# Are You Left Handed Or Right Handed?



## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

I'm plain curious about my fellow TC members who I meet almost daily, or everytime I am here. Nothing more, nothing less.

Are you left handed or right handed or ambidextrous?


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## maestro267 (Jul 25, 2009)

Left-handed, and proud of it!


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Left handed for writing but right-handed generally. When I was a kid I was totally left-handed, even the knife and fork were reversed. What is weird is that now if I played guitar I would be right-handed but if I played the drums I'd be a leftie. However confused my brain is I make no claims for any kind of ambidexterity at all.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

elgars ghost said:


> When I was a kid I was totally left-handed, even the knife and fork were reversed.


I am right-handed, but have reversed the knife and fork ever since I was old enough to eat with them. In all my life, I have met only one other right-handed person who does this.


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

I don't know. I throw right handed, I swing a bat right handed, I play the guitar and violin right handed, but I write left handed, I paint left handed. And I can't switch.


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## Celloman (Sep 30, 2006)

I write and eat with my left hand, but I throw with my right hand...how weird is that?!


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## scratchgolf (Nov 15, 2013)

Naturally right handed

Baseball - Bat and throw both
Golf - Right 
Hockey - Left
Pick nose - Both


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

I am right handed, pure and simple, like the vast majority of bods; Pity - it'd be nice to be a romantic rebel type. I sort of wish I was left-handed, like my father was, because he had the brilliant spatial sense that is associated with left-handedness - apparently, a huge percentage of architects are left-handed. But left handedness is usually found among males, not females, and anyway, why add to the problems I'd have had with my fiddle?


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

Right-handed, but with some curiosities:

I use scissors with my left hand and always have;

I used to shave electrically with my left hand, but I seem to have gone back to using both hands, depending on the angle and side of my face, but I always use a blade with my right hand;

I use a bread knife in either hand, and most carpentering and automotive tools also, depending on how my body is positioned in relationship to the object I am working on;

I mostly hold the vacuum cleaner hose in my left hand and haul the canister with my right hand;

I have trained myself to use the computer mouse with my left hand in order to keep my right hand free to hold a pen while picking away at the keyboard with about 3 fingers of both the right and left hands;

I have only ever shot a rifle right-handedly (I am right eye dominant), but I make a point of using both right and left hands with a pistol, but I am far better with my right hand; etc.

Some of this left-handedness seems to be innate, but a lot of it I trained myself to do because it is more practical to have two hands that work. After years of learning karate and practising kicks and punches with both left and right sides, I feel that the body needs to be equally strong and capable, both right and left.

PS: To put a wrench into your theory, Ingélou: my sister is entirely left-handed


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

The idea about the computer mouse is brilliant, brotagonist!


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I hold the steering wheel, fork and telephone with my left hand. Most other things, right-handed, including writing.

Anybody entering my chateau in an attempt to rob me, the following might occur:

The perpetrator could be shot by means of my right hand, but after that, I will hold the telephone with my left hand while touch-screening Scotland Yard with the right to report the break in.

I consider myself to be "mildly ambidextrous". I have no idea how I got this way.


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

This is an unusually high percentage of lefties , including me . Interesting . Overall, only about 10 % 
of people are left-handed .


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## Novelette (Dec 12, 2012)

I vote ambisinister....


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

I'm left-handed as are both my parents. My brother is right-handed, so he's the black sheep of the family.


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## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

Hmm, I work the fret-board with my left hand, and pick with my right. I don't know which is more important...


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## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

When it comes to writing, I'm a leftie. When it comes to anything else, I'm ambidextrous


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Ha! You are my mirror image!


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

I am nautrally right handed. But i noticed I have increasingly used my left hand more over time as I get older.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

Right for everything except political ideology


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## TurnaboutVox (Sep 22, 2013)

I have always been very right handed indeed. My left hand has a supporting role only.

I am no sort of musician at all: perhaps the excess of left handed or ambidextrous people in this poll is linked to the proportion of people here who can play a musical instrument to a good standard?


