Did they get it backwards?

[dgarland]

I’m a phys ed teacher so I see plenty of sports being played. I have a theory that when the first people picked up a stick to hit a rock they got the right and left handed swings backwards.  The dominant hand might be better leading the swing. What do you guys think?

[caeye0710]

I think there's so much variance to this. Here's why, and maybe I'm just weird:
- I throw right handed

- Golf righty

- Eat lefty

- Write lefty,

- Shoot a handgun left-handed (but with my right eye)

- Shoot a rifle left handed (with my left eye)

- Shoot a bow right-handed

- Bowl right handed

- Kick a soccer ball with my left foot

 

When it comes to hand dominance, I'm not sure if there is more "backwards" than me. Lol. 

[Sp4zRX]

If you swing a stick one handed, then you will get more power from using your dominant hand doing an underhand motion rather than a backhand motion. 
 

Think tennis. A forehand (I think that’s what it’s called in tennis?) is more powerful than a backhand. 
 

With that reasoning, I think we got it right. 
 

[Pepperturbo]

I was born left-handed, but as a child, my brain and being ambidextrous had me switch to right-handed for all my sports.  My left side has constraints, while my right side is where all my power and tenacity is. 

 

When we consider the Left Brain is logic and sense of time; and I play golf with the Right Brain, creative and imagination, I am dealing with theoretical opposites; so, maybe, but doubtful.

 

 

[caniac6]

I think you’re thinking too much.

[pdxhak]

7 hours ago, dgarland said:

I’m a phys ed teacher so I see plenty of sports being played. I have a theory that when the first people picked up a stick to hit a rock they got the right and left handed swings backwards.  The dominant hand might be better leading the swing. What do you guys think?

The dominant hand is back for every sport that requires speed, power, and accuracy.  Baseball, tennis, hockey, lacrosse, and various other sports the dominant hand is back. In addition any throwing motion like baseball, cricket or football the dominant hand is back. 

[Sean124]

2 hours ago, pdxhak said:

The dominant hand is back for every sport that requires speed, power, and accuracy.  Baseball, tennis, hockey, lacrosse, and various other sports the dominant hand is back. In addition any throwing motion like baseball, cricket or football the dominant hand is back. 

There are a lot of right handed people who play hockey left handed.
 

Most of those people that I know personally, including my dad, still golf right handed. 

[Shilgy]

Although there was one player that used the cross handed grip that won(?) on the Nationwide/Hogan/KF Tour. Josh Broadaway?

 

Have you ever tried playing with the hands reversed? If you try it check with the hospital first to know best time to arrive in an ambulance.🤣

[Soloman1]

we process using both sides of our brains, not left or right. it's the 21st century.

[Golf_Goof]

1 hour ago, Sean124 said:

There are a lot of right handed people who play hockey left handed.
 

Most of those people that I know personally, including my dad, still golf right handed. 

RH dominant. I grew up playing hockey, baseball, lacrosse all left handed. Didn’t touch a club until 20 years old. There was only ever one way I was going to swing. 
 

 

[nsxguy]

7 hours ago, caeye0710 said:

I think there's so much variance to this. Here's why, and maybe I'm just weird:
- I throw right handed

- Golf righty

- Eat lefty

- Write lefty,

- Shoot a handgun left-handed (but with my right eye)

- Shoot a rifle left handed (with my left eye)

- Shoot a bow right-handed

- Bowl right handed

- Kick a soccer ball with my left foot

 

When it comes to hand dominance, I'm not sure if there is more "backwards" than me. Lol. 

 

[Sp4zRX]

Many RH hockey players play left because they often use only their top hand on the stick for poke checking. It is much more advantageous to use your dominant hand when you only have one hand on the stick. 
 

In golf we always have two hands on the club so I don’t see the advantage of playing opposite unless of course if you grew up playing something like hockey on the opposite side and it just comes more natural. 

 

[TheDeanAbides]

Despite being a lefty, I picked up right-handed clubs as a kid because that's what was there. Oddly, I bat right-handed in cricket too, even though I had the option to bat left-handed. Perhaps that was a hangover from my early golfing? I bowl, throw and play tennis as a lefty though. Us lefties are all odd (as @MonteScheinblum once told me!) 

[Valtiel]

13 hours ago, Pepperturbo said:

When we consider the Left Brain is logic and sense of time; and I play golf with the Right Brain, creative and imagination, I am dealing with theoretical opposites; so, maybe, but doubtful.

 

8 hours ago, Soloman1 said:

we process using both sides of our brains, not left or right. it's the 21st century.

