78 replies to this topic

[2F-001]

Regarding handwriting, the most obvious ‘difficulties’ for lefties (in Western-style left-to-right writing cultures) would appear to be obscuring what one is writing with the pen-holding hand (which can lead to some of the pen-grips that often look awkward to right-handed folk) and (if using a wet-ink pen of some kind) smudging the ink with the hand.

This might sound like one of those ‘tartan paint’ type wind-ups, but there are left-handed fountain pen inks…. they are formulated to dry more quickly on smooth fountain-pen friendly papers - at the expense of some other ink properties.

[kayemod]

Regarding handwriting, the most obvious ‘difficulties’ for lefties (in Western-style left-to-right writing cultures) would appear to be obscuring what one is writing with the pen-holding hand (which can lead to some of the pen-grips that often look awkward to right-handed folk) and (if using a wet-ink pen of some kind) smudging the ink with the hand.

 

 

I really don't get this "problem". A leftie myself, I hold my pen in more or less a mirror image way to my rightie wife, in both cases, our hands are well below the line we're writing, so no risk of smudging. I could possibly be termed "weird" in some other ways, but the way I write or hold a pen isn't one of them. The ones who look/are weird are the lefties who hold their pen in a bent and contorted fist, surely there's much more risk of them smudging what they've just written? I've been a leftie my whole life, written much of the time with wet-ink pens, and I don't think I've ever smudged anything, or looked even slightly awkward doing it.

[Bloggsworth]

Like you say, when it comes to brain research knowledge is very often spotty.

The left half of the brain controls the right side of the body, and vice versa. Also, verbal processing ("logic") takes place in the left half of the brain, and visuospatial processing ("creativity") in the right half - the core word is "processing" here. Nothing to do with motor functions. We have a saying in German, "Zwei Halbwissen kombiniert ergeben noch lange kein Wissen", meaning that an accumulation of superficial knowledge doesn't add up to real knowledge.

 

The new study published in the journal Neuropsychology was conducted by scientists at the Australian National University.

 

Study leader Dr Nick Cherbuin from the Australian National University took left-handed and right-handed people and recorded the transfer time between the two sides of the brain.

He did this through measuring reaction times to white dots flashed to the left and right of a fixed cross.

He then compared this with how good participants were at carrying out a task to spot matching letters in the left and right visual fields, which would require them to use both sides of the brain at the same time.

 

Tests in 80 right-handed volunteers showed there was a strong correlation between how quickly information was transferred across the left and right hemispheres and how quickly people spotted matching letters.

 

But when the tests were repeated in 20 left-handed volunteers, the researchers found that the more people used their left-hand generally in life, the better they were at processing information across the two sides of the brain.

 

Extreme left-handed individuals were 43 milliseconds faster at spotting matching letters across the right and left visual fields than right-handed people.

Dr Cherbuin concluded that lefthanders' brains are more symmetrical with larger and more efficient connections between the two hemispheres.

But he added that it wasn't a clear-cut pattern as there were subtle differences between strongly and mildly left-handed or right-handed individuals.

 

Chartered psychologist, Dr Steve Williams said left-handed people tended to be better at using both sides of the brain.

 

"It's certainly very interesting," he said. "This seems to go with evidence that left-handers use both sides of the brain for language - that they are more bicerebral.

 

"They get faster at it because they're having to use both sides of the brain more."

[RCH]

The difficulty writing left handed is that you are pushing the pen across the paper rather than pulling it. This is the reason why you see some left handers writing in strange ways, trying to pull the pen rather than push it. I was introduced to the left handed nib by a school teacher back in the late fifties. It is bent at the end so that although you are pushing the pen the tip is actually being pulled. Not sure it works though. My handwriting was and remains abysmal!

[E1pix]

Like you say, when it comes to brain research knowledge is very often spotty.The left half of the brain controls the right side of the body, and vice versa. Also, verbal processing ("logic") takes place in the left half of the brain, and visuospatial processing ("creativity") in the right half - the core word is "processing" here. Nothing to do with motor functions. We have a saying in German, "Zwei Halbwissen kombiniert ergeben noch lange kein Wissen", meaning that an accumulation of superficial knowledge doesn't add up to real knowledge.

Darned good thing I can't read German, then. ;-)

But yes, I've done a goodly amount of reading on brain function but for forced reasons. I'd detail further but don't really want to here.

And I do believe there's predispositions based on dominant hands, and especially with the ambidextrous (typed with left fingers while holding phone with right, Hahaha).

Edited by E1pix, 16 August 2018 - 14:47.

