Left handed Martial Artists have an advantage?

[Lisa]

I am left handed and I find that doing things right handed seems to be much easier for me then when my right handed friends/training partners try to do things left handed. Maybe it is because we live in a right handed world, I am not sure. All I know is that I prefer to bat and golf right handed even though I am left handed and doing techniques with my "weaker" side was a little challenging but not all that difficult.

Is there something to this or is it just that I am lucky?

 

[green meanie]

I am left handed and I find that doing things right handed seems to be much easier for me then when my right handed friends/training partners try to do things left handed. Maybe it is because we live in a right handed world, I am not sure. All I know is that I prefer to bat and golf right handed even though I am left handed and doing techniques with my "weaker" side was a little challenging but not all that difficult.

Is there something to this or is it just that I am lucky?

Hi Lisa. I'm a lefty too and I think having to live in a right-handed world has a lot to do with it; it's forced us to be somewhat ambi-dexterous whether we wanted to be or not.

 

[Kacey]

I am left handed and I find that doing things right handed seems to be much easier for me then when my right handed friends/training partners try to do things left handed. Maybe it is because we live in a right handed world, I am not sure. All I know is that I prefer to bat and golf right handed even though I am left handed and doing techniques with my "weaker" side was a little challenging but not all that difficult.

Is there something to this or is it just that I am lucky?

In non-MA contexts, my father has made the same comments - when he was a child, "anyone could learn to write with their right hand if they tried hard enough" (or so his teacher told his mother, who wouldn't let him be forced into writing right handed - this was when he was 6, in 1940), and left-handed implements were not available until he was in his 30s. He had to learn how to use right-handed implements - everything from scissors to the stick shift on a car - to be able to function. When he broke his left wrist in his early 60s, he had no where near as much trouble using his non-dominant hand as most right-handed people have using their left hand, because he had to use his right hand much more than most right-handed people use their left hand.

In the context of MA, I imagine that the same would hold true. I know I read somewhere (I can't remember where) that in England in the 1200s or so, it was not fashionable to be "corrie-fisted", or left-handed, in sword drills, and soldiers who were formally trained in the courts of lords or kings were trained out of left-handedness because it caused problems for the drills if one person was using his left hand while everyone else was using his right - but when those soldiers came up against a left-handed swordsman in battle (someone trained in "what works" instead of "what's fashionable"), they often had no idea what to do.

I would guess that the same holds true for any other MA, whether weapons are involved or not, that left-handed people, who are more accustomed to using their non-dominant hand, would be, effectively, more ambidextrous than most right-handed people.

 

[tradrockrat]

I guess I'm, a lefty too, but the only things I do consistently left handed is eat and write. Most sports I am right handed and footed, but it is cool to be able to bat, golf, kick, and shoot either handed.

For the record I throw right handed only.

 

[Bigshadow]

I write left handed and I do things like hammer and saw with my left hand. But I shoot right handed (both guns and archery), eat right handed and so forth.

This thread has a familiar ring to it....

Yes, I like to think we have an advantage! At the very least we are in our right mind. :rofl:

 

[Lisa]

I write left handed and I do things like hammer and saw with my left hand. But I shoot right handed (both guns and archery), eat right handed and so forth.

This thread has a familiar ring to it....

I didn't want to gank Jades thread because hers is about learning techniques on both sides, this is about whether lefties have it easier

 

[painstain]

i fight as an left hander even though i'm right handed. i think it is because i learn my tech. on the left side first. i have beat south paws and otherwise so i'd have to disagree. its the skill, not what side you use. i have fought right handed as well and do just as well on either side. its how you use your technique not what side you use it on.

with respect,
painstain

 

[Grenadier]

Familiarity versus unfamiliarity.

The southpaws of this world have to go against the righties on a constant basis, seeing how fewer than 1 out of every 10 people are going to be left handed. At the same time, most righties are going to be used to fighting righties, and when having to face against a lefty, will be in unfamiliar territory.

This is why I try to teach people to fight from both sides, no matter what their preferred side may be. While a good fighter is going to be familiar with defending against both sides, at least you may be able to get in a few more shots by attacking from the side where the other fighter may not have as much familiarity. Also, you will be less likely to make defensive mistakes from your 'weaker' side if you devote some practice to it.

 

[Bigshadow]

I didn't want to gank Jades thread because hers is about learning techniques on both sides, this is about whether lefties have it easier

Oooops well it looks like it is heading in that direction... Yikes!

 

[Lisa]

Oooops well it looks like it is heading in that direction... Yikes!

 

[Andrew Green]

Yes, righties are more used to fighting righties. Lefties are more used to fighting righties.

So when a lefty fights a righty, everything is like the lefty is used to, but not the righty

 

[green meanie]

Inigo Montoya: You are wonderful.
Man in Black: Thank you; I've worked hard to become so.
Inigo Montoya: I admit it, you are better than I am.
Man in Black: Then why are you smiling?
Inigo Montoya: Because I know something you don't know.
Man in Black: And what is that?
Inigo Montoya: I... am not left-handed.

[Moves his sword to his right hand and gains an advantage]

Man in Black: You are amazing.
Inigo Montoya: I ought to be, after 20 years.
Man in Black: Oh, there's something I ought to tell you.
Inigo Montoya: Tell me.
Man in Black: I'm not left-handed either.

