Ambidexterity

[The Analyst]

For those of you who are ambidextrous, which hand do you favor or use the most when doing things like shooting, writing or tossing a ball and why? I have always been curious about this.

 

[Kurusu]

Right hand. But I can shoot left hand.

 

[Mule Packer]

I write left-handed. I eat left-handed. I kick left-footed, but I throw a ball right-handed because when I was three, an older boy who lived next door taught me how to throw and he made me use my right hand. There was a time in high school when I could pass a football with either hand.

I have a dominant right eye, so I shoot right-handed. When I shave, I shave the right side of my face with my right hand and shave the left side of my face with my left hand.

When I use a hammer, I just use the hand that gives me the best angle...sometimes my right hand, sometimes my left.

A good friend of mine once told me, "You're not ambidextrous. You're just so screwed up that you don't know which hand to use!!" The more I think about it, he was probably right.

 

[robrossk]

Almost everything right handed but I can use left as necessary, bat, throw, shoot, etc

 

[Krogen]

Yep. I'm ambidextrous. Can't use either one.

I shoot and write right-handed. But almost anything else, I use either hand or switch off. With a broom for example, I'll go one way and then switch over to the other side. I used to use my right hand for the computer mouse, then my wrist started to hurt so I went to the left. I soon found I could write or 10-key with my right hand and mouse with the left at the same time. Efficiency!

I think this comes from playing guitar over the years. Although I'm inherently right-handed, I learned precision movements with my left hand.

 

[lkabug]

The only thing my left hand is good for, is to hold my buddy's beer.
Now, you wouldn't want me to but mine down to hold his, would you?

 

[Tubbsy]

I tend to write right handed, although can use either.... pistols either hand works as the strong hand.... rifles I never could get the feel for lefty.... I bat lefty, but can do just as well right handed.... same with boxing.

 

[Wrangler Rich]

I was always a switch hitter in baseball, Mickey Mantle being my baseball hero back on the '60s. I broke my right index finger in the '70s and, still playing ball, I learned to throw, write, shoot, and work left handed. I then learned that my Grandmother forced right handedness on me as a baby because I was using my left hand to grab things. As a school teacher she saw the difficulties lefties had.

 

[Absalom]

Yep. I'm ambidextrous. Can't use either one.

I shoot and write right-handed. But almost anything else, I use either hand or switch off...

..... Although I'm inherently right-handed, I learned precision movements with my left hand.

Similar life experience here, except in the other direction.

I grew up acting left-handed, but learned to write with my right; where I went to grade school, there was no other option, and I’m glad about that now, although I never won penmanship awards

In my teens when I started shooting my (right-handed) dad’s bolt-action rifles, I found being left-handed too awkward, so I switched to the right. I have no eye dominance, so no problem. By the time I was able to carry a handgun, my right was my strong side for shooting purposes, and has remained so, although I can shoot equally well with the left if I need to. But I still can’t use scissors efficiently or draw a straight line with my right.

True ambidextrous people are quite rare, less than 1% of the population. Many who think they are ambidextrous actually are mixed-handed; they discover as life progresses that they do different things better with different hands. A psychotherapist I asked about this once thought I probably fall in that category.

 

[Dougaz]

You could chop off my entire left arm and nothing would change in my world. I'm even afraid to try to shoot with my left hand. I'd surely shoot myself ...... In the left foot.

 

[Protocall_Design]

You could chop off my entire left arm and nothing would change in my world. I'm even afraid to try to shoot with my left hand. I'd surely shoot myself ...... In the left foot.

Well, if you have 2 left feet when dancing, you'd still be OK.

 

[Willie McHobblin]

I write, type, eat & bat lefty. I shoot pistols right or left, depend on the gun... single stack 1911's I do better with my right. My dad "trained" the lefty out of my older brother & tried with me, I shoot long guns right only. I tried a lefty rifle once, it was the most unnatural thing ever! Mt dad said something similar to what Mule packers friend said, but I can't type it here.
I'm going to start saying "mix-handed" from now on, thanks Absalom.

 

[snubbyfan]

I've always been very right handed but ever since my right hand went gimpy from a motor nerve condition, I've had to learn to do more stuff left handed like shootin' my snubby, shaving and working a fork.
I just can't seem to get the hang of writing left handed.
Anyway, my wife's ambi-brained and can use both hands to do stuff.
She likes doing Sudoku and the other day I grabbed her right hand as she was working with her Sudoku puzzle book. She just put the pencil in her left hand and kept on goin'.

 

[jscheck]

I'd just as well have no left arm because it's just about useless to me. My mom was forced to use her right hand growing up because being left handed was somehow looked down on. She became ambidextrous because of it.

 

[LVSteve]

I throw left handed but write with the right. I'm left eye dominant so I shoot equally badly left and right.

I was appalled to find the "don't use your left hand, Baby" abuse was still being practiced in the 21st century. I had to tell a coworker that if I heard about his actions with his clearly left handed kid one more time I would report him for child abuse. He came from a European culture where being left handed was verboten.

 

[delcrossv]

I shoot my recurve lefty, but everything else right handed.

I recall I was in a plasma physics class (3 students) with a very tough Korean prof. The one thing we hated was to be called to "go to the board" and do some horrendous derivation.

One time I was called up and got through 5 or 6 lines of the asked for derivation when I stopped and said to myself "I can't write left handed!" and switched hands to the right one to finish the work.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

I am surrounded by lefties! Wife, 1 of 4 kids, 4 of 8 grandkids so far, several close friends! Most of them can do thing either handed but all favor the left! My wife and best friend are the most anitdexterious! My wife plays piano and dances. She can do the pat tummy/rub head either handed reverse it mix it up, it is boggling! She can do intricate flag and streamer routines that are independent of each other then repeat with opposite hands in either mirror image or the exact same, or any mixture someone suggests. But she can't figure out which way to go when I say "Turn right at the next light!" Because of the confusion none of my kids were LEFT/RIGHT oriented, but the right handed and the left handed (Oldest two) did just fine in the military!

Ivan

 

[tops]

Spoon and fork left hand, write left hand, knife right hand, short gun right hand but can do pretty good left hand, long gun left hand but can do fair right hand, axe and bat right hand, kick right foot, hammer, handsaw or machete either hand, throw right hand. I hold a bow and slingshot in left hand and pull back with right hand but don't know which hand it's called.
I don't have a dominant eye so I have too shut one eye when shooting. Larry

 

[Tubbsy]

Bow being drawn by the right hand is right handed, I'm the same.... left eye has the slightest bit of dominance, just enough to be annoying.

 

[mckenney99]

Right handed and am right eye dominate. I can shoot handguns left handed fairly well and longguns well enough to qualify. As a kid, I couldn't hit a baseball hardly at all batting as a righty. When I switched to bat left handed my hitting improved dramatically. I think that is due to my right eye dominance and the right eye being closer to the incoming baseball when I bat left handed.