[kayemod]

The difficulty writing left handed is that you are pushing the pen across the paper rather than pulling it. This is the reason why you see some left handers writing in strange ways, trying to pull the pen rather than push it. I was introduced to the left handed nib by a school teacher back in the late fifties. It is bent at the end so that although you are pushing the pen the tip is actually being pulled. Not sure it works though. My handwriting was and remains abysmal!

 

Don't get this at all, I hold a pen pointing straight ahead and move it sideways across the page, very similarly to the way my right-handed wife does, but in the other hand, no "pushing" or "pulling" involved for either of us. I used to write using a left-handed nib on a fountain pen, but that's exactly the same as a "normal" nib, but with the business end cut at an angle rather than straight, and chisel-ended nibs like this would only be appropriate for anyone trying to do good italic handwriting. Nowadays I use either a roller-tipped gel pen, or a conventional ball-tipped nib, a Parker 585 if anyone's interested. As I said, I can't see the apparent problem, why do some contortionist lefties make things difficult for themselves?

 

What I do find somewhat problematical is finding a computer mouse that is comfortable to use left-handed, most of them seem to be designed specifically for righties.

[RCH]

So you are saying that you hold the pen perfectly upright rather than sloping left? Seems very awkward to me, what do others think? Maybe it's where I've been going wrong all these years....

 

Thinking about it your comment about italic writing ties up with what I have heard from others about left handed nibs. Using your writing style wouldn't work with a left handed nib, would it?

Edited by RCH, 16 August 2018 - 15:42.

[kayemod]

So you are saying that you hold the pen perfectly upright rather than sloping left? Seems very awkward to me, what do others think? Maybe it's where I've been going wrong all these years....

 

Thinking about it your comment about italic writing ties up with what I have heard from others about left handed nibs. Using your writing style wouldn't work with a left handed nib, would it?

 

I hold a writing implement sloping slightly to the right, my writing also slopes slightly to the right, but I didn't mean to say that anyone is "doing it wrong", if Postimage hadn't stopped working for me, I'd post a couple of photos. I must be missing something, but I can't understand why some left-handed people make things so awkward and difficult for themselves. I was taught at a young age how to hold a pen, and just copied my both right-handed parents as best I could, never had any problems with that, it just seems to me to be the natural way to do it.

 

My writing style worked OK with a slanted left-handed nib, but I can write perfectly well with a more normal one. My writing is still recognisably italic in style, but without the wide/narrow strokes that a proper calligrapher would use. I can still do "the real thing" with a normal or leftie chisel-pointed nib, in which case I'd hold the pen still held straight ahead, but pointed slightly to the left. However, over many years, when at times I've had to do a lot of writing, I've found a "normal" round-tipped nib to be easier and it hasn't changed my writing noticeable, it's just that nowadays, stylish italic scrips seems slightly pretentious, though I could still do it if I wanted to.

 

One minor problem I do have, probably caused by my left-handedness, is that I can't write particularly quickly, though I'm by no means a slowcoach in that regard.

[E1pix]

Fascinating Post #53, Bloggsworth!

[Bloggsworth]

I use my left hand on the mouse when drawing on the computer and the right for typing in distances and angles etc. I had the phone to my left so I could write with my right hand. Seemed common-sense to me.

[PayasYouRace]

I’ve always found a right hand gear change more comfortable not because I’m right handed but because it feels more balanced with the left foot operating the clutch. I feel unbalanced when both operating the gear lever and clutch on the same side of my body.

[Lee Nicolle]

Having driven a left hook Sports Sedan with the 5 speed gear lever well behind the normal in testing as well as my own right drive car with the gearshift in a usual place was hard work remembering where all the gears were. Two very different cars that did very similar times in a very different way.

Or getting out of my 6 litre Sports Sedan into a Vee or a Formula Ford  with a right hand change too was interesting. As well as a 3 on the tree Historic Holden.

All this in testing, or just having a drive of someone elses car at a practice/ test day.

I do know it makes you think.

Even driving a 7 litre manual  LHD Galaxie around Adelaide does as well. Probably harder than on the racetrack. Left hook autos though are much easier with more time to concentrate on driving.

[Stephen W]

As for gear-changing, that most of us can do it with either hand is recognised by modern car designers who only provide central gear levers for RHD and LHD. Historical point is that although many early to Vintage RHD cars had RH gear and handbrake levers I've never seen an early LHD car with a LH lever of either sort.

On one of my father's Renaults (a right hand drive 4 if memory serves) the gear change when driving was very awkward but from the passenger seat it was perfect.

[Allan Lupton]

On one of my father's Renaults (a right hand drive 4 if memory serves) the gear change when driving was very awkward but from the passenger seat it was perfect.