Hehe.

 

[Sam]

I feel that I do.

I am comfortable fighting off of either side, and I feel that is because I have had to use my right hand and side for tons of things.

If I was right handed I would be a sucky left forward fighter.

 

[Ceicei]

I am also a lefty. However, I have found that many things that I do are easier because so much are done with the right hand. When it is time to "switch gears" and use the left side, I'm in my element (strong side). Those who are right handed sometimes struggle a bit.

- Ceicei

 

[Brandon Fisher]

I have noticed that left handed people tend to use both sides more often the right handed people this could be why. Personally I am right handed and there is a clear difference on my left side then my right in most cases.

 

[IcemanSK]

I'm a lefty, too. I think there is certainly an advantage. We live in a righty-dominated world & we have to adapt more. They're not as used to it. So, yeah we have an advantage.

 

[FearlessFreep]

I think there is a difference between training to use your own weak side versus training to defend against or attack someone who is the opposite handed. If I'm right handed and I like to keep my power side back, do I train to also fight with my power side to the front (ie...'left handed') or do I focus on fighting from a single position, but I train to fight people who may be either 'right handed' or 'left handed'.

Maybe because I started in Taekwondo but I really don't tend to think about 'right handed' versus 'lefthanded'. Taekwondo sparring has techniques to work in open stance and techniques for closed stance and then ways of setting up a given stance. Given that some techniques I throw better with my right leg back some some with my left leg back, my mentality is more of trying to determine what strikes will be effective and getting into positiong to throw those strikes. In Taekwondo sparring, you don't really see a match with two people in the same position. There's constant shifting and changing stance to try to setup a given position or fake a given position to setup a technique, which may be thrown by the left or right side, depending on the given technique and given person.

So I tend not to think in terms of 'right handed' versus 'left handed' (and in fact I set up with my right side forward enough that I've had people ask me if I'm left handed, which I'm not)

Anyway, sorry for that wandering. I think it's important to train against an attacker who could be coming with either side forward, whether or not *you* train to fight only from your string side or try to train both sides (and i've heard arguments for both approaches) I think you need to consider that your opponent could be coming from either side.

One other thought is that there are some philosophies that have the strong side back and some that have the strong side forward, so even if you fight a right handed person, they may not be setup the way you like

Back to the original question, I don't think lefties have an inherent advantage in MA (I'm a bit of a bad one to ask because although I'm right handed I'm also a musician so I train my left hand to do more then most right-handed people probably do). I think some schools take an approach of being ambidextrous in everything at which point it may be easier for the left-handed person to do right side techniques then the reverse. However I've seen training that really only concentrates on fighting from one side, which I think is ok as long as you account for the fact that your opponent may be coming from either side. A lefthanded person who only trains to fight left-handed is going to be in the same position as a right-handed persons who only trains to fight right-handed. Keep in mind that if a left-handed person spends all their time training against right-handed opponents, they will be in the same predicament when facing a left-handed opponent as would a right-hande person; it's something they're not used to and may not have trained for.

So I don't think there's an inherent advantage, it just depends on how, and for what, you spend your time training....

 

[stickarts]

I think there is great potential to be efficient in either side, it just comes down to training.
At one point in my baseball career, I had a bad injury to my right arm and temporarily couldn't pitch.
Rather than give up, I started training throwing lefty and I was surprised at how much progress I made in a short while. I think I could have become a left handed pitcher.
My right arm recovered and my pitching career resumed but i never forgot the lesson of being adaptable.
Its amazing what you can do when you have to!
Training both sides can be done.
I think your attitude has a lot to do with it too.
I have known leftys in Karate that felt they were at a disadvantage and known leftys that felt they had an advantage. I think both were right because they fullfilled their own prophecy!

 

[Rich Parsons]

I didn't want to gank Jades thread because hers is about learning techniques on both sides, this is about whether lefties have it easier

I would say that Left handers that have tried before and are still trying have teh advantage.

In a right hand world, left hand guns grips, scissors, studs on pocket knives, etcetera, are hard to find or very costly since there are not that many made.

I have been in countries where they drive on the left side of the road and the steering wheel is right hand drive so you shift with the left hand, and those with me were unable to drive and shift with their left hand.

I have taght some left handers, and they cannot get specific move right handed (* as they try to work with the rest of the class *). I do it with them left handed and then do it again right handed it them pick it much easier than most right handers pick up the left hand side.

I have sparred some people with my left hand holding a stick and them right (* 100% free *), and they did not realize it at first as I switched in the middle, and their techniques worked for blocks as they only had to protect certain areas weather it be right handed forehand or left handed backhand. The counters needed a little modification, and when the realized that many things were not working 100% for them, so we stopped and went over the differences which then pointed out that it was left on right.

 

[Slippery_Pete]

Hey lefties...its said you will live longer though...

I have also noticed that people that are left-handed seem to do the techniques well if they are regular or reversed...I envy that skill...they are forced, in a way, to work on the right sided techniques more often than not and therefore they improve on what most people fail to even practice...being able to defend/strike/kick/punch/block with either hand/foot...

When I was a kid in pre-school I was left handed...a teacher would always correct me and place the pencil/crayon in my right hand...for that I am sure I am now mostly right-handed...i do somethings left but mostly right...society looks more to right-handers