# Am I weird (a left-hand/right-hand/ambidextrous debate) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 10, 2012, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-weird-a-left-hand-right-hand-ambidextrous-debate/612393 "2012-02-10T06:40:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-weird-a-left-hand-right-hand-ambidextrous-debate/612393/42 "2012-09-28T12:17:07Z")
Mostly left handed but I bat right handed. My weirdest thing is that I can only seem to open combination locks with my right hand. I think it has something to do with spinning a dial clockwise or anti-clockwise. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-weird-a-left-hand-right-hand-ambidextrous-debate/612393/43 "2012-09-28T12:20:32Z")
I’m right-handed, but I’m a lefty mouser. People think it’s weird, but it makes perfect sense to me, as my right hand is left free for pen-and-paper note taking or to work the number pad, both of which I do a lot of. ---
**Author:** ![yellowval](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/919ad9/32.png) [@yellowval](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowval)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-weird-a-left-hand-right-hand-ambidextrous-debate/612393/44 "2012-09-28T12:42:21Z")
I’m left-handed but do a lot of things right-handed as well. I always blamed it on getting my left thumb caught in a tractor cab door when I was little, but there probably is more to it. Left: Write (although for some reason I often write right-handed on a chalkboard) Bat Right: Kick Throw Hit/serve (volleyball) Eat Scissors Computer mouse My mom is a lefty who was forced to write right-handed as a child. So she does pretty much everything left-handed except write. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-weird-a-left-hand-right-hand-ambidextrous-debate/612393/45 "2012-09-28T20:32:30Z")
I always thought I was an obligate rightie, but someone said in the middle of a deal that I was dealing left-handed. Since I can readily deal either way and do so at random, I don’t even know offhand which way a leftie deals. When I open recalcitrant jars I hold them in my right hand and try to twist them with my left. My son does everything right handed except bat. When he played in a father vs. sons game, the fathers were supposed to bat wrong-handed, but when he came up to bat right-handed, they didn’t want to believe him. And I had an uncle who did everything right-handed, including bat, except for throwing a ball. I find that extremely odd. Some years ago, when the Expos were still in Montreal, a man named Greg Harris became the first player in major league history to pitch both ways in the same game–same inning actually. He had a special ambidextrous glove made. The umpire ruled that a switch-hitting batter had the last choice of which way to bat. I would imagine that lefties are likelier to be ambidextrous since, for example, left-handed scissors are rare and left-handed screw drivers even rarer. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2012, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-weird-a-left-hand-right-hand-ambidextrous-debate/612393/46 "2012-09-29T02:37:18Z")
I write, eat, and throw a Frisbee left-handed. I play the guitar, play sports, use tools, and do everything else right-handed, except I use my left hand to unscrew screws. I have set my mouse up to be left-handed and was very comfortable with that but I prefer to use it right-handed in case I need my left hand to take notes at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2012, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-weird-a-left-hand-right-hand-ambidextrous-debate/612393/47 "2012-09-29T06:57:15Z")
I am left handed but there are things I do right handed, mainly these are learned behaviors. I eat with my left hand and cut with my right. I mouse with my right hand. I play pool only marginally worse right handed than left, because when I sucked so bad leftie I tried to learn righty. I thread shoe laces in right handed, and I tie my shoes right handed or left handed, I think some was how I was taught. I can give an injection either left handed or right handed, (my nursing school teacher was left handed but told us it is best to get good at doing skills eithe handed) but I only draw up with my right hand. I do dressings, the cleaning and packing etc left handed, but I can tape right handed if need be. I have never tried to catheterize someone right handed because I don’t think it would be fair to have anyone be a guinea pig for a clumsy cath experience. I thought my right hand was basically useless until my right arm was in a below the elbow cast for most of one summer. I ended up with tendonitis in my left arm, because I had never realized how much of the “grunt work” my non dominant hand does. My son seems to be mixed and is struggling. He writes mainly right handed but makes reversals in his letters and numbers (5 and lower case g in particular) that go away when he writes those letters left handed. but the rest of the alphabet and numbers do not benefit from holding the pencil left handed. ---
**Author:** ![Battle\_Pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2012, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-weird-a-left-hand-right-hand-ambidextrous-debate/612393/48 "2012-09-29T10:21:24Z")
My father is right-handed, plays cricket & golf left handed. Sister is also right-handed but left-eye dominant, so trying to shoot a scoped-rifle was all kinds of trouble. ---
**Author:** ![BigGirlTightSpot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aca169/32.png) [@BigGirlTightSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigGirlTightSpot)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2012, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-weird-a-left-hand-right-hand-ambidextrous-debate/612393/49 "2012-10-01T04:26:48Z")
That is not strange at all… I am truly ambidextrous, I can write, draw, and play whatever I do, both right and lift, but there are somethings that are better one way or another. I am not really sure why it is that way, but it has to do with the way you have to think when you are doing the activity. ---
**Author:** ![ICC1101](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/47e85d/32.png) [@ICC1101](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ICC1101)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2016, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-weird-a-left-hand-right-hand-ambidextrous-debate/612393/50 "2016-02-17T00:26:33Z")
I have a similar problem. I write with my right hand and occasionally color with my left. My mother has always told me to put down that I a right handed because that is the hand I write with and I question that. Right Side: Writing Throwing a ball Eating Combination locks Shoot pool Left Side: Using a telescope or camera(left eye dominant) Using a phone Kicking Punching holding heavier objects Playing hockey Threading shoelaces or a needle Tying shoes Throwing a Frisbee Using a screw driver Opening jars Cutting with a knife and fork Using a smart phone Using scissors(Only the big ones since 3rd grade when I realized the school scissors were right handed and that is why they were uncomfortable to use) Using a computer mouse, playing mini golf although I prefer my left(I never played real golf), and playing a guitar I can do both. This troubles me when with my friends because once in art I randomly switched hands with painting and everybody was like, what are you doing and when I told a kid that I can only write a specific two with my left hand he looked at me like I had three heads. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2016, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-weird-a-left-hand-right-hand-ambidextrous-debate/612393/51 "2016-02-17T01:54:13Z")
Our 15 year old son tends to do things done while sitting (writing, eating) right handed while mm things done standing (throwing, batting, kicking) left handed. I’ve noticed that when he throws or bats righty he doesn’t look completely awkward like I do when I switch to lefty. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-weird-a-left-hand-right-hand-ambidextrous-debate/612393.md?page=2)