I’m left handed. I’d rather write 130wpm with both hands than drag the heel of my hand through graphite or wet ink… -Vaarok
I am left-handed and I have never in my entire life used a pen that does not smear. Don’t tell me to use a different writing technique, because there simply is no comfortable way for a left hander to keep her hand entirely off the paper as she writes. -pax
What they said. The first time I seriously felt a pang of sympathy for our new President is when I watched him take pen in hand and awkwardly hook it around to sign the bill in front of him. Barack, I feel your pain.
It is not easy to make the letters when your pen is upside down and backwards; it's why I haven't written a single missive in script since I struggled my way, tongue sticking out the corner of my mouth in concentration, to a "C" in Third Grade Penmanship. It's been a block-printing world for me ever since.
This is a sharp divide, and one of the few places where it really is a right-hander’s world: Everything from fountain pens to soft lead pencils to spiral- and 3-ring notebooks to the manner of writing the words themselves seems designed to actually torture the poor southpaw. Handwriting recognition on a Palm or Newton? Fuggedaboutit, lefty; you make your letters backwards and HAL can't make heads or tails of what you're trying to say.
I'm sure there will be a southpaw in comments who claims that they love writing in longhand. Some people apparently love getting whipped while their mouth is stuffed full of a ball-gag, too. Hey, it’s a free country…
62 comments:
I admit to feeling a little giddy when I imagine the Americans with Disabilities Act forcing the right handed world to accommodate me.
But then I get over it.
I read once that Leonardo di Vinci
got around the problem by writing backward on the page, right to left. It took centuries for scholars to figure out what was going on.
Tam, you write about the topic as if you are left handed. But you shoot right handed. Are you cross eye dominate or something?
"Tam, you write about the topic as if you are left handed. But you shoot right handed. Are you cross eye dominate or something?"
It's easier for me to shoot right-handed than it is to look for left-handed holsters and guns. In most anything that doesn't involve superfine motor dexterity, it's just easier to knuckle under and play the right-hander's game.
I'm left-eye dominant, but have just learned to compensate...
Tam, I had no idea. I'm also a lefty - I eat, write, and do most tasks with my sinister side, but I shoot right handed because, like you, it's easier to get right handed holsters and guns. Plus I'm cross-eye dominant, so it works out.
I can't honestly say, "I feel your pain." But you do have my sympathy.
My oldest daughter, Kim, is right-handed but strongly left-eye dominate. She just about has to shoot long guns left-handed and we haven't quite figured out what is best for handguns.
In softball (second base, FWIW), I batted right-handed but threw LH.
Tam, we're in the same boat, left handed writing/right-handed shot. The smearing may be solved with Sakura Micron pens and decent paper; they have line widths narrow enough that what little ink is there dries quickly.
I admit it it all kinds of fun to flip a binder or whatever around the other way and mess with the other people in the class. They just don't see how its possible to do that.
Jim
Skaura pens are just the ticket for practing your Chinese characters as well.
Shootin' Buddy
Lefty as well. I write and swing a cudgel (OK baseball bat, even though I hate baseball) lefty, I shoot, kick and do most everything else right-handed. I don't have an eye dominance, so no two eyes open for me while shooting.
As a lefty, I too have virtually left scribing behind. Although Tam, the newer tablet PCs do a pretty good job of lefty recognition. I do give Gates & Company his due, they've always kept the lefty in mind with their mice and tech stuff.
Unlike those Hitachi bastards, I was told flat out by a Hitachi rep, while looking at their annotation tablet, that they don't care about lefties. To this day my department has not purchased a single product from Hitachi and we purchase >$1,000,000 annually of tech gear. Eat that you jerk! (not that I'm bitter)
I was, perhaps, one of the last surviving lefties of the "teach the lefties to write right or flunk'em" generation. It's been many years, yet I still can have strong emotional responses towards our educational system.
Married a lefty, son's a lefty. Everything is right with the world, but in this house, the scissors are built correctly.
I also shoot right handed -- but that's a pacemaker thing.
Oh crap, Hypnagogue. I had a teacher that did that to me too. Used to hit my hand with a ruler when I wrote with my left.
And people wondered why I hated school so much.
