“I’d give my right arm to be ambidexterous,” opined Crow T Robot.
Well, I am. Not a pure 50-50 split for me, as I write like shit with my right hand in a leftie style, but darn close to it. 55-45 maybe, or 60-40. Not a brag, simply an odd fact. (Yeah, I’ve had irl people say I was boasting when I switch hands or whatever. Which is an odd but small side point.)
I’ve noticed that I sometimes switch back and forth to get comfortable with what I’m doing. Like doing detailed painting work or trimming something out on the job. When texturing or faux finishing, I have to force myself to keep to the one hand on the current wall, esp if on a remodel as opposed to new. Look at a textured wall and you’ll see what I mean here.
For softball, I have two gloves. I never know if I’m going to want to catch right - throw left or vise-versa. Pool, tennis, ping pong… same thing.
Any other ambis out there know what I’m talking about?
I’m not quite as ambi as you are - more like 30-70. But, yeah, I have moments where I’m not sure which hand to use. I can use either hand with the mouse which comes in handy when I’m feeling some RSI pain in one hand. I can eat with my left hand and write with my right one, a very useful (but dorky) ability in grad school I found out. But every once in awhile I get this uneasy feeling and realise I’m use my left hand to do something I’d normally be doing with my right one. Kind of ooogs me out mentally.
I would say I’m about 37:63, left:right. I’m basically a right-handed person who empathizes with lefties.
My parents say that when I was a toddler, I was left-handed. But when I started nursery school, I was forced to use my right hand so I would be “normal”. Anyone who has seen me hold a pencil knows that I’m not normal, though. Actually, even when people see me writing with my right hand, they say “You’re left-handed!”
Sometimes my left hand “volunteers” to do things before my right. For instance, when I have to cut up a chunk of meat, often I will use the knife with my left hand without thinking about it. I am told that I hold a baseball bat like a leftie. But most times, the right hand steps up to the plate, even though it is somewhat physically weaker than my left. I can armwrestle better with my left-hand, for instance.
My hypothesis is that I was born ambidextrous and that societal pressure forced me to become a rightie. I am a rightie in that I do most things with my right hand, but deep down I feel like a poser. Sometimes I imagine that I would be a more graceful person if I had been “brought up” to embrace my ambidextrousness. Instead, I grew always hearing “You’re not doing it the right way!” So now I’m all self-conscious when I have to do something physical or mechanical in front of others, because I’m almost always certain I’m not doing it “right”.
Brings up a point I remember. I was forced to use my right hand to write. According to Mom, I would regularly switch from one hand to the other while scribbling and colouring pre school. Perhaps my early teachers saw me switch from right to left and made me choose. Not that they couldn’t deal with lefties, but that they thought I had to be one or the other. (Lefties were also subtly criticised, I recall.) I hold my pen and position the paper as tho I were lefted, but with my right hand. And my writing looks like ancient Sumerian, let me tell ya.
My dad and daughter are both ambi. Dad, now 63, was a lefty until school, when they made him start using his right hand. He’s mostly right-hand dominant now, but when he broke his hand in his twenties he had no problem doing everything left-handed.
My daughter writes and eats left-handed but everything else is a crap-shoot. You never know which hand she’ll use for a task. After reading monstro’s post, I wonder if this contributes to her physical awkwardness, even now at 22. Hmmmm.
I am so right-handed it’s not funny. I don’t think I can do anything with my left hand with any skill. I’m envious of ambis.
I’m generally righty with the following exceptions:
My dominant eye, according to a traditional test, is my left.
Now that I’m taking asthma drugs, my right hand is a little unsteady. Thus, I can shoot and draw a straight line better lefty.
Wow, I’m in good company. I was pretty ambi until kindegardten when I was forced to use my right. I broke my thumb and fore finger at 13 and easily switched to doing everything lefty. I write very clearly with my left only a little slower than with the right. I used to swith hit in highschool. And I can shoot basketball with either hand. Now it just depends.
According to this test, I’m 87% left-handed. But I had to answer “not sure” to two of the questions (the one about back-scratching and the one about cupping your ear). The only question that received a “right” answer was the first one, about forearm position.
I don’t think the test means much (I don’t think the link between eye dominance and handedness is that significant, but I’m not an expert). But it’s still interesting. I’m going to have to get my twin sister to do the test so I can have a basis of comparison.
As crazy as this may sound, I have actually tried to convert to being ambidexterous, but it hasn’t worked. I am pretty right handed. According to that test I am 75% left handed though. Kind of weird.
The joke I tell in this situation goes: “I tried to teach myself to be ambidextrous, but I ended up ambisinister.” I nearly severed my right thumb in high school and had to write left-handed for a while (my teachers did not enjoy that). My handwriting with my left hand is abominable, but to be truthful the writing with my right hand isn’t that great either. When reaching for something I’ll use either arm, but when the task requires much finger dexterity I’ll almost always use the right.
