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by gabelerner 2723 days ago
left:

- write

- pool cue

- brush teeth

- scissors

- spoon

- fork

right:

- throw

- punch

- tennis/ping pong

- knife

i've always seen it as left=precision, right=force for me

6 comments

That's pretty close to how I do things and I've tended to view the dichotomy similarly. To add to the comment, when batting I'm more comfortable right handed and when kicking I prefer my right foot. I've also grown accustomed to using scissors and mice right handed out of necessity (though one might also argue that scissors frequently involve power). What's odd to me is that I often don't know which hand I'm going to prefer for a task until I try it.

Reading this thread, it's interesting to see that this may actually reasonably common. I don't think I've met anyone else who works this way before, and I realize that this sub-thread is rather self-selecting. Still, it's an existence proof that there's more than one of us.

I'm similar:

left: write, throw, pool cue, scissors, tennis, kick (soccer, AFL), shoot (archery, gun)

right: cricket, baseball

squash, knife/fork - somewhat ambidextrous. In squash I serve left handed but sometimes throw my racquet to my right hand mid point when the ball swaps sides (I'm not a good player - just social).

My right arm is definitely stronger than my left but less precise. I wonder if this is an artifact of living in a right-hand centric world. There are many things that are subtly biased to right handed use.

I am also right eye dominant which means I would theoretically be better off throwing and shooting right handed (better aim) but my body naturally coordinates these actions better as left handed. I guess I want the precision of coordination over the benefit of more accurate depth perception in aiming.

I also mostly follow this pattern also. As I imagine throwing with my left arm and right arm, the left arm feels a bit "numb" comparatively, like my brain doesn't have as many neurons devoted to controlling it or reading information from it. I can't describe it very well. I wouldn't imagine anything unique in that, and a left armed person could just as easily feel that imagining doing those things with their right arm. It just feels odd to pay attention to the difference in how my brain processes both sides.
Ditto.

Have you tried using a mouse (in right) and a graphics tablet (in left) at the same time? It can be very productive. Large sweeping movements with the mouse and fine detail with the left. Plus it impresses righties.

I'm the same, but I'm rubbish at throwing, hitting, sports in general.

So I'm undecided whether I support your left=precision, right=force theory.

Yeah now thinking about it the "left=precision, right=force" statement does make a lot of sense for me.