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

brianvds said:


> I am right-handed, but have reversed the knife and fork ever since I was old enough to eat with them. In all my life, I have met only one other right-handed person who does this.


 'Reverse' knife & fork at table is, btw, a fairly standard European table habit -- and also is ergonomic common sense.


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## Brad (Mar 27, 2014)

superhorn said:


> This is an unusually high percentage of lefties , including me . Interesting . Overall, only about 10 %
> of people are left-handed .


Me too! I wonder of there is a correlation between being left handed and listening to classical music...


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## Krummhorn (Feb 18, 2007)

When seated at the organ console I am ambidextrous in both hands and both feet .

For all other purposes, bowling & eating for example, I am right handed, with the exception of the computer keyboard ... I am a _touch_ typist and can do about 45 wpm with great accuracy.

Kh ♫


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

scratchgolf said:


> Naturally right handed
> Pick nose - Both


Too much information.


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## TurnaboutVox (Sep 22, 2013)

PetrB said:


> 'Reverse' knife & fork at table is, btw, a fairly standard European table habit -- and also is ergonomic common sense.


Yes, most Europeans eat holding the knife in their right and fork in their left hand (except people without two functioning hands).

I was surprised the first time I ate with North Americans at the laborious way they were cutting up food, then transferring the fork to their right hand to actually eat it with.


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## Chi_townPhilly (Apr 21, 2007)

superhorn said:


> This is an unusually high percentage of lefties , including me . Interesting . Overall, only about 10 %
> of people are left-handed .


There are a few points to be made concerning this- (and keep in mind, I say this as YET another left-handed person):

First, left-handed people will likely respond disproportionately to this poll- as they're more likely to bring special note to (and dare I say derive some identity from) their condition.

Second, I do believe that left-handers are somewhat more well-represented than the norm in communities like this (i.e.: ones involving aesthetic appreciation)- BUT I don't think it's anywhere near the degree that the polling would suggest.

The up-sides to being left-handed are known to most reasonably educated left-handed people... but there are considerable down-sides, too. Generally speaking, more temperamental (archetype: John McEnroe), more likely to suffer from a number of disabling psychological conditions (e.g.: Schizophrenia and Post-Traumatic Stress) AND there's some evidence that points to the possibility of shorter life-spans, on average.

Left-handers don't seem disproportionately represented among the great Classical Music Composers. They're a stronger presence in the world of famous Visual Artists, it would appear...


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## EricABQ (Jul 10, 2012)

I'm a pureblood lefty. Which means I write, throw, swing a bat, and shoot a basketball left handed. If you do any of those things with your right hand, you are only a partial lefty*.



*you can, however, swing a bat from both sides of the plate and still be a pure lefty.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

I'm a total leftist. :tiphat:

Playing the flute, however, makes the dexterity of my hands relatively similar, and I would say that both are equally strong/fast. It's just my left hand is overall more _coordinated_.


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## Svelte Silhouette (Nov 7, 2013)

I'm afraid I may have to report this thread citing the UK's Disability Discrimination Act as I was peddling my bike the other day and said "Look mum no hands" and 5 seconds later a bus ran me over and it was true.


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## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

The prominence of the right hand can also be due to cultural condition. Back in the day, the left hand was considered filthy because it was used to wipe the behind after excavation…. Which is the primary reason why it's proper to shake hands with your right, although I think most use toilet paper now.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

Vesuvius said:


> Which is the primary reason why it's proper to shake hands with your right, although I think most use toilet paper now.


Pardon me, if I don't shake your hand. I insist on hand-washing


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## TurnaboutVox (Sep 22, 2013)

Vesuvius said:


> ...the left hand was considered filthy because it was used to wipe the behind. Which is the primary reason why it's proper to shake hands with your right...


I am _very_ right handed, should we ever meet and shake hands...


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

I think I might just pat him on the shoulder instead!


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

I am a fan of bowing.


