So at 57 I finally confirmed that my dad forced me to be right handed. Apparently when I was a toddler I showed a preference for being left handed and he would push for things to be done right handed.
I was always decidedly mediocre at ball sports. Hand writing always legible but definitely not pretty. Now that I pay attention, things that don’t have an obvious “hand”, I do predominantly left handed. But can switch back and forth. If I pick up a gun, I shoot left handed. Shoot pool left handed. Lots of every day activities I do with my left. I always assumed I was just somewhat ambidextrous.
The conversation came back up working in the yard. I thought my wife was using a hoe with the wrong hand and that was why she was slow. Nope, turns out that’s the way RH people hold it. Again can switch sides easily.
My brother had thrown out an offhand comment a while back that I thought nothing of. So I asked more and yep, every time I’d do something with my left hand my mom and dad would switch it to my right.
I’m curious if I would have been better at things like baseball or basketball if I had used my actual dominant hand more .
Now I am off to buy a left handed golf club to see if I suck the same from both sides.
But your mention of how you fire a gun reminded me of eye dominance: which of your eyes is dominant? In my case, l am left-eyed, but am right-handed. So l fire a long gun left handed.
You should thank your dad for making you ambidextrous.
Yeah it is more a curiosity now than anything. The sports thing is more just for laughs. I’m just not very fast and as a kid, very undersized. So football, basketball, baseball were just not going to cut it. My success was always going to be determined in the classroom. Though I am going to try putting left-handed for kicks.
But your mention of how you fire a gun reminded me of eye dominance: which of your eyes is dominant? In my case, l am left-eyed, but am right-handed. So l fire a long gun left handed.
We’re almost twins!
My dominance is slight, left eye, right hand. Normal foot in water skiing.
Shooting (shotguns or rifle), closing the left eye works fine.
Handwriting is atrocious, L or R
So at 57 I finally confirmed that my dad forced me to be right handed. Apparently when I was a toddler I showed a preference for being left handed and he would push for things to be done right handed.
I was always decidedly mediocre at ball sports. Hand writing always legible but definitely not pretty. Now that I pay attention, things that don’t have an obvious “hand”, I do predominantly left handed. But can switch back and forth. If I pick up a gun, I shoot left handed. Shoot pool left handed. Lots of every day activities I do with my left. I always assumed I was just somewhat ambidextrous.
The conversation came back up working in the yard. I thought my wife was using a hoe with the wrong hand and that was why she was slow. Nope, turns out that’s the way RH people hold it. Again can switch sides easily.
My brother had thrown out an offhand comment a while back that I thought nothing of. So I asked more and yep, every time I’d do something with my left hand my mom and dad would switch it to my right.
I’m curious if I would have been better at things like baseball or basketball if I had used my actual dominant hand more .
Now I am off to buy a left handed golf club to see if I suck the same from both sides.
Now I am off to buy a left handed golf club to see if I suck the same from both sides.
Only tangentially related, but Justin Sandercoe, one of the biggest online guitar teachers, set out a few years back to try to learn to play guitar left handed, so he could better experience what his students were going through as they tried to learn to make their hands do what they’re supposed to do when playing. Interesting experiment.
So at 57 I finally confirmed that my dad forced me to be right handed. Apparently when I was a toddler I showed a preference for being left handed and he would push for things to be done right handed.
I was always decidedly mediocre at ball sports. Hand writing always legible but definitely not pretty. Now that I pay attention, things that don’t have an obvious “hand”, I do predominantly left handed. But can switch back and forth. If I pick up a gun, I shoot left handed. Shoot pool left handed. Lots of every day activities I do with my left. I always assumed I was just somewhat ambidextrous.
The conversation came back up working in the yard. I thought my wife was using a hoe with the wrong hand and that was why she was slow. Nope, turns out that’s the way RH people hold it. Again can switch sides easily.
My brother had thrown out an offhand comment a while back that I thought nothing of. So I asked more and yep, every time I’d do something with my left hand my mom and dad would switch it to my right.
I’m curious if I would have been better at things like baseball or basketball if I had used my actual dominant hand more .
Now I am off to buy a left handed golf club to see if I suck the same from both sides.
I find this very interesting. My grandfather born 1910 mentioned something similar. You are a bit young to be put through this. My sister is left handed. By the time she happened left handed ok ( 50ish) how do you feel about this?
I believe I was born left handed. My parents didn’t force me to be right handed but I assume people always put stuff in my right hand when I was little.
I’m extremely left eye dominant. I shoot shoulder weapons left handed but handguns with my right hand. I switch hit in baseball but was better right handed. I was decent at lacrosse because it required being ambidextrous. I can throw and kick from both sides but much better with the right. When I was a kid I would grab a guitar and play it upside down and left handed. Not that I know how to play the guitar or anything. Just how I would pick it up and strum it. I now do it right handed. Guitar Hero changed that. 😀
I can’t write or play golf left handed though. Probably because I never tried to do either as a kid.
When I had a sling on my right arm for four months I got by just fine. The only thing I couldn’t do was at pho left handed.