Do you think being left-handed gives any unique qualities or advantages compares to other right handed? - eviltoast

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  • nickwitha_k (he/him)@lemmy.sdf.org
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    7 days ago

    When fencing, left-handed people have the significant advantage of being able to dramatically switch their rapier from their right hand to their left hand, mid-combat, and announce that they are not really right-handed.

    • Case@lemmynsfw.com
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      5 days ago

      Realistically, I found left handed opponents to be more difficult to compete against.

      It took me longer to learn their body movements that would indicate a strike, and where they are aiming. It wast just less intuitive.

      Also, fencing a little person was a somewhat unique experience. Totally threw me off my game.

    • CaptPretentious@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      I did that in badminton. I’m the beginning I swapped hands when they weren’t looking. Once they caught on, of randomly swap whenever.

  • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
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    7 days ago

    Notable advantage in a lot of beginner and intermediate level sports. By the time you get beyond that everyone knows how to compensate for left handedness.

    Easier for you to assault a castle with spiral staircases while using a sword.

    • spittingimage@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      I’m told that Ferniehurst Castle on the border between Scotland and England was built with the stairs spiralling in the opposite direction because so many of the clan that built it were left-handed.

      • SanguinePar@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        May also have been a subtle way to help protect in case the castle was stormed. I’ve certainly heard of castles where the steps were sometimes irregular heights - those who lived there would be used to it, but invaders would not and would find it harder to move effectively. A differently spiralling stair might have the same effect.

    • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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      7 days ago

      Seems that doesn’t work quite as well in tennis, where pretty much all the time 15 to 25% of the top 100 ranked players are left handed.

    • exasperation@lemm.ee
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      7 days ago

      It’s true of all combat sports, and, to some degree, any other sport in which you go face to face with your opponent.

      And although it might be true that at the very very top levels people both learn to be more ambidextrous (so that there’s less of a mismatch between sides whether right or left handed) and are more experienced/skilled at dealing with left handed opponents, the early years of learning the sport will weed out fewer left handed people so that the top levels have more left handed people.

      • Goodmorningsunshine@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        I once read that the more competitive a society is, the now left-handed people it will have. I never did more research to verify, but makes some kinda sense

  • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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    7 days ago

    Due to it being a right handed world, most lefties are much better at using their non dominant hand for things. I can operate power tools, golf putt, easily drive a stick shift in any country, and do all sorts of things with my dominant or non dominant hand. Sometimes if I’m doing something that’s making my hand or arm tired, I’ll just do it with the other. Sure, it’s not as good as using my left hand, but it still gets the job done.

    Bonus points when playing pickleball or table tennis or tennis or whatever and I switch hands to reach and hit an otherwise out of reach ball in just the nick of time.

  • Jimmybander@champserver.net
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    7 days ago

    You are born an outsider. This allows you to understand the world more clearly at a younger age. Not sure what advantages this may give but it’s reality.

  • frustrated_phagocytosis@fedia.io
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    7 days ago

    Training people in surgical techniques is way easier in lefties because most have been imitating right handed people so have some degree of ambidexterity. When you tell a right handed person to do precision movements with their left hand it fucks them up for a while.

  • Swordgeek@lemmy.ca
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    7 days ago

    I fence, and lefties have a significant advantage, just because we’re used to fencing opposite-handed opponents.

  • edric@lemm.ee
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    7 days ago

    When I play basketball, it gives a slight advantage in the beginning when opponents don’t know I’m a lefty because they automatically assume I shoot with my right.

    Also, being able to naturally drive one handed in a left-hand drive car.

  • waz@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    Back when automated toll booths had baskets to throw coins in, I could easily pay tolls at around 45 mph.

    EZ pass eventually became a thing, probably saved me from my own young stupidity.