Cack Handed

[BadBeast]

Also, I can cut a right handed swordsman to ribbons, before they realise I've switched hands.

[Doktor Howl]

I was forced to use my right hand when I was in school.  It was the accepted method back then 

So I write right handed, and cut with scissors right handed, but do pretty much everything else left handed. 

My youngest son (the football player) is left handed too.  Well I say that but, everything he can do lefthanded he can do righthanded almost as well except write and throw the football.  He plays golf right handed, but that is more because we didn't have left handed clubs for him to use when he was little.

What can I say, we're weird!

What did they think was going to happen if they didn't force you to use your right hand?

Not the point.  It was about uniformity.

I thought there was some amusing religious hysteria around it.

I went to Catholic school until 3rd grade.  They made the lefties write right handed, so they started stuttering, etc, which they were then given corporal punishment for, which of course made things worse.

It had nothing to do with religion, but rather for uniformity (I was punished for writing in cursive early, for example, and for reading ahead of my grade level), and for mindless discipline for its own sake.

Have I mentioned that I hate Catholicism?

[Babes in Tongland]

I was forced to use my right hand when I was in school.  It was the accepted method back then  

So I write right handed, and cut with scissors right handed, but do pretty much everything else left handed.  

My youngest son (the football player) is left handed too.  Well I say that but, everything he can do lefthanded he can do righthanded almost as well except write and throw the football.  He plays golf right handed, but that is more because we didn't have left handed clubs for him to use when he was little.

What can I say, we're weird!

I think I switched out batting in softball; it was more comfortable.
Also, I made a comment re: your username and I think it never made it...
Just made me reminisce about D&D :3

[Doktor Howl]

Also, I can cut a right handed swordsman to ribbons, before they realise I've switched hands.

I'm sure that comes in handy.   

[Don Coyote]

Also, I can cut a right handed swordsman to ribbons, before they realise I've switched hands.

[BadBeast]

Also, I can cut a right handed swordsman to ribbons, before they realise I've switched hands.

I'm sure that comes in handy.  

No it doesn't, but the same rules apply for any Martial Art. Right handed fighters are trained to fight right handed fighters. Coming up against an unexpected lefty leaves you wide open. Check out the percentage of left handed Boxing Champs. (Average per populace is 10%)
Also, the Spartans had a crack regiment of left handed Warriors who, in formation, were unstoppable, pretty much. (The Romans took advantage of this fact too.)

[Eater of Clowns]

My left eye (luckily) is dominant. Aiming right handed guns can be tricky if the stock is specced for RH, but I can put a cloth yard arrow through your car door at 150 yds, with a Longbow.  

I guessed that when you listed the things you do with your right and left hands.  When it came down to throwing a dart, which is primarily about aiming, you said you did it with your left hand.

When did you find out you were cross eye dominant?  I didn't know until I was 19, after I'd already learned and pretty well practiced shooting guns and bows right handed.  Shooting lefty is extremely difficult, even if my aim is significantly better.

[Don Coyote]

Also, the Spartans had a crack regiment of left handed Warriors who, in formation, were unstoppable, pretty much. (The Romans took advantage of this fact too.)

[BadBeast]

Boxing   http://www.fightbeat.com/article_detail.php?AT=57
General Combat   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handedness

[Don Coyote]

Due to ancient man

Man during the stone-age time, used to kill animals using spears. After colonies came, man started to fight against other colonies and also among themselves. But as time passed, they noticed that when they attacked the left part of the chest (i.e. the heart) the kill was faster(i.e. the victim would die faster). Later when he started advancing in technology, he started to use a shield for defense. But as they knew that the weak point was on the left of the chest (heart), the shield was used with the left hand and attacking was done using the right hand. Thus man started to use to right hand more for attacking and thus right hand was used for more specific and specialized fine movements and the left for broader, contextual movements as in a shield where accuracy is not so much required until the attack is blocked. Thus as years passed, man started using more of his right hand for fine movements like writing whereas the left hand for broader movements like gripping and adjusting the orientation of the page. However, this theory suffers from the fact that right-handedness is universal, even among primitive tribes that do not use shields [7].

