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Handedness: What's Yours?

What is Your Handedness?

  • Left Handed, Sinister, Southpaw.

    Votes: 12 24.0%
  • Right Handed, Dexter, Northpaw.

    Votes: 21 42.0%
  • Semi Ambidexterous, Bi-Dexterous, Cross Dominant

    Votes: 17 34.0%
  • Fully Ambidexterous.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    50
I know they were around by the late 70s when I started school, because I remember thinking they were special because hardly anyone got to use them...
 
I'm left handed, although I have been forced through the oppression of a dextrous society to use my right hand for various activities.

A brief summary:
Write: Left (and I use a fountain pen, and haven't had problems with smudging in years)
Knife and Fork: Right
Fork/Spoon/Chopsticks: Left
Mouse: Right
Guitar: Right
Shooting: Left
Fencing: Left
Batting: Left
Bowling: Left (although I was crap anyway)
Footedness: Not sure. When I played football, I thought it was left, but I may have been wrong.
(Come to think of it, I do very little right-handed, although I do still object to society's bias in these matters.)

I know that we had "ambidextrous" scissors when I was in primary school in the 1970s. They were not actually left-handed, as far as I know, just equally ineffective in either hand.

As for inheritance, etc: I believe that left-handedness may be a maternal effect gene. This would mean that handedness is not directly inherited, but the tendency to have left-handed children is. (Caveat: I am not a qualified geneticist or biologist. I don't necessarily know what I am talking about. This is just my interpretation of a few bits and pieces I have read in scientific journals and books.)
 
Hmmm,

I am left handed, if i box i am right, if i shoot a gun its with the left (only because the british army doesn't think left handed people exist and so the bullets are ejected into your face if you use the right hand...of course if you are more like one of those 'Special' soldiers, you know the ones, the ones with name tags sewn into their anoraks and have their lunch packed for them, mummy's special little soldier :) )

I use my right foot to kick a ball, lead with my left foot if i do cartwheels or girly stuff like that, after which i land on my left buttock mostly...conversly i am sitting more on my right as i write this..spooky huh?

prefer eating my Bobba Burgers (tm lucasarts.com) and my rowntrees death sticks with my left hand (sorry just finished reading starwars thread and anger at the commercial crap is rising...must...control....thoughts....what...would...jedi..do...act...like....side...of..ham.
..phew thats better
and chew on my left side of mouth mostly...

Does this cover everything...oh hold on...actually i hang to the left as well, god i never realised that..that IS sinister...

I will of course be looking out for any odd behaviour there from now own, and now i KNOW why last friday happened!

:)
 
I write, reach for things and lead with my left hand, but brush my teeth and play guitar right-handed. My right hand also seems more nimble when playing piano, too.

I do feel disadvantage because most things are geared for right-handed people (I can't think of an example at the moment, but it does cause delay). I had been struggling with right-handed scissors for most of my life before I was introduced to left-handed ones.

Now I'm useless with both.
 
Niles Calder said:
Sounds like you're bi-dexterous Orbyn

Maybe, but I'm famously clumsy, too, so perhaps "cack-handed" is more apt... ;)
 
New handedness research

I seem to recall a more recent thread on handedness, but this is the only one the search turns up.

Wednesday July 21, 07:09 PM

Hand preference decided at 10 weeks

LONDON (Reuters) - Whether a person will be right-handed or left-handed could be decided early in the womb when the foetus is about 10 weeks old.

Scientists who studied ultrasound scans of 1,000 foetuses and followed the progress of some of them after birth, found that if a foetus preferred to suck its right thumb more than its left at 10 to 12 weeks old the child tended to be right-handed...

...The findings, by Peter Hepper and researchers at Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland challenge current thinking that hand preference does not develop until a child is 3 or 4 years old...

Full story here.

I'm a strange mix of southpaw and orthodox. I wrote with whichever hand picked up the pen originally, but had it rulered out of me at primary school. My fighting stance is southpaw, but I've had to learn orthodox over the years. I (would) kick a football with my left foot, but wouldn't have a hope in hell of kicking with my right. Tools I can generally use with either hand.
 
I'm left-handed, left-footed, and aim with my left-eye. When using chopsticks or a fork for that matter I use my left hand.

What I did find very awkward was whilst in Indonesia I had to force myself to eat using my right hand, its seen as very rude to eat with your left hand (apparently they traditionally use it to wipe their backside).
 
You left handed people should thank your lucky stars that you did not go to school in 50's and 60's Ireland. My father was born left handed but went to a christian brothers school,
(if any of you have Irish parents who went to school in ireland in this time they can tell you how bad it really was i myself went to a christian brothers school in the late 70's early 80's and it was anything but Christian),
Anyway he was made to learn to do everything with his right hand,recieveing several beatings into the process for relapses. Though mind you you didn't have to do much wrong to receive a beating in those times . I'd say most Irish people that went to school up until as late as the early 1990's had more reasons than most to hate school. I myself i'm right handed but eat left handed and can play football equally well left and right footed.
 
