more strength in the string-pulling arm.

I feel wrong and awkward a lot. Writing on a keyboard is very liberating. But when I was playing first person shooters in my teenage years, my aim (right-hand mouse) was always bad, while my footwork (left-hand WASD) was very good :D

Re: The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016)

#224

Post by tgv »

michaelteter wrote: post #160

I'm sure like many left-handers here, my right hand is nearly as dexterous as my left. Writing is the only thing I can do with left which I cannot do with right; other tasks are either equally natural or just a little awkward but still effective. But some right-handers who have been forced to (by breaking an arm for example) can learn to write with the left hand. I have to assume they could learn to be more ambidexte…

About feet...

I was forced to write right-handed at primary school. I can't write with left, but I'm ambidextrous. At work, I've got my mouse to the left, at home to the right. There's an 'inventory' if you want to check, the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory: https://brainmapping.org/shared/Edinburgh.php

Anyway, back on topic. I play musical keyboards, so that definitely helps being ambidextrous. But I also play classical organ, and my feet have no preference. Left is just as agile (or clumsy) as right. But that's not different for right-handed organists. So at least in that case, there doesn't seem to be a connection between handedness and feetedness.

This is of course just some observations, but it is rather obvious that we do use our legs/feet a lot, and almost always in a symmetrical fashion. And for turning corners while running and such, we need to be able to rely on strength and agility in both.

Re: The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016)

#225

Post by jstanley »

talldatethrow wrote: post #150
pram wrote: post #139

Just throwing in my left handed anecdote here: the bottom of my hand was always covered in pencil graphite when I was in school because your hand drags over what you've been writing from left -> right. Also ring binders were a pain in the ass (your hand is blocked at the left margin lol)

I'm also left handed and this was never an issue for me. You hold the pencil out from your fingers thus your hand is sitting slightly below the line that is being written, traveling over unused paper constantly. Only people that do that weird claw thing have that problem.

What's the claw thing?

Re: The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016)

#226

Post by guappa »

retrac wrote: post #41
pclmulqdq wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure why people have started to make reversed musical instruments. I saw a video with a reversed piano, calling it "left-handed." I am a left-handed person who plays the piano and I had always thought the keyboard was laid out like an ascending scale on paper rather than having something to do with handedness - low notes on the left and high notes on the right. The motions involved in playing music are so wei…

Piano music is mostly written by right-handers for right-handers. I'm strongly left-hand dominant. For music that's intended to be easy to play, the primary voice is almost always on the right hand. Where the music wants the most dexterity, I have the least. At the developed level where the composer doesn't give a damn about how easy it is for the musician to play, yes, both left and right-handers have to figure out…

You ever played Bach?

Re: The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016)

#227

Post by jedberg »

michaelteter wrote: post #160

I'm sure like many left-handers here, my right hand is nearly as dexterous as my left. Writing is the only thing I can do with left which I cannot do with right; other tasks are either equally natural or just a little awkward but still effective. But some right-handers who have been forced to (by breaking an arm for example) can learn to write with the left hand. I have to assume they could learn to be more ambidexte…

> But some right-handers who have been forced to (by breaking an arm for example) can learn to write with the left hand.

I'm right handed and taught myself to write left handed out of boredom. In college I would just start taking notes with my left hand in classes where they prof conveyed information slowly enough that I had the time to do it. It was a good way to stay engaged and awake.

As a consequence I can still today, 25 years later, write with both hands (although to be fair, my handwriting is terrible with both hands so that could be why it's hard to tell the difference).

Re: The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016)

#228

Post by n4r9 »

giraffe_lady wrote: post #140
Melatonic wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It could also be that when fighting (pre guns) people with left handed weapons took normal right handers off guard (sort of like how in baseball a leftie might throw off other players). I can imagine in a sword battle if you are used to fighting people right handing swords that suddenly fighting a left handed person could be unexpected and disadvantage you. Where I am going with this is that it might not be that left…

Yes left-handed advantage is a major thing in combat sports including fencing. IIRC close to 50% of professional boxers and fencers are left handed, which is similar to the rate for pitchers I believe.

This study suggests 25% among top-rate boxers: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286024810_The_influ...

Which is still higher than average, and around the level seen in more violent societies. I think it makes sense that it wouldn't get up to 50% since you're sampling from a smaller pool in the first place.

Re: The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016)

#229

Post by jstanley »

Al-Khwarizmi wrote: post #222
_whiteCaps_ wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought that scissors were made to be right handed, and you need a 'reversed' pair for left handed people. Or is that a scam?

It's not a scam. My son is left-handed and his left-handed scissors don't work for me, while my right-handed scissors don't work for him. I have never understood why, though. In my mind, if you rotate the scissors 180 degrees, they should become the other kind (assuming the handles are symmetric, not those ergonomic asymmetric ones, I mean). And I just don't see why not no matter how hard I think. I'm not a dumb pers…

When you say they don't work, do you mean they don't cut, or they just feel awkward?

If they don't cut, it's because your fingers are pulling the blades apart instead of pushing them together.

If they just feel awkward, it's because the blade that is on "top" is obscuring your view of the cut, because the sharp edge is facing away from you.

Rotating the scissors doesn't turn them into the other kind for the same reason that rotating yourself doesn't turn you into a mirror image.

Re: The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016)

#230

Post by obfuscator »

So many left-handers here that feel disadvantaged in our right-handed society. If you ever want to do one thing where you feel you left-handedness gives you an advantage, pick up Kendo (the Japanese swordfighting). You have to wield your sword like everybody else but the aiming is done with your left while the right just provides the power for the stroke (the katana is a two-handed weapon). Since you are not supposed to fully power your slashes anyway, I felt being left-handed is a slight advantage in Kendo.
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