Is anyone ambidextrous?

[phantom911]

It's weird that it's easy for my left hand to move along a fretboard fast and accurately. But it's impossible to write neatly or do anything else with it? I'm guessing this is because different tasks use different parts of the brain.

Anyone else find it peculiar?

[xXxPriestessxXx]

I have never tried to play guitar with my left hand but I can write as well with my left as my right. I tend to eat with my left hand too.

[orb451]

FWIW, I have a buddy that's left handed but forced himself to learn guitar as a regular rightie, plays ridiculously well too... I suppose it's like anything, the earlier you start or the more you practice the better you'll get.

[xXxPriestessxXx]

Originally Posted by orb451

FWIW, I have a buddy that's left handed but forced himself to learn guitar as a regular rightie, plays ridiculously well too... I suppose it's like anything, the earlier you start or the more you practice the better you'll get.

Yeah I had that sort of situation when I first started school as a kid. I was writing left handed and they didn't have left handed desks. So they made me change. I really think it is all about how early you start doing something.

[timbaline]

I'm trying to teach myself how to write with my left hand, so I'm doing something somewhat useful in school...

[AK DRAGON]

I tried learning to write lefty in school and always got scolded for it. Some things are easier for me to do lefty and others righty. Guitar is not one of them.

[IDLE]

I'm definitely not, but depending on the activity I do switch sides too. Guitar and throwing I do with my left hand and I write with my right. Opening doors and daily things it doesn't really matter, but those don't really require any special dexterity. It would be interesting to see if when an ambidextrous person learnt guitar if they could just switch sides and play equally as well.

[hufschmid]

I am 100% ambidextrous after having some tests done...

However my right hand is the strong one and I'm a real left handed...

I write with my left hand and do almost everything else with the right....

For building guitars I use both hands all the time...

[Prydogga]

I can't really play guitar left handed, more because of my right hand being too essed up more than my left, but other than that the only thing I can't so as well left than right is write. I throw left handed and kick either way.

[Fred the Shred]

I am ambidextrous, and I play the guitar right-handed, while I play the drums leff-handed. A matter of habit, I suppose.

[Herb Dorklift]

I can wank with both hands.

[Sang-Drax]

My left hand is blind.

[Demiurge]

It's probably because of playing guitar and video games, but it's like my right arm and wrist are more coordinated than my left arm and wrist, but my left hand fingers are more coordinated and dexterous then my right hand fingers. Does that make sense?

[All_¥our_Bass]

My father and I are both right handed, but perform some tasks with our left hands that most righties would do with their right hands.

[Koshchei]

I'm totally ambidextrous like Huf. I find that I can do almost everything left or right-handed without practice if it's a mirror of itself. For example, driving a car in the UK always screws me up because the gear-shift pattern is the same as in North America, rather than opposite.

The biggest downside to ambidexterity is the total inability to distinguish left and right unless I stop and think about it. This manifests itself in the weirdest ways, such as laying the table completely backwards, or being totally unable to comprehend verbal "turn left/turn right" type directions.

I've read peer-reviewed articles that suggest that ambidexterity comes about as a complication during pregnancy, when the fetus' brain is deprived of oxygen during the stage when they develop a dominant half of the brain. However, this theory fails to take into account heredity - everyone on my father's side of the family is also completely ambidextrous, and has been for at least five generations. Perhaps we all have a developmental defect, but the odds of this happening to the extent that it has in my family has got to be astronomical.

[hufschmid]

Originally Posted by Koshchei

I'm totally ambidextrous like Huf. I find that I can do almost everything left or right-handed without practice if it's a mirror of itself. For example, driving a car in the UK always screws me up because the gear-shift pattern is the same as in North America, rather than opposite.

When I was 8 years old, I was in a private school which was religious...

Anyway because I was left handed it was not tolerated, the teacher told my parents that I was possessed by lucifer because I was left handed...

I was forced to write with my right hand until my mother took action against them and got me out of that shit...

This was the private Rudolf Steiner school just in case you are wondering...



this ended up traumatising me as a kid and I had sevear agoraphobic problems for many years after that....