ScabbyDog said:
What I did find very awkward was whilst in Indonesia I had to force myself to eat using my right hand, its seen as very rude to eat with your left hand (apparently they traditionally use it to wipe their backside).
But, I wipe mine with my right!

And I find it extremely difficult to do anything with my right hand that requires concentration.

Feen: did your father stammer? Suppression of handedness can allegedly cause it in extreme cases.
 
Thankfully no my father only seems to have gained from the experiance in school. He managed to raise 7 of us without ever resorting to any of the terror tactics used by the Christian Brothers to keep us in line. (i know that there is supposed to be some corelation between being beaten when your young and beating people when you grow up but thankfully that did not happen to my dad). They did their job well though he write's perfectly with his right hand but if he resorted to using his left hand, which he had to do for a while when he injured his hand, its nearly illegible.
 
I have to say that I feel that forcing people to change handedness is a kind of torture.

I am a bit biased on the issue, obviously. I was never subjected to pressure, but I have had enough problems having to adapt and modify to use equipment designed for right handers. (To the point that I write better with a right handed nib pen than with one specifically designed for left handers.)
 
I was made to write with my right hand at school.

My main problem is in confusing left and right. I still use my left hand for most things but my right for others. I often start something with the "wrong" hand for it and find its weird or I can't do it. I have to stare at my hands for a bit, work it all out and then start again.

And of course I am useless with directions. I usually just have to point because if I try and guess whether a direction is left or right I inevitably get it wrong.

Kind of daft that, there are only two choices. I am capable of learning vast amounts but I can't seem to learn this.
 
I'm mostly left-handed but I've learned to use right-handed stuff. When using a blade such as a sword (I was in a re-enactment group), I'm ambidexterous. My main strength is in my right arm but "delicate" work such as writing or painting I use my left hand.

My eldest brother was left handed but when he went to school the teacher used to rap his knuckles to make him use his right hand. When they weren't looking or at home, he wrote with his left. Result? Ambidexterous.
 
Min Bannister said:
And of course I am useless with directions. I usually just have to point because if I try and guess whether a direction is left or right I inevitably get it wrong.

Kind of daft that, there are only two choices. I am capable of learning vast amounts but I can't seem to learn this.
Me too, and I haven't even got the excuse of being left handed. When navigating from the car passenger seat I have to say to Hubcap "your direction" for right and "my direction" for left, as it needs to be done quickly and I so often get L and R mixed up if rushed.
I hate to say it, but it seems to be mainly a female problem, I haven't yet met a man with this, though maybe they just don't admit to it. My (right handed) sister's like it too, perhaps our brains are wired up wrong.
 
My youngest sister (right-handed incidentally) could drive due to practical experience and a boyfreind who liked to nick cars but wanted to get her licence. She did five "official" lessons - to get good technique - then she got her test.
Straight away she told the examiner that she always gets confused by directions saying left or right. So the examiner said he'd use the phrase "my side" or "your side" since the exam was on ability, not on direction comprehension. She passed with flying colours!

As a matter of interest, she's taken her advanced driving test and has an HGV licence. She (and her husband) build, drive and sell custom and vintage cars and also drives giant American trucks at shows. So there's nothing wrong with a lack (or confusion) of left or right.
 
Adrian Veidt said:
I write left-handed. Use a knife and fork right-handed, but a spoon left-handed.

You are the only other person I've ever come across who shares this combination of traits with me! Although I play the guitar right-handed.

Bemused...
 
Damn! I'll have to find something else to blame my problems on!:p

I notice that there seem to be a lot of left handed/semi ambidexterous people on the board, which is interesting. Might just mean that most right-handers haven't been reading the thread of course, but I wonder if it has to do with the left brain being the practical side (Forteana? All a complete load of rubbish) and the right brain being the more whimsical side (did I get that the right way round?)
 
I write left-handed. Use a knife and fork right-handed, but a spoon left-handed.

This is me too.
I put it down to the dominant hand using the spoon as it's the first cutlery we use for ourselves and nobody would 'correct' a baby, whereas we are taught the conventional way to use a knife and fork.
 
It seems that it's a common way to use cutlery. I used to put it down to knives not cutting properly in the left hand.

I use single items of cutlery in the left hand. Spoon, fork, splayd (or splade or splayde - kind of like a spork), and chopsticks (which counts as a single item). I'm also much more comfortable using a soup spoon over a desert spoon. (The circular one, not the sort of trapezoidal/elliptical one.)
 
