Are you Left or Right Handed?

[Tankstand]

Howdy all.

After reading this thread

Left Handed Tools

I was curious to find out the results.

Proudly a Lefty

[Robert WA]

I am one of those strange people who can swap hands. I was probably born left handed but was made to write right handed and ended up confused.
My best trick was to play table tennis with two bats and hit everything forehand.

[glenn k]

Good on you Mark I was thinking of doing this but had no idea how. Will be interesting
Glenn

[DanP]

Lefty,

I am a righty. I think the reason you (and I) are spastics with the wrong hand (or is that the right one) is that we never use the other one. I have found that the more you use you're off hand the less spaz it becomes. As a part of my job I use firearms, mostly .38 Cal. revolvers. Part of the training is to shoot left handed in case you're right is taken out of action. At first I couldn't hit the side of a barn. After several years of training every six months I can shoot left handed almost as well as the right, without feeling unnatural. This is how sports people become coordinated on their 'unnatural' side. If you commit to always using your off hand for a given task, you will soon become more proficient in using said hand for that task. Eventually you will feel as comfortable with either hand. Just be careful in the mean time or you will have to get used to using your off hand for everything.

Dan

[Iain]

None of the above , actually right but when I am fly fishing I am able to cast using either arm, bit like DanP, standing in overhang and have to cast with either arm to get the trout.
Took a while but I got there and works well to my advantage.
All my tools are RH and I use them RH and despite being able to do some thing LH cannot write this way.

[Shane Watson]

I am right handed, but eat left handed...go figure...

[gatiep]

I guess in reality I am right handed, as I normally write with my right hand, but I can write left handed and the handwriting is only slightly worse than my right handed efforts, which are illegible ( mostly) anyway.
With handguns I am ambidextrous. In my previous life in previous country I did serious target practice every Saterday arvo, for about 15 years. Like Dan we had to practice with both hands. We did some combat practice and I often used to switch hands if it was easier and I would be less exposed if I used my left hand.
At the lathe I turn eiter left or right handed.Use spanners left or right handed.
Naturally when it comes to power tools that are designed to be used righthanded, then I find that instinctively I am righthanded.

[Shane Watson]

Yeah actually the more I think about it I use both regularly as well, not just for eating..hahah..Again with the whole shooting thing. Maybe it is a shooting thing!

[spbookie]

Funny how left handers are way over represented in the top levels of sport and the arts and most other areas of human endeavour. Oh and also in the accidental death stats as well.


I have to spend a lot of time thinking about how I can safely use power tools - mostly before I start them up ......


Charles

[AlexS]

I'm a rightie in just about everything except
1. eating...because i used to sit opposite the old man when i was a little feller, and hold the knife & fork mirror imaged

2. rifle shooting...but the army taught me to shoot right handed, and

3. using a hand drill...always turn it with my left hand.

[Sturdee]

I never knew the problems you lefties face in the workshop, makes me glad that I am righthanded.
However when I was growing up ( in a rough neighbourhood ) I learnt that a swift kick with my left foot could quickly settle a dispute.

Peter.

[Termite]

Using one hand I'm right handed ( eg. tennis). As soon as I have to use two hands I have to switch to left handed (eg. golf)
Regards
Termite

[silentC]

When I use a knife and fork, the fork is in my left hand but when I put the knife down, the fork swaps to the right hand. Didn't even know I was doing it until someone pointed it out.

When I play golf or cricket, I have to play cack-handed. I think this is because I used to play a lot of tennis and it's more natural for me to lead with my right elbow.

I used to have a totem-tennis set (the pole with a string and a tennis ball attached) when I was a kid. When nobody else wanted to play, I used to play with a bat in each hand and have a competition with myself to see which would win: left or right. Right nearly always won but left was starting to catch up.

I wont even mention my father in law and my dad, who are both theoretically left handed but all I can say is life for them seems very confusing!

[Rocker]

Darren,

You would do well in the US American etiquette demands that you eat as you do, with the fork in the right hand, once you have cut the food up into bite-sized pieces. When I lived there, Americans looked askance at me for eating in the British/Australian fashion, with the fork in the left hand at all times. The yanks even had the audacity to assert that I had a British accent, whereas I know that I have NO accent

Rocker

[DaveInOz]

Yes