Just saying, if you have kids and are experiencing this thype of shit by some pathetic little narrow minded people who dont understand what is a left handed, dont let this happen, not even for one little second.

I dont like talking about this but its worth to be mentioned...

[scottro202]

^ Damn Humf, that's harsh

Anyways, I'm ambidextrous in billiards and hockey. I'm only really so with hockey because I started out righty, but found I'm a lot better at lefty later on

[Cyanide Assassin]

i cant play guitar lefty but i can write the same with both hands. in 4th grade i broke my left hand(dominant) and had to learnt o write with my right hand. needless to say after about 3 or 4 months of doing this i got pretty good at it and ive kept practicing it just to mess with people and its pretty much the same for letter shapes and stuff.

[Koshchei]

Originally Posted by .........

When I was 8 years old, I was in a private school which was religious...

Anyway because I was left handed it was not tolerated, the teacher told my parents that I was possessed by lucifer because I was left handed...

I was forced to write with my right hand until my mother took action against them and got me out of that shit...

This was the private Rudolf Steiner school just in case you are wondering...



this ended up traumatising me as a kid and I had sevear agoraphobic problems for many years after that....

Just saying, if you have kids and are experiencing this thype of shit by some pathetic little narrow minded people who dont understand what is a left handed, dont let this happen, not even for one little second.

I dont like talking about this but its worth to be mentioned...

I had my left-hand tied behind my back when I was in kindergarten, because I preferred it for writing, so I had to learn right-handed. Because my father is also totally ambidextrous, he raised hell with the school when he found out about it.

[hufschmid]

If this would happen to my neph (who is a left handed) one day I would go straight up and punch them in the faces without even having to talk to them first...

Umbalivable how primitive some people are

They probably forget that leonardo da vince, mozart, bach and many others have all been left handed...

[Koshchei]

Agreed. Ambidexterity is, for some completely unfathomable reason, quite politicized as a subject. Our brains do NOT function the same way that dominant-handed people's do, which, I think freaks them out a little.

The recent article in the BBC saying that we have a higher tendency towards dyslexia and ADHD fails to take into account that of the 8000 Finns sampled, only 83 were ambidextrous, which is far too small a sample to conclude anything.

I think that ambidexterity should be examined in its own context and on its own merits as an evolutionary trait, rather than "explained" away as some sort of brain abnormality without conclusive evidence that this is the case.

[xXxPriestessxXx]

Originally Posted by Koshchei

The biggest downside to ambidexterity is the total inability to distinguish left and right unless I stop and think about it. This manifests itself in the weirdest ways, such as laying the table completely backwards, or being totally unable to comprehend verbal "turn left/turn right" type directions.

Wow I am so glad I am not the only one. I always thought that there was something wrong with me because I have a lot of trouble with right/left directions and the like. I don't feel quite so bad now. I never thought of it occurring because I was ambidextrous.

[hufschmid]

There is no problem at all, in fact you have something incredible there if you know how to use it and it can be the best friend in your life to be ambidextrous...

You can do stuff which cant be done by somebody who is not.

You can also work faster because you have the 2 sides available at full power

[xXxPriestessxXx]

Originally Posted by .........

There is no problem at all, in fact you have something incredible there if you know how to use it and it can be the best friend in your life to be ambidextrous...

You can do stuff which cant be done by somebody who is not.

You can also work faster because you have the 2 sides available at full power

I had a lot of the same experiences that you guys had with school, as far as being forces to write right handed so I feel you guys there.

I was always really good at coordination type sports when I was in high school and I was almost positive that this was why.

[Koshchei]

Originally Posted by xXxPriestessxXx

I had a lot of the same experiences that you guys had with school, as far as being forces to write right handed so I feel you guys there.

I was always really good at coordination type sports when I was in high school and I was almost positive that this was why.

Yeah - same. I'd play solo against doubles in tennis and badminton, and would usually win because I'd just change hands depending on where the ball was going. There also wasn't the issue of team communication. I always knew where I was going to be.

It's awesome for alpine skiing as well, as you don't have a weaker side.