Left or Right?: Exploring Your Dominant Hand and Foot

[BobG]

Well, I'm a rightie and throw a baseball right-handed, but in HS, I preferred to bat left-handed. I could bat well either way, though and tended to hold back on the swing and swing late so that when I batted leftie, the ball went to shallow left field and when I batted rightie, the ball went to shallow right field. That threw off the opposing fielders and I often got on base.

That makes sense, especially if you're right-eyed. Right-handed, left-eyed baseball players and left-handed right-eyed players tend to hit better, while right-eyed, right-handed and left-eyed left-handed players tend to pitch better.

Generally, about 65% of the population is right-eyed as compared to 90% being right-handed. People with opposite dominant eye-hand tend to do better in most flowing sports, including running surprisingly enough. They carry their weight more centrally balanced than people that have the same dominant eye-hand.

The two links talk a little bit about it, but I read a better article on it several years ago in a magazine.
http://www.psychedonline.org/Articles/Vol3Iss6/EyeDominance.htm
http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0805.htm

 

[turbo]

That makes sense, especially if you're right-eyed. Right-handed, left-eyed baseball players and left-handed right-eyed players tend to hit better, while right-eyed, right-handed and left-eyed left-handed players tend to pitch better.

I never thought of it that way, but it makes sense. I am right-eye dominant and I seemed to bat leftie better than rightie in most circumstances. I'd watch the pitchers, though, and if they had a good breaking ball or something that would make me favor one side of the plate over the other, I'd switch.

 

[Ouabache]

... tended to hold back on the swing and swing late so that when I batted leftie, the ball went to shallow left field and when I batted rightie, the ball went to shallow right field. That threw off the opposing fielders and I often got on base.

As a leftie, if i tried holding back and swing late, I'd more likely foul it off. Course if I if the ball did stay in play, we are at least a couple steps closer to first base than righties.

In tennis I did something similar to your holding back at the plate. I gained control (generally with some backspin) hitting down the line i.e. same side of the court you're recieving. With a little practise, it's not hard to do that one the backhand as well as the forehand.. In tennis, there is one more advantage swinging leftie, most right handed players (and lefties too), don't face many southpaws.

In bowling, rolling from the left side of the lane tends to be smoother (oil on the wood is not worn off), consequently there tends to be more friction on the right side of the lane.

 

[BobG]

As a leftie, if i tried holding back and swing late, I'd more likely foul it off.

In little league, I used to take pride in the number of cars I'd hit in the parking lot. My legendary moment came when I pointed my bat towards the gold colored Studebaker seven rows back behind the opponents dugout in the parking lot. To this day, our coach swears I was pointing at his pale blue Nash Rambler, six rows back behind first base. I still haven't given him a cent for the windshield.

Well, not really, but I did tend to send a lot of foul balls into the parking lot on the first base side. I wasn't exactly a star player, but I did peg two umpires in one game with throws from the outfield. When the infielders don't come out and call for the ball, sometimes your best bet is to throw towards the one guy you can usually count on to be near the base that the closest play is at ... as long as you throw at the right umpire and not the one that's just watching from afar, or the one that's hiding behind the pitcher for some unknown reason. On the second umpire, it was actually a great throw home from very shallow left field, aimed right at the pitcher's head, who was standing in line with the plate ready to cut the throw if necessary ... except the throw was a little low, about mid-section level, but still a hard throw on a good line, so the pitcher stepped aside leaving a shocked umpire to take one in the ribs.

 

[DaveC426913]

My legendary moment came when I pointed my bat towards the gold colored Studebaker seven rows back behind the opponents dugout in the parking lot. To this day, our coach swears I was pointing at his pale blue Nash Rambler, six rows back behind first base.

Studebaker? Rambler? For a few moments, I was wondering if your baseball diamond was across from an antique car lot!

 

[DaveC426913]

In one-on-one sports, such as fencing, lefties tend to have an advantage.

In boxing, ambidexterity is a liability. Ambi boxers tend to take a split second longer to decide which way to dodge.

 

[Lisa!]

Well the reason of starting this thread was this article! Too late for posting that but I couldn't do that sooner since I wasn't here!

 

[Francis M]

I write left handed on a desk but on a blackboard I can write with either. Most of the stuff for sports I end up doing right handed because that's how I was tought. Like Moonbear I'll find myself utilizing both hands as necessary at work. American football I probably could kick with either leg. I can bat (equally bad) from either side of the plate in Baseball, Football (Soccer) it just seems natural to me to use whatever leg is convenient. Hockey I could probably get away with either a left or right handed stick.