Very much a right-hander. Also, right-eyed - aim/ focus with the right, and I seem to have slightly better colour vision in my right eye (anyone else know what I mean by that?). Having said that, my prescription for my right eye is significantly worse than my left - worse myopia and more pronounced astigmatism. I wonder if it's the extra use/ strain on the right eye that has lead to that...




Are you impressed. I managed to do that whole post - covering the subjects of using one's right hand and damaging one's eyesight - without mentioning masturbation once! Oops...
 
I'm ambidexterous. However, I read, somewhere, that most lefties are ambidexterous and that most ambidexterous people have some neurological problems (from almost unnoticeable to "weird chap, that one").

I have known one fully left-handed person, and he was both brilliant (maths, physics, politics) and a bit socially unaware (introducted his two girlfriends to each other and couldn't figure out why that might not be a good idea).
 
anome said:
It seems that it's a common way to use cutlery. I used to put it down to knives not cutting properly in the left hand.

I use single items of cutlery in the left hand. Spoon, fork, splayd (or splade or splayde - kind of like a spork), and chopsticks (which counts as a single item). I'm also much more comfortable using a soup spoon over a desert spoon. (The circular one, not the sort of trapezoidal/elliptical one.)

Well becaus eI'm such a crazy rebel non conformist kinda guy, I do everything right handed except for knife and fork usage, which is left handed.
 
Interesting ... New research indicates handedness seems to trace back to the fetal spinal cord rather than the brain.

Right-handed or left-handed: Why?

Date: February 17, 2017
Source: Ruhr-University Bochum

Summary:
It is not the brain that determines if people are right or left-handed, but the spinal cord, new research indicates. The biopsychologists have demonstrated that gene activity in the spinal cord is asymmetrical already in the womb.

A preference for the left or the right hand might be traced back to that asymmetry. "These results fundamentally change our understanding of the cause of hemispheric asymmetries," conclude the authors. The team report about their study in the journal eLife.
...
SOURCE: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/02/170217095904.htm

See Also:

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/why-are-pe...s-brain-found-not-be-source-asymmetry-1607501
 
While I'm on the thread ... Here are my handedness particulars ...

Exclusive / 100%:
Writing / Drawing: Left handed (tried alternating as a kid; it just didn't work)
Throwing (All types; single hand): Right handed*
Two-handed Swing (bat, golf club, axe, etc.): Left handed*
Single-handed Swing (hammer; hatchet, etc.): Right handed*
Shooting - Long Guns & Pistols: Right handed*
Guitar / Bass: Right handed
Drums: Left handed

Clear Preference, but can reverse if necessary:
Eating Utensils: Right handed
Cutting (Knife): Right handed
Computer Mouse: Left handed
Computer Trackpad / Trackball: Right handed

No Preference:
Catching - Single Hand - Small Objects: Either hand

* NOTE: This combination of preferences matches my father, who was an active golfer / hunter and played semi-pro baseball. Other than the two-handed swing, he was a pure right-hander. My mother and sole sibling were both pure right-handers.
 
In similar vein:

Exclusive / 100%:

Writing / Drawing: Left handed
Throwing/bowling: Left handed
Two-handed swing (bat, axe, etc.): Left handed
Single-handed swing (hammer; squash racket): Left handed
Shooting - Long Guns & Pistols: Right handed
Bows: Left handed
Knife if using with fork, right handed.
Knife if using for cutting or work, left handed
Spoon: left handed.

Tended to spar 'southpaw' in Karate. Could reverse though. Ditto with kicks, left leg seemed slightly easier and quicker but I used the right just as much in reality.

Can reverse if useful:
Shooting guns off the left shoulder (and hit what I'm aiming at), sighting with left eye.
Can bat (cricket) right handed, slower scoring, played straighter.
Can play squash right handed (well enough to beat people who turned out to be not quite as good as me with my 'good' left hand, (although it once caused almighty offense when after 'losing' a close game, I swapped hands for the re-match which didn't last nearly as long).
I can write tolerably well with my right hand.
Played Eton Fives at school and learned to play better with my right than most did with their left.

When I practised Tai Chi (for about two and a half years) I could mirror the forms almost no problems at all.


No Preference:
Catching - Single Hand - Small Objects: Either hand

I'll use a saw with whichever hand is convenient. When I'm cutting firewood, I alternate hands.

I'm reasonable well co-ordinated, and fives and squash are games in which the left-hander simply has to improve the back-hand (squash) or 'weak' right hand (Fives) as all the righties pounded the 'weak' side. Generally as righties are used to playing righties, most of them never learnt to improve their weak side as a weak-backhand doesn't usually pound the same weak-backhand.

I consider myself left-handed though.
 
When I was a kid, I could write with both hands (well, just about).
After a while, I lost this ambidextrous ability - probably because my brain matured.
 
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