Yeah like a lot of these topics, the pseudo-science has kinda washed away to reveal (surprise!) that our overly simplistic and binary perceptions of very complex things were in fact.....overly simplistic and binary. 

The Smithsonian Science Education Center has some good and easy to digest stuff on the topic:
 

Quote

The categories of right- and left-brained people likely originated from research conducted by neuropsychologist Roger Sperry throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, which tracked individuals who had undergone operations to sever the corpus callosum (the main structure connecting the two halves of the brain) as a treatment for epilepsy. Sperry’s team demonstrated that the two hemispheres of the brain are specialized for different functions –e.g. attention is governed mainly by the right-brain and language occurs mostly in the left-brain. Misinterpretation of these findings led to associations between specific brain functions and personality types, and gave rise to the popular neuromyth of ‘left-‘ and ‘right-brained’ people.

While it’s true that certain mental processes tend to occur in either the right or left hemisphere of the brain, research into the topic has found no evidence that people have stronger networks on one side of the brain or the other. In fact, a study of inter-hemispheric brain activity found that mathematically-gifted adolescents had better cooperation between brain hemispheres than non-gifted students, supporting the notion that better integration between hemispheres may be responsible for stronger cognitive ability.

 

[TheDeanAbides]

27 minutes ago, Valtiel said:

 

Yeah like a lot of these topics, the pseudo-science has kinda washed away to reveal (surprise!) that our overly simplistic and binary perceptions of very complex things were in fact.....overly simplistic and binary. 

The Smithsonian Science Education Center has some good and easy to digest stuff on the topic:
 

 

100% this. 

[RSLP]

maybe, but the "die is cast"

 

for golf, right hand equipment options are so much greater. 

 

in addition, very few LH golf coaches.

 

[jonsnow]

On 6/26/2024 at 2:06 PM, caeye0710 said:

I think there's so much variance to this. Here's why, and maybe I'm just weird:
- I throw right handed

- Golf righty

- Eat lefty

- Write lefty,

- Shoot a handgun left-handed (but with my right eye)

- Shoot a rifle left handed (with my left eye)

- Shoot a bow right-handed

- Bowl right handed

- Kick a soccer ball with my left foot

 

When it comes to hand dominance, I'm not sure if there is more "backwards" than me. Lol. 

Some of us suffer from schizophrenia. The rest of us just enjoy it...

[betarhoalphadelta]

On 6/26/2024 at 6:31 AM, dgarland said:

I’m a phys ed teacher so I see plenty of sports being played. I have a theory that when the first people picked up a stick to hit a rock they got the right and left handed swings backwards.  The dominant hand might be better leading the swing. What do you guys think?

 

I'm going to say they got it right. 

• Left-handedness in America is roughly 10.9% of the population. 
• Unlike writing, much of sports is biased towards right-handers, due to equipment. 
• This is ESPECIALLY true of golf, so I suspect many natural left-handers (like me) grew up learning to golf (as I did) right-handed, because those were the clubs Dad had in the garage. 
• One article suggests that only 5-7% of golfers play left-handed. Outside of a few outliers like Phil, I don't think very many natural right-handers pick the game up lefty (although I understand this isn't true in Canada due to hockey). 
• So if there's almost 11% of the population who is naturally left-handed, and 5-7% of golfers who play left-handed, we can assume that somewhere around HALF of all left-handed people who take up golf are doing it opposite their dominant hand. 
• The PGA Tour mirrors the wider golf world--5% of PGA Tour players are playing as lefties. There are outliers but I don't think the number of PGA Tour players who are left-handed but play righty are statistically overrepresented. 
• ***IF*** playing with the dominant lead hand was an advantage, and half of all left-handers were effectively doing this, those players should be overrepresented on Tour.
• If it's neither advantage nor disadvantage, these players should comprise about 5% of the tour--roughly the number proportion of American golfers who are naturally left handed but equipment limitations caused them to learn righty.
• If it's an advantage, these players should comprise >5% of the tour--and we'd undoubtedly have heard about it by now. We'd have parents pushing their right-handed kids into lefty clubs for an advantage. But that isn't happening.

So no, I don't think they got it wrong. If they did, we'd see it overrepresented at the long tail of the talent distribution, professional golf. And (to my knowledge) we don't see it. 

Edited Thursday at 10:27 PM by betarhoalphadelta

[Hawkeye77]

On 6/26/2024 at 8:31 AM, dgarland said:

I’m a phys ed teacher so I see plenty of sports being played. I have a theory that when the first people picked up a stick to hit a rock they got the right and left handed swings backwards.  The dominant hand might be better leading the swing. What do you guys think?

