When I'm learning to do new things that require some coordination, why do I always want to use my left side?
I was running a chainsaw yesterday and my husband of TEN YEARS asked if I was left handed! I’m not. He said I was holding it wrong. I was using my stronger right hand on the bar and using my left hand to throttle the trigger. He showed me how to hold it the ‘right’ way, with the left hand on the bar. Man, I felt like I was twisted up like a pretzel. I felt NO coordination, which, of course, made me feel very insecure using the saw that way, so I continued using it “backward.”
When I shoot a gun, I use my right arm, but at some point it hit me that I was trying to sight using my left eye, which meant I was leaning across the barrel. It just felt right. I’ve tried sighting with my right eye…but it just isn’t there.
Playing basket ball, my coach had to correct my stance. I was shooting with my right hand, but I had the wrong foot back. Changing it was uncomfortable, and I still have to consciously correct my stance when I shoot.
Why is this, Dear Abby?
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6 Answers
I’m left handed but have more strength in my right arm and better coordination in my left.
Maybe it’s a brain thing, right handed, left brained vs. left handed right brain.
Don’t even ask me to throw a ball, I’ve got that lefty curve that makes any object pitched react like a boomerang. I should have been an aborigine, I would have excelled at the boomerang throw. haha
Coloma the Aborigine! LOL!!
It sounds like you are left eye dominant. Next time you are at the range, try shooting with your left hand. I am naturally ambidextrous, I wrote my papers half with my left hand and half with my right hand, switching in the middle of the page. That is until my teacher in 3rd grade stood over me with her ruler and smacked the pencil out of my hand every time I switched to my left hand.
I trained myself to shoot with either hand, I found I shoot my shotgun better lefthanded, but my pistol and rifle I shoot better right handed.
Do what feels best and ignore everyone else.
Just do what feels natural for your particular body/brain connection.
I remember how awkward it felt to me when I first began learning to play guitar. I’m right-handed but It seemed totally backwards to me to use the left hand for chords since that’s the part requiring the most intricate finger coordination.
I have no idea whether Paul McCartney is right or left handed in the rest of his life but what he did with reversing his guitar hold and rearranging the strings to accomodate that made perfect sense to me.
I still play Autoharp oposite to what everyone else does. I was totally self taught and it just seemed natural to use my right hand for chording and strumming with the left.
In your case, especially with the chain saw, it’s critically important for your body and instinctual responses that they are comfortable since a slip could be really dangerous.
If it works well for you, who cares whether it’s atypical. I’m sure the bears out in the forest don’t care. They’re too busy taking a dump wherever it suits them anyways :)
@Buttonstc I thought the same when I learned to play the guitar- but as I am left-handed I just kept the guitar the way it was. A friend of mine who is also left-handed does the same. I wonder if this might be one of the few things where left-handed people are at an advantage?
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