I was really thinking of pre-war jobs but in the case of the front drivers such as Citroen, the lever on the dashboard arrangements seemed not to be changed for RHD so would be as you say for the Renault 4

[BiggestBuddyLazierFan]

Ok. For some stupid reason i ended up reading a list of left handed famous people and as a surprise i found out that many of the greats of motor sports are/were left handed.

Ayrton Senna, Sebastian Loeb, Valentino Rossi and Terry Labonte, all of them are left handed and legends of their sport.

I don't know much about NASCAR(Labonte), but Senna, Loeb and Rossi are arguably the greatest drivers ever in F1, WRC and MotoGP.

If all those greats are left handed and only 5-15% from all the people are, that made me wonder is it somehow an advance to be left handed driver..?

Dale Jr. is also left handed. And he was mediocre. Medi Ocre. Medieval Ogre.

[guiporsche]

Dale Jr. is also left handed. And he was mediocre. Medi Ocre. Medieval Ogre.

 

Surely this is in jest? Regardless of who is father was, a multiple NASCAR race-winner and Busch champion being described as mediocre is a bit hard to fathom. Let us try, for TNF's sake, to be even-handed in our choice of adjectives....

 

Regarding this thread, I have no idea if being left-handed offers any substantial advantage in motorsports. I can only add that by my own experience, it surely does in football/soccer, as defenders were always caught unprepared.

[Michael Ferner]

Which brings up an interesting point: I myself never played in a regular footie team, only for fun/ad hoc tournaments, but at an early age I taught myself to use my (non-regular) left foot, and I reckon I play just as strong (or, weak ) with either foot (although there is still a difference: with my right foot, I can kick more powerful, while my left one is more precise). As an aside, I really can't understand when professional football players talk about their strong foot or weak foot; they're getting paid for playing football for chrissake, the least they can do is practice! Anyway, the point is, with enough practice I reckon everyone can kick with the other foot, throw or write with the other hand, or whatever. In other words, there really is no difference between being a rightie and being a leftie, it's just a habit, more or less. Trying to prove this point, I even started learning to write and throw with my left (non-regular) hand, but as usual, I didn't have the patience to pull it off. But I definitely made progress, so with enough practice, I'm sure it's possible.

[E1pix]

Regarding this thread, I have no idea if being left-handed offers any substantial advantage in motorsports. I can only add that by my own experience, it surely does in football/soccer, as defenders were always caught unprepared.

Per this, there's no mystery why they bring out the lefties to close out big baseball games. No batter, hitting right or left, is as used to facing lefties... so IMHO, that alone somewhat invalidates statistics of left-handed pitchers.

[Ian G]

Per this, there's no mystery why they bring out the lefties to close out big baseball games. No batter, hitting right or left, is as used to facing lefties... so IMHO, that alone somewhat invalidates statistics of left-handed pitchers.

 

Interesting,a Friend back in the 1970's married a American girl and her Father was a talent scout for a Texan Baseball Franchise,forget which one.

He came out to Aust. and before the Wedding we had a game of Golf.,myself and my Friend were both Lefties as was the Brides Father.We were talking about the lack of top class left handed Golfers on the World stage and he said as part of his job was to monitor junior Ball players and left handed pitchers were a priority as he said they can't throw a ball straight for some reason compared to a normal Pitcher,majority have a natural curve when pitching at max. speed.He said that may be the reason very few Lefties made good golfers although that has changed now.

 

Also interesting is a article i read on the Aust. Davis Cup team back in the late 1960's(maybe 1970's?),i think Rod Laver & Tony Roche were the lefties.They were staying in London and the Team Manager got the Hotel Concierge to book a time for a game of Golf along with 4 sets of hire Clubs,2 left and 2 right.They turned up at the course and much to the surprise of the Team manager,the 2 lefties played Golf right handed and the two Right handed players played Golf left handed. 

There has to be a reason why many top sport peoples,in all sports, are like that.

[E1pix]

All this has me wondering if a certain Canadian Ferrari racer was a leftie.... :-)

Sorry to continue with sports beyond The One, but you broached a piece of my switch-handed tennis.

The reason my right-handed serve, Um, sucked was because I threw leftie. My rightie serves were straight-armed and spinless and unnatural to throwing, and that rotation atop a throw or spin is where curve originates. Once serving leftie my serves had only a bit more speed but tons more spin, and I vaulted up from 20-somethingth to 2nd within a year in our large county.

I only beat the #1 kid once of maybe 10 matches, who'd been privately-coached from 6 and I a hack self-trained from 11, but he was unfortunately from my same school. He now runs the golf course empire of a certain, shall we say, "controversial" US politician. Tennis kid's last name is the same as a famed British F1 constructor, a John-somebody who first hired a driver named Clark (how's that for subtle?!). ;-)

My sillily-delayed point is your comment about lefties pitching similarly to my prior tennis serve makes me wonder if they were born to be righties! :-)

(This post just set a record for my being on others' Ignore lists)
((as further proof that lefties Rule))

;-)

[Tom Glowacki]

Which explains why I was beaten by the office girls in indoor karting. I'm too tall. Neural pathways too long, you see.

