Different Hands For Different Usage?

[Joe Chartreuse]

I am not ambidextrous. I cannot use either hand for any one use. However, I use different hands for different uses. I consider myself a lefty, I write and eat left handed. I do precision work left handed. I shoot a pistol left handed. However, as the tool of use gets longer, I go righty. Rifle is shot with my right hand, Crossbow the same. Pool cue also righty. Yet I throw a long spear or javelin. or any other thrown item lefty. Fighting is different. I trained in several Japanese styles, and traditionally trained backwards for me ( righty) before before reaching a level of expertise where I was allowed to train lefty, so fighting could be called ambidextrous.

Anyone else use their normally non-dominant hand for certain tasks?

 

[blume357]

Sounds to me like you are pretty ambidextrous.... just choose which way you are going to swing depending on the job.

 

[Mobuck]

I grew up in a 'lefty' home. In order to fit in, I learned to do many tasks lefty. This is a big asset when doing mechanic work. When I had surgery on my right hand, there was very little that I couldn't manage lefty including sorting mail and maintaining the account books. All I needed to accommodate left hand CCW was an appropriate holster. I feel very fortunate.

 

[gunzo]

I'm left handed & had a dominant right eye. Fork or pencil in left hand, shoot right, but not terrible if I have to shoot left. Can use a hammer with either hand, & using tool, wrench for instance it a tight place I can use the hand works best for the position.
Butchering a hanging deer is a good example. Hanging head end up, the cavity facing me & use the knife in my right hand to cut away the right shoulder. for the left I can switch the knife to the other hand.

It's been interesting. School desk were right handed making for an awkward writhing position, that's why you might see a lot of lefties writing what they call upside down. My penmanship ain't nothin special for sure.

 

[bedfordboy]

I’m left handed but can do most dexterous things with either hand, except writing and throwing a ball (you’ve got to be flexible in a right handed world). Shooting is kind of a hybrid thing for me because I’m right eye dominant so rifles are right handed, pistols I naturally hold left handed and aim with my right eye but I can shoot fully right handed with equal accuracy but much slower… yeah I know I’m as messed up as a soup sandwich.
My identical twin brother is right handed, we are what is referred to as mirror image twins. As gunzo mentioned above it is very efficient when we are working together as in skinning a deer, knives in opposite hands going in opposite directions we can make quick work of it.

 

[Kevin]

I’m left handed also, most everything I do is left handed. My right hand is just for walking two dogs at the same time.

Unfortunately my daughter turned out right handed. It’s been difficult to teach her how to cook and use knives.

 

[themousethatroared]

I'm right handed but found a few things I could do better backwards.
Holding a hockey stick, I had better control and power with my right hand on the top of the handle end.
For fighting, I was enough better with with my right hand doing everything but a reverse punch that I thought putting my left side forward would get me hurt, so I lined up left handed. Opponents couldn't deal with a mirror image and couldn't figure out how to do a front leg sweep.
I had surgery on my eyes, and for a while, my left eye was stronger. It wasn't a problem holding a pistol right handed and sighting with my left eye, but getting a good nose weld on the stock while shooting rifle didn't work well.
Shifting gears was never a problem left handed, but I couldn't overcome lining up the car based on me and the steering wheel being just to the left of the crown between the ruts, so I was always hanging the passenger seat across the yellow line over here or swerving to the right before hanging it on a guard rail over there.
The left foot is supposed to be poor with pedal modulation and only suitable for clutch (pressed to floor or released). Could be because I had all weak engined cars or because we have so many stop signs and traffic lights on up hill grade that I got really good at feathering a clutch, and I picked up left foot braking easier than most. When my right leg got tired, I've driven left foot on the accelerator for hours at a time.
I don't think I've ever used a screw driver left handed, but it would be weak for tightening and stronger for loosening. Turning a wrench, I really notice for starter motors on FWD cars, because you can only get your left hand and arm into the hole, and I lay there really wishing it was as strong and maneuverable as my right.

 

[Hertervillian]

Left hand is my steering hand, saving the right for the shifter. I’m really not that great at steering with my right hand. Beyond that my left is at best a support appendage.

 

[Joe Chartreuse]

Sounds to me like you are pretty ambidextrous.... just choose which way you are going to swing depending on the job.

I believe- maybe incorrectly- that ambidextrous means one can use either hand to do anything. I can't. I can only pitch left handed and only bat right handed. for instance. I can't switch.

 

[Joe Chartreuse]

I'm left handed & had a dominant right eye. Fork or pencil in left hand, shoot right, but not terrible if I have to shoot left. Can use a hammer with either hand, & using tool, wrench for instance it a tight place I can use the hand works best for the position.
Butchering a hanging deer is a good example. Hanging head end up, the cavity facing me & use the knife in my right hand to cut away the right shoulder. for the left I can switch the knife to the other hand.

It's been interesting. School desk were right handed making for an awkward writhing position, that's why you might see a lot of lefties writing what they call upside down. My penmanship ain't nothin special for sure.

Until I got Long Covid back when it first started, I too was right-eyed and left-handed. Somehow my eye dominance switched after Covid. Played hell with my shooting and throwing until I learned to compensate. Still not as good as I was.

 

[flattop44]

I am right handed and use it for most things first. When I ws a kid my Dad taught me to bat baseball and softball left handed rather than right. He said that you are 1 step closer to first base. Always batted as a lefty.
FT44

 

[Hankus]

I’m right-handed, but learned I could switch hit in baseball and softball as a child. I chose my batting “handedness” according to the pitcher’s dominant hand. My father also taught me to shoot a handgun left-handed as well as I did right-handed. I’ve worn contact lenses for decades, and about 20 years ago my optometrist got me to try “monovision” with the contact for near vision in my left eye and distance vision in the right (dominant) eye. That worked wonderfully until a few years ago when I discovered I couldn’t focus on the sights on my handguns, so I shot cross-dominant (right handed but sighting with my left eye) for a little while until I could get a new prescription with near vision in my right eye. Now I’m back to “normal”…

 

[jack black]

I am not ambidextrous. I cannot use either hand for any one use. However, I use different hands for different uses. I consider myself a lefty, I write and eat left handed. I do precision work left handed. I shoot a pistol left handed. However, as the tool of use gets longer, I go righty. Rifle is shot with my right hand, Crossbow the same. Pool cue also righty. Yet I throw a long spear or javelin. or any other thrown item lefty. Fighting is different. I trained in several Japanese styles, and traditionally trained backwards for me ( righty) before before reaching a level of expertise where I was allowed to train lefty, so fighting could be called ambidextrous.

Anyone else use their normally non-dominant hand for certain tasks?

A LEFTY I never would have known.