I was born left-handed, and it was my father who switched everything to my right hand very early on. He told me it was because this was a “right handed world”, and that he thought I would get by easier if I was right handed. Because of this, I cannot hold my pen correctly (people often comment that it looks like I have a death grip on it, and I get a callous on my inner ring finger, around the first knuckle, after writing for lengthy periods). I can write with my left hand, but it looks like something from elementary school, and I just don’t bother. My normal handwriting has no slant.
Just about everything I do starts out left handed, except for writing and eating. In my early teens, I tried switching to primarily left, since I lean that way in most things anyway, but it seemed too much of a hassle. Today I do some things right handed, some things left handed. Often when I try something new that requires holding some type of equipment (ie: a sport, such as holding a baseball, raquet, or mallet) I instinctively start out left handed. I often get the question from whoever is instructing me: “Are you left handed? Because you’re holding it like you’re left handed.” Then I will make the switch to right. Sometimes I switch without thinking, ie: stepping up to the plate in baseball, sometimes I swing left handed, sometimes I swing right. In croquet, sometimes I hold the mallet left handed, sometimes right. Default is left. Seems to happen most often when I’m not thinking about what I’m doing.
I am more or less ambidextrous, undecided, but never thought about it too hard.
According to the test Monstro linked, I’m 50% lefthanded. This seems pretty accurate to me.
The only things I can think of that I can’t do lefthanded are write, use scissors and wipe my ass. I’m about 90% lefthanded when it comes to eating. I can use a mouse with either hand. My left eye and ear are both dominant.
I was not forced to use my right hand. I believe my lefthanded older sister is the root of my double life. She taught me to do a cartwheel - her way. Ever since then, I can’t seem to get the right-left thing straight. Even now, if I try to do a cartwheel the way my right handed sister does them, my brain heaves and I fall down. It really screwed me up in gymnastics.
I am very clumsy because my left and right are fighting for superiority. I have trouble walking without tripping myself or hitting something. I can’t dance. I had a lot of trouble learning to march properly in ROTC. I actually have a massive blind spot when it comes to left and right when giving or following directions.
For the record - about 25% my family is either left handed or 100% ambidexterous. My mom can write with both hands, upside-down and backwards. My oldest sister and at least one cousin are lefthanded. Most of us can use either hand for most a good number of things.
Interesting. FTR, I am the same way. Very clumsy, very klutzy… I have rhythm, but good Og I can’t dance. Both feet want to lead, both arms want to take over. I have always, always had trouble with right/left directions, either giving them or receiving them. I remember when I was about ten years old, some older girls were trying to teach me how to tie my jaunty little girl guide scarf, and one began, “Right over left… left over right…” pause… waiting for me to grab my right and move it over the left as I stood there, looking confused… “You do know your right from your left, don’t you?” I was so ashamed. I still have trouble. Fortunately, most of my friends and family and my wonderful husband correct me (and defend me when necessary) playfully when I say “Go left.” They always respond, “Left, or the other left?”
Was never sure if being ambidextrous (or forced right handed, in my case) had anything to do with it. The clumsiness makes sense, though.
Another ambi forced to use the right for writing in school checking in.
Actually, what freaked the teachers out what that I used both hands for tasks, switching off willy-nilly. So they said I had to pick one side and stick with it. Which is stupid but there you do.
This had the fall-out that in sports the teachers kept saying “No, you’re trying to do it left-handed, but you’re a rightie - do it right-handed”. Guess they couldn’t get a clue that maybe I was a Stealth Leftie or something.
Much easier now that I’m an adult and can make my own decisions on what hand to use, and while I’m still right-dominant for writing, for almost anything else I can go either way. Some activities, such as shooting, I’m better leftie. Whatever. Doesn’t bother me, why should it bother anyone else?
And no, I’m not in the “physically clumsy” crowd, although I’m not the most graceful person either. I don’t and never have had trouble mixing left and right, don’t have trouble following directions, and almost never get lost.
I am terminally confused about left and right, as my kindergarten teacher told us all that we WRITE with our RIGHT hands. Except I don’t.
My Dad is very very left handed and still can’t tell left from right, horrible when he was navigating through Europe for me - “Turn left” …
“NO NOT THAT LEFT, THE OTHER LEFT” Gah.
And my son is right handed but ambithumbdrous - he can suck either thumb and get equal satisfaction from them. I couldn’t - it was left or nothing.
I am 62.5% left-handed according to the test. But I am right-handed. Except I bat left. And deal cards left.
One of my sons is a real mixture. He does most things right-handed but writes left. The most surprising thing to me is that he throws a ball with his right hand but a frisbee with his left.
It took me forever to learn the difference between left and right shoes. In my little girl brain, they looked identical. I’m guessing my feet did as well.
I learned how to tie my shoes (at age 7-going-on-8) before I learned this particular lesson.