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## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

Haha, shake hands and leave with a peanut… ahhh, eeww, yea I know… shut up.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I eat very little meat; mostly grains. I can and do shake with either hand and with pride to boot!!


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

Right handed, though I seem to be "left footed".


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## lupinix (Jan 9, 2014)

Right Handed

I found out (but it might be universal) that my right hand is faster and more movable (for instance steering when cycling) while my left hand is more balanced and controlled (cycling in a straight line)


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## mirepoix (Feb 1, 2014)

My hands are kind of beaten up. But they still work. And when they do it's with all the major stuff (such as writing, shaving, making _gestures_ etc) via my right, and the remainder (holding books, playing rimshots, tickling cats - both the feline and human varieties - under the chin) courtesy of my left.


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## Rangstrom (Sep 24, 2010)

I write left-handed. I should say print since my left-handed script is barely legible thanks to the second grade teacher that made me get rid of the "hook". I throw and bat rh and play golf rh. Other sports vary; darts, racquetball, pool could be either hand.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

I am bidextrous. 

Well, that's what I selected on the poll just so I could write that. I'm old enough to have had an attempted "cure." My dad always told me the story that when I was a toddler with crayons, I'd pick up a crayon with my left hand. My dad would take it away and put it in my right hand. He said I'd look at it and think about it, then set it gently down before picking it up again with my left hand. It's like I had to totally reboot or something. Of course I remember none of it. 

I write and draw and paint with my left hand. I do many things with my right, and many things with both or either. I guess technically I'm left handed. I'm very right brained if we can still use that over-simplification. My right eye scarcely works at all unless I close my left eye. It wanders if I'm tired or my attention strays. My brain just doesn't seem to need the right eye's input.


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## opus55 (Nov 9, 2010)

I'm almost entirely right handed - or at least used to be that way. My father is the only one in my family who is left handed. But when I read some posts above I realized it's true about me as well - I'm not 100% right handed.

I think my left hand is getting more use as I age. Also, when I ride bicycle, it is my left hand that keeps the steering straight - left is actually better at that. My right hand is much more powerful but not as well balanced as my left hand. For example, I now use my left hand to line up small objects or prepare food. After years of using computers, I also use left hand to type more often while my right hand is busy with mouse.

It seems like the main use of my right hand is for something that requires a lot of strength.

This stuff is really interesting..


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## Marschallin Blair (Jan 23, 2014)

I'm right-handed when it comes to writing or throwing a ball (although I write cursive like a left-handed person); but left-handed when it comes to throwing a frisbee or eating with a fork (but not a spoon); I'm right-handed when it comes to punching or kicking; but left-handed when it comes to surfing or stakeboarding ("goofy-footed").

Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha.

-- Yeah, figure that one out.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

What if I'm "forehanded," because I have a third arm that's to the front of me?


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## Jos (Oct 14, 2013)

Almost fully lefthanded. Writing, guitarplaying, icehockey, discusthrowing etc.
However; shaving and the use of tools like hammer, saw, weldingtorch I do with my righthand.
My wife is a leftie too, but only one of our 3 children is a leftie.

Cheers,
Jos


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## MozartEarlySymphonies (Nov 29, 2013)

I am right handed.

My dad's side is almost all right handed while my mom's is left.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

I wonder if classical music listening has anything to do with the statsically higher % of folks here who are either left handed or ambidextrous.


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## tomhh (May 28, 2014)

hi all. I'm right-handed.


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## AliceKettle (Jun 15, 2014)

I'm not surprised that most people are right handed. I, however, am left handed. See, I was born with a mild case of Spastic Hemiplegic Cerebral Palsy, which affects my right arm and leg, weakening them. It happened because of a prenatal stroke. I can still walk normally. I never was treated by my family as "disabled," but they loved me, and for that I am grateful. Luckily, I have never had any speech or communication inabilities, or else I might have not been able to sing.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

This is probably the first and only time I have voted in same category as ArtMusic


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