Okay, in the European script world being a lefty and penmanship is a problem, da Vinci figured it out, and Asians, Arabs and others don't write nor read in the same direction as we, and I finally figured out why Koreans do vertical script so often - message stick bundles laced together. Obama has a nice signature, however he winds up to write it - he does need slowed down.
Flip side, Alan, southpaws are stubborn. When I was in radio, we had an intern from one of the local colleges who happened to be from Japan. One day she was hangin' around Engineering when I was making notes with a new fountain pen.
"Oh! What a nice pen! May I?"
Handed her the pen and she jotted off some English and Japanese; can't speak to the forn writing but her chancery cursive was way better than mine. And just as I was about to comment, I realized she'd done all that left-handed, with nary a smear of ink: "Um, you're left-handed?"
Smiled and said, "Yes, but it took a lot of work to stay that way!" Had a nice chat about havin' to learn three different writing systems in grade school and what it was like being a lefty in a culture where "the nail that sticks up gets hammered down." Not every nail, it seems.
Technique involved curling the hand around and over but was trickier than the usual method -- and must have taken just about endless, determined practice.
Wow, I think we sinister types may actually make up a majority of Tam's readership.
I've started wondering about carry on the right-hand, again because finding left-handed holsters is so painful.
I've been thinking about switching to right hand pistol too. Funny thing is, I shoot better right handed. I think it's because I don't have 30+ years of bad habits stored in muscle memory on that side.
jet, could it be that this nation of cowards just won't have an honest dialogue? You've got one of your own, a Leftist, in charge now, by whatever sinister means. But dexterity will out.
On the other hand...
I knew it!
It's another sinister conspiracy...
Bruce
Crankyoldmanwithgun@yahoo.com
Preach it Sister!!!
Tam, the problem is simple, but likely incurable once it has become firmly established. I'll explain.
Begin with a simple observation: The situation is symmetric, and so there is no reason why a left-handed person cannot write as well with the left hand as a right-handed person can write with the right hand. Think not? I'll show you why this is true.
A right-handed student is typically taught, as I was, that the long axis of the page should be parallel to the right forearm. Thus, as the right hand writes, the right arm pivots at the shoulder and the right hand slides across the page under the part that was written on. This is easy. It involves minimum motion of the arm while writing, the letters are written right-side-up, and the writing hand never touches the written word.
A left-handed student who is properly taught does the same thing. Think of the symmetry of the situation. The page is oriented parallel to the left forearm. The left arm pivots at the shoulder and the left hand slides across the page under the part that was written on. This is easy. It involves minimum motion of the arm while writing, the letters are written right-side-up, and the writing hand never touches the written word.
The problem is that Lefties who write left-handed but cannot avoid smearing the page were not taught correctly how to orient their page when they write. The problem originates, in my observation, with a right-handed teacher who teaches students how to orient the page as the right-handed teacher was taught, without considering whether or not the student is right- or left-handed. Thus, the left-handed student orients the page as a right-handed student would, i.e. parallel to the right forearm, and can't avoid sliding his hand across the in the process of writing.
The problem with left-handed writing is not that it's a right-handed world, it's that there are many right-handed teachers who were not properly taught how to teach left-handed students.
So, here's a suggestion. Watch those who write left-handed. See how they orient the page relative to their writing hand. You'll see that those who were taught to orient the page properly, as I have described above, have no problem with writing while not smearing the page.
Now, consider the symmetry again. Watch a right-handed person write left-to-right without smearing the page. Observe that he could write right-to-left and not smear the page, couldn't he? This is the mirror image of the situation the left-handed person faces, and so the leftie could write without smearing the page by mirroring the rightie's method, couldn't he?
I don't know if the problem can be cured in any individual, but it could have been prevented in all of them.
I'm another sinister type...throw left, bat right. I'm right-eye dominant, so shooting right-handed is no problem. But writing? Bleah. I'm an engineer, so clear notes are essential...I just print in block letters, all capitals.
If I try to write in cursive even I have trouble reading what I've written. Writing the amounts long-hand on a check is amusing, but there's NOBODY who's going to successfully forge my signature freehand.
DJ,
"The problem is that Lefties who write left-handed but cannot avoid smearing the page were not taught correctly how to orient their page when they write. The problem originates, in my observation, with a right-handed teacher who teaches students how to orient the page as the right-handed teacher was taught, without considering whether or not the student is right- or left-handed."