 

That, and you had a problem with frontal area.

[Sterzo]

^ and without wishing to stereotype, most ladies have a low centre of gravity.

[D-Type]

I'm reviving this today because I saw a photo of Stirling Moss wearing his watch on his right wrist as many left handers used to do (The logic being that your valuable watch stood less chance of being damaged on the less-used arm) and wondered if he was left handed. 

I googled photos of him and he signed his autograph with his right hand, so he was right-handed.  But he definitely wore his watch on his right wrist.

​How come?  When you had to wind your watch manually, it was difficult to do on your right wrist using your left hand, so I think someone as organised as Moss wouldn't have chosen to do so.  Did he perhaps have an early injury to his left wrist that led to wearing his watch on his right?

[Lee Nicolle]

Don't get this at all, I hold a pen pointing straight ahead and move it sideways across the page, very similarly to the way my right-handed wife does, but in the other hand, no "pushing" or "pulling" involved for either of us. I used to write using a left-handed nib on a fountain pen, but that's exactly the same as a "normal" nib, but with the business end cut at an angle rather than straight, and chisel-ended nibs like this would only be appropriate for anyone trying to do good italic handwriting. Nowadays I use either a roller-tipped gel pen, or a conventional ball-tipped nib, a Parker 585 if anyone's interested. As I said, I can't see the apparent problem, why do some contortionist lefties make things difficult for themselves?

 

What I do find somewhat problematical is finding a computer mouse that is comfortable to use left-handed, most of them seem to be designed specifically for righties.

As I am holding the mouse left handed as I read this. I have no difficulty doing so. 

When I first bought a computer my leftie brother set it up for me. And that is where it stayed. 

My 'normal' righty girlfriend kept putting it right!!

While never a typist I sort of do ok.

And can type left handed as well,  Searching for stuff on the net with the ph in my right hand

[Lee Nicolle]

As for vehicle controls. So many RHD Euro cars have the turn signals on the left. I have found the wipers going stupid stupid stupid!!

Though my Ford Galaxie has right hand auto change and turn signals on the left and does not worry me at all. And both Dodge and International trucks I have owned also.

It is what you are used too I guess.

Though I once tried to put my  left hand column change Falcon ute into park with the indicator stalk!!

[Dipster]

I have only just seen this thread. Not really on topic but I find it interesting to note that as I aged I started to become ambidextrous unconsciously. A little further down life's path I now find I use my left hand (I was originally a righty) more and more. I am guessing there is some neurological cause-and wondering whether this is good or bad for my long-term health! But so far so good....

 

Trying to steer this back on thread, but not too seriously, would this give me a racing advantage?  

[RobertE]

Archie Scott Brown was born right-handed but of course he didn't have one and therefore had to be taught by a therapist.

 

His handwriting was described as 'bloody awful'. This from dear Brian Lister, whose own efforts were even worse...

[Dipster]

I'm reviving this today because I saw a photo of Stirling Moss wearing his watch on his right wrist as many left handers used to do (The logic being that your valuable watch stood less chance of being damaged on the less-used arm) and wondered if he was left handed. 

I googled photos of him and he signed his autograph with his right hand, so he was right-handed.  But he definitely wore his watch on his right wrist.

​How come?  When you had to wind your watch manually, it was difficult to do on your right wrist using your left hand, so I think someone as organised as Moss wouldn't have chosen to do so.  Did he perhaps have an early injury to his left wrist that led to wearing his watch on his right?

 

 

I am a righty and have always worn my watch on my right wrist. I do so simply as it "feels" better. That's it. When I had a wind-up watch I took it off m wrist to do so.

[Arjan de Roos]

I'm reviving this today because I saw a photo of Stirling Moss wearing his watch on his right wrist as many left handers used to do (The logic being that your valuable watch stood less chance of being damaged on the less-used arm) and wondered if he was left handed. 

I googled photos of him and he signed his autograph with his right hand, so he was right-handed.  But he definitely wore his watch on his right wrist.

​How come?  When you had to wind your watch manually, it was difficult to do on your right wrist using your left hand, so I think someone as organised as Moss wouldn't have chosen to do so.  Did he perhaps have an early injury to his left wrist that led to wearing his watch on his right?

 

Moss was partially left-handed. As a kid he found his watch would come loose while punching and he favored his left to punch someone. So he started to wear on his right arm.