 

 

I think that doesn't make any sense at all, lol.  

 

On the "other hand":

 

 

 

 

Edited Thursday at 08:15 PM by Hawkeye77

[dirthead]

I'm right handed and right eye dominant.  I started playing baseball at a very young age and naturally batted "left handed".  It just felt natural and I could see the ball better with my right eye on the side of the pitcher.  When I started playing golf, my parents brought home a set of right handed clubs, so that's the side I learned to play from.  I still have some alignment issues related to being right eye dominant.  If I was starting over again, I would play left handed, and only because I can visualize my alignment much better from that side.  

[caeye0710]

1 hour ago, jonsnow said:

Some of us suffer from schizophrenia. The rest of us just enjoy it...

My wife does say I’m moody…

[BackNineCollapse]

Dominant eye plays a role also.  Eye dominance is strange, about a third of right handed people have a dominant left eye, while about two thirds of left handed people have a dominant left eye.  There is some evidence that in baseball, having your dominant eye in 'back' is better, as it requires less head movement to maintain focus (so a person with left eye dominance **might** be better off batting left handed, regardless of handedness.)  I'm not aware of any studies that test this in golf, but it would not surprise me if there was some benefit.

[PedronNiall]

I think science has proven well to us that left handedness is a sign of evil and thus we've done our best as a society to promote right handed play lest we risk our immortal souls.

[ferrispgm]

I don't see the benefit and have a feeling it's an old wive's tale like don't go out side when it's cold or you'll catch a cold.  I do however think there may be some merit to having the dominant eye being the one closest to the target but that's just my opinion. 

[5nowflake]

I have a bit of mixed dominance , tend to do fine motor control right handed (badly) and gross motor control left handed (well). 
 

I also think you have to take what people say about their dominance with a pinch of salt. I played cricket with a guy who said he was left handed (because he wrote left handed) I said to him “mate, you bat, bowl, throw and catch right handed, you are not left handed” 

 

this actually surprised him a bit 🤔

 

anyway, i throw, catch, kick lefty but took up golf righty (usual reason) 

 

after 30 years of occasional golf, mostly frustrating, I switched over to lefty. 
 

more speed, better feels, everything comes much more easily. It’s not been a picnic (sh@n£$ and lots of them) but golf is starting to feel like other ball games have always felt. 
 

Personally I believe the “lead with your strong side” line is nonsense put out there by an industry with a vested interest in the status quo. unlike a lot is team sports, golf has no need for left handers and, as stated by a previous poster , if it really was advantageous for most people to play with the hand you don’t throw a ball with, we would know by now. 
 

interestingly enough, the only scientific paper I’ve seen on this suggests that you should play opposite handed. However, my feeling on that was that the main factor was actually ambidexterity rather than playing the other way around. Also i suspect there’s a bit of survivorship bias in there, they can’t see how bad the lefties who played righty and gave up were, only those “lefties” who managed to survive as righty golfers. 
 

ps - there does seem to be an advantage in cricket, lots of top left handed bats are actually right handed people , but I suspect that is down to the need to play straight down the line of the ball, much easier with your strong hand on top. I gave it a go myself actually, technique was better right from the off. Couldn’t hit the ball very well, but I looked better…

[betarhoalphadelta]

42 minutes ago, PedronNiall said:

I think science has proven well to us that left handedness is a sign of evil and thus we've done our best as a society to promote right handed play lest we risk our immortal souls.

 

Don't get me started on anti-lefty bias! After all, the latin for left-handed is sinistral. Hmm, just like "sinister", huh? And who is the favored one? The one who is seated at "the right hand". And who do you trust? Your "right hand man". 

 

And what do we say about someone who is equally proficient with both hands? We call them "ambidextrous." Because "dextral" is right-handed. So it's like they've got TWO right hands. Or, put another way, ZERO left hands. Hmm... Biased much? 

 

17 minutes ago, 5nowflake said:

I have a bit of mixed dominance , tend to do fine motor control right handed (badly) and gross motor control left handed (well). 
 

I also think you have to take what people say about their dominance with a pinch of salt. I played cricket with a guy who said he was left handed (because he wrote left handed) I said to him “mate, you bat, bowl, throw and catch right handed, you are not left handed” 

 

this actually surprised him a bit 🤔

 

anyway, i throw, catch, kick lefty but took up golf righty (usual reason) 

 

after 30 years of occasional golf, mostly frustrating, I switched over to lefty. 