Nope. I was taught to pivot my page opposite from you.
You are still not seeing the problem: Where I push the pen, you pull, and vice versa. Where a letter is correctly formed in script by starting at the left or the top, my fingers are poised to place the nib down on the right or at the bottom (and I can't tell where it is anyway because my hand is in the way.)
If you see a leftie with beautiful penmanship, remember that she is like Ginger Rogers: Doing everything Fred Astaire did, but backwards and in high heels....
I'm left handed and have had remarkable luck over the years with writing implements.
Pentel Energel pens are fantastic, and dry fast enough that they don't smear (see here for the type I like). Pilot's disposable fountain pens are also pretty good, so long as you're writing on reasonably absorbent paper.
When it comes to guns, however, there's a bit more limitation. I've learned to hit the magazine release with my left hand's middle finger, operate bolt-action rifles with my left hand (see the sniper in Saving Private Ryan for the procedure, if you haven't already), etc.
Fortunately, I shoot ARs a lot, and I can (but haven't bothered yet) install various left-handed parts if I were so inclined.
I should really start learning to shoot more right-handed, just for training. I used to switch shoulders with rifles in the army, but have fallen out of practice recently. Oh well.
Blackwing1--
Yeah, me too.
Even orienting the page as Rick R suggested only results in unsmeared crappy block lettering and cursive is also "fuggedaboutit".
Teachers never tried to change me from left to right, but as they tried to teach everything bass-ackwards led to much frustration on both sides.
The teachers got their revenge when I tried to teach my right-handed sons anything requiring dexterity.
And let's not even get into typing and piano-playing.
Shooting right-handed was the "natural" way for me, even before I considered holsters and accoutrement.
You have no idea how it distressed me to discover that I have anything in common with The Jug-Eared Lightbringer.
Is it time for the Proverbial second look at Hebrew?
It's a classical language, you know.
"Nope. I was taught to pivot my page opposite from you.
You are still not seeing the problem: Where I push the pen, you pull, and vice versa. Where a letter is correctly formed in script by starting at the left or the top, my fingers are poised to place the nib down on the right or at the bottom (and I can't tell where it is anyway because my hand is in the way.)
If you see a leftie with beautiful penmanship, remember that she is like Ginger Rogers: Doing everything Fred Astaire did, but backwards and in high heels...."
Hmmm ...
I have known many lefties who orient the page properly and had no difficulty writing. One in particular had beautiful penmanship.
Without actually watching you write, I would be just making things up, so I won't speculate further.
But it makes me wonder. Do righties write Hebrew legibly without smearing it?
I have a feeling that the penmanship is completely different.
...and it's not impossible for a lefty to have great penmanship in English cursive; it's just orders of magnitude harder of a skill for us to acquire. It's no wonder that most of us find it a chore or just don't find it worth the investment now that keyboards make it a largely redundant skill.
Those of us who are left-handed are in our right minds.
Neurologically speaking.
(Whoops: I forgot the point of my comment, which was to point out thet the "ink-smearing" thing is only about 1/4th of the problem. The rest is caused by the stucture of the script itself, not being able to see what you're writing when you hold the pen the way the teacher tells you tom and the fact that most side-bound notebooks are awkward for lefties to use. This can all build up tremendous levels of antipathy towards the process itself.
I can express my ideals with the written word just fine, apparently; thankfully I don't need to use tree pulp and squid juice to do it anymore...)
"tom" = "to"
"ideals" = "ideas"
Dear Blogger,
A way to edit comments would be awesome. kthxbye!
Saith DJ,
"But it makes me wonder. Do righties write Hebrew legibly without smearing it?"
Yes.
But I think it's like Tam theorizes, the penmanship is different (for one thing, even though there is a "cursive" form of Hebrew, it isn't like the "cursive" form of English where all the letters of a word are tied together -- it's more like a shorthand script version of the block lettering). It seems as natural to me to write right to left in Hebrew as it is for me to write left to right in English, and I don't drag my hand through it in the process.
In point of fact, I just realized that it hurts my hand less to write in Hebrew than it does to write in English...I must be holding my hand differently, but I'll be damned if I can figure out how. It's very subtle, whatever it is.
