Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: gecko on 05/08/2005 08:28:20
-
in another section i read an article about handedness(being left or right handed) which reminded me of something similar.
its usually that right handed boxers have a stance with their left foot forward, and left handers with their right foot. ive always noticed that on a bicycle, people have a preferred foot forward, but its not related, at least that i know of, to preferred hand.
im speaking from the world of bmx biking, though anyone on a bicycle will have a preferred foot forward. ive known 6 left footforwarders, all right handed, and 4 right foot forwarders, one left handed. this would lead me to believe its not related to which hand one prefers.
another thing is eye dominance. people see with an eye to focus and an eye for peripheral(i think). theres this little test, where if you make a quarter sized hole with your fingers, hold it away from your face and look at someone elses nose through it, theyll see your dominant eye through the hole. this also seems, in my experience, unrelated to handedness.
whats the deal? are there always preferred "sides" for anything, genetically predisposed? or just developed over a lifetime? any help would be appreciated
-
There is a predisposition to handedness and also a "learned" handedness. Myself being the proof!
I am naturally left-handed and left-footed. When I foot-forward on my bike I use the right foot as I find it easier to manoever my left shoe into the clipless pedal.
I learned to play the guitar right-handed because I was borrowing friend's guitars at first and was not allowed to restring them for a lefty.
I learned Ju-jitsu right-handed because the majority of assailants are right handed and I would have to block their punches with my left arm.
So instinctively I am a lefty but as this is very much a right-handed world, us gauchos have to compromise.
I don't think anybody is totally one sided. A good way of spooking your opponent when playing pool is to play the easy shots with your less favoured hand and the harder ones with your preferred hand. This should unsettle them and give you an advantage. It works for me!
Are you left handed? Do you have any problems with things designed for the majority?
Mike
"Gentlemen you can't fight in here, this is the war room!"
-
i am right handed, left foot forward fighter, right eye dominant, the only minority i have being right foot forward(seems to be a minority among well known bicyclers that is). i did learn to play pool left handed, cause sometimes doing one shot righthanded is ever moreso awkward just because of angle
the only thing ive noticed is in bmx, a person almost always grinds to the right if they are right foot forward, and the opposite. this poses a problem for right foot forwarders because the chainwheel and chain are on the right and it gets beat up pretty badly. a few companies responded by introducing "left side drive" which i have.
which reminds me, in bmx one also spins 180s and 360s in one direction much more easily than the other, which is almost always the opposite of which foot is forward, so rightfoots spin to the left and the opposite. ive known one person who was leftfoot and spun to the left, and didnt think anything of it.
i think this is terribly interesting but hard to read.
p.s. i did learn to play pool left handed, cause sometimes doing a shot righthanded is ever moreso awkward just because of the angle. ive known one person who was right handed and played pool left handed without thinking about it. this might be because of eye dominance.
heres a good bit on "eyedness" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_dominance