 

Hmm, you weren't the sort of person who had left-handedness beaten out of you by Catholic school nuns or anything, were you? (My aunt was one of those lol.) You actually sound like the reverse of most left-handers... Left-handers who do the fine motor stuff with their dominant hand but learned due to bias of sports equipment to play sports righty. If your fine motor stuff is poor, maybe you were forced/encouraged at an early age to do it right-handed and so you now think you're right-handed?

 

As mentioned, I'm the opposite. I do all fine motor stuff left-handed. Writing, using an ultra-sharp knife chopping vegetables for cooking, using scissors, etc. I do it all more accurately lefty. But I learned sports righty, so it's my "power" hand. Some things, like hammering a nail, I can go back and forth. But others, like throwing a ball, swinging a bat or golf club, I'm so ingrained doing it righty that I couldn't even make a coherent motion lefty. I do kick lefty because it's less common for that to be "taught" out of you via equipment bias IMHO. 

 

[Valtiel]

51 minutes ago, BackNineCollapse said:

Dominant eye plays a role also.  Eye dominance is strange, about a third of right handed people have a dominant left eye, while about two thirds of left handed people have a dominant left eye. 

 

8 minutes ago, ferrispgm said:

I do however think there may be some merit to having the dominant eye being the one closest to the target but that's just my opinion. 

Yeah eye dominance is a really interesting one, especially when it comes to putting. I've done eye dominance tests that suggest i'm like 60/40 between right and left eyes respectively, so almost evenly split but still favoring my dominant side. I remember something about a correlation between strength of eye dominance and visual preference in putter offset, with dominance aligned with handedness (most common) aligning with typical full shaft offset (plumbers neck style) and any moves towards equal dominance or even cross dominance favoring less and less offset. Not 100% sure on that though, and even if i'm remembering that correctly I don't even know that it's accurate. 😅

[betarhoalphadelta]

1 minute ago, Valtiel said:

 

Yeah eye dominance is a really interesting one, especially when it comes to putting. I've done eye dominance tests that suggest i'm like 60/40 between right and left eyes respectively, so almost evenly split but still favoring my dominant side. I remember something about a correlation between strength of eye dominance and visual preference in putter offset, with dominance aligned with handedness (most common) aligning with typical full shaft offset (plumbers neck style) and any moves towards equal dominance or even cross dominance favoring less and less offset. Not 100% sure on that though, and even if i'm remembering that correctly I don't even know that it's accurate. 😅

 

That is interesting. I'm left-handed (but play righty) and I think fairly strongly left-eye dominant. So for golf, I'm cross dominant. 

 

I've always played with offset / plumbers neck putters. But a couple weeks back my wife (non golfer), son (golfer), and I were in Phoenix for a concert. We had time to kill before dinner and my son suggested we go to PGA TSS. I saw they had a couple of L.A.B. putters (either DF2.1 or DF3) and I'd wanted to try them. The putter face is WELL ahead of the shaft, i.e. negative offset. So I took a couple putts. Now, it was a flat surface, but I holed out on a 15 footer and the a 20 footer without ever having tried one of these, and the weight being WAY lighter than my own putter. 

 

Maybe I should go get fitted for a L.A.B. 😂

[Valtiel]

3 minutes ago, betarhoalphadelta said:

 

That is interesting. I'm left-handed (but play righty) and I think fairly strongly left-eye dominant. So for golf, I'm cross dominant. 

 

I've always played with offset / plumbers neck putters. But a couple weeks back my wife (non golfer), son (golfer), and I were in Phoenix for a concert. We had time to kill before dinner and my son suggested we go to PGA TSS. I saw they had a couple of L.A.B. putters (either DF2.1 or DF3) and I'd wanted to try them. The putter face is WELL ahead of the shaft, i.e. negative offset. So I took a couple putts. Now, it was a flat surface, but I holed out on a 15 footer and the a 20 footer without ever having tried one of these, and the weight being WAY lighter than my own putter. 

 

Maybe I should go get fitted for a L.A.B. 😂

[PedronNiall]

5 hours ago, Valtiel said:

 

Yeah eye dominance is a really interesting one, especially when it comes to putting. I've done eye dominance tests that suggest i'm like 60/40 between right and left eyes respectively, so almost evenly split but still favoring my dominant side. I remember something about a correlation between strength of eye dominance and visual preference in putter offset, with dominance aligned with handedness (most common) aligning with typical full shaft offset (plumbers neck style) and any moves towards equal dominance or even cross dominance favoring less and less offset. Not 100% sure on that though, and even if i'm remembering that correctly I don't even know that it's accurate. 😅

 

Yep, that's about right. Tiger is apparently left eye dominant. Better ball strikers tend to have a dominant eye on the lead side or be cross dominant IIRC. Despite that, he took to the Scotty and never looked back.