As a right hander I would have no clue here ... but I'll try jumping in anyway ...
Could a southpaw simply flip the paper upside down, and write legibly but upside down, from right to left, and do the lines from the bottom of the page to the top?
It might take an awful lot of practice, but it would require no insane hand postures, and once the paper was flipped back, would look just fine.
It's not just southpaws, it's anyone outside the norm.
Between first and second grade I became the giant of the class, and stayed about three grades ahead in height until the last two years of school. My apologies to the rest of you who are normally-proportioned, but I hated living in your munchkin world.
I also had a problem with smearing the page, because I have these long-fingered, alien-like hands with huge thumbs, and there wasn't a day of school where I didn't have blue- or gray-tinted skin from my little finger down to my wrist bones. (Luckily every shirt had sleeves that were too short, so I never got any on my clothes.) It was also hard to see what I was writing unless I hunched over my work. Pens were too thin to grasp close to the tip, and I applied too much pressure most of the time, so that anything less than a medium-point pen would tear the paper.
Then there's the issue of midget-sized school furniture. I had a reputation for bad posture while sitting. Hey, teach, you try sitting at one of these low desks, where your work is a mile away. They'd tell me to push in my seat so people could get by. It was in! My knees were pushing so hard against the desk's leg supports that I had sores on them most of the time.
And I've spent the rest of my life hitting my head on lights and decorations, smashing my kneecaps on dashboards, and accidentally elbowing short people who stand too close. I once tried to drive my father's Corvette, but it was like sitting in the pink Barbie version. Second place goes to the redesigned, late-80s Thunderbird.
And then there's red-green color blindness. No one understands that one, so it's not worth arguing over. My worst fear is that some asshole is going to design a new compact traffic light where multiple colors appear behind a single lens.
Tam ~
Like you, I write left, shoot right. Actually shoot almost equally well with either hand as the dominant, but use my right by preference most of the time. Don't have a strong dominant eye, so I simply switch eyes when I switch hands.
Always have had lots of fun in firearms classes when they get to the teaching block about shooting around left-side cover. I just switch hands and keep going without a pause, finding that considerably easier than any of the contortions righties usually need to do around left-side cover (and vice versa). Actually, I did just switch hands as needed, right up until I reached the point where I was supposed to help instruct that block -- then I had to learn to do it all four ways, including necessary contortions (right hand right eyes, left hand right eye, left hand right eye, left hand left eye), so I could demo all of them. Joy!
It's too bad the same isn't required of right-handed schoolteachers theorizing about the "correct" way for a lefty to push a pen across the paper.
I'm right-handed, but in 8th grade algebra, the prettiest girl in class sat to my left, and couldn't do algebra to save her life. I learned to write with my left hand just for that class (yes, so she could cheat off me).
Of course, I never got anywhere with the girl. But I eventually married a math major. I definitely came out ahead, since she has both looks and brains.
Add another Left hander in a right handed world to Tam's readership. The only thing I do right handed is run a computer.
I learned to shoot lefty, even though I'm mostly right eye dominant. I'm still a pretty decent shot with a rifle, but my pistol shooting still needs a fair amount of work. And I'm debating going right handed for the very reason Tam has listed.
Its hellishly hard to find good lefthanded holsters.
I have a funny story from chatting with the gun department guy at Sportsman's warehouse. I'd just finished my concealed carry permit class (which, should be in the mail any day now, whoo!) and I was looking around at Commander model 1911s as an option for CCW (still haven't decided)
Anyway, I asked the guy at the counter if he could get the Kimber I was looking at with an ambi-safety and mag release. He looked at me funny and was like "Why, you intending to do a lot of offhand shooting?"
Obviously having not noticed I handled the gun almost completely left handed.
"No sir, I'm just left handed."
"Oh well... that does change things a mite."
-Jon
I was all set to comment on certain symmetries of the problem and DJ beat me to it. I write lefty, shoot righty. In school when the teachers tried to teach me that crazy curl your hand around upside down backwards jazz, my reaction was fuck-you. (Well, I did not actually say that to a teacher--think wooden paddles in the office) I write just like a right handed person, but with my left hand (going right-left not left-right so not quite like a mirror image right hander). I do not have trouble smearing and I can see what I'm writing. I think I get Tam's point about push vs. pull though, so I'll think on that. I do have some special left handed fountain pens, but they don't work with my technique.
