On Either One Hand...Or The Other!

[Mongoose]

Originally Posted by Lemming

Haha, this is the sort of childish - and quite frankly handist - jip I got at primary school from kids who were right-handed, jealous of left-handers, and couldn't change. Personally I see right-handers as a lesser breed, left-handers are special people with better functioning brains!

Well I'm ambidextrous, as I clean my teeth left-handed and can only pour out milk etc left-handed. I've got no control with my right. I can just about bowl spin a la Paul Adams left-handed too.

[Occasional Fan]

OK: one of the things I remember being told several times over the years is that in certain parts of the world, notably the Middle East, the left hand is considered unclean and is used only for certain functions which, by their nature, are not exactly clean. As a result, so I have heard, there are no left-handed people in these cultures, as left-handedness is simply done away with through early education. Can anyone confirm this from direct knowledge? If it is true, it also suggests that handedness can be learnt without serious brain damage arising, doesn't it?

I'm not sure that it can be learnt all through life, however: my left hand is useless for most purposes. I can't even drink a cup of tea with it, and to try making one would be downright dangerous to me and all around me.

[Seamer]

I do everything right handed save batting in cricket. But batting left-handed in cricket maked more sense to me as i find that it makes for better defence, driving and pull/hooking. The drawback is the cut. I have often wondered how many of the top left hand batsmen in the world throw right handed.

[Lemming]

Originally Posted by Mongoose

Well I'm ambidextrous, as I clean my teeth left-handed and can only pour out milk etc left-handed.

Cleaning teeth??? Pouring milk??? Hey, Mongoose, I opened a door today right-handed, i'm about to press the speacebar [here] right-handed. I've just waved to a sparrow through the window right-handed. Hey I've just realised!! I'm ambidextrous!! NOT!

Trouble is you look in the mirror when cleaning your teeth, the mirror image confuses you into believing you are left-handed.

See I told you that you wanted to be left-handed! But you are not!

I tell you what, see if you can make me some tea left-handed!!!

(For the record, ambidextrous means you can do a task with either hand with equal ease!)

[Statto]

Tresco, Strauss, S Jones, Anderson, Gayle, Thorpe?, Lara, Gilly's run out was right handed. Just a small sample, the ones I can think of now.

[Statto]

I write, play cricket, tennis, lacrosse, throw ect. right handed but I play snooker left handed, which also seems a common area where people use their wrong hand.

[Lemming]

Originally Posted by Seamer

I do everything right handed save batting in cricket. But batting left-handed in cricket maked more sense to me as i find that it makes for better defence, driving and pull/hooking.

I agree. I'm exactly the same except for being left-handed and batting right. My left-hand (top-hand) is dominant with the bat and it gives me more control of the bat, I feel. I think David Gower suggested that the way you bat Seamer (like himself), is the best way. You often see right-handed left-handed batsmen (Lara, Trescothick, Thorpe, Gower, Seamer) as well as left-handed right-handed batsmen (Giles, Hussain, Gough, Lemming).

[Lemming]

Originally Posted by Statto

I write, play cricket, tennis, lacrosse, throw ect. right handed but I play snooker left handed, which also seems a common area where people use their wrong hand.

I'm a bit of a snooker player and big snooker fan and I've never seen or heard of that, except for Ronnie of course. That, for me, is the strangest use of the wrong hand I have heard on this thread so far. Do you know of any pro's that do this?

When you play snooker, Statto, does the cue pass along to the left-hand side of your chin/face? It may be that you're left-eye dominant and use of the left-hand reflects that.

[Lemming]

Originally Posted by Statto

...Strauss...

I believe Strauss throws left-handed.

[Statto]

In snooker, the cue passes under my chin, so I cant tell any meaningful difference. When I play right handed, mainly in practice, I do tend to play a little wider outside my left eye until I notice and correct myself. I think it may be that I can hit the ball harder playing as I do, which was useful when I started playing. I dont know about any pros who do this but I'm not the only one at cricket who does, as far as I can think there are 3-4 out of the 20 or so who regularly play.

I wasn't sure about Strauss but I thought I'd seen him throw in a ball right handed in one of the ODIs.

If you want a strange use of the wrong hand, I'm trying to teach myself to throw left handed as well as right, just over short distances for fielding at cover or point etc.