This sounds like bull shit.

The heart is still very much close to the center line of the body.


And no where in that did I read anything about left handed Spartan death squads.

Most of the wikipedia article sounded like bullshit.

Like this

Left-handed swordsmen were eagerly sought for castle invasions. Spiral staircases and towers spiral clockwise going up. Usually this meant that the (predominantly right-handed) defenders up the stairs had a good angle to swing swords and other weapons down at attackers. Conversely, right-handed attackers would find the weapons constantly colliding with the central pillar of the stairs. Hence the desire for left-handed attackers.

No citation to support it at all.

[Don Coyote]

I should add that I am a left hand/eye dominant person. I write left handed. I shoot left handed. I started fencing left handed.

[BadBeast]

Due to ancient man

Man during the stone-age time, used to kill animals using spears. After colonies came, man started to fight against other colonies and also among themselves. But as time passed, they noticed that when they attacked the left part of the chest (i.e. the heart) the kill was faster(i.e. the victim would die faster). Later when he started advancing in technology, he started to use a shield for defense. But as they knew that the weak point was on the left of the chest (heart), the shield was used with the left hand and attacking was done using the right hand. Thus man started to use to right hand more for attacking and thus right hand was used for more specific and specialized fine movements and the left for broader, contextual movements as in a shield where accuracy is not so much required until the attack is blocked. Thus as years passed, man started using more of his right hand for fine movements like writing whereas the left hand for broader movements like gripping and adjusting the orientation of the page. However, this theory suffers from the fact that right-handedness is universal, even among primitive tribes that do not use shields [7].

This sounds like bull shit.

The heart is still very much close to the center line of the body.


And no where in that did I read anything about left handed Spartan death squads.

Most of the wikipedia article sounded like bullshit.

Like this

Left-handed swordsmen were eagerly sought for castle invasions. Spiral staircases and towers spiral clockwise going up. Usually this meant that the (predominantly right-handed) defenders up the stairs had a good angle to swing swords and other weapons down at attackers. Conversely, right-handed attackers would find the weapons constantly colliding with the central pillar of the stairs. Hence the desire for left-handed attackers.

No citation to support it at all.

I've been looking for citation, but that was all I could come up with as yet. But consider the mind of a great General, like Alexander, or  Scipio. It's not hard to take the idea of left handed advantage to the next step, (especially if you are fighting with Armies whose principle weapon is the blade) add it to the close formations of Tactical Warfare of the period, for instance, Alexander's ''Bull's Horns'' or the Roman Interlocking Shield Wall, and it becomes a real Tactical, rather than simply personal advantage.

[trippinprincezz13]

I went to Catholic school until 3rd grade.  They made the lefties write right handed, so they started stuttering, etc, which they were then given corporal punishment for, which of course made things worse.

It had nothing to do with religion, but rather for uniformity (I was punished for writing in cursive early, for example, and for reading ahead of my grade level), and for mindless discipline for its own sake.

Have I mentioned that I hate Catholicism?

Me too!....although several years later, after they got rid of corporeal punishment, so it was more of a scolding than actual punishment. My parents encouraged a lot of learning at home (probably went through tons of those workbooks), so I was at an advanced reading level and learned cursive somewhere in between kindergarten and first grade. But, rather than even a nice "good job!", my first grade teacher scolded me...something, something, shouldn't skip ahead, blah blah, one or two of the letters might have been slightly different in the book I used compared to how they taught (OMG!). And that's where I learned that it's good dumb yourself down so everyone else doesn't feel bad. Wheee!

That being said, I am right-handed, like a Good American should be. Every so often, I'll try to use my left hand for stuff, for fun.

[Doktor Howl]

That being said, I am right-handed, like a Good American should be.

[BadBeast]

Take an identically armed (Shields, Swords) number of men, half of them left handed, half right, in identical formation (Shield wall) and see what's left after half an hour.