I shoot right handed because they did not have left handed rifles during training (BSA), and I just got used to it. Very few handguns (any?) are truly ambidextrous. While I do practice some lefty shooting, I mostly go right handed. With things like scissors, I just gave up and learned to use my right hand. Not hard to do. I'm only mildly insane as a result. (twitch, twitch)
When my shoulder was really screwed up for a year or better I ordered four or five different left hand IWB holsters for the HiPower, the 1911, and the CZ-75. What I found was it was no trick at all for a right handed/right eye dominant shooter to switch over to the dark side and shoot left handed.
I had more trouble with guns lacking an ambi safety more than anything else.
As for the writing difficulties; this has been very informative.
All The Best,
Frank W. James
Being ambidextrous, my problem was teachers forcing me to pick a hand (especially at the chalkboard). I'd start with my left hand, and switch to my right hand half way across the board. I did the same thing on paper sometimes, or I'd switch from one assignment to the next.
Eventually, they forced me to my right hand. My left handed writing still looks like I'm in first or second grade (and I'm still mad about that).
On the other hand (heh) I never minded getting the left handed scissors, either. I shoot just as well left-handed, and can use either eye equally easily.
"I think I get Tam's point about push vs. pull though, so I'll think on that."
I don't. "Push" vs. "pull" is determined by how the pen is held, as anyone who learns drafting is (or was) taught. When drafting (as I was taught), the pen or pencil is always pulled along the paper, never pushed.
When I write, the pen or pencil slants toward my hand, leaning neither left nor right. In terms of moving from the left to the right, it is neither pulled nor pushed along the page, rather it slides sideways from the left to the right. And, I can see both what I have written and where I am about to write at all times.
Apparently it works, as I have very legible handwriting and always have. So, I confess that I do not understand the problem. But that's all right, though (wink, wink), as it's not my problem.
Sigh, dang, and here I thought I was special and unique . . . another lefty that seems to dig on teh Tam some.
My darling Mother, fearing sinistry in all its incarnations, consistently would move things so that it was easier to reach right handed.
I am left eye dominant and shoot 10 percent better left handed, despite having a 70/30 split in favor of right handed shooting experience.
With my right eye and peep sights, I cannot discern a human silhouette at 500 meters.
I have always written, or printed, right handed, except for one summer and two months of school when I taught myself to write, and print, left handed. It was surprisingly easy to learn to do, but there never seemed to be an upside to it, besides prettier penmanship.
Oddly, since I learned Russian, I am unable to write in English. I can print just fine, but when I use cursive, I inevitably begin to drop in corresponding Cyrillic characters for the Latin characters I was "born usin'."
THASS!
(Tam Has Ardent Sinister Support)
As I'm horribly ambidextrious, to the point of shooting a handgun with my right, and using a scalpel or fine cutting instrument with my left, even after 4 years of penmanship lessons while in elementary school my script is hideously illegible withe either hand.
Occasionally, on a dare or a bar bet, my writing improves when I hold a stylus with my toes to write.
An English professor once accused me of turning in my papers I'd produced by dipping a spider into an ink well and slapping the page with it.
Regards,
Rabbit.
KBarrett has the ideal solution, if we would but start our southpaws at it in kindergarden. We see upside down anyway, and learn to flip the visual image as toddlers.
As for writing lefty and shooting righty, the Marine Corp allows you to shoot lefty, but only after a grueling series of tortures. It was easier to put the sling around my left arm.
Me, I just drag my fist through the ink, and screw them. I do have a decent cursive if I write slowly, but only for ten or twelve letters, as that's as far as I can extend the fingers of the left hand before repositioning. When doing cursive, I index every two or three words.
Mostly, I just use nice square block letters when I write quickly. It fits well with engineering drawings and looks suprisingly professional.
Oddly, I was down in New York City a few weeks ago to pick up my father's old log book at the seaplane base in Sheepshead Bay, and discovered the old man's handwriting was virtually identical to mine.
I showed it to son #2 when he was home from L.A. for the holidays, and it was also indistinguishable from his. Both my father and Cormac are right handed. Go figure.
I've noticed a very high incidence of other lefties in design and the more creative forms of engineering, and Discovery Magazine says the number of southpaws is higher among certain ethnic groups (hint, they all have freckles).
It seems the closer to the Alps your ancestors originated, the greater the chance of left hand dominance. I wonder what the evolutionary pressures were that set that in motion?
A worthy pub discussion could be worked up on that one. Any old excuse for a night of John Courage Ale, Newkie Broon, and good crack.
Anyway, left handed males like yours truly, assuming they are natural lefties rather than the 40%who ended up that way from oxygen starvation during birth, have a number of survival advantages.
Right handed men use the left side of their brain to a frightening degree, and are very vulnerable to stroke.
Natural southpaws use both sides of their gray matter, in a manner more reminicent of the redundant and less specialized layout of the female brain, have fewer strokes, said strokes are milder when they happen, and recovery is more complete.
How do you tell if you're a natural or an oxygen starved poseur? I.Q. tests help, but primary reflex time is the best determinant.
One observation: Son #2 graduated Columbia, despite being conservative, sandy haired, and blue eyed. Amazing.
I fenced in high school, and started to follow Columbia fencing while said offspring was down there. All the student athletes had SAT's in the high 1500's, and I.Q.'s past MENSA. Most of the team was left handed.
Also, lefties tend to score higher on math tests. I wouldn't want to be anything else. Of course, I say the same thing about the ADD thing, so take it for what it's worth.
THASS indeed! Go Cossack (once more)!
Hey, has anybody considered getting together for a brew or two? Or twelve?
A Tammithonic conclave for the imbibing of worthy alcoholic brews and sharing of blindingly brilliant insights? Or blindingly brilliant hangovers the following Ack Emma? A thought.
My penmanship is horrible even though I have no sinister excuses. Then, of course there was President Garfield who was said to be able to write legibly with both hands at once, one hand in Latin and the other in Greek.
I write left handed, and hate pencils for the smear reason. But I shopped around for pens, and there are some that don't smear. The Pilot BP-S is the best, virtually smear-proof, and lays down a wonderfully fine line. Forget Bic; about as bad as a pencil.
I'm a left handed writer who never did the hook; the way I hold a pen is the same as a right handed writer. I found writing easy: I wondered about the right handed writers who had to bunny-hop their hands across the page as they constantly ran out of room, with their fingers scrunching up into a fist each time. I just glide along.
If I shoot left handed and put up with a face full of brass each time at the range, I can deal with washing my hands after writing.
Tam, if you are ever interested, I used to know of a fully left handed 1911 (well, clone.) Left handed magazines, left handed everything. Stainless, excellent condition. I might still be able to put my hands on it.
I think it speaks something to our culture that in most other areas of the world left handedness is not allowed, period.
Yep. Left-handed, left-eye dominant, have forgotten how many times I turned the side of my hand dark graphite grey.
The process is made tolerable (and I can actually write a respectable hand) using a top-bound notebook and fountain pen. The ink mostly dries quickly enough that it doesn't smear...mostly. I shoot left-handed, but play bass and guitar right-handed (because that's what was lying around, thirty or so years ago when I started).
Chris The Engineer, Colt's model of 1873 (and all other right hand gate loading revolvers that preceded and followed it) are "left handed".
S&W top break revolvers are ambidextrous.
My father was and I am right handed. My mother was and my sisters are left handed.
I was probably seven before I finally figured out that all girls weren't lefties and all boys right handed.
Tam,
I'm generally ambidextrous.
some stuff I do better with a specific hand.
When #1 son was found to be left eye dominant (he's right handed) I checked with my dad, he has the same deal.
I got #1 son left handed rifle as I saw no point in 'adapting' him to hardware. The hardware is supposed to be setup for the user.
(note he still swipes my M1 carbine says it's more fun to shoot, brass in the face and all).
woerm/thr
My son is a lefty that shoots right handed, but then I'm a switch hitter. There's something there but I'm damned if I know what it is.
Tam,
Have you considered starting over - and learn to read and right "upside down", compared to the rest of us?
That is, turn the page over, start the page from the bottom right corner, make the letters upside down, starting from the right side.
If we can learn to read upside down, then this might be a matter of practice. You would not get the reinforcement right-handers get from the keyboard - which would continue to (annoyingly!) begin documents from the top and left.
If people are going to gawk and ogle because of your hand being on an unexpected side of the written line, why not go on and reverse the whole page?
Besides. If the teacher wants to watch you learning to write - whe/he would not be able to stand over your shoulder!
You could always leatn to write in Arabic. They go right-to-left. :)
I'm left handed too and adapted to ambidextrous for a number of things in this right handed world. Never knew what left handed scissors were until college and still can't use them...none of my grade schools had them. Didn't get beaten for it though and don't think my parents would have allowed that to happen.
Started shooting left handed through the first year of Jr Rifle competition (with right handed gun working bolt with left hand) and the couldn't afford the left hand version of the gun which was WAY more expensive. Team convinced Dad who convinced me to shoot right handed and did that for many years in high power competition through today. Still can cut a prairie dog in half with an AR at 300 yards left handed though...there is a lot to say for muscle memory and being ambidextrous. :)
Oh and check this interesting article out from last year: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/03/AR2008070303202.html
I thank whatever deities there be:
that I was born in the USA,
that I was born right-handed, and
that I pee standing up. :)
I feel your pain, if you are a lefty, but you have to learn to adapt or perish. I am left handed but right eye dominant and I shoot right handed. My three sons are all opposite handed and eye dominant. My eldest is left handed and right eye dominant, but my other two sons are right handed and left eye dominant. When it was shotgun buying time I took the advice of my brother, who is left hand/left eye and bought Ithaca/Browning pumps for the younger two. As for rifles, they can learn to deal with right handed bolt actions until they can afford left handed bolt actions.
Ed Foster:
Virginia Tech Fencing Club, '95 to '98 - Go Hokies!
The best part of fencing left handed was always at the end of the bout when going to shake hands with my opponent. I usually heard something along the lines of "S#!t, you're a lefty! That's why I couldn't hit you!"
For those who never fenced, a righty facing a lefty has to shift all his attacks and his defense, because the lefty's attacks and defense are not only coming from the side opposite what he's used to, but are also moving in the opposite direction.
Of course, lefties get caught by this too, since we didn't get much practice against other lefties!
Staghounds, thanks for the info. I can see the top breaks would be ambi (neat). Now I want one, of course. Interesting that there are lefty handguns as well...
And og, fully left handed 1911? Interesting, and I expect spendy.
I would prefer truly ambidextrous.
Even though I am technically, right handed I feel the lefty pain!
I'm actually left handed. It just happens my left hand is on my right side. It was described (in my distant past) as "inverted lobe syndrome". I'm basically wired mirror image. Except my EYES! They are firmly convinced that my right hand is on the left side even when they are shown evidence to the contrary! Luckily, this has no effect on reading, just hand-eye things.
I could not write at all until I learned "the hook" and I end up smearing the line above the line I am writing on.
Years of training has allowed me to mimic most of the hand-eye skills that everyone takes for granted.
The worst thing about shooting lefty is all the brass that flies in your face.
Lefty rifles are fine, but it's nice to be able to shoot other people's rifles some of the time as well so you get used to reaching over to work the bolt.
I tried carrying right handed but as Roberta X says we lefties are stubborn types and I want to carry with my strong hand (FWIW I think the average lefty's weak-hand skills are almost certainly better than the average righty's). Also I got sick of trying to find decent leather. When someone as in-teh-knoes as Tam has difficulty finding equipment, you know there's a scarcity. Market opportunity, Tam?
My solution has been to carry a revolver for my left-side carry gun and have a semiauto for my right-side back up. But again this adds a small weight to the chip on my left shoulder.
Despite the fact that I've always looked out for my sinister friends, brothers, and sisters, -jumping on a good deal on lefty gear, alerting them to right handed, backhanded treatment, I can't dismiss the impression that I too will be "Up against the wall, when the Revolution comes." I mean I once witnessed one of my left-handed chums beat down a habitually-offended black person. The black person said that my lefty friend "Had never known discrimination".
As an old friend used to say: Hire the left-handed. It's fun watching them trying to write.
8)
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